Search along the route

• US 10,281,289 B2
• Filed: 02/01/2016
• Issued: 05/07/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/08/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Nevrekar, Siddhika, Dulko, Dzmitry, Todic, Nikola, Burmistrov, Alexander, Samardzija, Aleksandar, Horovitz, Dvir, Mitchell, Chelsea, Chen, Jason, Patel, Jyotkumar, Grabar, Yekaterina
• Primary Examiner(s): Ismail, Mahmoud S
• Application Number:
  US15/012,074
• Publication Number:
  US 20160258767A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,191 Days
• Field of Search: 701533, 701200
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/343 Calculating itineraries, i.e. routes leading from a starting point to a series of categorical destinations using a global route restraint, round trips, touristic trips travelling salesman problem G06Q10/04; optimisation of routes G06Q10/047
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3682 output of POI information on a road map G01C21/3614, G01C21/3685 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries

Abstract

Architecture that comprises features that enable smart searches along a route based on time to entities along the route and off the route, a user experience (UX) that showcases rich entities along the route, saving, sharing and editing capabilities across devices and users, smart ranking and filtering of entities, and user preferences and digital personal assistant interaction. After an itinerary is built, the itinerary can be saved for future use and/or shared with friends and/or other devices. Users can change the itinerary on-the-go by searching and adding entities, at a later time, for example. A digital personal audio assistant can be utilized to provide guidance based on the itinerary, and ask users if they want to take a particular exit to visit some desired location (e.g., place of interest).

Claims

1. A method comprising computer-executable instructions that when executed by one or more processing units, perform acts of:

receiving a user query for directions along a route defined from a geographical origin to a geographical destination;

computing, using one or more machine learning algorithms, a user intent based on the user query and user information;

identifying one or more entities-of-interest along the route relevant to the user intent and based on time to the entities-of-interest from the route;

assigning to the route a greater number of the one or more entities-of-interest at more popular locations as compared to less popular locations; and

causing the route and the one or more entities-of-interest to be presented as an itinerary on an output device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising sharing the itinerary with at least one other user or one or more other devices of the user.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising enabling tagging and storage of content obtained along the route.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising editing the itinerary to expand as travel occurs along the route.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising performing interactive voice communications with a computing device connected to the output device to interact with the itinerary.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying one or more new entities-of-interest during travel along the route based on travel time to the one or more new entities-of-interest from the route; and

updating the itinerary to a new itinerary that includes the one or more new entities-of-interest.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

ranking the one or more entities-of-interest; and

filtering the one or more entities-of-interest.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the user information comprises a user search history.

8. A method comprising computer-executable instructions that when executed by one or more processing units, perform acts of:

receiving a user query for directions along a route defined from a geographical origin to a geographical destination;

computing, using one or more machine learning algorithms, a user intent based on the user query and user information;

identifying one or more entities-of-interest along the route relevant to the user intent and based at least on time to the entities-of-interest from the route;

assigning to the route a greater number of the one or more entities-of-interest at more popular locations as compared to less popular locations;

causing the one or more entities-of-interest and the route to be presented as an itinerary in a user interface on a display;

identifying one or more new entities during travel along the route;

updating the itinerary with the one or more new entities-of-interest; and

causing the updated itinerary to be presented in the user interface on the display.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

while traveling the route, prompting a user about visiting an entity-of-interest along the route or departing from the route at a specific point along the route;

modifying the user intent based on a response received in response to the prompting; and

updating the one or more entities-of-interest presented in the map user interface based on the modified user intent.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising updating the itinerary with the one or more new entity-of-interests based on travel time to the new entity-of-interest from the route.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising presenting one or more entity cards in the map user interface that show at least one of a list of entities or categories of entities.

12. A system, comprising:

one or more processing units; and

one or more memories storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processing units, cause the system to perform a method comprising;

receiving a user query for directions along a route defined from a geographical origin to a geographical destination;

computing, using a machine learning apparatus, a user intent based at least on the user query;

identifying one or more entities-of-interest along the route relevant to the user intent and based on time to the one or more entities-of-interest from the route;

assigning to the route a greater number of the one or more entities-of-interest at more popular locations as compared to less popular locations;

causing the route and the one or more entities-of-interest to be presented on a display;

identifying one or more new entities-of-interest during travel along the route relevant to the user intent; and

updating a presentation of the one or more entities-of-interest on the display with the one or more new entities-of-interest.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein computing the user intent based at least on the user query comprises computing the user intent based on the user query and user information.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein identifying one or more new entities-of-interest during travel along the route relevant to the user intent comprises identifying one or more new entities-of-interest during travel along the route relevant to the user intent and based on time to the one or more new entities-of-interest from the route.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the method further comprises performing interactive voice communications with a computing device connected to the display to interact with the presentation on the display.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the method further comprises:

while traveling the route, prompting a user about visiting an entity-of-interest along the route;

modifying the user intent based on a response received in response to the prompting; and

updating the one or more entities-of-interest presented on the display based on the modified user intent.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein the method further comprises:

while traveling the route, prompting a user about departing from the route at a specific point along the route;

modifying the user intent based on a response received in response to the prompting; and

updating the one or more entities-of-interest presented on the display based on the modified user intent.

18. The system of claim 12, wherein the method further comprises performing interactive voice communications with a computing device connected to the display to modify the presentation on the display.

19. The system of claim 12, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving content obtained while traveling along the route; and

storing the received content,

wherein the received content comprises at least one of;

one or more pictures associated with at least one entity-of-interest;

one or more video files associated with at least one entity-of-interest;

one or more audio files associated with at least one entity-of-interest;

or

one or more tags associated with at least one entity-of-interest.