MOBILE SEARCH BASED ON PREDICTED LOCATION

• US 20120158289A1
• Filed: 12/17/2010
• Published: 06/21/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Uber Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Krumm, John Charles, Karlson, Amy, Teevan, Jaime, Priyantha, Nissanka Arachchige Bodhi, Bernheim Brush, Alice Jane, Amini, Shahriyar
• Granted Patent: US 9,134,137 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/425
• 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 21/3492 employing speed data or traffic data, e.g. real-time or historical traffic control systems for road vehicles involving transmission of navigation instructions to the vehicle G08G1/0968
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3617 using user history, behaviour, conditions or preferences, e.g. predicted or inferred from previous use or current movement
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/362 received from an external device or application, e.g. PDA, mobile phone or calendar application
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3673 Labelling using text of road map data items, e.g. road names, POI names
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24575 using context
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

A method includes receiving one or more search terms at a mobile computing device while the mobile computing device is located at a particular location. A search query that includes the one or more search terms and a location history of the mobile computing device is transmitted to a server. The method also includes receiving one or more search results in response to the search query, where the one or more search results include content identified based on a predicted destination of the mobile computing device. An interface identifying the one or more search results is displayed at the mobile computing device.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving one or more search terms at a mobile computing device while the mobile computing device is located at a particular location;

transmitting a search query to a server, wherein the search query includes the one or more search terms and a location history of the mobile computing device;

receiving a search result in response to the search query that includes content identified based on a predicted destination of the mobile computing device; and

displaying an interface at the mobile computing device that identifies the search result.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the server identifies the predicted destination after receiving the search query from the mobile computing device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the predicted destination is different than the particular location.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the predicted destination corresponds to the particular location.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the location history of the mobile computing device identifies a set of one or more geographic elements traversed by the mobile computing device during a trip.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the one or more geographic elements include a geographic cell representing a geographic area, a road segment, or any combination thereof.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

sampling a location indicator of the mobile phone upon expiration of a sampling period, wherein the location indicator returns a location in response to the sampling;

identifying a geographic element corresponding to the returned location; and

when the identified geographic element is not included in the set and when the returned location is greater than a threshold distance away from a previously returned location, adding the geographic element to the set.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising displaying a remaining time to arrival at the predicted destination, traffic conditions en-route to the predicted destination, an alternate route to the predicted destination, or any combination thereof.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting to the server an updated location history of the mobile computing device that indicates the movement of the mobile computing device from the particular location to a second location;

receiving at least one updated search result from the server; and

displaying the at least one updated search result at the mobile computing device.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

receive a search query from a mobile computing device, wherein the search query includes one or more search terms and a set of geographic elements traversed by the mobile computing device during a trip;

determine a predicted location of the mobile computing device based on the set of geographic elements;

create a trajectory-aware search query based on the one or more search terms and the predicted location;

identify one or more search results in response to the trajectory-aware search query; and

transmit the one or more search results to the mobile computing device.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to:

divide a geographic area into a plurality of geographic elements;

identify a subset of navigable geographic elements by removing, from the plurality of geographic elements, one or more geographic elements that are farther than a threshold distance from a navigable roadway; and

determine a travel time between each pair of geographic elements in the subset of navigable geographic elements.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to store the travel times at one or more data storage devices.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to:

identify one or more destination geographic elements that are reachable within a predetermined time from an initial geographic element of the set of geographic elements;

compute, for each destination geographic element, a probability of whether the destination geographic element is a destination of the mobile computing device; and

determine the predicted location as a predicted destination of the mobile computing device that is based on the computed probabilities.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to:

determine a predicted route of the mobile computing device based on the computed probabilities, wherein the predicted location corresponds to a point along the predicted route;

identify a set of search results in response to the trajectory-aware search query that is along the predicted route; and

transmit the set of search results to the mobile computing device.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to:

compute a speed of the mobile computing device based on timestamps associated with each geographic element in the set of geographic elements,

wherein the one or more search results are identified based at least in part on the computed speed of the mobile computing device.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to identify search results associated with one or more exits of a highway when the computed speed is greater than a threshold.

17. A system, comprising:

a location indicator;

an input interface;

an output interface;

a network interface;

a processor; and

a memory storing instructions executable by the processor to;

track a location history based on outputs of the location indicator;

receive one or more search terms via the input interface;

predict a destination based on the location history;

create a trajectory-aware search query based on the one or more search terms and the predicted destination;

transmit the trajectory-aware search query to a search engine via the network interface;

receive one or more search results from the search engine via the network interface; and

display content associated with the one or more search results via the output interface.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the search engine comprises an Internet-accessible search engine and wherein the trajectory-aware search query is transmitted to the search engine via an application programming interface (API) of the search engine.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the instructions are further executable by the processor to display, via the output interface, a term associated with the predicted destination as a suggested auto-complete search term.

20. The system of claim 17, integrated into a mobile telephone, a portable computing device, a navigation device, or any combination thereof.