METHOD OF PROVIDING NATURAL TOUR GUIDE FUNCTIONALITY TO LOCATION TRACKING COMPUTERIZED DEVICES

• US 20140136100A1
• Filed: 11/11/2012
• Published: 05/15/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/11/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: John-Paul Drysdale
• Original Assignee: White Wolf Investments Pty., Ltd.
• Inventors: Drysdale, John-Paul
• Granted Patent: US 8,838,382 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/461
• 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 21/3697 Output of additional, non-guidance related information, e.g. low fuel level G01C21/3679 takes precedence

Abstract

An improved automated tour guide system and method, intended to be run on mobile computerized devices such as Smartphone and GPS equipped vehicle devices, designed to better mimic the natural ability of human tour guides to customize tour guides according to variations in user interests and preferences, and tour itineraries, provide more natural segues between various tour stories, and more realistically handle what geographic regions of interest are visible to the user. The system extensively annotates tour guide media with control and preference metadata, can utilize third party media obtained from remote servers, and intelligently utilizes geographic map data and user location, movement direction, and speed to control tour guide audio, text, graphic and URL output to users. The system further keeps track of user tour location and media playback history and can use this history to further optimize its performance.

Claims

1. A method of automatically providing, to a user having a geographic location, movement direction, movement speed, and user preferences, tour guide media, said media stored or output according to said user'"'"'s geographic location, movement direction, movement speed and user preferences, said method comprising:

obtaining access to data in at least one computer database, said data comprising;

a;

a plurality of tour guide media linked to geographic points or regions of interest;

b;

geographic activation areas, said geographic activation areas being linked with either said geographic points or regions of interest;

c;

user preferences, and geographic map data;

using the user'"'"'s geographic location, movement direction, movement speed, geographic map data, geographic activation areas and/or geographic points of interest to determine, using a computer processor, the user proximate regions of interest wherein said geographic points of interest and/or geographic activation areas are either within visual range or close proximity of said user, or will shortly become within visual range or close proximity of said user;

determining the links between said proximate regions of interest and said tour guide media; and

storing for later output, or outputting, to a user computerized device according to said user preferences, at least some of the tour guide media that are linked to said proximate regions of interest.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said geographic activation areas are defined as polygons on a map or map projection of said geographic map data, and wherein at least some of said polygons overlap with any linked geographic points of interest.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said proximate regions of interest are determined by computing if said user'"'"'s present or computed future location is within a radius of said geographic point of interest;

and wherein said proximate regions of interest are also determined by computing if said user'"'"'s present or computed future location is within said geographic regions of interest.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said geographic map data comprises 3D geographic map data, further using the comparative elevation of said user geographic location, the comparative elevation of any intervening geographic map elements, and the comparative elevation of said geographic activation areas to further determine which said geographic activation areas are either within visual range of said user or will shortly become within visual range of said user, and thus should be analyzed as proximate regions of interest.

5. The method of claim 1, further using said user'"'"'s geographic location, movement direction, movement speed, geographic map data, and geographic activation areas to determine the relative location and/or direction of said user proximate regions of interest relative to said user;

and

additionally communicating said relative location and/or direction of said user proximate regions of interest to said user along with said tour guide media.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein determining the relative location and direction of said user proximate regions of interest, relative to said user, is done by using the user'"'"'s movement direction to further determine a probable user orientation, and determining the direction of the proximate region of interest'"'"'s geographic activation areas relative to said probable user orientation and user location using said geographic map data.

7. The method of claim 5, further determining the distance between said user'"'"'s present geographic location and at least one region of the geographic activation areas linked to said user proximate regions of interest, and further communicating information pertaining to this distance to said user along with said tour guide media.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein at least a first tour guide media is linked to at least some user proximate regions of interest, and at least a second tour guide media is linked to at least some first tour guide media, further using said user preferences to determine which of said first tour guide media is output to said user computerized device, and/or

wherein said database further comprises links between at least some of said first tour guide media that is linked to at least some user proximate regions of interest, and second tour guide media, further using said user preferences to determine which of said second tour guide media to also output to said user computerized device, or sore or flag for later output.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein if said computerized device is outputting a first tour guide media linked to a first user proximate region of interest, and said user then moves to a second user proximate region of interest linked to a second tour guide media, then according to said user preferences either:

A;

interrupting output of said first tour guide media to output said second tour guide media, and then resuming output of said first tour guide media when said second tour guide media has been output;

or

B;

using information pertaining to the first geographic activation area associated with the first user proximate region of interest, and information pertaining to the second geographic activation area associated with the second user proximate region of interest, as well as said user geographic location, movement direction, movement speed, and the relative playback time length of said first tour guide media and said second tour guide media, to optimize the order in which said first and second tour guide media are output to said user, as well as to determine the relative times in which the two tour guide media are stored or output to said user.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said user preferences comprise preferred tour guide media playback preferences, and at least some geographic points of interest and/or geographic activation areas have a plurality of different linked tour guide media categorized according to playback preference;

wherein said user preferences as to preferred tour guide media playback preferences are further used to select the tour guide media to store or output on said user computerized device.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein said media playback preferences comprise one or more preferences selected from the group consisting of language, media audio, graphic, text or URL type, core media, previously played media, media topic, media priority, new locations, used queued media, use same topic media, use unfinished media topic, use same subject media, use unrelated topic media, media priority, media creator type, media creator identifier, media creator rating, and media content rating.

12. The method of claim 1, further storing a record of which tour guide media have been output to said user computerized device, and which tour guide media, or links to said tour guide media, have been stored for later output in the memory of said computerized device;

further using said record to output to said user which tour guide media have been stored for later output and/or which tour guide media have previously been output;

and/or allowing said user to select some or all of the previously output or stored for later output tour guide audio media for subsequent output.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein at least some of said data resides in a remote computer database, and wherein obtaining at least some of said data is done by using a wireless network connection to a remote computer server over the Internet;

wherein said user computerized device is a smartphone, tablet computer, or computerized vehicle device equipped with GPS functionality; and

wherein at least some of said tour guide media is prepared by third party sources, and is uploaded to said remote computer database.

14. A method of automatically providing, to a user having a geographic location, movement direction, movement speed, and user preferences, tour guide audio media, said media stored or output according to said user'"'"'s GPS determined geographic location, movement direction, movement speed and user preferences, said method comprising:

obtaining access to data in at least one computer database, said data comprising;

a;

a plurality of tour guide audio media linked to geographic points or regions of interest;

b;

geographic activation areas, said geographic activation areas being linked with either said geographic points or regions of interest;

c;

user preferences, and geographic map data;

wherein said geographic activation areas are defined as polygons on a map or map projection of said geographic map data, and wherein at least some of said polygons overlap with any linked geographic points of interest;

wherein said user preferences comprise preferred tour guide audio media playback preferences, and at least some geographic points of interest and/or geographic activation areas have a plurality of different linked tour guide audio media categorized according to playback preference;

using the user'"'"'s geographic location, movement direction, movement speed, geographic map data, geographic activation areas and/or geographic points of interest to determine, using a computer processor, the user proximate regions of interest wherein said geographic points of interest and/or geographic activation areas are either within visual range or close proximity of said user, or will shortly become within visual range or close proximity of said user;

wherein said proximate regions of interest are determined by computing if said user'"'"'s present or computed future location is within a radius of said geographic point of interest;

and wherein said proximate regions of interest are also determined by computing if said user'"'"'s present or computed future location is within said geographic regions of interest;

determining the links between said proximate regions of interest and said tour guide audio media; and

storing for later output, or outputting, to a user computerized device according to said user preferences, at least some of the tour guide audio media that are linked to said proximate regions of interest;

wherein said user preferences as to preferred tour guide audio media playback preferences are further used to select the tour guide audio media to store or output on said user computerized device;

wherein at least a first tour guide audio media is linked to at least some user proximate regions of interest, and at least a second tour guide audio media is linked to at least some first tour guide audio media, further using said user preferences to determine which of said first tour guide audio media is output to said user computerized device, and/or

wherein said database further comprises links between at least some of said first tour guide audio media that is linked to at least some user proximate regions of interest, and second tour guide audio media, further using said user preferences to determine which of said second tour guide audio media to also output to said user computerized device, or sore or flag for later output.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein said geographic map data comprises 3D geographic map data, further using the comparative elevation of said user geographic location, the comparative elevation of any intervening geographic map elements, and the comparative elevation of said geographic activation areas to further determine which said geographic activation areas are either within visual range of said user or will shortly become within visual range of said user, and thus should be analyzed as proximate regions of interest.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein determining the relative location and direction of said user proximate regions of interest, relative to said user, is done by using the user'"'"'s movement direction to further determine a probable user orientation, and determining the direction of the proximate region of interest'"'"'s geographic activation areas relative to said probable user orientation and user location using said geographic map data.

17. The method of claim 14, further determining the distance between said user'"'"'s present geographic location and at least one region of the geographic activation areas linked to said user proximate regions of interest, and further communicating audio information pertaining to this distance to said user along with said tour guide audio media.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein if said computerized device is outputting a first tour guide audio media linked to a first user proximate region of interest, and said user then moves to a second user proximate region of interest linked to a second tour guide audio media, then according to said user preferences either:

A;

interrupting output of said first tour guide audio media to output said second tour guide audio media, and then resuming output of said first tour guide audio media when said second tour guide audio media has been output;

or

B;

using information pertaining to the first geographic activation area associated with the first user proximate region of interest, and information pertaining to the second geographic activation area associated with the second user proximate region of interest, as well as said user geographic location, movement direction, movement speed, and the relative playback time length of said first tour guide audio media and said second tour guide audio media, to optimize the order in which said first and second tour guide audio media are output to said user, as well as to determine the relative times in which the two tour guide audio media are stored or output to said user.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein said media playback preferences comprise one or more preferences selected from the group consisting of language, media audio, graphic, text or URL type, core media, previously played media, media topic, media priority, new locations, used queued media, use same topic media, use unfinished media topic, use same subject media, use unrelated topic media, media priority, media creator type, media creator identifier, media creator rating, and media content rating.

20. The method of claim 14, further storing a record of which tour guide audio media have been output to said user computerized device, and which tour guide audio media, or links to said tour guide audio media, have been stored for later output in the memory of said computerized device;

further using said record to output to said user which tour guide audio media have been stored for later output and/or which tour guide media have previously been output;

and/or allowing said user to select some or all of the previously output or stored for later output tour guide audio media for subsequent output.

21. The method of claim 14, wherein at least some of said data resides in a remote computer database, and wherein obtaining at least some of said data is done by using a wireless network connection to a remote computer server over the Internet;

wherein said user computerized device is a smartphone, tablet computer, or computerized vehicle device equipped with GPS functionality; and

wherein at least some of said tour guide media is prepared by third party sources, and is uploaded to said remote computer database.