Generating turn-by-turn direction previews

• US 9,377,320 B2
• Filed: 03/06/2015
• Issued: 06/28/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Sheridan, Alan, Filip, Daniel Joseph, Pack, Jeremy Bryant
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, TAN QUANG
• Application Number:
  US14/640,524
• Publication Number:
  US 20150377641A1
• Time in Patent Office: 480 Days
• Field of Search: 701/533, 701/423, 701/436, 701/437
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 between a first geographic location and a second geographic location, wherein the set of turn-by-turn directions is associated with a plurality of waypoints;

identifying, using the one or more computing devices, a set of images corresponding to the plurality of waypoints associated with 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 two or more of the plurality of waypoints 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 on a client computing device, using the one or more computing devices, the turn-by-turn direction preview.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein providing for display the turn-by-turn direction preview includes first providing for display a first image and then providing for display a second image of the determined subset of the set of images.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining further comprises filtering the set of images to remove any images that exceed 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 one or more waypoints of the plurality of waypoints correspond to a landmark visible from one or more of the series of road segments between the first geographic location and the second geographic location.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying, using the one or more computing devices, additional sets of images corresponding to 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 between a first geographic location and a second geographic location, wherein the set of turn-by-turn directions is associated with two or more waypoints;

identify a set of images corresponding to the two or more waypoints associated with 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 the set of turn-by-turn directions; 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 on a client computing device the turn-by-turn direction preview.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein providing for display the turn-by-turn direction preview includes first providing for display a first image and then providing for display a second image of the determined subset of the set of images.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the one or more computing devices are further configured to determine the subset of the set of images based at least in part on 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 the subset of the set of images based at least in part on filtering the set of images to include only the images separated by at least 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 the subset of the set of images based at least in part on including 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 between a first geographic location and a second geographic location, wherein the set of turn-by-turn direction is associated with two or more waypoints;

identifying a set of visual representations corresponding to the each of the two or more waypoints associated with the set of turn-by-turn directions;

determining whether any visual representation of the set of the visual representations is outside a threshold distance from each of the two or more waypoints;

based on the determination, filtering the set of visual representations to remove the visual representations that are outside the threshold distance; and

generating the turn-by-turn direction preview based on at least the filtered set of visual representations.

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.

19. The non-transitory, tangible computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the visual representations include one or more street level panoramic images.

20. The non-transitory, tangible computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein one or more of the two or more waypoints correspond to a landmark visible from one or more of the series of road segments between the first geographic location and the second geographic location.