Community-driven map creation and access

• US 8,954,374 B2
• Filed: 02/23/2010
• Issued: 02/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/23/2010
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Chakraborty, Dipanjan, Chauhan, Himanshu, Kumar, Arun
• Primary Examiner(s): Chaki, Kakali
• Assistant Examiner(s): Gonzales, Vincent
• Application Number:
  US12/710,895
• Publication Number:
  US 20110208689A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,813 Days
• Field of Search: 706/62
• US Class Current: 706/62
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/022 Knowledge engineering; Knowledge acquisition

Abstract

Techniques for creating and enabling access to a community-augmented map are provided. The techniques include uploading user-generated content about one or more locations on a map, processing the user-generated content about one or more locations on the map and storing the user-generated content about one or more locations on the map in an intelligent knowledgebase, applying one or more domain concepts from the intelligent knowledgebase to the user-generated content to infer one or more derivatives in connection with one or more locations in the map, and retrieving information of the one or more locations on the map from the intelligent knowledgebase to provide the map information as augmented metadata on the map.

Claims

1. A method for creating and enabling access to a community-augmented map, wherein the method comprises:

uploading user-generated content, wherein said user-generated content comprises content pertaining to one or more locations on a map and content pertaining to a relationship between the one or more locations and one or more additional locations on a map, and wherein said user-generated content comprises multiple modalities;

processing the user-generated content and storing the user-generated content in an intelligent knowledgebase;

applying one or more existing items of user-generated content from the intelligent knowledgebase to the uploaded user-generated content to infer one or more characteristics of one or more locations on the map based on the content pertaining to the relationship between the one or more locations in the uploaded user-generated content and the one or more additional locations on a map, wherein said one or more inferred characteristics are inferred from one or more human-originated non-numeric relationships, derived via one or more human community members, of the one or more locations relative to one or more surrounding locations;

retrieving the one or more inferred characteristics of the one or more locations on the map from the intelligent knowledgebase;

augmenting metadata on the map based on the one or more inferred characteristics, wherein said augmenting comprises (i) providing real-time information about one or more locations on the map, (ii) identifying one or more traversable routes between two or more locations on the map, and (iii) super-imposing user-generated content pertaining to one or more locations on the one or more traversable routes; and

outputting one of the one or more traversable routes in response to a query comprising a source location name and a destination location name, wherein said output traversable route comprises (i) a sequential list of multiple location names that represents a path traversal from the source location to the destination location and (ii) at least one inferred characteristic, from the one or more inferred characteristics, associated with each of the multiple location names in the sequential list.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing the map information as augmented metadata on the map for one or more location details.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing the map information as augmented metadata on the map for routing directions.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein uploading user-generated content comprises uploading new location information, wherein uploading new location information results in creation of a location in the map representation in the knowledgebase.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein uploading new location information comprises uploading new location information from at least one of a user and one or more existing databases.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein retrieving information of the one or more locations on the map comprises determining a name of the location and meta information in connection with the location.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein retrieving information of the one or more locations on the map comprises retrieving information about how two or more locations are reachable from each other.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein retrieving information about how two or more locations are reachable from each other comprises:

computing a path between the two or more locations, wherein each node in the path are linked using at least one of user-supplied data, inferred data, domain data and bootstrap data; and

retrieving information of each node in the path and augmenting it with the path information.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising updating information related to a location.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising facilitating one or more input modalities and one or more output modalities.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the one or more input modalities and one or more output modalities comprise at least one of phone, short message service (SMS) and web.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein an intelligent knowledgebase:

bootstraps the intelligent knowledgebase with map information from one or more third-party sources and one or more defining reasoning primitives to infer additional geographical data;

parses the user-generated content to determine one or more relevant location details that can be loaded in an internal store of the knowledgebase;

organizes the one or more location details and adding them into the knowledgebase; and

uses the one or more newly added location details and one or more defined reasoning primitives to infer one or more facts related to geographical data of the one or more locations on the map.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein processing and storing the user-generated content comprises:

placing a location on the map based upon location data and corresponding location information; and

determining names of one or more additional locations that are logically related with the one or more locations.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a system, wherein the system comprises one or more distinct software modules, each of the one or more distinct software modules being embodied on a tangible computer-readable recordable storage medium, and wherein the one or more distinct software modules comprise a knowledgebase module, a location finding module, a path finder module, a location insertion module, a location removal module, an ontology module, a graph database module, an input module and an output module executing on a hardware processor.

15. A computer program product comprising a tangible computer readable recordable storage medium including computer useable program code for creating and enabling access to a community-augmented map, the computer program product including:

computer useable program code for uploading user-generated content, wherein said user-generated content comprises content pertaining to one or more locations on a map and content pertaining to a relationship between the one or more locations and one or more additional locations on a map, and wherein said user-generated content comprises multiple modalities;

computer useable program code for processing the user-generated content and storing the user-generated content in an intelligent knowledgebase;

computer useable program code for applying one or more existing items of user-generated content from the intelligent knowledgebase to the uploaded user-generated content to infer one or more characteristics of one or more locations on the map based on the content pertaining to the relationship between the one or more locations in the uploaded user-generated content and the one or more additional locations on a map, wherein said one or more inferred characteristics are inferred from one or more human-originated non-numeric relationships, derived via one or more human community members, of the one or more locations relative to one or more surrounding locations;

computer useable program code for retrieving the one or more inferred characteristics of the one or more locations on the map from the intelligent knowledgebase;

computer useable program code for augmenting metadata on the map based on the one or more inferred characteristics, wherein said augmenting comprises (i) providing real-time information about one or more locations on the map, (ii) identifying one or more traversable routes between two or more locations on the map, and (iii) super-imposing user-generated content pertaining to one or more locations on the one or more traversable routes; and

computer useable program code for outputting one of the one or more traversable routes in response to a query comprising a source location name and a destination location name, wherein said output traversable route comprises (i) a sequential list of multiple location names that represents a path traversal from the source location to the destination location and (ii) at least one inferred characteristic, from the one or more inferred characteristics, associated with each of the multiple location names in the sequential list.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the computer useable program code for providing the map information as augmented metadata on the map comprises computer useable program code for providing the map information as augmented metadata on the map for one or more location details and for routing directions.

17. The computer program product of claim 15, further comprising computer useable program code for updating information related to a location.

18. A system for creating and enabling access to a community-augmented map, comprising:

a memory; and

at least one processor coupled to the memory and operative to;

upload user-generated content, wherein said user-generated content comprises content pertaining to one or more locations on a map and content pertaining to a relationship between the one or more locations and one or more additional locations on a map, and wherein said user-generated content comprises multiple modalities;

process the user-generated content and storing the user-generated content in an intelligent knowledgebase;

apply one or more existing items of user-generated content from the intelligent knowledgebase to the uploaded user-generated content to infer one or more characteristics of one or more locations on the map based on the content pertaining to the relationship between the one or more locations in the uploaded user-generated content and the one or more additional locations on a map, wherein said one or more inferred characteristics are inferred from one or more human-originated non-numeric relationships, derived via one or more human community members, of the one or more locations relative to one or more surrounding locations;

retrieve the one or more inferred characteristics of the one or more locations on the map from the intelligent knowledgebase;

augment metadata on the map based on the one or more inferred characteristics, wherein said augmenting comprises (i) providing real-time information about one or more locations on the map, (ii) identifying one or more traversable routes between two or more locations on the map, and (iii) super-imposing user-generated content pertaining to one or more locations on the one or more traversable routes; and

output one of the one or more traversable routes in response to a query comprising a source location name and a destination location name, wherein said output traversable route comprises (i) a sequential list of multiple location names that represents a path traversal from the source location to the destination location and (ii) at least one inferred characteristic, from the one or more inferred characteristics, associated with each of the multiple location names in the sequential list.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the at least one processor coupled to the memory operative to provide the map information as augmented metadata on the map is further operative to provide the map information as augmented metadata on the map for one or more location details and for routing directions.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the at least one processor coupled to the memory is further operative to update information related to a location.