Map Matching

International Journal of Geographical Information
Science
ISSN: 1365-8816 (Print) 1362-3087 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tgis20
Curvedness feature constrained map matching for

low-frequency probe vehicle data
Zhe Zeng, Tong Zhang, Qingquan Li, Zhongheng Wu, Haixiang Zou &
Chunxian Gao
To cite this article: Zhe Zeng, Tong Zhang, Qingquan Li, Zhongheng Wu, Haixiang Zou &
Chunxian Gao (2015): Curvedness feature constrained map matching for low-frequency
probe vehicle data, International Journal of Geographical Information Science, DOI:
10.1080/13658816.2015.1086922
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13658816.2015.1086922
Published online: 01 Oct 2015.
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Date: 07 October 2015, At: 07:44
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SCIENCE, 2015

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13658816.2015.1086922
Curvedness feature constrained map matching for

low-frequency probe vehicle data
Downloaded by [University of Nebraska, Lincoln] at 07:44 07 October 2015
Zhe Zeng a, Tong Zhangb, Qingquan Lic, Zhongheng Wud, Haixiang Zoue
and Chunxian Gaof
a
China University of Petroleum, School of Geosciences, Qingdao, China; bLIESMARS, Wuhan University,
Wuhan, China; cShenzhen Key Laboratory of Spatial Smart Sensing and Services, Shenzhen University,
Shenzhen, China; dNavInfo Co., Ltd., Beijing, China; eShenzhen Urban Planning & Land Resource Research
Center, Shenzhen, China; fDepartment of Communication Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China
ABSTRACT
ARTICLE HISTORY
Map matching method is a fundamental preprocessing technique

for massive probe vehicle data. Various transportation applications
need map matching methods to provide highly accurate and
stable results. However, most current map matching approaches
employ elementary geometric or topological measures, which may
not be sucient to encode the characteristic of realistic driving
paths, leading to ineciency and inaccuracy, especially in complex
road networks. To address these issues, this article presents a
novel map matching method, based on the measure of curvedness of Global Positioning System (GPS) trajectories. The curvature
integral, which measures the curvedness feature of GPS trajectories, is considered to be one of the major matching characteristics that constrain pairwise matching between the two adjacent
GPS track points. In this article, we propose the denition of the
curvature integral in the context of map matching, and develop a
novel accurate map matching algorithm based on the curvedness
feature. Using real-world probe vehicles data, we show that the
curvedness feature (CURF) constrained map matching method
outperforms two classical methods for accuracy and stability
under complicated road environments.
Received 3 November 2014

Accepted 20 August 2015
KEYWORDS
GPS trajectory; map

matching; curvature;
curvedness feature
1. Introduction
Global Positioning System (GPS) probe vehicles have become an important means to
gather real-time trac information in the eld of intelligent transportation systems. With
the advent of big data, the demand of geographic information services for transportation has also increased dramatically. In addition to real-time trac information, human
mobility patterns (Giannotti et al. 2011, Liang et al. 2012), driver experience (Li et al.
2011b), and many other factors can be obtained by mining massive GPS trajectories.
Map matching is an indispensable technology for probe vehicle data mining. Probe
vehicle GPS receivers are based on pseudo range code and their accuracy is too coarse
to identify all correct road segments on which the probe vehicle is driving. The position
CONTACT Tong Zhang

2015 Taylor & Francis
zhangt@whu.edu.cn
Z. ZENG ET AL.
imprecision of the probe vehicle data requires map matching to provide accurate
location points. On the other hand, the volume of probe vehicle data is too large to
be processed if the vehicles have high sampling rates. Therefore, the GPS sampling
interval of probe vehicles is commonly approximately one minute (e.g., 20100 s) to
avoid collecting excessive positioning data. The imprecision and deciency of position
data produces GPS data consisting of discrete points, which deviate from the centerline
of the actual driving routes and which need to be recovered using map matching
approaches.
Map matching methods stem from car navigation and can provide matching
results with high accuracy and reliability by exploiting geometrical, topological,
probabilistic, and other advanced data/road characteristics (White et al. 2000, Quddus
et al. 2007, Li et al. 2013), especially when the sampling intervals of GPS signals are short
(e.g., approximately 1 s). Map matching methods for low frequency GPS data still need
to employ geometrical, topological, and probabilistic features of trajectories or roads.
However, the lost position information between the two adjacent track points becomes
more important since the sampling interval is longer. Thus, the implicit features between
the two adjacent track points should be found by searching a matched subpath, which
is a path between the two matched road segments corresponding to the two adjacent
track points, then a strategy can be determined for sequentially searching the global
optimal matched path to which all possible matched subpaths are connected.
Some matching features have been extensively employed for map matching, including distance, direction, speed, and road topology. Marchal et al. (2005) used Euclidean
distance as the primary feature for measuring proximity between GPS track points and
matched subpaths, and adopted an heuristic strategy to search the global matched
paths. Brakatsoulas et al. (2005) employed the Frchet distance for spatial proximity and
then implemented an incremental search strategy to recover global matched paths. In
addition to distance, which was employed as a basic matching feature, other matching
features have been synthesized into various map matching methods. Wu et al. (2007)
chose distance and direction of the vector of two neighboring track points to match
track points onto road segments. Newson and Krumm (2009) introduced a hidden
Markov model (HMM) map matching method, which adopted the distance of neighboring track points and the topology of their corresponding candidate road segments as
matching features for searching matched subpaths and determining the global optimal
matched paths. Lou et al. (2009) proposed an ST matching (ST) method that considers
the spatial geometric and topological structure of road networks, and the temporal/
speed constraints of the trajectories as the matching features for searching matched
subpaths and then exploited candidate graphs for determining global optimal matched
paths. Wang et al. (2011) synthesized distance and direction for matching single track
points and identied matched subpaths through travel time shortest paths between
consecutive points. Miwa et al. (2012) introduced the concept of a driver route choice
model into the process of map matching. The approach still exploited the direction and
distance as principal map matching features. Rahmani and Koutsopoulos (2013)
developed a variant of the ST matching method, which exploited global criteria for
identifying matched paths and employed features of the ST matching method. She et al.
(2012) and He et al. (2013) also employed distance, direction, and road topology features
and then introduced a matching strategy that self-adaptively chose the appropriate
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SCIENCE
timing according to condence points. Chen et al. (2014) provided a multicriteria

dynamic programming strategy for searching global matched path with high computational performance. The multicriteria were based on Euclidean distance and road topology. Hunter et al. (2014) combined observation and driver behavior models in a
conditional random eld for map matching. The matching features in their models
were the elementary features such as distance and road topology.
However, the road networks and the probe vehicles drive are sometimes so complicated (especially in fast growing cities of developing countries) that it is challenging to
nd correct road segments from many candidate road segments, which have similar
geometric characteristics. Map matching approaches using elementary distance and
direction may not perform well in such complicated road network environments.
The objective of this study is to capture the inherent geometric features retained
within adjacent track points which can be exploited for map matching to improve the
matching accuracy in complicated road networks. The curvedness retained in GPS
trajectories can be used for searching most similar matched paths. This article develops
a novel map matching technique containing three contributions: (1) we propose a new
matching feature that employs inherent curvedness characteristics of trajectories, which
are largely overlooked by previous approaches, (2) we develop a novel map matching
algorithm that exploits the proposed curvedness feature, and (3) we demonstrate that
the curvedness feature is a simple yet eective geometric feature that retains the
primary geometric features of the original GPS trajectories through experiments on
real-world probe vehicle data. In Section 2, we formulate the problem of map matching
for low-frequency GPS data. In Section 3, we provide a formal specication of the
curvature integral of a two-dimensional planar curve, and explain the procedure of
computing the integral values and the curvedness feature to constrain the matching
solution. In Section 4, experimental results on real-probe vehicle data (from Shenzhen
and Wuhan, China) demonstrate that the curvedness feature can improve the matching
accuracy in complex road networks and achieve a narrow range of error rate variation
given dierent sampling intervals and dierent driving routes.
2. Overview of our proposed method

2.1. Description of the problem
A coordinate, x; y 2 P, is provided by the GPS receiver of a probe vehicle at each
sampling epoch, where P is a map projection plane, and x; y is a point on the plane.
Map matching is a process of matching GPS points onto the road network which is
embedded into the map projection plane. Only two-dimensional coordinates are considered on the plane. The road network is a directed graph, G V; A, where V is a set
of vertices that represent a set of intersections and endpoints of roads, and A is a set of
arcs that represent road segments. The cost of each arc a 2 A is its nonnegative length, l.
Denition 2.1: A realistic driving path (RDP), , is a vertex sequence, hv0 ; v1 ; ; vk i,
from vertex v to vertex w in graph G, where v v0 , w vk and vi1 ; vi 2 A with respect
to 0 < i k. The path consists of arc ai vi1 ; vi .
Z. ZENG ET AL.
Remark 1: Arc ai is composed of a sequence of discrete points, pjshp 0 j r, called

shape points, which represent the shape of an arc in the computer, and the rst and last
shape points of arc ai have the same coordinates as its two corresponding vertexes vi1
and vi , that is, p0shp vi1 ; prshp vi , respectively.
Denition 2.2: A realistic driving trajectory (RDT) is t : t ! P;
S
i2f0;1;;mg ai , where is the RDP in G, ai 2 A; t 2 tbegin ; tend , tbegin and tend are the
beginning and ending time of a trajectory. is a moving curve of a probe vehicle in a

road network of the map projection plane with duration from tbegin to tend .
Denition 2.3: A GPS trajectory, , is a coordinate point sequence, hp0 ; p1 ; ; pn i,
where pi xi ; yi 0 i n is a coordinate with positioning noise corresponding to the
exact location of a probe vehicle on the map projection plane P. Each point pi , called a
track point or a GPS sampling point, corresponds to an epoch ti , ti ti1 < T0 < i n,
and T is the threshold of the time interval. A GPS trajectory is a sequence of track points
with positioning noise corresponding to the RDT.
The map matching problem is essentially to nd the RDP that is most similar to the
GPS trajectory corresponding to an RDT (see Figure 1). retains only partial original
vk
pn
v4
p3
p2
v3
v2
p1
Vertex
Arc (road segment)
v1
GPS trajecotry
Realistic driving path
Realistic driving trajectory
p0
v0
Figure 1. An example of map matching for probe vehicle data. Red points show track points
sampled by the GPS receiver of the probe vehicle, and red dash lines connect these track points
into a GPS trajectory. The realistic driving trajectory is a moving curve of the probe vehicle in the
realistic driving path of a road network. The GPS trajectory is obtained by sampling the realistic
driving trajectory with GPS positioning noise. The map matching problem is to nd the realistic
driving path in the road network according to the GPS trajectory of the probe vehicle.
features because it is produced by sampling . The problem is also to nd the path

with the maximum similarity to the retained features in from the road network G, that
is, to search a path with the greatest similarity in the solution space, which includes all
possible paths from road network G. That is an optimization problem. Given some
feature measure F, suppose that SF0 ; F is a similarity measure between the corre0
sponding features of a possible path and . Then the map matching problem is to nd
a path that satises
arg max
fSF0 ; F g
0
from all possible candidate matched paths in road network G.
2.2. A methodological framework of our proposed map matching approach

The formulation of the map matching problem above indicates that the solution is a
process of searching optimal paths that possess the greatest similarity to the features
retained in from all possible paths. The process includes measuring the retained
feature, calculating the similarity between the corresponding features of any possible
matched path and , and searching the optimal one from all possible paths. The entire
approach can be described as follows.
Step 1: one-to-one point matching. Select candidate road segments from the road
network with similar properties to the elementary geometric features of given
track point, such as, location and direction.
Step 2: pairwise matching. Find subpaths between a pair of candidate road segments
for two adjacent track points that have similarity to the pairwise features
obtained by calculating geometrical and topological properties of the preceding and subsequent track points.
Step 3: optimal searching. Search for a path that is an optimal combination of all
subpaths at each pair of two adjacent track points, satisfying the maximal
condition of one-to-one and pairwise similarity.
Algorithm 1:
2
3
4
5
Algorithm for the proposed matching method
Data: GPS trajectory : hp0 ; p1 ; ; pn i;

road network G : V; A
Result: matched path : ha0 ; a1 ; ; ak i
/ * Step 1
*/
Sequence seqc
;;
/ * Sequence seqc is a sequence for storing candidate road segment sets for each
track point (see Figure 2(a))
*/
foreach pi in do
Ci
;; /* Ci is the candidate road segment set for track point pi
*/
Fp i
pi xi ; yi ; /* position as unary feature of track point pi
*/
Search candidate road segments within a radius r and return them into Ci
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
Z. ZENG ET AL.
foreach aij in Ci do
Calculate one-to-one similarity Sone between the track point pi and candidate
road segment aij .
end
seqc .push_back(Ci );
end
/ * Step 2
*/
Sequence seqcp
;;
/ * sequence seqcp stores a sequence of two-dimensional arrays for pairwise
similarities (see Figure 2(b)).
*/
for i = 0 to n 1 do
Calculate pairwise feature FT of two adjacent track points pi and pi1
As
;;
/ * As is a two-dimensional array that stores pairwise similarities between the
two adjacent track points and possible matched subpaths of two corresponding candidate road segments (see Figure 2(b)).
*/
j
foreach ai in Ci do
0
foreach aji1 in Ci1 do
Search for the optimal subpath sub between candidate road segments
0
aji ; aji1
Calculate pairwise feature FP of the sub
Calculate pairwise similarity Spair between pairwise feature FT and FP
As [j][j]
Spair ;
end
end
seqcp .push_back(As )
end
/ * step 3
*/
Search an optimal path, , with maximal sum of one-to-one and pairwise
similarities from all possible combination of subpaths, sub .
The features retained in the GPS trajectories include geometric features of single
track points and associated features of two adjacent track points. The features in
possible matched paths also contain two parts, geometric features of single candidate road segments and associated features of two corresponding candidate road
segments for two adjacent track points. The geometric features of single track points
or single candidate road segment are called unary features, while the associated
features of two adjacent track points or two corresponding candidate road segments
are called pairwise features. The similarity between a possible matched path and the
GPS trajectory also includes one-to-one similarity and pairwise similarity. The one-toone similarity (Sone ) is a similarity of unary features between the track point and the
corresponding candidate road segment. The pairwise similarity (Spair ) is a similarity
(a)
Trajectory
pi
Sequence seqc
a i1
...
...
ai2
a i3
Ci
(b)
Sequence seqc
Ci
ai1
...
Ci+1
a1i+1
...
ai2
a2i+1
ai3
ai1
ai2
a1i+1 a2i+1 A
s
ai3
Sequence seqcp
(c)
ai1
...
a1i+1
...
ai2
ai3
a2i+1
Figure 2. Our proposed map matching approach. (a) Step 1: one-to-one point matching. Each
candidate road segment set, Ci, including candidates, a1i ; a2i ; a3i , is selected into the sequence
seqc by computing one-to-one similarity to track point pi. There is one-to-one correspondence
between the sequence seqc and the trajectory . (b) Step 2: pairwise matching. The lines between
the two adjacent candidate sets Ci and Ci+1 shows the matched subpaths between the two road
segment candidates. Pairwise similarities between the two adjacent track points and possible
matched subpaths of two corresponding candidate road segments are computed by the geometric
and topological features of the GPS trajectory. Pairwise similarities are stored in the two-dimensional
array As, which is orderly inserted into the sequence seqcp. (c) Step 3: optimal searching. The gray
lines are all possible matched subpaths. The optimal combination of all possible matched subpaths
are searched. The black lines shows the optimal combination of all possible matched subpaths.
Z. ZENG ET AL.
between pairwise features of two adjacent track points and those of two corresponding candidate road segments (i.e., those of possible matched paths of the two
candidate road segments). Algorithm 1 and Figure 2 give a detailed description of
the proposed framework.
3. Curvedness feature constrained map matching method

The curvedness measure of a trajectory is not considered in conventional map matching
methods. The curvature integral of an RDT, , is a measure of cumulative curvedness in
the plane. After sampling, the cumulative curvedness feature of is largely retained in .
Meanwhile, the curvedness feature of the path that travels is in consonance with that
feature of the RDT (see Figure 1). The proposed matching method is primarily based on
this curvedness feature. We dene the curvature integral and the formulas for calculating the integral, and then explain how to compute the curvature integrals for GPS
trajectories and possible RDPs in the discrete form following these formulas, and nally
present the curvedness feature constrained (CURF) map matching method in
Section 2.2.
3.1. Prerequisite
Denition 3.1: Let ~
a be a vector in a plane, P. An azimuth angle, ~
a of ~
a, is the angle
rotating from north to ~
a in the clockwise direction. And its range is 0; 2 .
Let ~
a and ~
b be two vectors in a plane, P. The turning angle, delt~
a; ~
b,
is the angle rotating from ~
a to ~
b. Its range is ; , and is positive if the angle rotates in
Denition 3.2:
the clockwise direction or negative if counterclockwise.

Let ~
a and ~
b be two vectors in a plane, P, then
8
b ~
a
~
b ~
a 2 ;
< ~
~
delt~
a; ~
b ~
~
~
b a 2
b a
:
~
b ~
a 2
~
b ~
a >
Proposition 3.3:
Proof.
(1)
The proof is obvious and omitted.
Denition 3.4: Let s : ; ! R2 be a smooth plane curve parameterized by

the arc length s. Then we can dene the tangent vector of at the point s by
_ s def
ds
:
ds
We also dene
T Ts _ s:
Remark 1: Since s is parameterized by the arc length s, T s _ s is a unit tangent
vector, and so
T s cos s; sin s;
s 2 ; :
Since we can always move a tangent vector to the origin by parallel translation, as a
convention, we regard each tangent vector as an element in the vector space R 2 (rather
than the ane space R 2 ). In what follows, when we speak of rotation of a tangent
vector, it means that we rst regard the tangent vector as a vector at the origin and then
rotate.
Denition 3.5:
Given s0 2 ; ; 2 R satisfying
Ts0 cos; sin;
: ; ! R
~ s0 ;
s ! s s;
~ s0 measures the total angular changes of tangent vectors Tt from s0
where s;
to s along the curve .
Remark 2:
From Denition 3.5, s satises

Ts coss; sins; s 2 ; :
Thus, there exists an integer, n 2 Z, such that

s s 2n:
Denition 3.6: Let s : ; ! R 2 be a smooth plane curve parameterized by
the arc length s. We dene the curvature of at the point P s as
s lim j
s!0
j;
s
(2)
where s is the variation of the arc length, and is the corresponding variation of
s (see Figure 3).
Remark 3: The curvature describes the rate of change in angle of the tangent vector
T s with respect to s. In other words, it reects the shape of the curve.
s)

the arc length s. We dene the signed curvature (Pressley 2010) by
T(
we dene a smooth function s
P1
P
Figure 3. Curvature of a curve.
T(s+s)
Z. ZENG ET AL.
T(
s)
ks < 0
N(
N(
T(
s)
s)
T(
s)
s)
T(
N(
s)
N(
s)
s)
10
ks > 0
ks > 0
ks < 0
Figure 4. Sign of signed curvature (left-handed coordinates). The sign of the signed curvature is
positive if the tangent vector rotates clockwise along the curve in the direction of increasing s or
negative if counterclockwise.
d
:
ds
(3)
Remark 4: In this article, the map projection plane is a left-handed coordinate system
in which positive rotation is clockwise about the axis of rotation. Therefore, the signed
curvature is positive if the tangent vector rotates clockwise along the curve in the
direction of increasing s or negative if counterclockwise (see Figure 4).
the arc length s. Given a; b 2 ; and a < b, we dene the signed curvature integral
b
s ds:
a; b
(4)
Remark 5: The curvature integral a; b is the total angle change of tangent vectors
Ts from a to b, along the curve .
Let s : ; ! R 2 be a smooth plane curve parameterized by
the arc length s, and a; b 2 ; , a < b. Assume that ~
a and ~
b are two tangent vectors at
a and b respectively. If a; b 2 2; 2, then
Proposition 3.9:
8
b ~
a
< ~
a; b s ds ~
b ~
a 2
:
a
~
b ~
a 2
is the same sign as ~

b ~
a
;
< 0 and ~
b ~
a > 0
~
> 0 and b ~
a < 0
where ~
a and ~
b are the azimuth angles of tangent vectors ~
a and ~
b, respectively.
Proof.
From the Newton-Leibniz formula,

b
a; b
b
s ds
d
ds b a;
a ds
(5)
11
where a; b are the scalar angles of tangent vectors at the point a and b,
respectively, and are related to the azimuth,
a ~
a 2nn 2 Z; b ~
b 2mm 2 Z;
let
b a; ~
b ~
a:
Thus,
2m n:
(6)
Since 2 < < 2; 2 < < 2, then 2 < m n < 2. There are four
cases to consider: if > 0; < 0 then m n 1; if > 0; 0 then
m n 0; if < 0; 0 then m n 1; if < 0; < 0 then m n 0.
Proposition 3.10:
Under the same assumptions of Proposition 3.9, we have
8
a; ~
b
< delt ~
a; b s ds delt ~
a; ~
b 2
:
a
delt ~
a; ~
b 2
b
is the same sign as delt ~

a; ~
b
;
< 0 and delt ~
a; ~
b > 0
~
> 0 and delt ~
a; b < 0
(7)
where delt~
a; ~
b is the turning angle between the two tangent vectors ~
a and ~
b.
Proof.
The proof is obvious and omitted.
Remark 6: Propositions 3.9 and 3.10 introduce the computational method for the
curvature integral over the range 2; 2. The integral can be calculated by either
azimuth angles or turning angle of two tangent vectors at starting and ending points.
The curvature integral of the GPS trajectory between the two adjacent track points rarely
exceeds the range of 2; 2. Therefore, the map matching method can exploit the
angles to compute the curvedness feature of GPS trajectories.
3.2. Curvedness computation

Curvedness computation is conducted in the pairwise matching of the proposed map
matching method, and comprises curvedness computation of GPS trajectories and of
possible matched paths. Curvedness is considered as one of the key features employed
for measuring pairwise similarity between the two adjacent track points and their
possible matched subpaths.
Curvedness can be measured by the curvature integral (see Figure 7). The GPS
trajectory curvedness is partially maintained in adjacent track points. In general, the
curvature integral of the GPS trajectory between the two adjacent track points
satises the 2; 2 condition and so Proposition 3.9 or 3.10 can be applied. On
the other hand, the curvature integral of a possible matched subpath between the
two adjacent track points may exceed the range of 2; 2, because the possible
matched subpath between the two candidate road segments for adjacent track
points may have various geometric shapes. Therefore, Proposition 3.9 or 3.10 do
12
Z. ZENG ET AL.
not necessarily apply. However, a matched subpath is a series of connected road

segments, and the curvature integral can be evaluated by the curvature integral of
each road segment and consideration of the turning angles between the neighboring road segments. Within each road segment, the curvature integral can be computed from Equation (5) or (7), because two adjacent discrete point of the road
segment satisfy the 2; 2 condition, and so Proposition 3.9 or 3.10 can be
applied. Similarly, the turning angle between the neighboring road segments can
be calculated from Proposition 3.3.
The curvature integral computation for a planar curve is a basic step for curvedness
feature computation. Each road segment of a matched subpath is essentially a planar
curve. We introduce the two premises for the curvedness feature computation for a
planar curve, and then implement the curvature integral computation for possible
matched paths and GPS trajectories.
3.2.1. Two premises for curvedness computation

The rst premise is the orientation of the signed curvature for a planar curve. A planar
curve is commonly presented as a sequence of discrete points in a computer. The sign of
the signed curvature for a discrete curve is locally determined by two neighboring
c is represented by three discrete points (in
vectors. Suppose that a discrete curve, AC,
order) A, B, and C (see Figure 5). Then the orientation of signed curvature s at point B of
! !
the discrete curve can be determined from the cross product AB BC . Thus, the
c is
orientation matrix of signed curvature at point B of the discrete curve AC
0
1
1
xA
yA
O @1
(8)
xB
yB A ;
1
xC
yC
and its determinant detO denes the sign of the signed curvature at point B,
detO xB xA yC yA xC xA yB yA ;
(9)
where the plane is a map projection plane with left-handed coordinates.

The second premise is the curvature integral computation for a planar curve. The
curvature and its integral of a curve are dened in the continuous form. However, in a
computer, any curve is presented as a sequence of discrete points. Suppose a planar
curve is represented as a sequence of n discrete points, hp0 ; p1 ; ; pn i. The vector
C
B
B
X(North)
(a)
(b)
Figure 5. Orientation of signed curvature (left-handed coordinates). (a) det(O) > 0. (b) det(O) < 0.
13
pn
p1
p0
Figure 6. Discrete points of a curve .
!
pi1 pi 1 i n is composed of two neighboring points (see Figure 6), and can be
approximately considered as the tangent vector at the point pi1 . The rotation angle of
the tangent vector between the two points is far less than 2. Then, from Proposition
3.10, the curvature integral of can be discretely computed as
pn
n1
X
0 n
p ; p
s ds
pi ; pi1 ;
(10)
p0
i0
where the value of p ; p can be computed by the approximate tangent vector at

p ; pi1 from Equation (7). To avoid computation at every point, the integral values are
evaluated only for extreme points where the sign of the signed curvature changes. The
extreme points can be determined using Equation (9), traversing the sign of signed
curvature at each discrete point. If we assume that the discrete form hp0 ; p1 ; ; pn i of
successively changes the sign of the signed curvature at extreme points q1 ; :::; ql , then
i
i1
p0 ; pn
n1
X
pi ; pi1 p0 ; q1 q1 ; q2 ql ; pn ;
(11)
i0
where the sign of the signed curvature within pairs p0 ; q1 ; q1 ; q2 ; ; ql ; pn do

not change, and all values of can be calculated using Proposition 3.10.
3.2.2. Curvedness feature computation for a matched path

In an urban road network, the curvature integral value of a road segment rarely exceeds
2; 2 after discretization by navigation data suppliers. Thus, for a road segment,
traversing the tangent vector at each discrete point is redundant. The curvature integral
of each road segment can be evaluated by Equation (11). Notice that the curvedness
computation for each road segment can be performed in a preprocessing stage for
generating the network topology of urban roads to avoid the computation burden in
the map matching processing stage.
A matched subpath, sub , consists of several arcs, ai vi1 ; vi 1 i k. The
curvature integral can be obtained by summing the curvature integral within and
between arcs,
sub a1
k
X
delt ai1 ; ai ai ;
(12)
i2
where ai is curvature integral between the rst shape point (i.e., a discrete point on a
planar curve) and the last shape point within the arc, which can be computed using
14
Z. ZENG ET AL.
Equation (11), deltai1 ; ai is the turning angle between the arcs ai1 and ai , which can
be computed as
alast
afirst
delt ai1 ; ai delt ~
i1 ; ~
i ;
(13)
afirst
is
where ~
alast
i1 is the vector formed by the last two shape points of arc ai1 , and ~
i
the vector formed by the rst two shape points of arc ai (see Figure 7).
3.2.3. Curvedness feature computation for a GPS trajectory

A GPS trajectory, , is a sequence of track points hp0 ; p1 ; ; pn i by Denition 2.3.
!
!
Suppose that p
i2 pi1 and pi pi1 1 < i < n are approximately regarded as tangent
vectors at two adjacent track points pi1 and pi , respectively. The curvature integral
between the two adjacent track points usually does not exceed the range 2; 2, and
so the curvature integral between pi1 and pi can be evaluated as
pi1 pi pi1 ; pi ;
(14)
where can be computed by turning angle between approximate tangent vectors at

points pi1 and pi according to Equation (7) (see Figure 7). The RDT between the two
adjacent track points usually is not excessively tortuous subpath (Lou et al. 2009).
Therefore, assume that the signs of signed curvature s between the two adjacent
track points do not change more than one time and that the pi1 ; pi value belongs
to the range ; if the signs change. The signs of signed curvature s at track points
can be determined by Equation (9). If the signs of s at points pi1 and pi are the same,
a6
pi
a8
a7
a2
a1
pi-1
a4
pi+1
a9
a5
Vertex
Arc (road segment)
a3
pi-2
Shape point of arc

Matched path
Track point of GPS trajectory
Figure 7. Curvedness computation for matched path and GPS trajectory. The GPS trajectory contains
track points pi2, pi1, pi, pi+1, and a possible matched path includes arcs a3, a4, a7, and a8. For
adjacent track points, pi1 and pi, their candidate road segments are respectively a4 and a7, and their
matched subpath consists of a4 and a7. The curvature integral of the matched subpath includes the
curvature integral within each arc (i.e., a4 and a7), and the change value of the tangent directions
between the two connected arcs. The change value between the two arcs (i.e., a4 and a7) can be
afirst
The curvature integral
computed using the turning angle between the vectors ~
alast
i1 and ~
i
between the two adjacent track points pi1 and pi can be computed by the turning angle of the
!
vectors p!
i2 pi1 and pi pi1 , which are considered as approximately tangent vectors.
15
the sign of pi1 ; pi does not change and the value in Equation (14) can be directly
calculated by Equation (5) or (7). If the signs of s at the two adjacent track points are the
opposite, the sign of pi1 ; pi does change once and the value is equal to
! !
deltp
i2 pi1 ; pi pi1 because the is limited to the range ; .
3.3. Implementation of the CURF matching method

Section 2.2 presented an overview of our proposed map matching method. We will
detail the CURF matching method in this subsection. The proposed method regards the
curvedness feature as one condition that can constrain the pairwise matching between
the two adjacent track points. A GPS trajectory is, in essence, a sequence of track points
from sampling the RDT of a probe vehicle and thus the curvedness is partially retained.
The curvedness feature is one of geometric features that can be recovered from the
information retained in the two adjacent track points. On the other hand, the matched
path between the two candidate road segments for adjacent track points should be in
accordance with the GPS trajectory in terms of the pairwise features. Thus, the curvedness feature, which can be measured by curvature integral, should be integrated into
the pairwise matching. Exploiting these features, we introduce the details of the CURF
method:
(1) Implementation of one-to-one point matching (Lines 18 of Algorithm 1).
The proposed method regards the position of track point as a unary feature. The
distance from track point pi to its candidate road segment is a measure of similarity for
the unary feature. As described by Greenfeld (2002), the one-to-one similarity (in Line 7)
can be computed by
Sone pi ; ai 1 2 dnd pi ; ai ;
(15)
where dpi ; ai is the distance from track point pi to candidate road segment ai . In this
article, the parameters 1 ; 2 ; nd were set to 10, 0.03, 1.2, respectively. In our tests, we
found this combination of parameters provided the best results. The radius of searching
for candidate road segments is 25 meters.
(2) Implementation of pairwise matching (Lines 919 of Algorithm 1).
The process of pairwise matching consists of four stages.
(a) Computing pairwise features between the two adjacent track points (Line 11).
The pairwise features of track points include range, evaluated by the
Euclidean distance ltraj between the two adjacent track points, and curvedness, evaluated by the curvature integral traj between the two adjacent track
points, computed using Equation (14).
(b) Searching matched subpaths between the two candidate road segments
(Line 15).
The matched subpaths are considered as shortest paths between the two
road segments, which are candidates for the two adjacent track points.
Therefore, they can be obtained by label setting algorithms for shortest
16
Z. ZENG ET AL.
path (Dijkstra 1959). The weight of road segments may be either the
distance or the travel time when computing shortest paths. In general,
detours do not happen between the two adjacent track points because
the driving distances of probe vehicles within sampling intervals are very
short (Lou et al. 2009). However, the RDP can contain detours for avoiding
congested roads when the probe vehicle drive a long distance. Thus, the
RDP of probe vehicles should be shortest paths with minimum distance for a
small search scope, whereas they should be shortest paths with minimum
time for a large-area search. Therefore, we selected the distance as the
weight for computing shortest path between the two candidate road
segments.
(c) Computing pairwise features of matched subpaths (Line 16).
The pairwise features of matched subpaths also include range and curvedness. The ranges are the distances of subpaths, lsp , which are the results of the
label setting algorithm. The curvedness, sp , can be measured by the curvature
integrals of the subpaths, Equation (12).
(d) Computing pairwise similarity between matched subpaths and adjacent track
points (Line 17).
The information, which is partially retained between the two adjacent track points of
the GPS trajectory after sampling, primarily contains the distance and the curvedness.
For example, see Figure 1, the features of both the distance and the curvedness in
consecutive road segments v1 ; v2 ; v2 ; v3 ; v3 ; v4 of the RDP are similarly remained in
sequential track points p1 ; p2 ; p3 . The two aspects of information can be respectively
measured by corresponding pairwise features in GPS trajectories and candidate matched
paths. The pairwise matching criteria to identify the best RDP can be identied from
many candidate paths between the two adjacent points using similarity in both distance
and curvedness. Thus, the pairwise similarity Spair mainly contains the range, Srange , and
curvedness, Scurve , similarities. The pairwise similarity is
Spair Scurve Srange :
(16)
Similarity Srange is evaluated by range dierence between matched subpaths and

adjacent track points, that is, jltraj lsp j, while similarity Scurve is evaluated by the
dierence of curvature integral between matched subpaths and adjacent track points,
that is, jtraj sp j. From our experimental experience, we selected a one-to-one weighting between the range and curvedness similarity. The similarity function maps the
dierence values into a similarity metric,
8
k 1 x b1
if x 2 x0 ; x1
>
>
>
>
if x 2 x1 ; x2
< k 2 x b2
Sx
;
(17)
>
>
k
x
b
if
x
2
x
;
x

>
N
N
N1
N
>
:
0
if xx0 ; xN
where x presents the dierence values, and Sx is the similarity metric. The range of
similarity metric is 0; SMax . The slope and intercept of piecewise linear functions for
Srange and Scurve are listed in Table 1.
17
Table 1. Parameters of Equation (17) for the similarity metric.

a
k1
k2
k3
k4
k5
k6
Slope
0.0502
0.025
0.0125
0.0062
0.0023
0.0008
Srange
Intercept
b1
10
b2
7.47
b3
4.98
b4
3.09
b5
1.54
b6
0.63
Scurve
Dierence
x0
x1
x2
x3
x4
x5
x6
valueb
0
100
200
300
400
600
800
k1
k2
k3
k4
k5
k6
Slope
0.0889
0.0444
0.0444
0.0222
0.0111
0.0037
Intercept
b1
10.0
b2
8
b3
8
b4
5
b5
3
b6
1.34
Dierence
x0
x1
x2
x3
x4
x5
x6
valuec
0
45
90
135
180
225
359
Notes: a The linear piecewise function for Srange is obtained by tting the exponent function for range dierence as
described by Newson and Krumm (2009).
b
Units = meters.
c
Units = degrees.
(3) Implementation of optimal searching (Line 20 of Algorithm 1).

We adopt the directed acyclic graph (DAG) for optimal searching (Lou et al. 2009). The
sequence of adjacent candidate road segment pairs is represented as a DAG. In the DAG
model, the node of the DAG stands for each candidate road segment of a track point
and the edge of the DAG represents each possible pair of candidate road segments for
two adjacent track points. The sum of one-to-one and pairwise similarity is assigned as a
weight for the edge, which corresponds to a pair of candidate road segments. The
global optimal solution is the longest path from candidate road segment that links the
rst track point to last track point. It can be produced by exploiting the topological
ordering algorithm (Lou et al. 2009).
4. Experiments and discussion

We report experimental results of our proposed map matching method incorporating curvedness. Three probe vehicle datasets were selected and tested, and the
proposed matching method was compared with two conventional matching
methods.
4.1. Experimental dataset

Three sets of probe trajectories (buses in Shenzhen and taxis in Wuhan) were used to
verify the accuracy and reliability of our proposed method as follows:
Dataset 1 probe vehicle trajectories produced by taxis in Wuhan, China
Dataset 2 probe vehicle trajectories produced by buses in Shenzhen, China
Dataset 3 probe vehicle trajectories from typical roads with complicated matching
situations in Shenzhen, China
Dataset 1 was composed of trajectories randomly selected from Wuhan taxi trajectories. Each trajectory was recorded at 40 s intervals. These trajectories covered
ordinary roads and complex structures of roads such as local/express lane
systems.
18
Z. ZENG ET AL.
kilometres
Figure 8. Three bus routes for testing map matching methods.
Dataset 2 contained trajectories along three bus routes. For each bus route, a
trajectory was recorded by one bus within one day. The sampling interval was
20 s. The trajectory of each bus route included enough track points to cover all
road segments of the route. These selected bus routes included a regular route,
denoted as Type AB, travelling directly from A to B, and a loop route, denoted as
Type Loop (see Figure 8). Detailed information of the three bus routes is listed in
Table 2.
In Dataset 3, three roads along bus route 707 were selected as complicated situations
of map matching. For each complicated road, the trajectories were obtained by
67 buses, which passed through the selected road within weekdays. These
selected roads contained typical complex structures, such as interchange ramps,
roundabouts, and local/express lane systems (see Figure 9). The ramps and roundabouts not only possess curvature but also are neighbors to many similar roads.
The local/express lane system consisted of parallel roads that are very confusing
for map matching. The detailed contents can be found in Table 3.
Table 2. Three bus routes for testing map matching methods.
Route ID
Total points of the original trajectory
Route type
Route length (meter)
Number of road segments
Cumulative angle changea
707
800
Type AB
28,302
333
3717
B829
1115
Type Loop
8739
104
2073
B633
459
Type AB
16703
236
3051
Note: a The cumulative angle change can be calculated from Equation (20), in units of degrees.
(a)
19
(b)
local
express
express
local
(c)
Figure 9. Complex road structures. (a) Left directional map, (b) roundabout, and (c) local-express
lane system.
Table 3. Three road segments with complicated matching conditions.
Road segment ID
Road type
Length (meter)
Cumulative angle
changea
Number of similar
roads
Number of testing
trajectories
Location
1078808
Left directional ramps
269.87
269
1078847
Roundabout
170
195
1439160
Local/express lane system
174
0
11
196
196
196
Left directional ramps from Road Xixiang

to Expressway Guangshen
Roundabout at
Road Xixiang
Local/express lane system at

Expressway Guangshen
Note: a The cumulative angle change can be calculated by Equation (20).
4.2. Experimental results

Map matching methods used for comparison include HMM (Newson and Krumm 2009),
ST (Lou et al. 2009), and our proposed CURF matching. The HMM matching method uses
distance as the matching feature while the ST matching method uses spatial temporal
attributes of trajectories. The CURF matching method, proposed here, uses the curvedness of trajectories, in addition to exploiting features that have been extensively used
elsewhere, such as distance and road topology.
Matching accuracy was quantied by comparing the ground truth route with the
route given by the matching method. Three evaluation criteria were dened for examining accuracy and reliability of matching methods under dierent situations:
(1) Percentage of wrong matches (PWM). The ratio of incorrectly matched points to
total number of track points,
20
Z. ZENG ET AL.
PWM
number of incorrectly matched points

;
total number of track points
(18)
where a larger value indicates poorer matching results.

(2) Length closeness (LC). The length ratio of the incorrectly matched path to the
correct path,
Clen
The length of incorrectly matched

The length of correct path
path
(19)
illustrated in Figure 10 (d1 is the length of incorrectly matched paths and d0 that
of the correct path). This criterion reects the length deviation of the wrongly
matched path from the correct path at the location where error matches occur.
Deviation values larger than one indicate a relatively worse degree of t of the
matched results.
(3) Angle closeness (AC). A path, Pt , consists of many consecutive arcs, which are
formed by a sequence of shape points p1 ; p2 :::pn . The cumulative angle change
along the path is
Acum Pt
n1
X
! !
jdeltpi1 pi ; pi pi1 j:
(20)
i2
The angle closeness is the dierence of the cumulative angle change between an
incorrectly matched path and the correct path,
Cangle Acum Pterr Acum Ptright ;
(21)
where Pterr is the wrongly matched path, and Ptright is the correct path at the
location where the incorrect match occurs. For example, in Figure 10, Pterr consists
of arcs a4 ; a5 ; a6 and Ptright only includes arc a2 . Thus, Acum Pterr is determined by
shape points of a4 ; a5 ; a6 in sequence and Acum Ptright is, likewise, computed by shape
d1
a5
a6
a4
a2
a1
a3
d0
track point
correctly matched point
correctly matched path
wrongly matched point
wrongly matched path
vertex
Figure 10. Evaluation criteria.
21
points of a2 . Cangle shows the curvedness error between the incorrectly matched path
and the correct path.
4.2.1. Dataset 1: taxi trajectories

Twenty trajectories of ten taxis were randomly selected from Dataset 1 to test the PWMs
of the matching methods. The total track points contained in these trajectories was
1525. Four matching methods were performed on the taxi trajectories: HMM, ST, CURF,
and CURF_T (a variant of the CURF method). The CURF_T method departs from the CURF
method at Line 15 of Algorithm 1, where it employs travel time, rather than distance, as
the weight of road segment when computing the shortest path.
Table 4 shows the comparison of the methods. The PWMs of the CURF_T are slightly
larger than the CURF method. Minimum distance is a better choice than minimum travel
time for measuring the range between the two adjacent track points. Hence, the CURF
method was selected for the following experiments.
On the other hand, the PWMs of the CURF matching method are signicantly lower
than the HMM and ST methods, and achieves zero error for several trajectories (40%).
The average PWM of the CURF matching method is 2.13%, signicantly less than the
HMM (4.11%) and ST (4.90%) methods. Including curvedness clearly enhances matching,
and the matching accuracy of our proposed approach is approximately twice as good as
the comparison methods.
4.2.2. Dataset 2: bus routes
Three dierent routes of Dataset 2 were used to compare matching accuracy of the
proposed method with the HMM and ST methods. (see Figures 11, 12, and 13).
Figure 11(a) shows the PWMs of the three methods on the three bus routes. The
tted curves illustrate the PWMs with respect to dierent sampling intervals. The
Table 4. PWMs of the matching methods from taxis trajectories.
NO
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Total number
of track points
118
48
79
48
56
70
60
57
63
32
33
70
114
93
78
135
96
94
80
79
Average
PMW (%)
CURF
5.93
4.17
0.00
0.00
7.14
2.86
5.00
0.00
1.59
0.00
0.00
1.43
0.00
3.23
0.00
2.22
1.04
4.26
3.75
0.00
2.13
CURF_T
5.93
6.25
1.27
0.00
8.93
5.8
6.7
0.00
3.17
3.13
0.00
2.86
0.88
3.23
1.28
2.22
2.08
4.26
3.75
0.99
3.13
HMM
6.78
6.25
2.53
2.08
8.93
4.29
8.33
0.00
6.35
0.00
6.06
2.86
1.75
4.30
3.85
1.48
4.17
5.32
5.00
1.98
4.12
ST
6.78
6.25
1.27
6.25
7.14
4.29
8.33
1.75
6.35
9.38
6.06
5.71
2.63
8.60
1.28
3.70
4.17
2.13
5.00
0.99
4.90
22
Z. ZENG ET AL.
707
(a)
20%
15%
10%
Percentage of wrong matches (%)
5%
0%
B633
20%
Method
CURF
15%
HMM
10%
ST
5%
0%
B829
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
20
40
60
Interval (second)
80
100
(b)
Figure 11. Dataset 2: Percentage of wrong matches on three dierent routes.
PWMs generally increase as the sampling interval increases, but the ST and HMM
methods always produce larger PWM than our proposed CURF method. Due to the
information loss of trajectory with large sampling interval, the PWMs of the CURF
method still tend to increase, but this increase is slower than for the other methods.
Incorporating the curvedness can curb error growth with increasing sampling
intervals.
23
707
10
Length Closeness (log10)
1
B633
Method
CURF
10
HMM
ST
1
B829
10
1
20
40
60
Interval (second)
80
100
Figure 12. Dataset 2: Length closeness of matching on three dierent routes.
Figure 11(b) directly compares the PWMs from the three methods, and the shadow
buer shows PWM uctuations. The PWM range from the CURF is signicantly less than
the other two methods, indicating better stability under dierent situations.
Consequently, our proposed method incorporating curvedness maintains more stable
performance under dierent situations.
Figure 12 compares LC for the three methods. The box plot represents three quartiles
of LC for an individual matching method. In contrast to PWM, LC is not aected by the
sampling interval. The quartile ranges for the CURF method are always less than for the
ST or HMM methods. Thus, the proposed CURF method is signicantly better than the
other methods at choosing a closer optimum path.
Matching using the CURF, incorporating curvedness, rarely produces a dramatically
incorrect path. In other words, including curvedness prevents the matching path from
seriously deviating from the RDP in length under dierent conditions, such as dierent
routes or sampling intervals.
Figure 13 presents bar plots for the AC on the three bus routes for the three
matching methods. The vertical axis units are a multiple of 360 degrees, while the
horizontal axis is the sampling interval. Figure 13(a) shows the sum of AC along a bus
route and Figure 13(b) the average. The total AC from the CURF method is much less
24
Z. ZENG ET AL.
(a)
707
30
Sum of Angle Closeness (360 degree)
10
0
B633
30
Method
CURF
HMM
ST
20
10
0
B829
30
20
10
0
30
60
90
Interval (second)
(b)
707
1.00
0.75
Average of Angle Closeness (360 degree)
20
0.50
0.25
0.00
B633
1.00
Method
CURF
HMM
ST
0.75
0.50
0.25
0.00
B829
1.00
0.75
0.50
0.25
0.00
30
60
Interval (second)
90
Figure 13. Dataset 2: Angle closeness of matching on three dierent routes. (a) Sum of angle
closeness and (b) average of angle closeness.
than that of the other two methods, and the average AC is also less than or equal to
that of the others. Thus our proposed CURF method consistently outperforms the two
other methods.
25
4.2.3. Dataset 3: complicated roads

The roads in Dataset 3, which represent typical complicated situations of map matching,
were selected to test the matching quality of the three methods. Figure 14 shows that
the PWMs of the CURF matching method on three complicated roads are lower than
those of the other two methods. For ramps and roundabouts, the PWMs of all the three
methods are relatively constant with increasing sampling time. However, the CURF
method tends to get zero incorrect matches regardless of the time intervals. The reason
is that complicated road environments such as roundabouts or ramps contain inherent
curvedness, which this matching method can better characterize, and hence choose the
correct road segment, than the other methods. In the case of the local/express lane
system, the PWMs of the HMM and ST methods are signicantly larger and uctuate
more dramatically than the CURF method for dierent sampling times. The local lane
and express lane have similar length but obviously dierent shapes (i.e., the express lane
trends to be straight and local lane trends to be curved, see Figure 9). The similar length
of express and local lanes will lead to confusion in selecting correct candidate road
segments when map matching methods such as the HMM method or the ST method
only employ elementary features that exclude the curvedness. However, the curvature
integral computation for express lane or local lane can distinguish the dierent shape of
them so that the curvedness feature can also help to select the correct matched road
segment in the situation of a local/express lane system.
Localexpress lane system
40%
20%
Percentage of wrong matches (%)
0%
Ramp of interchanges
Method
CURF
40%
HMM
20%
ST
0%
Roundabout
40%
20%
0%
20
40
60
Interval (second)
Figure 14. Dataset 3: PWMs on complicated roads.
80
100
26
Z. ZENG ET AL.
4.2.4. Running time comparison

Figure 15 compares computing time performance of the three methods by varying
the number of track points in the trajectories. The computing time of the CURF
matching method is somewhat less than the HMM method and comparable to the ST
method. The CURF method and the ST method have similar running time because
they employ similar strategies for optimal searching. The curvedness feature computation in the CURF method brings little extra workload, estimated to be approximately 2.4%.
Map matching for probe vehicle data has been extensively studied by exploiting
GPS trajectory features. These features, which are adopted into map matching,
primarily include geometrical and topological properties of a GPS trajectory. Two
factors aect matching quality: information loss between the two consecutive
sampling points, and confusion amongst several similar matched candidates of
track points. Larger time intervals can increase information loss under complicated
road structures. The HMM and ST matching methods, which incorporate Euclidean
distance, direction, network distance, etc., were compared with the proposed CURF
matching method, which incorporates those features but also adds the curvedness
of GPS trajectories.
40000
30000
Running time(ms)
4.3. Discussion
Matching Methods
CURF
HMM
20000
ST
10000
0
100
200
300
400
Number of track points
500
Figure 15. Computing time comparison of three matching methods.
27
The CURF method performs more eectively than the ST and HMM methods with
respect to increasing sampling intervals and under dierent circumstances, including various types of routes and complicated roads.
PWM variation of the CURF method is more stable than the others on dierent
routes.
The deviation of both LC and AC are signicantly less for the CURF method than
the others.
The CURF matching method performs reliably under various disadvantageous situations, which shows that including the curvedness in matching can relieve the negative
impact of complicating factors. Especially, in fast-growing cities of developing countries,
the roads update so fast that the structures of some road networks have become very
complicated. Traditional map matching may not select the correct road segments from
similar candidates in such complex situations. However, our outcomes show that including the curvedness can help the matching method choose correct driving paths.
Figure 16 shows an example of map matching using curvedness feature in a complex
situation.
Two further interesting aspects were illuminated in the experimental results.
The rst is a compromise between the two factors restricting the matching quality.
Comparing PWMs on dierent planned routes, the CURF method achieves the best
accuracy for 40 s sampling interval (Figure 11), producing PWMs on the three routes
almost equal to zero. Mismatching arises largely from information loss and/or candidate confusion. The best matching at 40 s sampling interval is the optimal trade-o
between these two eects. Less information is lost in the GPS trajectories than for
60 s or 100 s intervals, while more matched road segments can be correctly
determined by the CURF method than at 20 s interval, because the closer distance
between the two adjacent sampling points results in more concentrated candidate
segments than at 40 s interval. Thus, the 40 s interval is a trade-o between
information loss and complex matching conditions. This does not occur for the
conventional methods because elementary features are unable to achieve a tradeo situation.
The second is the loss of information at relative long intervals. Lost information
between the two adjacent sampling points can be recovered by assuming that the
actual driving path is the shortest path between the matched road segments. This
performs well when the sampling interval is relatively small. However, for example in
Figure 11, the sharp rise of PWMs from 80 s to 100 s intervals is partially because the
shortest path assumption can no longer satisfy the context of every pair of adjacent
track points with the increase of sampling intervals. The incorrect matches of the three
methods at below the 80 s interval do not include signicant error caused by the shortpath assumption. This error occurs approximately 30% of the time for the PWMs of the
CURF method at 100 s interval, given that the PWMs are not large. Thus, the actual path
probe vehicle drove becomes harder to completely recover when the sampling interval
increases above a certain level.
The CURF method shows little or no extra workload than the (computationally similar)
ST method. The CURF method still employs conventional techniques for optimal
28
Z. ZENG ET AL.
leftdirectional lane
local lane
3
2
express lane
Legends
Track points of GPS trajectory
Matched points by HMM method
Matched path by HMM method
150
meters
300
Matched point by ST method

Matched path by ST method
Matched point by CURF method
Matched path by CURF method
Roads
Figure 16. An example of map matching using curvedness in complicated local/express road
systems. The matched paths by three methods diverge at track point 3 and 4. The left-directional
lane is selected by the ST and HMM method, and the local lane is selected by the CURF method. The
ST and HMM methods are incorrectly matched at track points 3 and 4. However, the CURF method
gives the correct matched path. Without constraint by curvedness, the ST and HMM methods select
road segments with the best spatial approximation only to these track points. From the constraints
introduced by curvedness features, the CURF method can exclude the subpath matched by the ST or
HMM methods between the track points 4 and 5 because its curvature integral is 2~, which does not
match the curvature integral between the track points 4 and 5. The curvature integral of both the
matched subpath and the two adjacent track points can be evaluated by Equations (12) and (14),
respectively. After global optimization, the CURF method can also exclude the subpath matched by
the ST or HMM methods between the track points 3 and 4. In this case, the curvedness plays a key
role in discriminating the correct matched path from all possible matched paths.
searching and shortest path calculations. Strategies, which tailor the searching space can
be adopted into the CURF method for improving time performance, such as He et al.
(2013), Chen et al. (2014), etc. All three matching methods employ the Dijkstra algorithm
for shortest path calculation, and better than 90% of computing time consuming is
consumed in this step. The Dijkstra algorithm is a standard framework for computing
shortest paths. Many technique can improve the short-path computation eciency, for
example, ALT (Goldberg and Harrelson 2005), or Arc Flags (Khler et al. 2006).
High performance computing, which could also be integrated into our proposed
method, could be another choice for improving the time performance of map matching
(Li et al. 2011a).
29
5. Conclusions
The CURF matching method was inspired by the observation that curvedness is largely
retained in the sampling points of realistic driving trajectories. We employ the curvature
integral to measure the curvedness. This technique transforms the inner geometric
property, which otherwise might be hidden within the track points, into a matching
feature. The matching features provide the tags that help to select the right matched
paths from candidates. Curvedness is such a prominent tag that the correct driving road
can be eectively distinguished from candidates. This is supported by our experimental
results. Using curvedness, the CURF method achieves not only high eciency but also
superior stability.
A problem of current map matching methods for probe vehicles is that exceedingly
long sampling intervals, larger than 120 s, cause matching accuracy to rapidly decline.
The interval is large enough that assuming the shortest path between the two adjacent
track points becomes invalid. Therefore, future work may focus on techniques to
eectively recover the driving path between the two track points with large sampling
intervals. Another issue for future work is to improve the computation performance
using parallel computing.
Acknowledgment
The authors would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions that
improved the article.
Disclosure statement
No potential conict of interest was reported by the authors.
Funding
This study was jointly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant
number 41101355], [grant number 41271400, [grant number 41371377, [grant number 41471322];
the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [grant number 13CX02034A];
Shenzhen Scientic Research and Development Funding Program [grant number
ZDSY20121019111146499]; Shenzhen Dedicated Funding of Strategic Emerging Industry
Development Program [grant number JCYJ20121019111128765]; and Open Research Fund
Program of Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Spatial Smart Sensing and Services (Shenzhen University).
ORCID
Zhe Zeng
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0528-7069
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International Journal of Geographical Information

ISSN: 1365-8816 (Print) 1362-3087 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tgis20

Curvedness feature constrained map matching for

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Date: 07 October 2015, At: 07:44

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SCIENCE, 2015

Curvedness feature constrained map matching for

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Map matching method is a fundamental preprocessing technique

Received 3 November 2014

GPS trajectory; map

CONTACT Tong Zhang

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SCIENCE

timing according to condence points. Chen et al. (2014) provided a multicriteria

2. Overview of our proposed method

Remark 1: Arc ai is composed of a sequence of discrete points, pjshp 0 j r, called

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beginning and ending time of a trajectory. is a moving curve of a probe vehicle in a

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SCIENCE

features because it is produced by sampling . The problem is also to nd the path

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from all possible candidate matched paths in road network G.

2.2. A methodological framework of our proposed map matching approach

Algorithm for the proposed matching method

Data: GPS trajectory : hp0 ; p1 ; ; pn i;

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SCIENCE

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3. Curvedness feature constrained map matching method

the clockwise direction or negative if counterclockwise.

The proof is obvious and omitted.

Denition 3.4: Let s : ; ! R2 be a smooth plane curve parameterized by

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SCIENCE

From Denition 3.5, s satises

Thus, there exists an integer, n 2 Z, such that

Denition 3.7: Let s : ; ! R 2 be a smooth plane curve parameterized by

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we dene a smooth function s

Figure 3. Curvature of a curve.

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is the same sign as ~

From the Newton-Leibniz formula,

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Under the same assumptions of Proposition 3.9, we have

is the same sign as delt ~

The proof is obvious and omitted.

3.2. Curvedness computation

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not necessarily apply. However, a matched subpath is a series of connected road

3.2.1. Two premises for curvedness computation

where the plane is a map projection plane with left-handed coordinates.

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Figure 6. Discrete points of a curve .

where the value of p ; p can be computed by the approximate tangent vector at