Routing, alerting, and transportation guidance based on preferences and learned or inferred risks and desirabilities

• US 9,086,292 B2
• Filed: 06/26/2009
• Issued: 07/21/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Horvitz, Eric, Krumm, John
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Cuong H
• Application Number:
  US12/493,131
• Publication Number:
  US 20100332131A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,216 Days
• Field of Search: 701/25, 701/35, 701414-417, 701/410, 701/425, 701300-301, 701/411, 455/456.1, 340/995.19, 340/5.1, 340/905, 702/188, 705/4
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3484 Personalized, e.g. from learned user behaviour or user-defined profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3697 Output of additional, non-guidance related information, e.g. low fuel level G01C21/3679 takes precedence

Abstract

Techniques and systems are disclosed that provide a risk-based assessment for a user based on user location information. Incident data is acquired for incidents that involve potential risks (e.g., to people and/or property) from a plurality of locations and contexts, considering such factors as date, time, weather, traffic, and velocity. The incident data is matched to the user'"'"'s location and context directly or indirectly to provide one or more potential outcomes of interest (e.g., accidents, injuries, fatalities), and inferences regarding the likelihood of events are made available. These measures are compared to desired risk thresholds for the user. In one embodiment, routes, times, and conditions of travel may be preferred over others routes, times, and conditions. In another embodiment, users may be notified of a condition or a vehicle'"'"'s maximum velocity may be reduced when the matched incident data meets/exceeds a user'"'"'s risk threshold.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

acquiring, automatically on a hand-held device comprising a processing unit, first incident data comprising first information about a first incident associated with first risk, the first information based upon first activity that occurred at a first location;

acquiring, automatically on the hand-held device, second incident data comprising second information about a second incident associated with second risk, the second information based upon second activity that occurred at a second location;

providing, automatically on the hand-held device, at least one of;

a first indication at a first mapped location in a user interface comprising a map, the first indication provided at the first mapped location based upon the first incident data and corresponding to the first incident occurring at the first location;

or

a second indication at a second mapped location in the user interface comprising the map, the second indication provided at the second mapped location based upon the second incident data and corresponding to the second incident occurring at the second location;

matching, automatically on the hand-held device, at least one of the first location or the second location to a location associated with a user of the hand-held device using at least one of the first incident data or the second incident data, the matching performed while a vehicle is driven in association with the user; and

providing, automatically on the hand-held device based upon the matching, at least one of a first notification in association with the first indication at the first mapped location in the user interface when the first risk meets a first risk threshold associated with the user or a second notification in association with the second indication at the second mapped location in the user interface when the second risk meets a second risk threshold associated with the user using at least one of the first incident data or the second incident data, the providing at least one of a first notification or a second notification performed while the vehicle is driven in association with the user.

2. The method of claim 1, at least one of the first information or the second information based upon one or more of:

one or more environmental conditions associated with an incident;

at least one of a time, a day or a date when the incident occurred;

one or more circumstances associated with the incident;

or

documentation related to the incident.

3. The method of claim 1, comprising:

identifying the location associated with the user.

4. The method of claim 3, the identifying the location associated with the user based upon one or more of:

a current location of the user;

a planned route of travel of the user;

or

one or more potential routes of travel of the user.

5. The method of claim 1, comprising:

determining at least one of the first risk threshold or the second risk threshold.

6. The method of claim 1, comprising:

determining at least one of the first risk threshold or the second risk threshold based upon a user selection.

7. The method of claim 1, comprising using one or more risk unit measures to identify a likelihood of a risk-related event occurring, the one or more risk unit measures comprising one or more of:

a measure of one or more risk attributes;

or

a function of one or more risk attributes.

8. The method of claim 1, comprising:

identifying the location associated with the user via GPS.

9. The method of claim 1, the hand-held device comprising

a smart phone.

10. The method of claim 1, at least one of the first notification or the second notification provided to a system and configured to at least one of:

indicate that a route of a desired level of risk has been planned;

or

provide a risk factor metric to the user based on a selected location.

11. The method of claim 1, comprising:

building a predictive model for determining one or more risk-based notifications.

12. The method of claim 1, the providing at least one of a first notification or a second notification comprising providing an audio alert.

13. The method of claim 1, comprising:

determining a location risk metric for the location based on one or more sets of incident data associated with the location.

14. The method of claim 1, the providing at least one of a first notification or a second notification comprising providing a visual alert.

15. The method of claim 1, comprising:

inferring incident data from a third location to a fourth location based on matching criteria between the third location and the fourth location.

16. A system, comprising:

one or more processing units; and

memory comprising instructions that when executed by at least one of the one or more processing units perform operations comprising;

acquiring, automatically on a hand-held device, first incident data comprising first information about a first incident associated with first risk, that occurred at a first location;

acquiring, automatically on the hand-held device, second incident data comprising second information about a second incident associated with second risk that occurred at a second location;

providing, automatically on the hand-held device, at least one of;

a first indication at a first mapped location in a user interface comprising a map, the first indication provided at the first mapped location based upon the first incident data and corresponding to the first incident occurring at the first location;

or

a second indication at a second mapped location in the user interface comprising the map, the second indication provided at the second mapped location based upon the second incident data and corresponding to the second incident occurring at the second location;

matching, automatically on the hand-held device, at least one of the first location or the second location to a location associated with a user of the hand-held device using at least one of the first incident data or the second incident data; and

providing, automatically on the hand-held device based upon the matching, at least one of a first notification in association with the first indication at the first mapped location in the user interface when the first risk meets a first risk threshold associated with the user or a second notification in association with the second indication at the second mapped location in the user interface when the second risk meets a second risk threshold associated with the user using at least one of the first incident data or the second incident data, at least one of the matching or the providing at least one of a first notification or a second notification performed while a vehicle is driven in association with the user.

17. The system of claim 16, the operations comprising building a predictive model for determining one or more risk-based notifications.

18. The system of claim 16, the providing at least one of a first notification or a second notification comprising providing at least one of an audio alert or a visual alert.

19. The system of claim 16, the hand-held device comprising a smart phone.

20. A computer readable storage device comprising

instructions that when executed perform operations comprising:

acquiring, automatically on a hand-held device, first incident data comprising first information about a first incident associated with first risk, the first information based upon first activity that occurred at a first location;

acquiring, automatically on the hand-held device, second incident data comprising second information about a second incident associated with second risk, the second information based upon second activity that occurred at a second location;

providing, automatically on the hand-held device, at least one of;

a first indication at a first mapped location in a user interface comprising a map, the first indication provided at the first mapped location based upon the first incident data and corresponding to the first incident occurring at the first location;

or

a second indication at a second mapped location in the user interface comprising the map, the second indication provided at the second mapped location based upon the second incident data and corresponding to the second incident occurring at the second location;

matching, automatically on the hand-held device, at least one of the first location or the second location to a location associated with a user using at least one of the first incident data or the second incident data; and

providing, automatically on the hand-held device based upon the matching, at least one of a first notification in association with the first indication at the first mapped location in the user interface when the first risk meets a first risk threshold associated with the user or a second notification in association with the second indication at the second mapped location in the user interface when the second risk meets a second risk threshold associated with the user using at least one of the first incident data or the second incident data.