MOBILE RECOMMENDATION AND RESERVATION SYSTEM

• US 20090204600A1
• Filed: 02/13/2008
• Published: 08/13/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/13/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toyota Motor Corporation
• Original Assignee: Toyota Motor Corporation, Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America Incorporated (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Kawamoto, Masayuki, Sekiyama, Hiroaki, Kalik, Steven F., Takeuchi, Shojiro
• Granted Patent: US 8,306,921 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/30 Map- or contour-matching
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90335 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

Apparatus and methods are described for assisting a requester to identify and reserve a resource that meets the need of the requestor'"'"'s request. For example, a request can be augmented using augmentation data, such as current position and requester preferences, and resources are located and ranked according to their match against the augmented request. A person who is the requester may engage in another attention demanding task, such as driving a car, while resources well matched to preferences are located. Preference data may be determined from social network data, a preference file, and/or other sources.

Claims

1. A method for assisting selection of a resource in response to a request from a requester, the method being performed by an electronic circuit, the method comprising:

obtaining position data;

identifying available resources by searching a computer network, the available resources being limited to those in a spatial area determined using the position data;

ranking the available resources using preference data so as to identify one or more candidate resources, at least part of the preference data being collected from an on-line social network; and

providing the one or more candidate resources to the requester, so as to assist selection of the resource.

2. The method of claim 1, the position data being obtained from a position sensor in electronic communication with the electronic circuit.

3. The method of claim 1, further including generating some or all of the preference data before the request is made.

4. The method of claim 1, the on-line social network being accessible through the computer network.

5. The method of claim 1, the requester being a member of the on-line social network, preference data obtained from the on-line social network being weighted according to a network proximity to the requestor.

6. The method of claim 1, the requester being an occupant of a vehicle.

7. The method of claim 6, the position data being provided by a vehicle navigation system.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising prompting the requester to accept or decline each of the one or more candidate resources.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising making a reservation for each of the one or more candidate resources before prompting the requester to accept or decline any of the one or more candidate resources.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising canceling any reservation associated with an explicitly or implicitly declined candidate resource.

11. A method for assisting selection of a resource in response to a request from a requestor, the requester being an occupant of a vehicle, the method comprising:

identifying available resources within a spatial area, the spatial area being determined using vehicle position data;

ranking the resource candidates using preference data, the preference data being determined at least in part from an on-line social network; and

presenting one or more highly ranked resources to the requester, so as to assist selection of the resource.

12. The method of claim 11, the vehicle position data including a current vehicle position.

13. The method of claim 11, the vehicle position data including a future vehicle position.

14. The method of claim 13, the future vehicle position being determined using vehicle heading data.

15. The method of claim 11, the method further including prompting the requester to accept or decline the one or more highly ranked resources.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising reserving or purchasing an accepted resource.

17. An apparatus for assisting selection of a resource, the apparatus comprising:

an interface, including a request input operable to receive a request for the resource;

a modem, operable to connect to an information network; and

an electronic circuit, operable to initiate a search for available resources within a spatial area, the spatial area being determined using position data,

the electronic circuit being further operable to compare available resources with preference data so as to determine a candidate resource;

the preference data being determined at least in part from an on-line social network, the on-line social network being accessible through the information network.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, the apparatus being located within a vehicle, the apparatus receiving the position data from a vehicle navigation system.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, the electronic circuit including a speech synthesizer, the interface including an audio device for audible presentation of the candidate resources.