Patent ID: 7634452

Claim:
A method for identifying a location of a road segment in digital maps, each map containing errors inherent in the reduced-scaling of the digital maps and/or depending on the kind of the digital maps, the digital maps including a first digital map and a second digital map, the second digital map showing the road segment at a different location from the first digital map due to the errors, the first digital map being stored in a transmitting apparatus, the second digital map being stored in a receiving apparatus, the method comprising the steps of: creating location information based on the first digital map by the transmitting apparatus, the location information including: a string of coordinates of points which represents a first road shape of the road segment on the first digital map, and attribute information about the points or the road segment; transmitting the location information from the transmitting apparatus to the receiving apparatus; receiving the location information by the receiving apparatus; selecting from one or more road shapes on the second digital map a second road shape which is most closely matched with the first road shape specified by the received location information; and identifying the location of the road segment on the second digital map as the location of the second road shape.