System for determining a height coordinate

1. A navigation system, comprising:

a database storing, for a plurality of tiles of a tiling, index data for a respective tile and at least one triangulated irregular network (TIN) defining a three-dimensional surface,

where the index data:

includes a plurality of identifiers each identifying one of a plurality of triangular faces of the at least one TIN, and

for each respective cell of plural cells of a grid, associates the respective cell with each of the plurality of triangular faces that are at least partially overlapping with the respective cell, the plural cells of the grid being defined so as to cover the respective tile, and

a processor coupled to the database and configured to determine a height coordinate of a map feature located on the three-dimensional surface based on lateral coordinates of the map feature, the processor further configured to use the index data to determine a triangular face of the at least one TIN on which the map feature is located in order to determine the height coordinate of the map feature.

2. The navigation system of claim 1 ,

where the processor is further configured to:

identify, based on the lateral coordinates, a cell of a tile in which the map feature is located; and

determine, using the index data for the tile, a subset of triangular faces of the at least one TIN, which at least partially overlap with the determined cell.

3. The navigation system of claim 2 , where the processor is further configured to:

establish one triangular face of the subset on which the map feature is located; and

compute the height coordinate of the map feature based on data defining the established triangular face.

4. The navigation system of claim 1 , where, for at least one tile of the tiling, a size of the cells varies throughout the at least one tile.

5. The navigation system of claim 4 , where, for all tiles of the tiling, the plural cells are respectively defined such that a number of triangular faces which overlaps with any one of the plural cells is limited by a pre-defined upper limit.

6. The navigation system of claim 1 , further comprising an optical output unit, where the processor is coupled to the optical output unit and configured to control the optical output unit to output the map feature at a height corresponding to the determined height coordinate of the map feature.

7. A method of determining a height coordinate of a map feature based on lateral coordinates, the method comprising:

using a database, the database storing, for a plurality of tiles of a tiling, index data for the respective tile and at least one triangulated irregular network (TIN) defining a three-dimensional surface, where the index data:

includes a plurality of identifiers each identifying one of a plurality of triangular faces of the at least one TIN, and

for each respective cell of plural cells of a grid, associates the respective cell with each of the plurality of triangular faces that are at least partially overlapping with the respective cell;

accessing the index data to establish, based on the lateral coordinates, a triangular face of the at least one TIN on which the map feature is located; and

determining the height coordinate based on the lateral coordinates and based on data defining the established triangular face.

8. The method of claim 7 , where, in order to establish the triangular face, a cell of a tile in which the map feature is located is identified based on the lateral coordinates, and the identifiers stored for the cell in the index data are retrieved.

9. The method of claim 7 , where, for at least one tile of the tiling, a size of the cells varies throughout the tile.

10. The method of claim 7 , where an optical output unit is controlled to output the map feature at a height corresponding to the determined height coordinate.

11. The method of claim 7 , where the database is generated by a map generation procedure which comprises the following steps respectively performed for the tile of the tiling:

retrieving data defining the least one triangulated irregular network (TIN), the at least one TIN representing the three-dimensional surface;

defining the grid as having a plurality of cells, the plurality of cells covering the tile;

for each cell of the grid, determining triangular faces of the TIN which at least partially overlap with the respective cell; and

storing index data for the tile and the data defining the at least one TIN in the database, the index data including, for each cell of the plurality of cells, information on all triangular faces of the TIN which at least partially overlap with the respective cell.

12. A method of generating a database for a navigation system, the method comprising the following steps performed for a tile of a tiling:

retrieving data defining at least one triangulated irregular network (TIN), the at least one TIN representing a three-dimensional surface;

defining a grid having a plurality of cells, the plurality of cells covering the tile;

for each cell of the grid, determining triangular faces of the TIN which at least partially overlap with the respective cell; and

storing index data for the tile and the data defining the at least one TIN in the database, wherein the index data allows a height coordinate of a map feature on the three-dimensional surface to be determined and includes a plurality of identifiers each identifying one of a plurality of triangular faces of the TIN, and for each respective cell of the grid, associates the respective cell with triangular faces of the TIN which at least partially overlap with the respective cell.

13. The method of claim 12 , where the plurality of cells are defined such that a size of the cells varies throughout the grid.

14. The method of claim 13 , where a size of the cells of the grid is selected locally such that a number of triangular faces of the TIN which at least partially overlap with a cell is limited by a pre-defined upper limit.

15. The method of claim 12 , where a number of cells of the grid is selected based on a resolution level of the data defining the at least one TIN.

16. The method of claim 12 , where the grid is defined such that each one of the cells is rectangular and sides of each cell are parallel to or overlap with sides of the tile.

17. The method of claim 12 , where the database is stored in a storage device of the navigation system for use in terrain visualization.

18. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored therein instructions executable by a programmed processor for determining a height coordinate of a map feature based on lateral coordinates using a database, the database storing for a plurality of tiles of a tiling index data for the respective tile and at least one triangulated irregular network (TIN), defining a three-dimensional surface, where the index data:

includes a plurality of identifiers each identifying one of a plurality of triangular faces of the at least one TIN, and

for each respective cell of plural cells of a grid, associates the respective cell with each of the plurality of triangular faces that are at least partially overlapping with the respective cell,

the storage medium comprising instructions for:

accessing the index data to establish, based on the lateral coordinates, a triangular face of the at least one TIN on which the map feature is located; and

determining the height coordinate based on the lateral coordinates and based on data defining the established triangular face.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 18 , where, in order to establish the triangular face, a cell of a tile in which the map feature is located is identified based on the lateral coordinates and the identifiers stored for the cell in the index data are retrieved.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 18 , where, for at least one tile of the tiling, a size of the cells varies throughout the tile.

21. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 18 , where an optical output unit is controlled to output the map feature at a height corresponding to the determined height coordinate.

22. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 18 , where the database is generated by a map generation procedure which comprises the following steps respectively performed for the tile of the tiling:

retrieving data defining the least one triangulated irregular network (TIN), the at least one TIN representing the three-dimensional surface;

defining the grid having a plurality of cells, the plurality of cells covering the tile;

for each cell of the grid, determining triangular faces of the TIN which at least partially overlap with the respective cell; and

storing index data for the tile and the data defining the at least one TIN in the database, the index data including, for each cell of the plurality of cells, information on all triangular faces of the TIN which at least partially overlap with the respective cell.