Generating turn-by-turn direction previews

• US 9,841,291 B2
• Filed: 05/23/2016
• Issued: 12/12/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Sheridan, Alan, Filip, Daniel Joseph, Pack, Jeremy Bryant
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, TAN QUANG
• Application Number:
  US15/161,687
• Publication Number:
  US 20160265931A1
• Time in Patent Office: 568 Days
• Field of Search: 701533
• 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, the method 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, each road segment of the series being defined by two waypoints along a route between the first geographic location and the second geographic location and portions of roadway between the two waypoints;

identifying, using the one or more computing devices, a set of images for each road segment of the series;

filtering each given set of images of the sets of images, using the one or more computing devices, to remove any images that exceed a predetermined quantity of images designated for that given set of images; and

generating, using the one or more computing devices, the turn-by-turn direction preview based on at least in part on each of the filtered sets of images.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing for display, using the one or more computing devices, the turn-by-turn direction preview on a client computing device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein providing for display the turn-by-turn direction preview includes providing any images of the turn-by-turn direction preview with transitions between images of the any images.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising filtering each given set of images of the sets of images to include only images at predetermined distance intervals along the road segment for the given set of images.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising determining the predetermined distance interval based on a length of the road segment for the given set of images.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the filtering of each given set of images of the sets of images to include only images at predetermined distance intervals is performed only when a length of the road segment for the given set of images is greater than a predetermined distance.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising filtering at least one of the sets of images to exclude a first image based on a distance along the route from the first image to one of the two way points of the road segment for the given set of images.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the turn-by-turn direction preview includes a series of images arranged in a given order, and the method further comprises, for each consecutive pair of images in the series of images, determining a transition between the consecutive pair of images.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein at least one determined transition is between a consecutive pair of images corresponding to a first street level image and a second street level image, and the at least one determined transition defined by displaying the first street level image, an aerial image, and the second street level image.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the at least one determined transition is based on a distance between a location of the first street level image and a location of the second street level image along the route.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein at least one determined transition is between a consecutive pair of images corresponding to a first street level image and a second street level image, and the at least one determined transition defined by displaying the first street level image, a map view, and the second street level image.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the at least one determined transition is based on a distance between a location of the first street level image and a location of the second street level image along the route.

13. A system for generating turn-by-turn direction previews, the system comprising:

one or more computing devices 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, each road segment of the series being defined by two waypoints along a route between the first geographic location and the second geographic location and portions of roadway between the two waypoints;

identify a set of images for each road segment of the series;

filter each given set of images of the sets of images to remove any images that exceed a predetermined quantity of images designated for that given set of images; and

generate the turn-by-turn direction preview based on at least in part on each of the filtered sets of images.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the one or more computing devices are further configured to filter each given set of images of the sets of images to include only images at predetermined distance intervals along the road segment for the given set of images.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the one or more computing devices are further configured to determine the predetermined distance interval based on a length of the road segment for the given set of images.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the one or more computing devices are further configured to perform the filtering of each given set of images of the sets of images to include only images at predetermined distance intervals only when a length of the road segment for the given set of images is greater than a predetermined distance.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the one or more computing devices are further configured to filter at least one of the sets of images to exclude a first image based on a distance along the route from the first image to one of the two way points of the road segment for the given set of images.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the turn-by-turn direction preview includes a series of images arranged in a given order, and the one or more computing devices are further configured to, for each consecutive pair of images in the series of images, determin3 a transition between the consecutive pair of images.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein at least one determined transition is between a consecutive pair of images corresponding to a first street level image and a second street level image, and the at least one determined transition defined by displaying the first street level image, an aerial image, and the second street level image.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein at least one determined transition is between a consecutive pair of images corresponding to a first street level image and a second street level image, and the at least one determined transition is defined by displaying the first street level image, a map view, and the second street level image.