Method and system for dynamic travel plan management

• US 9,117,182 B2
• Filed: 02/07/2014
• Issued: 08/25/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/14/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: MakeMyTrip India Private Limited
• Original Assignee: Anshuman Bapna, Deep Singh, Kadam Jeet Jain
• Inventors: Bapna, Anshuman, Singh, Deep, Jain, Kadam Jeet
• Primary Examiner(s): Dager, Jonathan M
• Application Number:
  US14/175,363
• Publication Number:
  US 20140229102A1
• Time in Patent Office: 564 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/343 Calculating itineraries, i.e. routes leading from a starting point to a series of categorical destinations using a global route restraint, round trips, touristic trips travelling salesman problem G06Q10/04; optimisation of routes G06Q10/047
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/025 Coordination of plural reservations, e.g. plural trip segments, transportation combined with accommodation

Abstract

The various embodiments herein provide a method and system that provides curated, reliable information of destinations, information that is particularly relevant while planning a trip which travelers use to decide on what places to go and what activities to do. The system and method provides a preset itinerary of any place that is used or altered to their own liking using various tools and features. The system and method allows traveler/user to use itinerary from the social pool of the travel plans created by other users in the past. The system and method allows the traveler to change a set of preferences that govern the original plan and get a refreshed and up to the minute plan that contains a list of places in proximity to the current location.

Claims

1. A system for dynamic travel plan management, the system comprises:

a point of travel interest database, storing travel related plain text articles extracted from a plurality of sources, the plurality of sources are selected from a group consisting of web portals, social networking websites and tourism websites, and wherein the travel related plain text articles are transformed into a time ordered list of places to be visited;

an article extraction module for extracting a plurality of articles by using a combination of word exclusion lists and heuristics identified in text entities;

a place verification module for verifying a geographical location of a plurality of places of visit, included in the extracted plurality of articles and wherein the plurality of places of visit are included in a travel plan, by using a combination of word exclusion lists and the travel related plain text articles in the point of travel interest database;

an application server for generating the travel plan based on a set of preferences set by the user; and

a user device pre-installed with a mobile application, and wherein the user mobile device is connected to the application server to download the travel plan.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the user device is a computing device selected from a group consisting of a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a palm top computer, a GPS enabled mobile phone device, and a tablet device.

3. The system according to claim 1 further comprises a preference storage module for storing the set of preferences set by the user, and wherein the set of preferences comprises number of days, intensity of activities, and a preferred set of places to be visited, and wherein the preferred set of places to be visited is collected from the user.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the application server comprises a plan calculation module for calculating a travel plan based on the set of preferences set by the user.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein the application server receives data from the article extraction module and the place verification module for constructing the travel plan.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein the mobile application installed in the user mobile device is run to retrieve and record a location of the user and co-ordinates of the location of the user in real time by using an inbuilt GPS chip in the user mobile device, and wherein the mobile application is run to transmit the recorded location of the user and the coordinates of the location of the user to the application server for calculating a deviation from the downloaded travel plan.

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein the application server modifies the generated plan to generate a revised travel plan based on the location of the user and co-ordinates of the location, when the deviation from the generated travel plan is detected.

8. A method for dynamic travel plan management, the method comprises:

extracting, using an article extraction module, one or more travel related plain text articles from one or more web portals;

storing extracted travel related plain text articles in a point of travel interest database;

receiving a set of preferences from a user and storing the set of preferences in a preference storage module;

extracting, using the article extraction module, a plurality of articles from the travel related plain text articles by using a combination of word exclusion lists and heuristics identified in text entities;

verifying, using a place verification module, the extracted plurality of articles with respect to one or more places of visit to be included in a travel plan;

generating, using an application server, a travel plan based on the set of preferences received from the user and the one or more place of visit; and

downloading the travel plan to the user mobile device pre-installed with a mobile application.

9. The method according to claim 8, further comprises choosing a number of places to be visited in a day by the application server.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein each chosen place is assigned with a rank of priority for a final selection and sorting.

11. The method according, to claim 8, further comprises identifying a preset period of day and slots in the travel plan for visiting a specific type of places, and wherein the slots for visiting the preset types of places are identified and selected based on a proximity of the preset type of places with the number of places of visit selected for visiting in a given day.

12. The method according to claim 8, further comprises checking the places to be visited in a single day or the given day based on the rank assigned to the set of places, distance of places with respect to the selected places of visit in the given day and a transit time between any two places of visit to generate a travel plan by the application server.

13. The method according to claim 8, wherein the user modifies the generated and downloaded travel plan by selecting a fresh set of preferences and options, based on actual places visited and a remaining time and places to be visited in the given day.

14. The method according to claim 8, wherein the application server modifies the generated travel plan to generate a revised travel plan to include new places of visit based on the present location of the user and proximity of new places not visited and not included in the downloaded travel plan, and wherein the revised travel plan is downloaded to the user mobile device in real time.