METHOD OF OPERATING A NAVIGATION SYSTEM TO PROVIDE GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION INFORMATION

• US 20130013620A1
• Filed: 09/14/2012
• Published: 01/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/27/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: HERE Global B.V. (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: HERE Global B.V. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Rolf, Daniel, Sievers, Torsten
• Granted Patent: US 9,279,695 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/748
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3611 using character input or menus, e.g. menus of POIs character input methods in general G06F3/0233
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3617 using user history, behaviour, conditions or preferences, e.g. predicted or inferred from previous use or current movement
• 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: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases

Abstract

A computer implemented method of operating a navigation system to provide geographic location information is provided. The method comprises receiving a query text string representing a query for a geographic location from a user and obtaining data records that represent a plurality of candidate geographic locations. The method computes a text matching score that indicates how much of the query text string matches a record text string of the candidate geographic location and applies a usage pattern weight to the text matching score to obtain an overall score value for the candidate geographic location. The candidate geographic locations are ranked based on the overall score values.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a query text string representing a request for information from a user;

obtaining candidate information data records representing candidate information from a database stored on a computer readable medium, each of the candidate information data records comprising a record text string;

computing a text matching score for each of the candidate information data records, wherein the text matching score indicates a degree of match between the query text string and the record text string;

computing a ranking score from a usage pattern weight of the candidate information to the text matching score for each of the candidate information data records, wherein the usage pattern weight represents a frequency of prior demand for the candidate information; and

ranking the candidate information based on the ranking scores.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing the candidate information corresponding to a highest ranking score;

receiving a selection of the provided candidate information from the user; and

increasing the usage pattern weight for the provided candidate information that was selected.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

recording the selection the provided candidate information on a computer readable storage medium.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein a time fade out is applied to reduce the usage pattern weight.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the usage pattern weight increases according to frequency of demand for the candidate information.

6. A system comprising:

a geographic database;

a computer; and

a geocoding program executed on the computer and configured to;

receive a query text string;

compute a text matching score for each of a plurality of candidate locations; and

rank the candidate locations by applying a usage pattern weight for each of the candidate locations to the text matching score of the corresponding candidate location,

wherein each of the candidate locations has an associated record text string and the text matching score indicates how much of the query text string and the record text string match, and

wherein the usage pattern weight indicates a frequency of prior use of the candidate location.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein said usage pattern weight determined by user feedback.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein said user feedback includes determining whether a user has visited the candidate location.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein said usage pattern weight is determined using crowd sourcing.

10. The system of claim 6, wherein said usage pattern weight is modeled with values for dependent on a time of day.

11. The system of claim 6, wherein the usage pattern weight is modeled with values for a day of the week.

12. The system of claim 6, wherein the usage pattern weight is reduced with a time fade out.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the time fade out is defined by a predetermined half-life of the usage pattern weight and an amount of time elapsed from a preceding time fade out.

14. A device comprising:

a communication application configured to receive a query text string representing a query for a geographic location from a user; and

a processor configured to obtain data records that represent candidate geographic locations from a geographic database stored on a computer readable medium, each of the data records comprising a record text string, the processor configured to compute a text matching score for the candidate geographic locations, wherein the text matching score indicates how much of the query text string matches the record text string;

wherein the processor applies a usage pattern weight of a selected candidate geographic location to the text matching score of the selected candidate geographic location to obtain an overall score value for the selected candidate geographic location, and wherein the usage pattern weight is increased when users have selected the selected candidate geographic location and decreased according to a time fade out defined by a predetermined half-life of the usage pattern weight and an amount of time elapsed from a preceding time fade out.

15. The device of claim 14, wherein the processor is configured to rank the candidate geographic locations based on respective overall score values.

16. The device of claim 15, wherein the processor is configured to provide candidate geographic locations that have the highest overall score values and configured to increase the usage pattern weight for the selected candidate geographic location selected by the user.

17. The device of claim 15, wherein the data record that represents the selected candidate geographic location comprises a street field with a street text string and a city field with a city text string.

18. The device of claim 15, wherein the text matching score comprises a street field score and a city field score.

19. The device of claim 15, wherein the usage pattern weight comprises a usage pattern street field weight and a usage pattern city field weight.

20. The device of claim 14, wherein the users select the selected candidate geographic location by traveling to a physical location of the selected candidate geographic location.