Travel route planning using geo-tagged photographs

• US 9,460,120 B2
• Filed: 10/01/2010
• Issued: 10/04/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Wang, Changhu, Yang, Jiang-Ming, Zhang, Lei, Lu, Xin
• Primary Examiner(s): Mawari, Redhwan K
• Application Number:
  US12/896,635
• Publication Number:
  US 20120084000A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,195 Days
• Field of Search: 701/516
• 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: G01C 21/3476 using point of interest [POI] information, e.g. a route passing visible POIs
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3484 Personalized, e.g. from learned user behaviour or user-defined profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3647 Guidance involving output of stored or live camera images or video streams
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/4393 Multimedia presentations, e.g. slide shows, multimedia albums
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/587 using geographical or spatial information, e.g. location

Abstract

Systems, methods, and devices are described for providing customized trip plans. Based on information provided by a user, geo-tagged photographs, and/or travelogues, one or more travel destinations are identified. Travel paths typically taken by tourists within each of the travel destinations and stay times within those travel destinations may be determined. A customized trip plan including a travel route plan among the one or more travel destinations and recommended internal paths within each travel destination are provided to the user. A revised customized trip plan may also be provided in response to changes made to information associated with the user.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

accessing, by a computing device, geo-tagged photographs associated with a plurality of destinations, each geo-tagged photograph of the geo-tagged photographs captured via at least one image capturing device at a destination of the plurality of destinations;

identifying, by the computing device, the plurality of destinations based on frequencies of appearance of the plurality of destinations in the geo-tagged photographs;

determining, by the computing device, information associated with the plurality of destinations based on at least one of features of the geo-tagged photographs or on travelogues associated with the plurality of destinations, the information including at least one of common travel paths between destinations of the plurality of destinations or stay times within destinations of the plurality of destinations;

generating, by the computing device and for a user, one or more travel route plans including one or more destinations of the plurality of destinations based on associations of user preferences with the information describing the plurality of destinations;

identifying, by the computing device and within a travel route plan of the one or more travel route plans, one or more paths that provide a tour of a particular destination of the one or more destinations included within the travel route plan, the one or more paths based at least in part on the common travel paths between the destinations or the stay times within the destinations;

generating, by the computing device and for the user, a personalized user interface that provides functionality for the user to access at least one of the travel route plan or the one or more paths; and

providing the personalized user interface to a user device corresponding to the user.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

accessing a subset of geo-tagged photographs of the plurality of geo-tagged photographs, the subset of geo-tagged photographs being associated with the particular destination;

determining a time in which each geo-tagged photograph of the subset of geo-tagged photographs was captured;

utilizing the time to generate individual paths;

merging the individual paths to determine the one or more paths;

ranking the one or more paths according to a score assigned to each path; and

recommending at least one path of the one or more paths.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of destinations are identified and the one or more paths are determined based on travel-related information encoded in the plurality of geo-tagged photographs.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an indication of a change to the user preferences; and

updating the one or more travel route plans based on the change.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the user preferences relate to at least one of travel duration, visiting time at each destination, destination preference, travel preferences, travel location, or a season of travel.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the plurality of destinations is further based at least in part on:

determining a first group of geo-tagged photographs that are associated with a first destination;

determining a second group of geo-tagged photographs that are associated with a second destination;

determining that the first group includes more geo-tagged photographs than the second group; and

selecting the first destination as a destination to include in the plurality of destinations.

6. One or more computer storage hardware having computer-readable instructions that, when executed by a processor, perform operations comprising:

accessing a plurality of geo-tagged photographs associated with a destination, individual geo-tagged photographs of the plurality of geo-tagged photographs captured via at least one image capturing device at the destination;

determining, based at least in part on the plurality of geo-tagged photographs associated with the destination, a plurality of individual paths associated with a plurality of user devices corresponding to a plurality of individuals at the destination;

merging at least some individual paths of the plurality of individual paths to reconstruct a complete path within the destination;

generating a travel route associated with a plurality of destinations that includes the destination and the complete path within the destination based on associations of user preferences with information about the plurality of destinations;

generating a personalized user interface that provides functionality for a user to access the travel route; and

providing the personalized user interface to a user device corresponding to the user.

7. The one or more computer storage hardware of claim 6, wherein the plurality of geo-tagged photographs include a first set of geo-tagged photographs associated with a first individual of the plurality of individuals and a second set of geo-tagged photographs associated with a second individual of the plurality of individuals.

8. The one or more computer storage hardware of claim 7, wherein the operations further comprise:

identifying a time and a location for each of the first set of geo-tagged photographs and the second set of geo-tagged photographs to generate incomplete paths traveled by a first user device of the plurality of user devices corresponding to the first individual and a second user device of the plurality of user devices corresponding to the second individual; and

merging the incomplete paths to reconstruct the complete path.

9. The one or more computer storage hardware of claim 6, wherein the travel route includes a visiting order of the plurality of destinations, a time arrangement for individual destinations of the plurality of destinations, and a typical travel path within the individual destinations.

18. The one or more computer storage hardware of claim 6, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining a path quality associated with individual paths of the at least some individual paths, the path quality representing a degree to which the individual paths approach an ideal path associated with the destination, wherein the ideal path comprises a path having a photo density above a predetermined threshold;

determining a path popularity associated with the individual paths, the path popularity representing a number of the plurality of the user devices that have traveled along the individual paths; and

merging the at least some individual paths to reconstruct the complete path within the destination is based at least in part on the path quality and the path popularity.

19. The one or more computer storage hardware of claim 6, wherein the user preferences relate to at least one of travel duration, visiting time at each destination, destination preference, travel preferences, travel location, or a season of travel.

10. One or more computer storage hardware storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

identifying a plurality of destinations based at least in part on frequencies of appearance of the plurality of destinations in a plurality of geo-tagged photographs, individual geo-tagged photographs of the plurality of geo-tagged photographs captured via at least one image capturing device at corresponding individual destinations of the plurality of destinations;

determining information associated with the plurality of destinations based on features of the plurality of geo-tagged photographs or on a plurality of travelogues associated with the plurality of destinations, the information including at least one of common travel paths between destinations of the plurality of destinations or stay times within destinations of the plurality of destinations;

generating one or more travel route plans including one or more destinations of the plurality of destinations based on associations of user preferences with the information associated with the plurality of destinations;

identifying, within a travel route plan of the one or more travel route plans, one or more paths that provide a tour of a particular one of the one or more destinations within the travel route plan, the one or more paths based at least in part on the common travel paths between the destinations or the stay times within the destinations;

generating a personalized user interface that provides functionality for a user to access at least one of the travel route plan or the one or more paths; and

providing the personalized user interface to a user device corresponding to the user.

11. The one or more computer storage hardware of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise determining the one or more paths based on individual paths within the particular one of the one or more destinations previously associated with a plurality of individuals, the individual paths being determined based on geo-tagged photographs captured by user devices corresponding to individual ones of the plurality of individuals while visiting the particular one of the one or more destinations.

12. The one or more computer storage hardware of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining a time in which individual ones of the geo-tagged photographs at the particular one of the one or more destinations were captured; and

utilizing the time in which the individual ones of the geo-tagged photographs were captured to generate the individual paths.

13. The one or more computer storage hardware of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise merging a first path and a second path of the individual paths to determine a path of the one or more paths.

14. The one or more computer storage hardware of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise:

ranking the one or more paths according to a score assigned to individual paths of the one or more paths; and

recommending at least one path of the one or more paths.

15. The one or more computer storage hardware of claim 10, wherein the plurality of destinations are identified and the one or more paths are determined based on travel-related information encoded in the plurality of geo-tagged photographs.

16. The one or more computer storage hardware of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving an indication of a change to the user preferences; and

updating the one or more travel route plans based on the change.

17. The one or more computer storage hardware of claim 10, wherein the user preferences relate to at least one of travel duration, visiting time at individual ones of the plurality of destinations, destination preference, travel preferences, travel location, or a season of travel.