I'm looking for an algorithm which, when given a particular route on a map with attributes such as incline/distance/shape/etc, can find a route which is similar (in terms of the attributes) but starts at a different point or in a different region on the globe.
Obviously it will be impossible in almost all cases to find a perfect fit but I'm looking for a "best match" sort of system with a method of measuring the similarity as well ideally.
I have tried looking, but most of my queries come up with either Map Matching problems or route similarity for GPS points along the same path. I may not know the correct terminology! Is there a name for this problem? What algorithm I can use to solve this?
Best Answer
Map matching is different from what you are looking for. Map matching is the proper way of matching an erroneous GPS observation to the linear street network. Your question has nothing to do with GPS points either. Because you want to compare the pattern of the static routes (non temporal) and find the similar ones. What you are looking for is linear feature matching. The literature related to the GPS trajectory is spatio-temporal pattern matching that goes under the title of the Trajectory Pattern Mining.
For further info, have a look at the chapter Trajectory Pattern Mining from the book computing with spatial trajectory. You will get some ideas on how to compare and contrast (e.g. via azimuth, segments length, sinuosity, beeline, etc) various trajectories.