System for managing risk in employee travel

• US 9,665,834 B2
• Filed: 12/23/2011
• Issued: 05/30/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: WorldAware, Inc.
• Original Assignee: iJET International, Inc
• Inventors: Holt, Christopher, Turk, Douglas R., Faircloth, Abi, Priestley, Justin, Nunn, Ian
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Nicholas
• Assistant Examiner(s): Taylor, Jr., Duane N
• Application Number:
  US13/337,001
• Publication Number:
  US 20130162529A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,985 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management

Abstract

A system for managing risk in employee travel may display a world risk map having countries color coded or otherwise indicating a risk level associated with each of the countries. The countries may be assigned to geographic groupings, such as continents, and the countries of the geographic grouping may change to a uniform color or other indication when the cursor is disposed within the boundaries of one of the countries of the geographic grouping. Clicking on the geographic grouping may cause the world risk map may cause the display to zoom in on an enlarged geographic group map with the countries displayed with their risk level indication. Clicking on one of the countries may cause a country information page to be displayed.

Claims

1. A method for obtaining country travel risk management information from a displayed map in a travel risk management system, the method comprising:

storing, by processing circuitry, for each of a plurality of countries, an assignment in a geographic grouping of countries such that the plurality of countries is divided into a plurality of subsets of countries, the countries assigned to each subset of countries sharing a geographic boundary with at least one other country of the respective subset to define a contiguous geographic area;

determining, by the processing circuitry, for each of the plurality of countries, a risk level value indicating a level of risk to the safety or wellbeing of persons traveling to the respective country;

determining, by the processing circuitry, for each of the plurality of countries, a risk trend indicator, wherein the risk trend indicator indicates whether the risk level value for the respective country is forecast to increase, remain neutral, or decrease, and

the risk level value and risk trend indicator are each calculated based on a variety of ranked factors related to travel safety;

causing display of, by the processing circuitry via a network,

a world map of the plurality of countries on a display device of a computing device of a remote travelling user, wherein each country is displayed on the world map with a graphical indication corresponding to the risk level value for the respective country, and

a textual description about the circumstances related to at least one of the ranked factors and considered when ranking at least one of the factors;

detecting, by the processing circuitry via the network, a position of a cursor rendered on the display device;

determining, by the processing circuitry, the position of the cursor is within the boundaries of a particular country of the plurality of countries on the world map;

identifying, by the processing circuitry, the respective geographic grouping of the particular country;

in response to determining the position of the cursor is within the boundaries of the particular country, causing display of, by the processing circuitry via the network, on the display device, an updated view of the world map, wherein, within the updated view, the subset of the plurality of countries having the same respective geographic grouping are displayed with a geographic group indicator corresponding to the respective geographic grouping;

detecting, by the processing circuitry via the network, actuation of an input device of the computing device when the cursor is disposed within the boundaries of the particular country; and

causing display of, by the processing circuitry via the network, on the display device in response to detecting the actuation of the input device, an enlarged geographic group map including only the subset of the countries having the same respective geographic grouping as the particular country and the risk trend indicator of the particular country.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein causing display of the enlarged geographic group map comprises causing display of each country on the enlarged geographic group map with a graphical indication corresponding to the risk level value for the respective country.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

each risk level value has a corresponding color assigned thereto; and

causing display of the world map comprises causing display of each country on the world map with the color corresponding to the risk level value for the country.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein causing display of the enlarged geographic group map comprises causing display of a country name on the enlarged geographic group map at the location of the particular country.

5. The method of claim 1, comprising:

detecting, by the processing circuitry, actuation of the input device of the computing device, wherein actuation occurred when the cursor was disposed within the boundaries of a selected country of the countries on the enlarged geographic group map; and

causing display of, by the processing circuitry on the display device in response to detecting the actuation of the input device, a country information page for the selected country.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying the subset of the plurality of countries having the same respective geographic grouping with a geographic group indicator comprises displaying the subset of the plurality of countries in a same color.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein causing the display of the updated view of the world map comprises displaying a geographic grouping name on the world map at a location of the particular country.

8. The method of claim 1, comprising:

detecting, by the processing circuitry, continuous activation of the input device and movement of the cursor to a new location on the display device; and

responsive to detecting continuous activation of the input device, causing display of, by the processing circuitry, the countries on the enlarged geographic group map at a new position upon the display device corresponding to the new location of the cursor.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein causing the display of the world map comprises causing display, upon each country on the world map, a respective graphical icon having a respective color corresponding to the risk level value of the respective country.

29. The method of claim 1, wherein the ranked factors include at least three of the following:

street crime, serious crime, terrorism, civil unrest, regime instability, state impunity, state corruptibility, espionage, armed conflict, geological events, meteorological events, and health risks.

30. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the risk level value and the risk trend indicator comprises calculating, responsive to a request to load a home page of the travel risk management system upon the computing device of the remote travelling user, the risk level value and the risk trend indicator.

31. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the risk trend indicator for the respective country further includes factoring in at least one neighboring risk level of a country adjacent to the selected country in the geographic grouping.

10. A non-transitory computer readable medium with computer executable instructions stored thereon for a travel risk management system providing graphical navigation and selection of countries for display of country travel risk management information at a display device of a computing device of a remote travelling user, wherein the computer executable instructions, when executed by processing circuitry, cause the processing circuitry to:

store, for each of a plurality of countries, an assignment in a geographic grouping of countries such that the plurality of countries is divided into a plurality of subsets of countries, the countries assigned to each subset of countries sharing a geographic boundary with at least one other country of the respective subset to define a contiguous geographic area;

determine, for each of the plurality of countries, a risk level value indicating a level of risk to the safety or wellbeing of persons traveling to the respective country;

determine, for each of the plurality of countries, a risk trend indicator, wherein the risk trend indicator indicates whether the risk level value for the respective country is forecast to increase, remain neutral, or decrease, and

the risk level value and risk trend indicator are each calculated based on a variety of ranked factors related to travel safety;

cause display of a world map of the plurality of countries on the display device of the computing device of the remote travelling user, wherein each country is displayed on the world map with a graphical indication corresponding to the risk level value for the respective country;

cause display of, on the display device, a textual description about the circumstances related to at least one of the ranked factors and considered when ranking at least one of the factors;

detect a position of a cursor rendered on the display device;

determine the position of the cursor is within the boundaries of a particular country of the plurality countries on the world map;

identify the respective geographic grouping of the particular country;

cause display of, on the display device in response to determining the position of the cursor, an updated view of the world map, wherein, within the updated view, the subset of the plurality of countries having the same respective geographic grouping are displayed with a geographic group indicator corresponding to the respective geographic grouping;

detect actuation of an input device of the computing device when the cursor is disposed within the boundaries of the particular country; and

cause display of, on the display device in response to detecting the actuation of the input device, an enlarged geographic group map including only the subset of the countries having the same respective geographic grouping as the particular country and the risk trend indicator of the particular country.

11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein causing the display of the enlarged geographic group map comprises causing display of each country on the enlarged geographic group map with a graphical indication corresponding to the risk level value for the respective country.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein:

each risk level value has a corresponding color assigned thereto; and

causing the display of the world map comprises causing display of each country on the world map with the color corresponding to the risk level value for the country.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein causing the display of the enlarged geographic group map comprises causing the display of a country name on the enlarged geographic group map at the location of the particular country.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the computer readable instructions, when executed by the processing circuitry, further cause the processing circuitry to:

detect actuation of the input device of the computing device, wherein actuation occurred when the cursor was disposed within the boundaries of a selected country of the countries on the enlarged geographic group map; and

cause display of, on the display device in response to detecting the actuation of the input device, a country information page for the selected country.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein displaying the subset of the plurality of countries having the same respective geographic grouping with a geographic group indicator comprises displaying the subset of the plurality of countries in a same color.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein causing the display of the updated view of the world map comprises displaying a geographic grouping name on the world map at a location of the particular country.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the computer readable instructions, when executed by the processing circuitry, further cause the processing circuitry to:

detect continuous activation of the input device and movement of the cursor to a new location on the display device; and

responsive to detecting continuous activation of the input device, cause display of the countries on the enlarged geographic group map at a new position upon the display device corresponding to the new location of the cursor.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein causing the display of the world map comprises displaying, upon each country on the world map, a respective graphical icon having a respective color corresponding to the risk level value of the respective country.

28. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the ranked factors include at least three of the following:

street crime, serious crime, terrorism, civil unrest, regime instability, state impunity, state corruptibility, espionage, armed conflict, geological events, meteorological events, and health risks.

32. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein determining the risk trend indicator for the respective country includes factoring in at least one neighboring risk level of a country adjacent to the selected country in the geographic grouping.

19. A method for obtaining country travel risk management information from a map of a travel risk management system displayed on a display device of a computing device of a remote travelling user, the method comprising:

storing, by processing circuitry, for each of a plurality of countries, an assignment in a geographic grouping of countries such that the plurality of countries is divided into a plurality of subsets of countries, the countries assigned to each subset of countries sharing a geographic boundary with at least one other country of the respective subset to define a contiguous geographic area;

calculating, by the processing circuitry responsive to a request to load a home page of the travel risk management system upon the computing device of the remote travelling user, for each of the plurality of countries, a risk level value indicating a level of risk to the safety or wellbeing of persons traveling to the respective country;

calculating, by the processing circuitry, a risk trend indicator, wherein the risk trend indicator indicates whether the risk level value for the respective country is forecast to increase, remain neutral, or decrease, and

the risk level value and risk trend indicator are calculated based on a variety of ranked factors related to travel safety;

causing display of, by the processing circuitry, a world map of the plurality of countries on the display device, wherein each country is displayed on the world map with a graphical indication corresponding to the risk level value for the respective country;

detecting, by the processing circuitry, a position of a cursor rendered on the display device;

determining, by the processing circuitry, the position of the cursor is within the boundaries of a particular country of the plurality of countries on the world map;

identifying, by the processing circuitry, the respective geographic grouping of the particular country;

in response to determining the position of the cursor, causing display of, by the processing circuitry, on the display device, an updated view of the world map, wherein, within the updated view, the subset of the plurality of the countries having the same respective geographic grouping as the particular country are displayed with a geographic group color;

detecting, by the processing circuitry, actuation of an input device of the computing device when the cursor is disposed within the boundaries of the particular country; and

causing display of, by the processing circuitry, on the display device in response to detecting the actuation of the input device, an enlarged geographic group map including only the subset of the countries having the same respective geographic grouping as the particular country and the risk trend indicator of the particular country.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein causing display of the enlarged geographic group map comprises displaying each country on the enlarged geographic group map with a graphical indication corresponding to the risk level value for the country.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein causing display of the enlarged geographic group map comprises displaying a country name on the enlarged geographic group map at the location of the particular country.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein causing the display of the updated view of the world map comprises displaying a geographic grouping name on the world map at a location of the particular country.

23. The method of claim 19, comprising:

detecting, by the processing circuitry, continuous activation of the input device and movement of the cursor to a new location on the display device; and

responsive to detecting continuous activation of the input device, causing display of, by the processing circuitry, the countries on the enlarged geographic group map at a new position upon the display device corresponding to the new location of the cursor.

24. The method of claim 19, wherein causing the display of the world map comprises causing display, upon each country on the world map, a respective graphical icon having a color corresponding to the risk level value of the respective country.

25. The method of claim 19, further comprising

detecting, by the processing circuitry, actuation of the input device of the computing device, wherein actuation occurred when the cursor was disposed within the boundaries of a selected country of the countries on the enlarged geographic group map;

and

causing display of, on the display device by the processing circuitry in response to detecting the actuation of the input device, a country information page for the selected country.

26. The method of claim 19, further comprising causing display of, by the processing circuitry, a textual description about the circumstances related to at least one of the ranked factors and considered when ranking at least one of the factors.

27. The method of claim 19, wherein the ranked factors include at least three of the following:

street crime, serious crime, terrorism, civil unrest, regime instability, state impunity, state corruptibility, espionage, armed conflict, geological events, meteorological events, and health risks.

33. The method of claim 19, wherein calculating the risk trend indicator for the respective country further includes factoring in at least one neighboring risk level of a country adjacent to the selected country in the geographic grouping.

34. A method for obtaining country travel risk management information from a displayed map in a travel risk management system, the method comprising:

determining, by processing circuitry, for each of a plurality of countries, a risk level value indicating a level of risk to the safety or wellbeing of persons traveling to the respective country;

determining, by the processing circuitry, for each of the plurality of countries, a risk trend indicator, wherein the risk trend indicator indicates whether the risk level value for the respective country is forecast to increase, remain neutral, or decrease;

causing display of, by the processing circuitry via a network, a world map of the plurality of countries on a display device of a computing device of a remote travelling user;

detecting, by the processing circuitry via the network, a position of a cursor rendered on the display device;

determining, by the processing circuitry, the position of the cursor is within the boundaries of a particular country of the plurality of countries on the world map;

detecting, by the processing circuitry via the network, actuation of an input device of the computing device when the cursor is disposed within the boundaries of the particular country; and

causing display of the risk trend indicator of the particular country.

35. A non-transitory computer readable medium with computer executable instructions stored thereon for a travel risk management system providing graphical navigation and selection of countries for display of country travel risk management information at a display device of a computing device of a remote travelling user, wherein the computer executable instructions, when executed by the processing circuitry, cause the processing circuitry to:

determine, for each of the plurality of countries, a risk level value indicating a level of risk to the safety or wellbeing of persons traveling to the respective country;

determining, for each of the plurality of countries, a risk trend indicator, wherein the risk trend indicator indicates whether the risk level for the respective country is forecast to increase, remain neutral, or decrease;

cause display of a world map of the plurality of countries on the display device of the computing device of the remote travelling user;

detect a position of a cursor rendered on the display device;

determine the position of the cursor is within the boundaries of a particular country of the plurality of countries on the world map;

detect actuation of an input device of the computing device when the cursor is disposed within the boundaries of the particular country; and

cause display of, on the display device in response to detecting the actuation of the input device, the risk trend indicator of the particular country.