Method and system of planning and/or managing a travel plan

• US 9,009,167 B2
• Filed: 02/28/2011
• Issued: 04/14/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/01/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ron Cerny
• Original Assignee: Ron Cerny
• Inventors: Cerny, Ron
• Primary Examiner(s): Mamillapalli, Pavan
• Application Number:
  US13/036,036
• Publication Number:
  US 20110213787A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,506 Days
• Field of Search: 707/749, 705/6
• US Class Current: 707/749
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events

Abstract

A method of planning a trip which comprises receiving a plurality of profile characteristics from a user, automatically selecting a group from a plurality of travel objects according to a match with the profile characteristics where each travel object having a plurality of scheduling characteristics. The method further includes computing an arrangement of members of the group in a schedule according to the plurality of profile characteristics and receiving an update to one or more of members, the schedule, the arrangement and/or the profile characteristics. Now, the arrangement is automatically updated so that one or more of the travel objects are rescheduled according to a relationship between its scheduling characteristics and respective scheduling characteristics of other travel objects in light of the profile characteristics.

Claims

1. A method of planning a trip, comprising:

receiving a plurality of touristic interests from a user;

automatically arranging a selected group from a plurality of tourist activities wherein each member of said selected group is associated with a geographical site and a plurality of scheduling characteristics, wherein said members are selected automatically according to said plurality of touristic interests, said geographical site and said plurality of scheduling characteristics, and wherein said automatic arranging produces a time sequence and a geographical site sequence for a touristic activity plan of said user;

monitoring at least one network node to detect automatically an update to at least one of said plurality of touristic activities;

automatically rearranging a new selected group from said plurality of touristic activities in response to receiving said update to produce a new time sequence and a new geographical site sequence of said touristic activity plan, wherein said new selected group comprises a plurality of rearrangements of said new selected group members in a new touristic activity plan; and

presenting a notification indicative of said new time sequence and said new geographical site sequence to said user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said update is an update to an arrangement of said touristic activity plan, said update being received from said user.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said updating comprises detecting an execution of one member of said selected group and automatically adding another of said plurality of tourist activities in response to said detection.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said automatically selecting comprises adding at least one additional tourist activity in response to a selection of a tourist activity having an execution of another said tourist activity as a suspending condition.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein at least some of said plurality of touristic interests are extracted from a user profile of said user.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein at least some of said plurality of touristic interests are extracted from a travel profile provided by said user to define at least one of a group consisting of:

hobbies, pastimes, leisure interests, professional interests, entertainment interests, destination, travel period, origin, attendants, and type.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising updating said user profile according to said plurality of tourist activities.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying at least one additional user profile associated with a user profile of said user, each said additional user profile defined at least one executed travel schedule defining at least one executed tourist activity;

wherein said automatically selecting comprises automatically selecting said new selected group according to said at least one executed tourist activity.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a plurality of additional touristic interests from at least one additional user, said arranging and said rearranging comprises computing at least one member of said arrangement and said updated arrangement so that each of said members is scheduled according to a relationship between its scheduling characteristics, said geographical site, said touristic interests and said plurality of additional touristic interests.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said automatically selecting comprises weighting at least some of said plurality of tourist activities according to a user profile of said user and selecting said selected group and said new selected group according to said weighting.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein said automatically selecting comprises analyzing a popularity of at least some of said plurality of tourist activities in at least one online content source and selecting said selected group and said selected new group according to said analysis.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein said automatically selecting comprises analyzing said plurality of touristic interests and automatically selecting said selected group and said new selected group according to said analyzing.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein said plurality of scheduling characteristics comprise a location of an activity site, said arranging and said rearranging comprises computing said arrangement according to a distance between said location and at least one other location of at least one additional activity site defined by at least one of said plurality of other tourist activities.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein said arranging and said rearranging comprises computing said arrangement according to a transportation parameter pertaining to a route between said activity site and said at least one additional activity site.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying said arrangement to a user.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein said arranging and said rearranging comprises receiving at least one user profile of at least one additional user and computing said arrangement according to said at least one user profile.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of said plurality of tourist activities is a suspending condition, said suspending conditions is a condition that when fulfilled causes a tourist activity to become valid.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein each of said plurality of tourist activities is arranged in a distinct cluster according to said tourist activity type.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein each of said scheduling characteristics is selected from a group consisting at least one of:

availability period, age classification, geographic location, tourist activity span, description media content, booking period, booking details, suspending conditions, context relation to other tourist activities, cost, weather requirement, cultural relevancy and social relevancy.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein said new selected group comprises a modified travel activities selected from members of said selected group.

21. A computerized system of managing a travel plan, comprising:

a processor;

a memory coupled to said processor;

a database hosting, using said processor, a plurality of tourist activities, each having a geographical site and a plurality of scheduling characteristics;

an input interface which receives a plurality of touristic interests from a user via a network; and

a travel planning manager which automatically selects a selected group of said plurality of tourist activities according to said plurality of touristic interests, said geographical site and said plurality of scheduling characteristics and computes, using said processor, an arrangement of members of said selected group in a time sequence and a geographical site sequence for a touristic activity plan of said user;

an updating module which automatically identifies an update to at least one of said plurality of tourist activities by monitoring at least one network node connected to said network;

wherein said travel planning manager receives said update and automatically updates said arrangement by automatically rearranging a new selected group from said plurality of touristic activities in response to receiving said update to produce a new time sequence and a new geographical site sequence of said touristic activity plan, wherein said new selected group comprises a plurality of rearrangements of said new selected group members; and

presenting a notification indicative of said new time sequence and said new geographical site sequence to said user.

22. The system of claim 21, further comprising a reservation module which communicates with at least one network node connected to said network to reserve automatically at least one service according to said arrangement.

23. The system of claim 21, further comprising a data analysis module which scores at least some of said plurality of tourist activities according to a content published by at least one network node connected to said network.

24. The system of claim 21, further comprising a similarity module which scores at least some of said plurality of tourist activities according to a similarity to at least one tourist activity, previously selected by said user, of said plurality of tourist activities.

25. The system of claim 21, further comprising a location sensitive module which identifies a location of said user, said travel planning manager updates said arrangement according to said location.

26. The system of claim 21, wherein said updating module monitors an addition of at least one new tourist activity to said database and calculates said update accordingly.

27. The system of claim 21, wherein said updating module monitors at least one network node connected to said network to detect a change to at least one of said plurality of tourist activities, said updating module updating said at least one tourist activity according to said change.

28. A computer program product, comprising a non-transitory computer usable storage medium having a computer readable program code embodied in said medium for planning a trip, said computer readable program code, comprising:

receiving a plurality of tourist interests from a user;

automatically arranging a selected group from a plurality of tourist activities wherein each member of said selected group is associated with a geographical site and a plurality of scheduling characteristics,

wherein said members are selected automatically according to said plurality of touristic interests, said geographical site and said plurality of scheduling characteristics, and wherein said automatic arranging produces a time sequence and a geographical site sequence for a touristic activity plan of said user;

monitoring at least one network node to detect automatically an update to at least one of said plurality of scheduling characteristics of at least one of said plurality of tourist activities; and

automatically

rearranging a new selected group from said plurality of touristic activities in response to receiving said update to produce a new time sequence and a new geographical site sequence of said touristic activity plan, wherein said new selected group comprises a plurality of rearrangements of said new selected group members; and

presenting a notification indicative of said new time sequence and said new geographical site sequence to said user.