Method and apparatus for an itinerary planner
First Claim
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1. A method to create an itinerary comprising:
- receiving, by a server computing system, user preferences for a plan utility;
selecting a plan element having a positive utility above a threshold value;
creating, by the server computing system, a personalized plan based on the selected plan elements, wherein the personalized plan defines at least one decision point to detect during execution of the personalized plan whether a user is following an original plan element that is associated with the decision point, and wherein the at least one decision point is defined prior to execution of the personalized plan and has an associated original plan element and at least one associated alternative plan element that are pre-determined prior to execution of the personalized plan.
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for providing an itinerary planner is described. The itinerary planner generates itineraries for visiting locations which are personalized to the user'"'"'s preferences. Unknown conditions are handled by contingency plans that the itinerary planner generates in an anytime manner. The first itineraries are derived in a short time, and as more computation time is allowed, additional itineraries that better suit the preferences of the user are obtained.
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Citations
29 Claims
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1. A method to create an itinerary comprising:
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receiving, by a server computing system, user preferences for a plan utility; selecting a plan element having a positive utility above a threshold value; creating, by the server computing system, a personalized plan based on the selected plan elements, wherein the personalized plan defines at least one decision point to detect during execution of the personalized plan whether a user is following an original plan element that is associated with the decision point, and wherein the at least one decision point is defined prior to execution of the personalized plan and has an associated original plan element and at least one associated alternative plan element that are pre-determined prior to execution of the personalized plan. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. An apparatus to create an itinerary comprising:
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a memory to store a plurality of possible plan elements, each element having one or more categories associated with the element; a processor coupled to the memory; and a plan utility evaluation logic executed from the memory by the processor to select a plan element for a personalized plan, the plan element having a utility, the utility being a match between the categories associated with the plan element and user preferences, and a plan creation logic executed from the memory by the processor to generate a plan using the plan element by identifying a plan element having a utility above a set utility threshold, wherein the plan defines at least one decision point to detect during execution of the plan whether a user is following an original plan element that is associated with the decision point, and wherein the at least one decision point is defined prior to execution of the plan and has an associated original plan element and at least one associated alternative plan element that are pre-determined prior to execution of the plan. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. An apparatus to generate an itinerary comprising:
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a first means to receive a plurality of user preferences; a generation means to generate a plan using plan elements, wherein the plan elements have a utility above a threshold value; an evaluation means to identify a utility of the plan, the utility being a match between the categories associated with the plan elements in the plan and the user preferences; and a selection means to select a personalized plan from the plurality of plans, wherein the selected plan defines at least one decision point to detect during execution of the selected plan whether a user is following an original plan element that is associated with the decision point, and wherein the at least one decision point is defined prior to execution of the selected plan and has an associated original plan element and at least one associated alternative plan element that are pre-determined prior to execution of the selected plan. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13)
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14. A non-transitory machine readable medium having stored thereon data representing sequences of instructions, which when executed by a computer system, cause said computer system to create an itinerary, by performing the steps of:
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identifying a plurality of user preferences; selecting one or more plan elements having a positive utility above a threshold value; and constructing a personalized plan including the one or more plan elements, the personalized plan having the highest available utility and defining at least one decision point to detect during execution of the personalized plan whether a user is following an original plan element that is associated with the decision point, and wherein the at least one decision point is defined prior to execution of the personalized plan and has an associated original plan element and at least one associated alternative plan element that are pre-determined prior to execution of the personalized plan. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16)
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17. A method of creating a plan comprising:
retrieving a plurality of possible plan elements, each element having one or more categories associated with the element; receiving a category value for each category associated with each element; automatically generating a first complete plan using the plan elements and the category values for each category; determining, by a server computing system, whether to generate a new complete plan and based on the determination that a new plan should be generated, automatically generating the new complete plan, wherein the new complete plan defines at least one decision point to detect during execution of the new complete plan whether a user is following an original plan element that is associated with the decision point, and wherein the at least one decision point is defined prior to execution of the new complete plan and has an associated original plan element and at least one associated alternative plan element that are predetermined prior to execution of the new complete plan; and determining, by the server computing system, whether to select the new complete plan as a final complete plan. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. A method of creating a plan comprising:
retrieving a plurality of possible plan elements, each element having one or more categories associated with the element; receiving a plurality of user preferences, wherein the user preferences include a user value for each category; receiving a minimum utility for a final complete plan, wherein the minimum utility is a predefined value, the minimum utility being the minimum user value for the final complete plan based on the plan elements and user values for each category; automatically constructing, by a server computing system, a first complete plan having at least the minimum utility; identifying, by the server computing system, a new complete plan having a utility at least a delta above the utility of the first complete plan, wherein the new complete plan defines at least one decision point to detect during execution of the new complete plan whether a user is following an original plan element that is associated with the decision point, and wherein the at least one decision point is defined prior to execution of the new complete plan and has an associated original plan element and at least one associated alternative plan element that are pre-determined prior to execution of the new complete plan; and determining, by the server computing system, whether to select the new complete plan as the final complete plan. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26)
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27. A computer-implemented method of creating a plan on a planning server computing system, the method comprising:
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receiving a plurality of user preferences through an interface; retrieving a plurality of possible plan elements from a memory, each element having one or more categories associated with the element; determining, by the planning server computing system, at least one of the plurality of plan elements is a multi-step activity;
separating the at least one plan element that is a multi-step activity into sub-elements, wherein the sub-elements include a constraint defining a relationship between the sub-elements;automatically generating, by the planning server computing system, a plurality of complete plans by a processor, wherein each complete plan is generated based on the at least one constraint defining the relationship between the sub-elements; and selecting, by the planning server computing system, a personalized plan from the plurality of complete plans by the processor, the personalized plan having a utility, the utility being a match between the categories associated with the plan elements and the user preferences, wherein the personalized plan defines at least one decision point to detect during execution of the new complete plan whether a user is following an original plan element that is associated with the decision point, and wherein the at least one decision point is defined prior to execution of the personalized plan and has an associated original plan element and at least one associated alternative plan element that are pre-determined prior to execution of the personalized plan. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29)
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Specification