Method of providing natural tour guide functionality to location tracking computerized devices

• US 8,838,382 B2
• Filed: 11/11/2012
• Issued: 09/16/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/11/2012
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: John-Paul Drysdale
• Original Assignee: White Wolf Investments Pty., Ltd.
• Inventors: Drysdale, John-Paul
• Primary Examiner(s): Cheung, Mary
• Assistant Examiner(s): BERNS, MICHAEL ANDREW
• Application Number:
  US13/674,079
• Publication Number:
  US 20140136100A1
• Time in Patent Office: 674 Days
• Field of Search: 701/461, 701/207, 340/988
• 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 a 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, at least some of said tour guide media characterized by tour guide media topic;

b;

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

c;

user preferences, at least some of said user preferences being media topic playback preferences;

d;

geographic map data;

using said user'"'"'s geographic location as determined by an automated location determination method, movement direction, movement speed, geographic map data, geographic activation areas and/or geographic points of interest to determine, using a computer processor, user-proximate regions of interest wherein said user-proximate regions of interest comprise 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;

using said computer processor to determine the links between said user proximate regions of interest and said tour guide media; and

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

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;

using information pertaining to a first geographic activation area associated with the first user proximate region of interest, and information pertaining to a 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 a 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.

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 a user'"'"'s present location or computed future location is within a radius of said geographic point of interest;

wherein said computed future location is determined by using a computer processor and said user'"'"'s present location, movement-direction, speed, and geographic map data to determine a user'"'"'s computed future location,

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

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said geographic map data comprises 3D geographic map data, further automatically using a comparative elevation of said user geographic location, a comparative elevation of any intervening geographic map elements that will impact visibility of said geographic activation areas, and a 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 a 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/or direction of said user proximate regions of interest, relative to said user, is done by using a user'"'"'s direction of movement to further determine a probable user orientation, and determining the direction of the proximate region of interest'"'"'s geographic activation areas as being to the left or right or behind or other direction relative to said probable user orientation and user location using said geographic map data.

7. The method of claim 5, further determining a distance between a 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 some said tour guide media comprises first tour guide media and second tour guide media;

wherein at least some said first tour guide media is linked to at least some user proximate regions of interest, and at least some said 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 store or flag for later output.

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

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said preferred tour guide media playback preferences comprise one or more preferences selected from the group consisting of 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.

11. 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 a 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 media for subsequent output.

12. 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.

13. 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 a 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, at least some of said tour guide media characterized by tour guide media topic;

b;

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

c;

user preferences, at least some of said user preferences being media topic playback preferences;

d;

geographic map data;

using said user'"'"'s geographic location as determined by an automated location determination method, movement direction, movement speed, geographic map data, geographic activation areas and/or geographic points of interest to determine, using a computer processor, user-proximate regions of interest wherein said user-proximate regions of interest comprise 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 geographic map data comprises 3D geographic map data, further automatically using a comparative elevation of said user geographic location, a comparative elevation of any intervening geographic map elements that will impact visibility of said geographic activation areas, and a 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;

using said computer processor to determine the links between said user proximate regions of interest and said tour guide media; and

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

14. The method of claim 13, 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.

15. 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 a 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, at least some of said tour guide media characterized by tour guide media topic;

b;

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

c;

user preferences, at least some of said user preferences being media topic playback preferences;

d;

geographic map data;

using said user'"'"'s geographic location as determined by an automated location determination method, movement direction, movement speed, geographic map data, geographic activation areas and/or geographic points of interest to determine, using a computer processor, user-proximate regions of interest wherein said user-proximate regions of interest comprise 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;

using said computer processor to determine the links between said user proximate regions of interest and said tour guide media;

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

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 a 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 media for subsequent output.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein at least some said tour guide media comprises first tour guide media and second tour guide media;

wherein at least some said first tour guide media is linked to at least some user proximate regions of interest, and at least some said 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 store or flag for later output.

17. The method of claim 15, 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 preferred tour guide media playback preferences are further used to select which tour guide media to store or output on said user computerized device.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein said preferred tour guide media playback preferences comprise one or more preferences selected from the group consisting of 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.

19. The method of claim 15, 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.