Generating turn-by-turn direction previews

• US 9,002,647 B1
• Filed: 06/27/2014
• Issued: 04/07/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Pack, Jeremy Bryant, Sheridan, Alan, Filip, Daniel Joseph
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, TAN QUANG
• Application Number:
  US14/317,706
• Time in Patent Office: 284 Days
• Field of Search: 701/533, 701/423, 701/436, 701/437, 701/438, 701/461, 701/462, 340/995.2, 340/995.23, 340/995.24
• US Class Current: 701/533
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/36 Input/output arrangements for on-board computers
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3602 Input other than that of destination using image analysis, e.g. detection of road signs, lanes, buildings, real preceding vehicles using a camera
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3644 Landmark guidance, e.g. using POIs or conspicuous other objects
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3647 Guidance involving output of stored or live camera images or video streams

Abstract

Aspects of the present disclosure relate to generating turn-by-turn direction previews. In one aspect, one or more computing devices, may receive a request for a turn-by-turn direction preview. The one or more computing devices may generate a set of turn-by-turn directions based on a series of road segments connecting a first geographic location and a second geographic location. Each direction in the set of turn-by-turn directions may be associated with a corresponding waypoint. The one or more computing devices then identify a set of images corresponding the series of road segments between two adjacent waypoints of the set of turn-by-turn directions, and determine a subset of the set of images to include in the turn-by-turn direction preview. Subsequently, the one or more computing devices may generate the turn-by-turn direction preview based on at least in part on the determined subset of the set of images.

Claims

1. A method for generating turn-by-turn direction previews, comprising:

receiving, using one or more computing devices, a request for a turn-by-turn direction preview;

generating, using the one or more computing devices, a set of turn-by-turn directions based on a series of road segments connecting a first geographic location and a second geographic location, wherein each direction in the set of turn-by-turn directions is associated with a corresponding waypoint;

identifying, using the one or more computing devices, a set of images corresponding the series of road segments between two adjacent waypoints of the set of turn-by-turn directions;

determining, using the one or more computing devices, a subset of the set of images to include in the turn-by-turn direction preview by filtering the set of images to include only the images within a threshold distance from the waypoint corresponding to each turn-by-turn direction; and

generating, using the one or more computing devices, the turn-by-turn direction preview based on at least in part on the determined subset of the set of images.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of images includes one or more street level panoramic images.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing for display, using the one or more computing devices, the turn-by-turn direction preview on a client computing device.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the turn-by-turn direction preview includes jumping from a first image to a second image.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining further comprises filtering the set of images to remove any images that exceeds a predetermined quantity of images designated for each of the road segments to determine the subset.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining further comprises filtering the set of images to include only the images at predetermined distance intervals along each of the road segments.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining further comprises filtering the set of images to include the images of one or more landmarks along each of the road segments.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying, using the one or more computing devices, additional sets of images corresponding the series of road segments between additional adjacent waypoints of the set of turn-by-turn directions; and

determining, using the one or more computing devices, additional subsets of the additional sets of images to include in the turn-by-turn direction preview.

9. A system comprising:

a memory;

one or more computing devices, each of the one or more computing devices having one or more processors, the one or more computing devices being coupled to the memory;

wherein the one or more computing devices are configured to;

receive a request for a turn-by-turn direction preview;

generate a set of turn-by-turn directions based on a series of road segments connecting a first geographic location and a second geographic location, wherein each turn-by-turn direction includes a corresponding waypoint;

identify a set of images corresponding the series of road segments between two adjacent waypoints of the set of turn-by-turn directions;

determine a subset of the set of images to include in the turn-by-turn direction preview by filtering the set of images to remove any images that exceeds a predetermined quantity of images designated for each of the road segments to determine the subset; and

generate the turn-by-turn direction preview based on at least in part on the determined subset of the set of images.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the set of images includes one or more street level panoramic images.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the one or more computing devices are further configured to provide for display the turn-by-turn direction preview on a client computing device.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the turn-by-turn direction preview includes jumping from a first image to a second image.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the one or more computing devices are further configured to determine a subset of the set of images by filtering the set of images to include only the images within a threshold distance from the waypoint corresponding to each turn-by-turn direction.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the one or more computing devices are further configured to determine a subset of the set of images by filtering the set of images to include only the images at predetermined distance intervals along each of the road segments.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein the one or more computing devices are further configured to determine a subset of set of images by filtering the set of images to include images of one or more landmarks along each of the road segments.

16. The system of claim 9, wherein the one or more computing devices are further configured to:

identify additional sets of images corresponding the series of road segments between additional adjacent waypoints of the set of turn-by-turn directions; and

determine additional subsets of the additional sets of images to include in the turn-by-turn direction preview.

17. A non-transitory, tangible computer-readable medium on which instructions are stored, the instructions, when executed by one or more computing devices perform a method, the method comprising:

receiving a request for a turn-by-turn direction preview;

generating a set of turn-by-turn directions based on a series of road segments connecting a first geographic location and a second geographic location, wherein each turn-by-turn direction includes a corresponding waypoint;

identifying a set of street level panoramic images for each road segment between two adjacent waypoints of the set of turn-by-turn directions;

determining whether any street level panoramic images of the set of street level panoramic images is outside a threshold distance from each of the two adjacent waypoints;

based on the determination, filtering the set of street level panoramic images to remove the street level panoramic images that are outside the threshold distance; and

generating the turn-by-turn direction preview based on at least the filtered set of street level panoramic images.

18. The non-transitory, tangible computer-readable medium of claim 17, the method further comprising providing for display the turn-by-turn direction preview on a client computing device.