METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR EVALUATING AN ATTRIBUTE OF A POINT OF INTEREST

• US 20120303272A1
• Filed: 06/14/2012
• Published: 11/29/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tomtom Polska Sp. Z O.O. (TomTom NV)
• Original Assignee: Tomtom Polska Sp. Z O.O. (TomTom NV)
• Inventors: Studzinski, Witold
• Granted Patent: US 8,700,321 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/450
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3679 Retrieval, searching and output of POI information, e.g. hotels, restaurants, shops, filling stations, parking facilities G01C21/3611 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3811 Point data, e.g. Point of Interest [POI]
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3841 Data obtained from two or more sources, e.g. probe vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3844 Data obtained from position sensors only, e.g. from inertial navigation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2264 Multidimensional index structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases

Abstract

A method of evaluating an attribute of a point of interest 150 comprises associating a region 152 with the point of interest 150; and evaluating 148 the attribute according to a comparison of position data 154,156,158 of a plurality of users with position data defining the associated region.

Claims

1. A method of evaluating an attribute of a point of interest, comprising:

associating a region with the point of interest; and

evaluating the attribute according to a comparison of position data of a plurality of users with position data defining the associated region.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the plurality of users comprises a number of users for whom position data has been stored in a database.

3. The method of claim 1 comprising evaluating the attribute according to the variation of the position data of a user over time for each user in the plurality of users.

4. The method of claim 3 comprising determining the number of users entering the associated region.

5. The method of claim 3 comprising determining a speed of a user within the associated region.

6. The method of claim 3 comprising determining the length of time a user spends within the associated region.

7. The method of claim 1 comprising evaluating a quality parameter for the point of interest according to at least one of the number of users entering the associated region, the speed in the associated region of each user entering the associated region and the length of time spent in the associated region for each user entering the associated region.

8. The method of claim 7 comprising evaluating the quality parameter for different time periods.

9. The method of claim 8 comprising determining at least one of:

(i) an opening time or an open time period; and

(ii) a closing time or a closed time period, for the point of interest from quality parameter values for different times or different time periods.

10. The method of claim 9 comprising determining at least one of a busy time period and a quiet time period for the point of interest from quality parameter values for different time periods.

11. The method of claim 7 comprising determining a rank for a point of interest according to a quality parameter value for the point of interest and a quality parameter value for one or more further points of interest which offer the same or similar goods and/or services as the goods and/or services offered at the point of interest and which are located in the same geographical area as the point of interest.

12. The method of claim 1 comprising displaying an attribute value for the point of interest.

13. The method of claim 12 comprising displaying the attribute value for the point of interest in response to a user request.

14. The method of claim 13 comprising displaying the attribute value for the point of interest adjacent to a symbol representing the nature of the goods and/or services offered at the point of interest.

15. A non-transitory data carrier comprising computer readable instructions which are executable on a computer to implement the method of claim 1.

16. An apparatus for evaluating an attribute of a point of interest, comprising a data store for storing position data of a plurality of users, and a processing resource adapted to associate a region with the point of interest and to evaluate the attribute according to a comparison of position data of the plurality of users with position data defining the associated region.