NAVTEQ, one of the major map database companies, has more than 1, 100 of what it calls "geographic analysts" around the world, actually driving the roads to verify or correct the database.

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Pattern analysis -- the heart of data mining -- is conventional crime-solving, whether the suspicious patterns are spotted on a crime pin map, on a city street, or in an electronic database.

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It claims the software creates a virtual topographical map of your features, which is then measured against the donor database, looking for similar surface textures, vector templating and, of course size of features.

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