Frequency-based direction guidance

• US 9,945,684 B2
• Filed: 09/29/2014
• Issued: 04/17/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Bhatt, Nikhil, Bhatt, Ravi Nikhil, Bhatt, Mira Nicole
• Primary Examiner(s): Beaulieu, Yonel
• Assistant Examiner(s): Weeks, Martin A
• Application Number:
  US14/500,460
• Publication Number:
  US 20160091335A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,296 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3484 Personalized, e.g. from learned user behaviour or user-defined profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3617 using user history, behaviour, conditions or preferences, e.g. predicted or inferred from previous use or current movement

Abstract

Frequency-based direction guidance is disclosed. In some implementations, a navigation system leverages frequent location information to filter navigation directions that are presented to a user of a navigation device. If a destination is a frequent location, the navigation system filters the navigation directions so that navigation directions associated with the destination are not presented to the user. If a departure location is a frequent location, the navigation system filters the directions so that directions associated with the departure location are not presented to the user.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a navigation device, a route request including a departure location and a destination location;

determining, by the navigation device, that the departure location or destination is a frequent location associated with the navigation device;

generating, by the navigation device, a set of navigation directions for the requested route that starts from the departure location and ends at the destination location; and

displaying, by the navigation device, a subset of the navigation directions on a navigation display of the navigation device, the subset of navigation directions excluding one or more navigation directions from the set of navigation instructions if the departure location or destination location is determined to be a frequent location and a last time the requested route was travelled by the navigation device is less than a threshold time.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, by the navigation device, that a user of the navigation device had previously travelled a path between the departure location and an intermediate location; and

excluding one or more navigation directions from the displayed subset of navigation directions for traveling to the intermediate location.

3. The method of claim 1, where the frequent location is defined by a geographic boundary, further comprising:

determining that a route segment is within the geographic boundary;

determining navigation directions associated with the route segment; and

including the determined navigation directions in the subset of navigation directions.

4. The method of claim 3, where the geographic boundary defines a circular geographic area having a size determined by a radius value.

5. The method of claim 4, where the radius value is specified by a user of the navigation device.

6. The method of claim 1, where the frequent location is determined from a description in a contact of a virtual address book.

7. The method of claim 1, where the frequent location is determined by meeting or exceeding a threshold number of recorded locations of the navigation device over a period of time.

8. The method of claim 1, where excluding one or more navigation directions for leaving the departure location includes excluding directions from the departure location until a road having a specified road priority is reached.

9. The method of claim 8, where a road priority is determined by map data.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising avoiding recalculating navigation directions until the navigation device reaches a first direction after the excluded directions.

11. A navigation device, comprising:

one or more processors;

memory coupled to the one or more processors and storing directions, which, when executed by the one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform operations comprising;

receiving a route request including a departure location and a destination location;

determining that the departure location or destination is a frequent location associated with the navigation device;

generating a set of navigation directions for the requested route that starts from the departure location and ends at the destination location; and

displaying a subset of the navigation directions on a navigation display of the navigation device, the subset of navigation directions excluding one or more navigation directions from the set of navigation instructions if the departure location or destination location is determined to be a frequent location and a last time the requested route was travelled by the navigation device is less than a threshold time.

12. The navigation device of claim 11, further comprising:

determining that a user of the navigation device had previously travelled a path between the departure location and an intermediate location; and

excluding one or more navigation directions from the displayed subset of navigation directions for traveling to the intermediate location.

13. The navigation device of claim 11, where the frequent location is defined by a geographic boundary, further comprising:

determining that a route segment is within the geographic boundary;

determining navigation directions associated with the route segment; and

including the determined navigation directions in the subset of navigation directions.

14. The navigation device of claim 13, where the geographic boundary defines a circular geographic area having a size determined by a radius value.

15. The navigation device of claim 14, where the radius value is specified by a user of the navigation device.

16. The navigation device of claim 11, where the frequent location is determined from a description in a contact of a virtual address book.

17. The navigation device of claim 11, where the frequent location is determined by meeting or exceeding a threshold number of recorded locations of the navigation device over a period of time.

18. The navigation device of claim 11, where excluding one or more navigation directions for leaving the departure location includes excluding directions from the departure location until a road having a specified road priority is reached.

19. The navigation device of claim 18, where a road priority is determined by map data.

20. The navigation device of claim 11, further comprising avoiding recalculating navigation directions until the navigation device reaches a first direction after the excluded directions.