Enhanced identification of interesting points-of-interest

• US 8,589,069 B1
• Filed: 11/12/2009
• Issued: 11/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/12/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Lehman, April R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Khatib, Rami
• Application Number:
  US12/617,401
• Time in Patent Office: 1,468 Days
• Field of Search: 701/400, 701/408, 701/409, 701/410, 701/425, 701/426, 701/428, 701/431, 701/433, 701/438, 701/439, 701/450, 701/453, 701/454, 701/467, 701/491, 701/526, 701/533, 340/990, 340/995.1, 340/995.14, 340/995.16, 340/995.17, 340/995.19, 340/995.24, 707/918, 707/919, 707/920, 707/999.102, 707/999.2, 715/705, 715/716, 705/14.6, 705/14.38, 705/347, 705/409, 705/500
• US Class Current: 701/438
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3811 Point data, e.g. Point of Interest [POI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for identifying points-of-interest. In one aspect, a method includes determining a location of a mobile device, and automatically identifying a point-of-interest (POI) located within a predetermined distance of the location. The method also includes providing, on a user interface of the mobile device, a rating control for allowing the user to rate the identified POI, and receiving the rating for the identified POI from the user, using the rating control.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

determining, by one or more processors, a location of a mobile device;

automatically identifying, by the one or more processors, a point-of-interest (POI) that is located within a predetermined distance of the location of the mobile device;

determining, by the one or more processors, a minimum continuous linger time associated with the identified POI, wherein the minimum continuous linger time is determined based on a category of the identified POI;

determining, by the one or more processors, that the mobile device has remained within the predetermined distance of the identified POI for at least the minimum continuous linger time;

in response to automatically identifying, by the one or more processors, the POI that is located within the predetermined distance of the location of the mobile device and to determining that the mobile device has remained within the predetermined distance of the identified POI for at least the minimum continuous linger time, providing, on a user interface of the mobile device, a rating control for allowing the user to rate the identified POI; and

receiving the rating for the identified POI from the user, using the rating control.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the rating in association with the identified POI.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

automatically identifying one or more candidate POIs located within the predetermined distance of the location of the mobile device; and

providing information identifying the candidate POIs on the user interface, wherein the identified POI further comprises one of the candidate POIs.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

providing, on the user interface, a disambiguation control for identifying the candidate POIs and for allowing a user to select another one of the candidate POIs.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein providing a rating control for the identified POI further comprises:

determining the category associated with the identified POI;

determining a criterion associated with the category; and

determining that the criterion associated with the category has been satisfied.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the criterion comprises a current time-of-day requirement or a current day-of-the-week requirement.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the rating control comprises a star rating bar.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising incrementing or decrementing a score associated with the identified POI in one or more databases associated with a geographic area based on the rating.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising clustering the user with other users of a search engine, based on a similarity of the user'"'"'s rating of the identified POI with other users'"'"' ratings of the identified POI.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

identifying a POI that the other users rated highly as a recommended POI; and

providing information identifying the recommended POI on the user interface.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the rating control for the identified POI further comprises:

providing, on the user interface, a rating interest control for allowing the user to indicate whether they are interested in rating the identified POI;

detecting a user interaction with the rating interest control; and

determining that the user has indicated that they are interested in rating the identified POI, based on the user interaction.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to receiving the rating, providing a text entry field on the user interface for allowing the user to input comments regarding the identified POI.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein automatically identifying the POI further comprises:

defining a zone of interest within the predetermined distance from the location;

determining geographic coordinates associated with the zone of interest; and

querying a POI directory using the geographic coordinates associated with the zone of interest, the POI directory storing POIs and geographic coordinates associated with the POIs.

14. A system comprising:

one or more computers; and

a computer-readable medium coupled to the one or more computers having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the one or more computers, cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising;

determining a location of a mobile device,

automatically identifying a point-of-interest (POI) that is located within a predetermined distance of the location of the mobile device,

determining a minimum continuous linger time associated with the identified POI, wherein the minimum continuous linger time is determined based on a category of the identified POI;

determining that the mobile device has remained within the predetermined distance of the identified POI for at least the minimum continuous linger time;

in response to automatically identifying the POI that is located within the predetermined distance of the location of the mobile device and to determining that the mobile device has remained within the predetermined distance of the identified POI for at least the minimum continuous linger time, providing, on a user interface of the mobile device, a rating control for allowing the user to rate the identified POI; and

receiving the rating for the identified POI from the user, using the rating control.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the operations for providing the rating control for the identified POI further comprise:

determining the category associated with the identified POI;

determining a criterion associated with the category; and

determining that the criterion associated with the category has been satisfied.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the criterion comprises a current time-of-day requirement or a current day-of-the-week requirement.

17. A non-transitory computer storage medium encoded with a computer program, the program comprising instructions that when executed by data processing apparatus cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

determining, by one or more processors, a location of a mobile device;

automatically identifying, by the one or more processors, a point-of-interest (POI) that is located within a predetermined distance of the location of the mobile device;

determining, by the one or more processors, a minimum continuous linger time associated with the identified POI, wherein the minimum continuous linger time is determined based on a category of the identified POI;

determining, by the one or more processors, that the mobile device has remained within the predetermined distance of the identified POI for at least the minimum continuous linger time;

in response to automatically identifying, by the one or more processors, the POI that is located within the predetermined distance of the location of the mobile device and to determining that the mobile device has remained within the predetermined distance of the identified POI for at least the minimum continuous linger time, providing, on a user interface of the mobile device, a rating control for allowing the user to rate the identified POI; and

receiving the rating for the identified POI from the user, using the rating control.

18. The non-transitory computer storage medium of claim 17, where the program further comprises instructions that when executed cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

determining the category associated with the identified POI;

determining a criterion associated with the category; and

determining that the criterion associated with the category has been satisfied.

19. The non-transitory computer storage medium of claim 18, where the criterion comprises a current time-of-day or a current day-of-the-week requirement.