Patent ID: 8458188

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving spatially referenced information of a sub-volume of real-world volumetric space, wherein said spatially referenced information comprises at least two of raster-based imagery information, elevation information, and point cloud information; and combining the spatially referenced information in a volumetric storage unit (VSU) database with at least one processor, wherein the VSU database represents a volumetric storage space comprising a set of unique VSUs, wherein data elements are stored to specific ones of the VSUs, wherein a spatial position of the data elements within the volumetric storage space is defined at least in part by which of the VSUs the data elements are stored, wherein at least a portion of the VSUs comprises data from two or more of the raster-based imagery information, the elevation information, and the point cloud information; and wherein the VSU database comprises a heterogeneous database for internal storing of different semantic content in different manners, which are transparent to external entities that view the VSU database as a single unified database having a consistent externally facing interface, wherein the heterogeneous database comprises at least a VSU table for storing a plurality of records of VSUs indexed by a unique VSU identifier and a feature table for storing a plurality of records of features indexed by unique feature identifier, wherein a spatial position of each of the features within the volumetric storage area is determined based on which VSUs the feature is indexed to.