Mobile computing devices, architecture and user interfaces based on dynamic direction information

• US 8,700,301 B2
• Filed: 01/29/2009
• Issued: 04/15/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Khosravy, Moe, Novik, Lev, Rubin, Darryl E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Hiep V
• Application Number:
  US12/362,093
• Publication Number:
  US 20090319175A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,902 Days
• Field of Search: 701/207
• US Class Current: 701/207
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3679 Retrieval, searching and output of POI information, e.g. hotels, restaurants, shops, filling stations, parking facilities G01C21/3611 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• 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

Mobile endpoints are provided that enable direction based pointing services including a positional component for receiving positional information as a function of a location of the portable electronic device, a directional component that outputs direction information as a function of an orientation of the portable electronic device and a location based engine that processes the positional information and the direction information to determine a subset of points of interest relative to the portable electronic device as a function of at least the positional information and the direction information. Devices can include compass(es), e.g., magnetic or gyroscopic, to determine a direction and GPS systems for determining location. A component for determining acceleration can also optionally be included.

Claims

1. A portable electronic device, comprising:

a positional component for receiving positional information as a function of a location of the portable electronic device;

a directional component that outputs direction information as a function of an orientation of the portable electronic device;

a location based engine that processes the positional information and the direction information to dynamically determine a subset of points of interest that are within the portable electronic device'"'"'s line of sight along a vector path determined by at least the positional information and the direction information, the line of sight along the vector path comprising an arc and distance that define a line of sight area, such that points of interest determined to be in the line of sight area are included in the subset of points of interest; and

an interface configured to display the determined subset of points of interest.

2. The portable electronic device of claim 1, wherein the positional component is a positional global positioning satellite (GPS) component for receiving GPS data as the positional information.

3. The portable electronic device of claim 1, wherein the directional component is a magnetic compass that outputs the direction information.

4. The portable electronic device of claim 1, wherein the directional component is a gyroscopic compass that outputs the direction information.

5. The portable electronic device of claim 1, further comprising:

an acceleration component that outputs acceleration information associated with movement of the portable electronic device.

6. The portable electronic device of claim 5, wherein the acceleration component comprises at least one accelerometer.

7. The portable electronic device of claim 1, further comprising:

a cache memory for dynamically storing a subset of endpoints of interest that are relevant to the portable electronic device; and

at least one interface to a network service for transmitting the positional information and the direction information to the network service and for receiving in return an updated subset of endpoints of relevant to the portable electronic device for storage in the cache memory based on the positional information and direction information.

8. The portable electronic device of claim 7, wherein the updated subset of endpoints is updated as a function of endpoints of interest within a pre-defined distance substantially along a vector defined by the orientation of the portable electronic device.

9. The portable electronic device of claim 7, wherein the updated subset of endpoints is updated as a function of endpoints of interest relevant to a current context of the portable electronic device.

10. The portable electronic device of claim 7, wherein the at least one interface includes Representational State Transfer (REST)-based application programming interfaces (APIs).

11. The portable electronic device of claim 7, wherein the at least one interface includes at least one web services interface.

12. The portable electronic device of claim 1, wherein the directional component outputs direction information including compass information based on North, East, South or West information and direction information including upward or downward tilt information associated with a current upward or downward tilt of the portable electronic device.

13. The portable electronic device of claim 1, wherein the location based engine includes a gesturing component to determine a current gesture of a user of the portable electronic device in connection with a current scope of endpoints of interest for determining the subset of points of interest.

14. A portable electronic device, comprising:

a processor for processing positional information measured by the device as a function of a location of the portable electronic device and direction information as a function of a direction measured for the portable electronic device to form vector information, wherein the processing dynamically determines a subset of points of interest that are within the portable electronic device'"'"'s line of sight along a vector path determined by the positional information and the direction information, the line of sight along the vector path comprising an arc and distance that define a line of sight area, such that points of interest determined to be in the line of sight area are included in the subset of points of interest; and

an interface for displaying the determined points of interest based on the vector information and determined along the direction from location of the device.

15. The device of claim 14, wherein the set of candidate points of interest are represented hierarchically according to different levels of hierarchy, and the interface enables navigation of the different levels.

16. The device according to claim 14, wherein the set of candidate points of interest are displayed as virtual three dimensional (3-D) objects on a virtual 3-D map from the perspective of the pointing direction defined by the vector information.

17. The device according to claim 14, wherein the set of candidate points of interest are displayed as two dimensional (2-D) objects on a 2-D topographical map rendering perspective based on the pointing direction defined by the vector information.

18. The device according to claim 14, wherein if the set of candidate points of interest is a set of one candidate point of interest, a full screen version of point of interest information is displayed for the candidate point of interest.

19. The device according to claim 14, further comprising:

a transceiver for transmitting the vector information to a network service and receiving the set of candidate points of interest based on an intersection algorithm with respect to the vector information.

20. A method for interacting with a portable electronic device, comprising:

receiving directional inputs at the portable electronic device pointing the device in a direction defining a pointing line generally towards a superset of points of interest;

determining, based on one or more portions of positional and direction information, a set of candidate points of interest that are within the portable electronic device'"'"'s line of sight along a vector path that substantially intersects with the pointing line, the line of sight along the vector path comprising an arc and distance that define a line of sight area, such that points of interest determined to be in the line of sight area are included in the subset of points of interest;

selecting one of the candidate points of interest; and

displaying on the portable electronic device static and dynamically updateable information associated with the selected point of interest.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

transmitting information representing the device location and the pointing line to a network service; and

wherein the determining includes receiving the set of candidate points from the network service.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

displaying the direction via an interface portion for representing directional information.