SYSTEM FOR LOGGING LIFE EXPERIENCES USING GEOGRAPHIC CUES

• US 20090216435A1
• Filed: 02/26/2008
• Published: 08/27/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/26/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Xie, Xing, Zheng, Yu, Zhang, Ruochi, Wang, Longhao
• Granted Patent: US 8,972,177 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/209
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 19/003 Navigation within 3D models or images
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096838 where the user preferences are taken into account or the user selects one route out of a plurality
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 29/007 using computer methods
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/105 of operating discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/322 used signal is digitally coded
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4126 The peripheral being portable, e.g. PDAs or mobile phones
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4345 Extraction or processing of SI, e.g. extracting service information from an MPEG stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4524 involving the geographical location of the client retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; systems specially adapted for using geographical information in broadcast systems H04H60/70; protocols in which the network application is adapted for the location of the user terminal in communication control or processing H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3253 Position information, e.g. geographical position at time of capture, GPS data
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/92 Navigation

Abstract

A system for logging life experiences using geographic cues. The system variously provides a comprehensive life-logging tool for recording each life event; a vacation album for revisiting and reliving vacation routes and associated photos; an information service for finding popular routes and locations; a statistical tool for analyzing metrics of a person'"'"'s life; and a personal website service for sharing personal information. In one implementation, the system receives a user'"'"'s GPS log files and multimedia content at a website. The system segments the GPS log files into geographic routes corresponding to user trips, and tags the multimedia content with geographic cues from the GPS log files. Then, the system indexes the geographic routes so that users can retrieve the geographic routes by browsing or by search techniques. The system displays animations of selected routes on a map, and displays the multimedia content at corresponding locations along the map route, as the route is replayed. The system also provides browsing and spatial and temporal techniques to search a person'"'"'s travels and can provide graphical displays of the person'"'"'s activity statistics.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving at a website a global positioning system (GPS) log file from a user;

receiving multimedia content from the user;

segmenting the GPS log file into geographic routes corresponding to user trips;

associating the multimedia content to geographic routes by tagging locations to the multimedia content;

indexing the geographic routes;

retrieving the geographic routes by browsing or searching; and

displaying at the website an animation of one of the user trips on a displayed map, wherein the animation displays the multimedia content at geographic locations on the displayed map corresponding to the geographic cues associated with the multimedia content.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising mining the GPS data uploaded by the user to derive a personal knowledge database corresponding to the user.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, further comprising mining the GPS log file uploaded from the user and the personal knowledge database of the user to derive a public knowledge data.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein tagging the multimedia content with geographic cues from the GPS log file enables a search for a particular multimedia content to return a corresponding geographic route.

5. The method as recited in claim 4, further comprising receiving a search criterion from the user, wherein the search criterion retrieves geographic routes that meet the search criterion from the spatial-temporal index;

and

wherein the geographic routes are listed as search results on the website.

6. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein the search criterion comprises one or both of:

a spatial search criterion created via the user selecting a geographic area on the map in order to retrieve search results comprising geographic routes made as different user trips within the selected geographic area;

or

a temporal search criterion created via the user selecting a time interval in order to retrieve search results comprising geographic routes made as different user trips within the selected time interval.

7. The method as recited in claim 3, further comprising recommending geographic routes and local features, wherein when a user in a given location requests a recommendation for a geographic route or a local feature, popular geographic routes and popular local features are retrieved from the public knowledge database and displayed to the user;

and

wherein the public knowledge database is mined from personal preferences of individual users in the personal knowledge databases, the personal knowledge databases derived in turn from the GPS log files uploaded by the individual users.

8. The method as recited in claim 7, further comprising interfacing with mobile devices, wherein when a mobile device in a given location requests a recommendation for a geographic route or a local feature, popular geographic routes and popular local features are retrieved from the public knowledge database and displayed to the mobile device.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising displaying ancillary information calculated in relation to the user trip or from a public knowledge database to correspond with times and places along the user trip being displayed as a geographic route on the website;

and

wherein the ancillary information includes one of a weather report, a temperature, a distance of the user trip, a duration of the user trip, a start and an ending time of the user trip, a number of multimedia images and videos associated with the user trip, a number of segments of the user trip, modes of transportation used during the user trip, a latitude and longitude of a location on the user trip, an altitude of a location on the user trip, news associated with a time or a location of the user trip, various map views associated with locations along the user trip, or advertisements associated with locations along the user trip.

10. The method as recited in claim 2, further comprising deriving statistics from a user'"'"'s activity indicated by the personal knowledge database derived from the user'"'"'s GPS log files;

creating a visual depiction of the statistics; and

displaying the visual depiction of the statistics to the user on the website or an a mobile device of the user.

11. The method as recited in claim 10, further comprising displaying statistics of the user'"'"'s activities, including one of:

an activity level for each day of the week;

a ratio of transportation modes used over a time interval;

a pattern of arrivals to or departures from a routine user location.

12. A system, comprising:

a web user interface for uploading a user'"'"'s GPS log files and multimedia contents to a service;

a data processor to segment the GPS log files into geographic routes corresponding to user trips;

the data processor to associate the multimedia contents to geographic routes by tagging locations to the multimedia contents;

an indexing engine to index the geographic routes;

a route searching engine to retrieve the geographic routes by browsing or searching;

a database to store GPS information and multimedia information of the user; and

a visualization engine to display an animation of one of the geographic routes on a map displayed on the web user interface and to display multimedia contents associated with times and locations along the geographic route.

13. The system as recited in claim 12, further comprising a route searching engine to receive a search criterion from the user, wherein the route searching engine uses the search criterion to retrieve geographic routes that meet the search criterion from the spatial-temporal index;

and

wherein the geographic routes are listed as search results on the web user interface.

14. The system as recited in claim 13, wherein the search criterion comprises one or both of:

a spatial search criterion created via the user selecting a geographic area on the map in order to retrieve search results comprising geographic routes made as different user trips within the selected geographic area;

or

a temporal search criterion created via the user selecting a time interval in order to retrieve search results comprising geographic routes made as different user trips within the selected time interval.

15. The system as recited in claim 12, further comprising a recommendation engine for requesting geographic routes and local features, wherein when a user in a given location requests a recommendation for a geographic route or a local feature, then popular geographic routes and popular local features are retrieved from a public knowledge database;

and

wherein the public knowledge database is mined from personal preferences of individual users derived from the GPS log files uploaded by the individual users.

16. The system as recited in claim 15, further comprising a mobile devices interface, wherein when a mobile device in a given location requests a recommendation for a geographic route or a local feature, popular geographic routes and popular local features are retrieved from the public knowledge database and displayed to the mobile device.

17. The system as recited in claim 12, wherein the visualization engine displays ancillary information calculated in relation to the user trip or from a public knowledge database to correspond with times and places along the user trip being displayed as a geographic route on the website;

and

wherein the ancillary information includes one of a weather report, a temperature, a distance of the user trip, a duration of the user trip, a start and an ending time of the user trip, a number of multimedia images and videos associated with the user trip, a number of segments of the user trip, modes of transportation used during the user trip, a latitude and longitude of a location on the user trip, an altitude of a location on the user trip, news associated with a time or a location of the user trip, various map views associated with locations along the user trip, or advertisements associated with locations along the user trip.

18. The system as recited in claim 12, wherein the visualization engine derives statistics from a user'"'"'s activity indicated by the user'"'"'s uploaded GPS log files, creates a visual depiction of the statistics, and displays the visual depiction of the statistics to the user on the website or an a mobile device of the user.

19. The system as recited in claim 18, wherein the visualization engine displays statistics of the user'"'"'s activities, including one of:

an activity level for each day of the week;

a ratio of transportation modes used over a time interval;

or

a pattern of arrivals to or departures from a routine user location.

20. A system, comprising:

means for segmenting a GPS log file received from a user into geographic routes;

means for tagging multimedia contents received from the user with geographic locations from the GPS log file to associate the multimedia contents with the geographic routes;

means for indexing the geographic routes; and

means for displaying an animation of one of the user trips on a map, wherein the animation displays the multimedia content at geographic locations on the map corresponding to the geographic cues associated with the multimedia content.