Automatic Generation of Geographic Imagery Tours

• US 20150106364A1
• Filed: 10/15/2013
• Published: 04/16/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Schpok, Joshua S.
• Granted Patent: US 9,805,057 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/724
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually

Abstract

An indication of a geographic area is received. Respective metrics of noteworthiness are obtained for multiple entities located in the geographic area. Using a machine-readable knowledge repository that describes semantic relations between the entities, several of the entities are selected in view of the corresponding metrics of noteworthiness, so that the selected entities share a set of attributes defining a commonality, and so that digital imagery is available for each of the selected entities. This commonality is not specified by the user. A geographic imagery tour that includes a representation of the respective digital imagery for the selected entities is generated.

Claims

1. A method in a computing system for automatically generating geographic imagery tours, the method comprising:

receiving, by one or more computing devices, an indication of a geographic area;

obtaining, by the one or more computing devices, respective metrics of noteworthiness for a plurality of entities located in the geographic area;

selecting, by the one or more computing devices, from a machine-readable knowledge repository that describes semantic relations between the plurality of entities, several of the plurality of entities that share a set of attributes defining a commonality, in view of the corresponding metrics of noteworthiness, wherein the commonality is not specified by a user, and wherein digital imagery is available for each of the selected entities; and

generating, by the one or more computing devices, a geographic imagery tour that includes a representation of the respective digital imagery for the selected entities.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, by the one or more computing devices, an indication of geographic context including the indication of the geographic area and one or more of:

(i) an indication of current time,

(ii) an indication of a current location of a device on which the geographic imagery tour is to be displayed, or

(iii) an indication of user preferences.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining a metric of noteworthiness for an entity includes assigning a score to the entity based on one or more of:

(i) a type of the entity, wherein the type is selected from a list including business, landmark, museum, and monument,

(ii) frequency of reported visits,

(iii) user rating, or

(iv) variety of content available for the entity.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein assigning the score to the entity includes:

determining relevance of the entity to current events, and

raising the score of the entity if it determined that the entity is relevant to the current events.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the one or more computing devices, a plurality of concept templates that specify predefined themes or subjects including the commonality of the geographic imagery tour,

wherein each concept template is stored as text with substitutive variables, and

wherein selecting the entities includes substituting information retrieved via the machine-readable knowledge repository for the substitutive variables to generate semantic relationships.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the commonality is based on shared relevance to a common current or historical event.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing, by the one or more computing devices, the geographic imagery tour to a client device;

receiving, by the one or more computing devices, an indication from the client device that the user has activated the geographic imagery tour;

in response to the received indication, providing the digital imagery for the selected entities to the client device; and

causing the client device to sequentially present the provided digital imagery to the user.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein causing the client device to sequentially present the provided digital imagery to the user includes causing the client device to present geographic imagery tour for one entity at a time.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein providing the digital imagery includes providing one or more of (i) photographs, (ii) videos, (iii) interactive three-dimensional (3D) models, and (iv) virtual fly-over or walkthrough transitions between photographs.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

repeating the act of selecting several of the plurality of entities to generate a plurality of candidate groups of entities, wherein each candidate group has a respective commonality;

calculating, by the one or more computing devices, a cumulative metric of noteworthiness for each candidate group;

selecting, by the one or more computing devices, a subset of the plurality of candidate groups based on the cumulative metrics of noteworthiness;

generating respective geographic imagery tours for only the selected subset of the plurality of candidate groups;

providing, by the one or more computing devices, the geographic imagery tours for the subset of the plurality of candidate groups to a client device via a communication network;

receiving, by the one or more computing devices, a selection of the geographic imagery tour from the client device, from among the subset of the plurality of candidate groups; and

in response to receiving the selection, providing the corresponding geographic imagery tour to the client device, including sequentially providing the corresponding digital imagery.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting several of the plurality of entities includes selecting between three and eight entities.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the geographic imagery tour includes determining, by the one or more computing devices, an order for the representation of the digital imagery for the selected entities.

13. A computing device comprising:

one or more processors;

a user interface; and

a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing thereon instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computing device to;

determine a geographic context of the computing device, wherein the geographic context includes a selection of a geographic area,

transmit an indication of the geographic context to a server via a communication network,

receive, from the server, available geographic imagery tours in response to the indication of the geographic context, wherein each geographic imagery tour includes a representation of respective digital imagery for a plurality of entities that share a commonality and that correspond to the geographic context,

receive a selection of one of the available geographic imagery tours,

retrieve content for the selected geographic imagery tour from the server, and

provide the content of the selected geographic imagery tour via the user interface.

14. The computing device of claim 13, wherein receiving the available geographic imagery tours includes not transmitting the commonality to the server.

15. The computing device of claim 13, wherein the geographic context further includes one or more of:

(i) an indication of current time,

(ii) an indication of a current location of a device on which the geographic imagery tour is to be displayed, or

(iii) an indication of user preferences, and wherein the available geographic imagery tours.

16. The computing device of claim 13, wherein receiving the available geographic imagery tours includes receiving, for each of the geographic imagery tours, an indication of the corresponding commonality.

17. The computing device of claim 13, wherein retrieving the content for the selected geographic imagery tour includes retrieving one or more of (i) photographs, (ii) videos, and (iii) interactive three-dimensional (3D) models.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing thereon instructions for automatically generating geographic imagery tours, wherein the instructions, when executed by one or more computing devices, are configured to:

receive an indication of a geographic context, including receive a selection of a geographic area;

automatically select, from a machine-readable knowledge repository in which data that describes attributes of entities is organized according to semantic relations between the entities, a group of entities satisfying conditions of (i) corresponding to the geographic context, (ii) having references to related digital imagery in the knowledge repository, and (iii) sharing a set of one or more attributes that define a commonality, wherein the group of entities is selected from among candidate entities matching the conditions (i)-(iii) in view of metrics of noteworthiness of the entities, without receiving a selection of the commonality from a user; and

generate a geographic imagery tour that includes a representation of the respective digital imagery for the selected group of entities.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the geographic context includes one or more of:

(i) an indication of current time,

(ii) an indication of a current location of a device on which the geographic imagery tour is to be displayed, or

(iii) an indication of user preferences.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the instructions, when executed on the one or more computing devices, are further configured to generate the metrics of noteworthiness for the candidate entities based on one or more of:

(i) a type of the entity, wherein the type is selected from a list including business, landmark, museum, and monument,

(ii) frequency of reported visits,

(iii) user rating,

(iv) variety of content available for the entity, or

(v) relevance to current events.