LOCATION-AWARE SELECTION OF PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

• US 20100088026A1
• Filed: 10/02/2008
• Published: 04/08/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/02/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Manolescu, Dragos A.
• Granted Patent: US 9,159,238 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/213
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/40 Business processes related to the transportation industry shipping G06Q10/083
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 15/02 taking into account a variable factor such as distance or time, e.g. for passenger transport, parking systems or car rental systems G07B15/06 takes precedence; taximeters G07B13/00; parking meters per se G07F17/24; car rental systems per se G07B15/00
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information

Abstract

A mobile device such as a mobile phone, smart phone, personal music player, handheld game device and the like that is configured to be location-aware through GPS (Global Positioning System), cell tower positioning, or other means of determining location, is provided with a public transportation selector functionality that interfaces with one or more on-line public transportation schedule services. The public transportation selector passes the location of a user of the mobile device, the user'"'"'s destination, and the targeted arrival time to the schedule services which responsively return information including, for example, station/stop location information, route identifier, departure and arrival times, and fare costs. The public transportation selector aggregates schedule information provided by the services for presentation to the user through a user interface on the mobile device. The user can then select the desired public transportation option and be provided with directions to the appropriate station or stop.

Claims

1. A computer-readable medium containing instructions which, when executed by one or more processor disposed in a mobile device, implement a transportation application for providing public transportation options to a user, comprising:

one or more services or service adapters, each service or service adapter configured for interfacing with respective one or more schedule services and for receiving public transportation information from the one or more schedule services in response to a query;

a public transportation selector configured for generating the query, the query being arranged to communicate a present location of the mobile device and a destination to the one or more schedule services; and

a location module that interfaces with location-aware functionality disposed in the mobile device, the location module identifying the present location of the mobile phone to the public transportation selector.

2. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 in which the transportation application further comprises a route database for storing a transit time associated with travel over a given public transportation route.

3. The computer-readable medium of claim 2 in which the transportation application further comprises a scheduling module for interfacing with scheduling data having applicability to the user, the scheduling data including at least one of appointment, calendar, contact, or task.

4. The computer-readable medium of claim 3 in which the transportation application further comprises a user profile configured for storing profile data that is collected about the user.

5. The computer-readable medium of claim 4 in which at least one of the route database, scheduling module, or user profile is used by the public transportation selector for filtering transportation information from a schedule service.

6. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 in which the location functionality is one of GPS, cell tower positioning, or means for establishing location-awareness.

7. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 in which the transportation application further comprises a payment module configured for facilitating electronic payment for a fare associated with a public transportation route.

8. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 in which the transportation application further comprises a UI for receiving input from the user and for displaying the public transportation options to the user.

9. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 in which the public transportation selector applies one or more heuristics to the information from the one or more schedule services to thereby optimize the public transportation options presented to the user.

10. A method for operating a public transportation schedule service for communicating public transportation information to a remote mobile device, the method comprising the steps of:

collecting the public transportation information in a database, the public transportation information being related to one or more types of public transportation that are available for use within a given geographic region;

receiving a query from the remote mobile device, the query identifying a present location of the remote mobile device, a target destination, and a target arrival time at the destination;

responsively to the query, extracting a subset of the public transportation information from the database; and

transmitting the subset of public transportation information to the remote mobile device.

11. The method of claim 10 including the further steps of transacting a purchase between a public transportation provider and a user of the remote mobile device and receiving a fee for the transacted purchase.

12. The method of claim 10 in which the query and transmitted subset of public transportation information traverse a wireless data network.

13. The method of claim 10 in which the types of public transportation comprise at least one of bus, rail, light rail, subway, trolley, streetcar, tram, ferry, or water taxi

14. An automated method for optimizing selections from among a set of public transportation routes for a user of a mobile device, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving information that is indicative of a present location of the mobile device;

tracking time to transit particular instances of the public transportation routes;

using the location information and tracked transit time to optimize the selections of public transportation routes; and

using the optimized selections to present public transportation options to the user.

15. The automated method of claim 14 including a further step of receiving information pertaining to the public transportation routes from one or more public transportation schedule services.

16. The automated method of claim 15 in which the public transportation route information comprises at least one of station or stop location, route identifier, departure time, or arrival time.

17. The automated method of claim 14 in which the location information is generated using either GPS or cell tower location.

18. The automated method of claim 14 in which the mobile device is selected from one of mobile phone, smart phone, PDA, pocket PC, portable media player, handheld game device, or device combining functionality therein.

19. The automated method of claim 14 including a further step of annotating a public transportation option with one or more points of interest.

20. The automated method of claim 19 in which the annotating comprises listing one or more points of interest along a route between the present location and a departure point of a public transportation route or listing one or more points of interest along a route between the departure point and destination point of a public transportation route.