Automatic determination of a surrogate origin for personalized routing

• US 7,689,349 B1
• Filed: 12/28/2005
• Issued: 03/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: AOL LLC (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Swartz, Michael Dean, Gearhart, G. Duane, Nesbitt, David W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Zanelli; Michael J.
• Application Number:
  US11/319,234
• Time in Patent Office: 1,553 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 701/201
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3484 Personalized, e.g. from learned user behaviour or user-defined profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3641 Personalized guidance, e.g. limited guidance on previously travelled routes

Abstract

A surrogate origin is substituted for a user-entered or system-determined origin, and maneuvers for a route from the surrogate origin to a destination are determined and presented to the user as driving directions. A surrogate origin may be pre-selected or pre-configured for a user identity.

Claims

1. A method, performed at least partially on a computer, for enabling display of a route, the method comprising:

storing a surrogate origin in a computer storage medium in response to a user identification of the surrogate origin;

receiving an origin;

accessing mapping information stored in a computer storage medium;

identifying the surrogate origin stored in response to the user identification of the surrogate origin as a surrogate origin for the received origin;

determining a route from the identified surrogate origin to a destination; and

enabling display of the determined route.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the mapping information comprises a routing graph representing a network of roads including two or more nodes and one or more links, with each link being associated with at least two nodes.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving an origin comprises determining the origin based on a default origin.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein determining the origin comprises:

receiving an indication of an identity associated with a requester of directions; and

setting the origin to be a default origin associated with the identity.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving an origin comprises receiving an indication of a geographic location of a navigation device.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

accessing information, stored in a computer storage medium, that is associated with a user identity on behalf of which the route is being enabled for display,

wherein identifying a surrogate origin comprises identifying a surrogate origin from the accessed information that is associated with the user identity.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein enabling display of the determined route comprises communicating the route to a user system associated with a requester of directions.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising generating a set of maneuvers to be executed to traverse the route from the origin to the destination.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising enabling identification of the surrogate origin through inspection of the set of maneuvers generated.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein storing the surrogate origin in the computer storage medium comprises storing the identified surrogate origin in association with an identity associated with the requester of directions.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying a surrogate origin for the received origin comprises enabling a requester of directions to identify one of multiple presented locations as the surrogate origin.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the surrogate origin is stored in association with a particular location or address, the method further comprising identifying the surrogate origin as the surrogate origin for the received origin conditioned on whether the received origin is associated with the particular location or address associated with the surrogate origin.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein:

storing the surrogate origin comprises enabling a person to identity a default surrogate origin to be used as the surrogate origin when a destination is located in a particular travel direction with respect to the received origin; and

identifying the surrogate origin for the received origin comprises using the default surrogate origin for the received origin conditioned upon on whether the destination is located in the particular travel direction with respect to the received origin.

14. A method, performed at least partially on a computer, the method comprising:

receiving an origin;

accessing mapping information stored in a computer storage medium;

identifying a surrogate origin for the received origin, wherein identifying the surrogate origin for the received origin comprises enabling a requestor of directions to identify the surrogate origin; and

using the mapping information to determine a route from the surrogate origin to a destination.

15. A method, performed at least partially on a computer, the method comprising:

receiving an origin;

accessing mapping information stored in a computer storage medium;

generating a set of maneuvers to be executed to traverse a route from the received origin to the destination;

enabling identification of a surrogate origin for the received origin through inspection of the set of maneuvers generated;

identifying the surrogate origin for the received origin; and

using the mapping information to determine a route from the surrogate origin to a destination.