Method of operating a navigation system to provide road curvature

1. A computer implemented method of operating a navigation system to provide road curvature comprising:

obtaining, using a processor, a plurality of spline control points representing a two-dimensional geometry of a portion of a road segment from a geographic database associated with said navigation system, wherein each of the spline control points lies on or close to a point along the represented road segment, wherein each of the spline control points comprises a latitude and longitude coordinate pair;

obtaining, using the processor, data indicating a road grade of said portion of said road segment from said geographic database; and

projecting, using the processor, said spline control points onto a slope plane having a slope provided by said road grade to obtain a plurality of projected spline control points, wherein the projected spline control points provide a representation of a restored true road curvature of said portion of said road segment that restores altitude components to the road curvature, wherein each of the projected spline control points comprise a latitude, longitude and altitude coordinate triple.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing said plurality of projected spline control points to an ADAS safety system.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein said ADAS safety system is a curve warning system.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising evaluating said road grade to determine whether a magnitude of the road grade of said road segment is larger than a predetermined amount, if so performing said projecting step.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising identifying a road on which a vehicle associated with said navigation system is traveling.

6. A computer implemented method of operating a navigation system to provide road curvature comprising:

obtaining, using a processor, data indicating a degree of curvature of a portion of a road segment from a geographic database associated with said navigation system;

if the degree of curvature is greater than a predetermined amount, obtaining, using the processor, data indicating a road grade of said portion of said road segment and projecting, using a processor, a plurality of spline control points representing a two-dimensional geometry of a portion of a road segment onto a slope plane having a slope provided by said road grade to obtain a plurality of projected spline control points, wherein the projected spline control points provide three-dimensional geometry of the portion of the road segment and providing the projected spline control points to an ADAS safety system; and

if the degree of curvature is less than a predetermined amount, do not project the plurality of spline control points representing the two-dimensional geometry of the portion of the road segment onto the slope plane.

7. A computer implemented method of operating a navigation system to provide road curvature comprising:

obtaining, using a processor, data indicating a road grade of a portion of a road segment from a geographic database associated with said navigation system;

if the road grade is greater than a predetermined amount, projecting, using the processor, a plurality of spline control points representing a two-dimensional geometry of a portion of a road segment onto a slope plane having a slope provided by said road grade to obtain a plurality of projected spline control points, wherein the projected spline control points provide three-dimensional geometry of the portion of the road segment and providing the projected spline control points to an ADAS safety system; and

if the road grade is less than a predetermined amount, do not project the plurality of spline control points representing the two-dimensional geometry of the portion of the road segment onto the slope plane.