Enhanced identification of interesting points-of-interest

• US 9,057,616 B1
• Filed: 09/13/2012
• Issued: 06/16/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/12/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Lopatenko, Andrei, Kim, Hyung-Jin, Mazumdar, Soham
• Primary Examiner(s): Amin, Bhavesh V
• Application Number:
  US13/613,304
• Time in Patent Office: 1,006 Days
• Field of Search: 701400-541
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/26 specially adapted for navigation in a road network
• 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 21/3811 Point data, e.g. Point of Interest [POI]
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3874 Structures specially adapted for data searching and retrieval
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0962 having an indicator mounted inside the vehicle, e.g. giving voice messages
• 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 4/024 Guidance services
• 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 identifying points-of-interest (POIs) associated with one or more of multiple, selected geographic areas, and determining, for each of the multiple geographic areas, a score associated with the identified POIs. The actions also include generating a combined score for each identified POI based on the determined scores associated with the respective POI, selecting a subset of the identified POIs based at least on the combined scores, and displaying a link to the POIs in the subset.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, by one or more processors, location information generated from one or more sensors, the location information representing a location of a mobile device, the one or more sensors comprising a compass, a global positioning system sensor, a WiFi receiver, a cellular receiver, or a camera;

identifying, by the one or more processors, points-of-interest associated with one or more of multiple, selected geographic areas using the location information;

determining, by the one or more processors for each of the multiple geographic areas, a respective score for each of the identified points-of-interest in the respective geographic area;

applying, by the one or more processors, a fall-off function to the determined scores for each of the identified points-of-interest;

after applying the fall-off function to the determined scores, generating, by the one or more processors, a combined score for each identified point-of-interest across all of the multiple geographic areas by combining, for each identified point-of-interest, the respective fall-off function scores;

selecting a subset of the identified points-of-interest based at least on the respective combined scores; and

outputting instructions for presentation of a link to each of the identified points-of-interest in the subset on a display of the mobile device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining the location of the mobile device; and

selecting the multiple geographic areas based on the determined location.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, by the mobile device, one or more databases which store the score associated with the identified points-of-interest, for each of the multiple geographic areas.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein selecting the multiple geographic areas further comprises:

selecting a first geographic area in which the mobile device is located; and

selecting a second geographic area adjacent to the first geographic area.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein selecting the multiple geographic areas further comprises identifying multiple geographic areas which are assigned a non-zero value by a fall-off function.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining an expected destination of the mobile device using the location information; and

selecting the multiple geographic areas based on the expected destination.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a query refinement; and

performing a search query using the query refinement to identify the points-of-interest that are associated with the one or more of the multiple, selected geographic areas, and that that satisfy the query refinement.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein performing the search query further comprises performing a prefix search using the query refinement.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the query refinement restricts the search query to one or more point-of-interest categories.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a speed of the mobile device; and

selecting the fall-off function based on the determined speed.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the fall-off function is a Gaussian or parabolic function.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a speed of the mobile device;

determining whether the speed of the mobile device exceeds a predetermined threshold;

selecting a first quantity of geographic areas when the speed of the mobile device exceeds a predetermined threshold; and

selecting a second, lesser quantity of geographic areas when the speed of the mobile device does not exceed the predetermined threshold.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the combined score for each identified point-of-interest further comprises summing the determined scores associated with each identified point-of-interest.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

for one or more categories each associated with one or more of the identified points-of-interest, generating a combined category score;

selecting a subset of the categories based on the combined category scores;

displaying a link identifying the categories in the subset; and

receiving a signal indicating that a user has selected one of the categories in the subset,

wherein the subset of the identified points-of-interest is selected further based on the user-selected category.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting a direction of travel of the mobile device; and

selecting the multiple geographic areas based on the detected direction of travel.

16. 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;

receiving, by the one or more computers, location information generated from one or more sensors, the location information representing a location of a mobile device, the one or more sensors comprising a compass, a global positioning system sensor, a WiFi receiver, a cellular receiver, or a camera;

identifying points-of-interest associated with one or more of multiple, selected geographic areas using the location information,

determining, for each of the multiple geographic areas, a respective score for each of the identified points-of-interest in the respective geographic area,

applying a fall-off function to the determined scores for each of the identified points-of-interest;

after applying the fall-off function to the determined scores, generating a combined score for each identified point-of-interest across all of the multiple geographic areas by combining, for each identified point-of-interest, the respective fall-off function scores,

selecting a subset of the identified points-of-interest based at least on the respective combined scores, and

outputting instructions for presentation of a link to each of the identified points-of-interest in the subset on a display of the mobile device.

19. The system of claim 16, the operations further comprising:

determining the location of the mobile device; and

selecting the multiple geographic areas based on the determined location.

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:

receiving, by the data processing apparatus, location information generated from one or more sensors, the location information representing a location of a mobile device, the one or more sensors comprising a compass, a global positioning system sensor, a WiFi receiver, a cellular receiver, or a camera;

identifying points-of-interest associated with one or more of multiple, selected geographic areas using the location information;

determining, for each of the multiple geographic areas, a respective score for each of the identified points-of-interest in the respective geographic area;

applying a fall-off function to the determined scores for each of the identified points-of-interest;

after applying the fall-off function to the determined scores, generating a combined score for each identified point-of-interest across all of the multiple geographic areas by combining, for each identified point-of-interest, the respective fall-off function scores;

selecting a subset of the identified points-of-interest based at least on the respective combined scores; and

outputting instructions for presentation of a link to each of the identified points-of-interest in the subset on a display of the mobile device.

18. A computer-implemented method for a point of interest system comprising:

receiving, by one or more processors in the point of interest system, a query term from a user device;

receiving, by the one or more processors, data representing a location from the user device, wherein the user device received the data from one or more sensors comprising a compass, a global positioning system sensor, a WiFi receiver, a cellular receiver, or a camera;

identifying, by the one or more processors, query term/point-of-interest pairs associated with one or more of multiple, selected geographic areas using the data representing the location, the query term/point-of-interest pair including the received query term;

determining, by the one or more processors for each of the multiple geographic areas, a respective score for each of the identified query term/point-of-interest pairs in the respective geographic area;

applying, by the one or more processors, a fall-off function to the determined scores for each of the identified query term/point-of-interest pairs;

after applying the fall-off function to the determined scores, generating, by the one or more processors, a combined score for each identified query term/point-of-interest pair across all of the multiple geographic areas by combining, for each identified query term/point-of-interest pair, the respective fall-off function scores;

selecting a subset of the identified points-of-interest from the query term/point-of-interest pairs based at least on the respective combined scores; and

outputting instructions for presentation of a link to each of the identified points-of-interest in the subset on a display of the user device.