ROUTE MODIFICATIONS

• US 20080312766A1
• Filed: 06/15/2007
• Published: 12/18/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/15/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: COUCKUYT, JEFFREY DARREN
• Granted Patent: US 8,332,141 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/201
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3415 Dynamic re-routing, e.g. recalculating the route when the user deviates from calculated route or after detecting real-time traffic data or accidents
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3484 Personalized, e.g. from learned user behaviour or user-defined profiles

Abstract

A computer system and media for delivering routing information are provided. The computer system includes a routing engine, a database, and routing network that are employed to respond to routing requests and user modifications of routing information received in response to the routing requests. The routing engine receives the routing requests and generates routing information that illustrates a route and metadata for directions that guides a user when navigating the route. A user that is dissatisfied with the routing information may use route modification tools to alter the route in a manner that is consistent with the user'"'"'s understanding of alternate routes that may supplement the routing information provided by the routing engine. The computer system receives the user modifications, stores the user modifications, and updates the routing network to learn the alternate route provided in the user modifications.

Claims

1. One or more computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon that perform a method to deliver routing information, the method comprising:

receiving a request for directions at a routing engine;

generating routing information in response to the request for directions received by the routing engine;

transmitting the routing information generated by the routing engine;

receiving user modifications to the routing information at the routing engine; and

generating, by the routing engine, updated routing information based on the user modifications.

2. The media of claim 1, wherein the routing engine conflates the user modification to a routing network having a plurality of routes.

3. The media of claim 2, wherein the routing engine modifies a weight associated with one or more routes based on the user modification.

4. The media of claim 1, wherein the routing information illustrates a route and provides directions from a start location to an end location on the route.

5. The media of claim 1, wherein the user modifications are generated using a route modification tool.

6. The media of claim 5, wherein the route modification tool allows the user to draw modifications on a graphical representation of the routing information.

7. The media of claim 5, wherein the route modification tool layers the user modification on a graphical representation of the routing information.

8. The media of claim 5, wherein the route modification tool provides a user with a set of modification options.

9. The media of claim 8, wherein the route modification options include a polyline.

10. A computer system for managing routing information, the system comprising:

one or more clients to generate routing requests and to generate user modifications to routing information provided in response to the routing requests; and

one or more routing engines to generate routing information in response to the routing requests and to generate updated routing information in response to the user modifications.

11. The computer system of claim 10, wherein the one or more clients are configured to operate on one of a laptop, a personal computer, a cell phone, a personal digital assistant, or a navigation device.

12. The computer system of claim 10, wherein the one or more routing engines are configured to execute on servers.

13. The computer system of claim 10, wherein the one or more clients are configured with a route modification tool that allows a user to draw user modifications on a graphical representation of the routing information.

14. The computer system of claim 10, wherein the one or more client are configured with a tracking component that tracks deviation from a specified route associated with the routing information and counts a frequency of the deviation.

15. The computer system of claim 14, wherein the tracking component transmits the deviation to the routing engine when a count associated with the deviation for the specified route exceeds a specified threshold.

16. The computer system of claim 10, further comprising a database to store the routing information or the user modifications.

17. The computer system of claim 16, wherein the database is configured to communicate with the routing engine to share user modifications with other clients that generate similar routing requests, and the routing engine is configured to transmit, to the other clients, routing information that comprises system-generated routing information having routing information that is generated without applying the user modifications and user-modified routing information having routing information that is generated by applying the user modifications.

18. The computer system of claim 16, wherein the database associates a start location and end location of a route with the user modification and stores the updated routing information without metadata that provides textual directions or stores the metadata that provides textual directions for the updated routing information with the updated routing information.

19. A client device having a processor, and computer readable medium configured to execute a method for modifying routing information, the method comprising:

receiving routing information in response to a request for directions;

displaying the routing information;

generating user modifications to the routing information;

transmitting the user modifications to a routing engine; and

receiving updated routing information based on the user modifications.

20. The client device of claim 19, wherein user modification are observed over a specified time interval by a monitoring component to track coordinate information of the user, to identify deviations from the routing information for a specified route, to count a frequency of the deviation from the specified route, and to learn the deviation when the frequency of the deviation from the specified route is above a specified threshold.