METHOD FOR DYNAMIC CREATION OF CUSTOMIZED TOUR GUIDES

Abstract

The invention is a method and system of creating and delivering dynamic and customized tour guides to a user through an electronic device. The system takes into account factors including the speed, direction of movement, and geographical location of a user's electronic device along with a user's preferences, and calculating a timeframe in which a user will be in proximity to a point of interest to create and deliver a customized and tailored tour guide experience. The system and method is scalable and allows a multitude of individual users simultaneously have individually tailored tour guides delivered to them covering a broad range of topics including architecture, history, surrounding nature, and current events of points of interest along a user's pre-defined or predicted user route.

Claims

1. A method of creation and delivering a first customized travel guide for a first user, comprising the following steps: Receiving on an electronic device an information about a geographical location of the electronic device for creating the guide; the electronic device having a system for determining geographical location; the geographical location being an arbitrary location in any place on Earth; Receiving an information of a speed and a direction of an electronic device movement; wherein the geographical location of the electronic device, the speed of the electronic device, and the direction of the electronic device define electronic device movement parameters; defining a topic of the guide; sending request from the electronic device to a server to select information about points of interest along a route; a server software selects publicly available information related to points of interest; wherein the route is a predefined route from a point A to a point B or wherein the route is an estimated route based on a predictive analysis of the electronic device movement parameters; the server software selects the publicly available information about the points of interest according the topic of the guide; dynamically creating a brief description of each point of interest along the route based on the route, the electronic device moment parameters, and the previously selected publicly available about the points of interest; the description having a number of words equal to M×W, where M is a duration of time in minutes while the user passing said point of interest and W is a number words per minute, wherein M is calculated using the speed of the electronic device movement; creating an audio description of said point of interest with M×W words; delivering the description to the user when passing the corresponding point of interest; wherein the description is delivered on at least one of a loudspeaker or a display in an audio description, a video description, or a text description; and wherein the loudspeaker or the display is connected by a wired connection to, a wireless connection to, or integrated as part of, the electronic device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the information about the geographical location is a current user location received from a GPS inside the electronic device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the topic of the guide is architecture.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the topic of the guide is history.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein W is 150.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising starting the delivering of the audio description when the user is 100 meters from the point of interest.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein M is calculated from a time T1, when the user sees the point of interest at 30 degrees to a direction of a road on which the user travels, till a time T2, when the user sees the point of interest at 120 degrees to a direction of a road. (see the drawing)

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the information storage is a server containing pre-selected data about each of the points of interest

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the pre-selected data has nodes that are standalone pieces of comprehensive content that can be delivered as a sentence or paragraph and wherein the pre-selected data has edges that are connections between the nodes and represent the order, sequence, and priority of individual pieces of information for the brief description to be dynamically generated from.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the preplanned route has at least a start point A and at least a selected end point B and is determined by the first user using a third party navigation application which determines the preplanned route.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the route is instantly calculated based on the electronic device movement parameters.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the publicly available information includes websites, publicly available application interfaces (APIs) and information previously stored on the server.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the publicly available information includes data in text, photo, audio and video formats.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of individually customized travel guide for a plurality of individual users having a different location and moving in a different direction.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the server simultaneously supports at least one thousand individually customized travel guides for at least one thousand individual users, each of the one thousand different users having separate and distinct electronic device movement parameters.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the brief description for each POI is at least 30 seconds.

17. The method of claim 1, creating the brief description of each point of interest is less than 1 sec.

18. The method of claim 1, generating a brief description of each point of interest is less than 30 sec.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the point of interest is a city, a site of historic significance, a restaurant, a place of lodging, a museum, a geographical area, or other waypoint along the route.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the description is smaller than or equal to a total information about each point of interest that the server has.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0211] The present invention will now be discussed in further detail below with reference to the accompanying figures in which:

[0212] FIG. 1 is a high level view of guide creation.

[0213] FIG. 2 shows multiple paths of formation of a single example story graph.

[0214] FIG. 3 shows a Guide Graph.

[0215] FIG. 4 shows how the electronic device performs path selection within a Guide Graph.

[0216] FIG. 5 shows part of the method being implemented as a tour guide application on an electronic device.

[0217] FIG. 6 demonstrates one manner in which the overall time to convey information conveyed in a story graph is determine.

[0218] FIG. 7 is a flow chart of the present method of creating and delivering a dynamic customized tour guide to a user.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0219] FIG. 1 is a high level view of guide creation. Information on a point of interest (POI) is gathered from multiple sources such as 3.sup.rd party places application program interfaces (APIs) S11A, from publicly accessible websites S11B and news sites S11C, along with information input by the user S11D, and databases (DBs) internal to the guide creation system S11E. Current examples of current 3.sup.rd party place APIs include ones belonging to Google, Foursquare, and Yelp. A current example of a publicly accessible includes Wikipedia.

[0220] The information gathered from S11A-E goes through an aggregator micro service S12. The aggregator micro service S12 collects the related data and passes it through to the object processor S13. The object processor S13 gathers the information for the POI and begins parsing the information to create a guide. Nodes are individual images, bodies of text, information, sentences, and paragraphs related to an individual POI and form the object stored in the objects database (DB) S15 with keyword story indexing S14 for quicker retrieval and formation of a tour guide. Keyword story indexing S14 provides prioritization and hierarchical information for how the individual nodes of information should be presented in a tour guide. Using both the keyword story indexing S14 and the objects DB S15 a story graph with nodes S16 is formed. The keyword story indexing S14 is used to an elastic search of the indexed story DB S17. By elastic it is meant that the search is flexible and the resulting story graphs S18 for an individual POI are also flexible. The elasticity of the search is required in order to tailor the tour guide to the individual user's location, speed, and direction of movement.

[0221] Rather than providing a static pre-recorded tour guide where the information is meted out at a set pace the present invention seeks to create a dynamic tour guide providing varying levels of depth and length of information to be provided regarding an individual POI or series of POIs based upon parameters including the individual user's location, speed, and direction of movement. The present invention therefore works as a dynamic tour guide that works if the user is traveling by foot, bike, car, train, or other means of transportation. And because speed of the user is taken into about the information conveyed by the tour guide can be increased or decreased based upon the predicted and measured amount of time that the user is within the vicinity of the object. Essentially the invention uses a combination of high powered server computing and the breadth of information available on the internet and storable in an internal database to provide the user a customized tour guide tailored to their interest and the amount of time they are within the vicinity of a point of interest.

[0222] FIG. 2 shows multiple paths of formation of a single example story graph. In this example node N21 is a 10 second start of the story about the POI. Node N22 is a 30 second generic information section of the story of the POI. At nodes N23A, N23B, and N23C there is a first branching of the story of the POI. Node N23A contains historical information about the POI. From node N23 the story of the POI can continue to any one of nodes N24A-C or any combination of those nodes each including additional historical information about the POI. From the path chosen through nodes N24A-C leads to node N25A which contains a generic ending which finally leads to N26A the finish of the story about the POI. Alternatively the story can follow a path from node N22 to node N25A and contain only generic information about the POI and a generic ending of the story. An alternative path can be followed from node N22 through N23B and then N24D or N24E to N25A providing generic information about the POI, information regarding nature surrounding or at the POI and additional information regarding the habitat, plants, or flora and then to the generic ending finishing the story. And yet another alternative path goes from N22 to N23C to N24F or N24E and to N25A focusing on news and recent stories about the POI.

[0223] The story graph allows for multiple paths between nodes of information to be conveyed to the user. This means that the story told about a POI can be tailored to a user's preferences; if a user prefers historical information the story can follow a historical path, the same being true if the user prefers nature or new/current events information. Furthermore the length and amount of information conveyed to the user, contained in a given path through the story graph, can vary based upon movement speed and direction of the electronic device of the user. If the movement speed is low a longer story graph path containing more information is taken. If the movement speed is high then a shorter path containing less information is taken. And, additionally, the system tracks which paths of a story guide have been taken so that on subsequent visits to the same POI then at least some different information is conveyed to the user about the POI. For example, if on a first visit historical information was provided then on a second visit news or nature information is provided instead.

[0224] The Story Graph for each object to be included into the Tour Guide is created based on the obtained data from the multiple sources. Story Graph structured as nodes, the nodes connected together forming the story graph, with single or multiple paths between nodes, and when any path is followed, the connected story about the object can be retrieved. Pieces of text information, and/or audio and/or video information connected together in such a way that following the connections from start to any end of the graph, the user can read, hear, and/or see logically and semantically connected story.

[0225] Generated service nodes are the nodes containing the information produced by the system. Generated service nodes include connection phrases like: “And now we will talk about the history of the city” or “This is the end of the story”. Processed content story nodes contain the information gathered from public sources but is pre-processed and structured by the system. These contain the sentences, paragraphs, images, video, and other information gathered and collated to be the elements of the Story Graph.

[0226] FIG. 3 shows a Guide Graph. The guide graph determines what information is conveyed to the over the entire duration of the tour guide. The particular example is for a road trip from San Jose, Calif. to Los Angeles, Calif. Similar to the Story Graph of FIG. 2 there are different paths, and therefore different information for the Guide that is presented to the user.

[0227] The Guide starts at node N31 then proceeds to N32 conveying information regarding the start city of San Jose. From node N32 one of four paths, in this example, are selected. The shortest path just has information conveyed when nearing Los Angeles, Calif. contained in node N35. A node in the Guide and in a Guide Graph may contain either a single fact or piece of information as would be found in one of the nodes of the Story Graph or the node in a Guide Graph contains an entire Story Graph comprised of its own nodes.

[0228] Longer Guides involving more combinations through N31, N32, N33A, any combination of N34A-C, N35A and N36A. Each of N33A and N34A-C each contain their own information, whether single parcel of information or an entire Story Graph for an individual POI. In this example node N33A contains the information for POI 1 and N34A the information for POI 3 and so on.

[0229] Alternatively another path through the Guide Graph may be chosen involving POI2 in N33B and additional information in node N34D or information about Santa Barbara, Calif. in N34E. And another alternative path through the Guide Graph going through nodes N33C and N34F, where N34F contains a Story Graph for the city of Monterey, Calif.

[0230] Which path is taken through the Guide Graph, and thereby the content of the Guide, is determined by multiple factors. In the present example it depends on what route between San Jose, Calif. and Los Angeles, Calif. the user has selected. Along that route the user selects between multiple suggested POIs. The suggested POIs are selected by the system. The user selects from the suggested POIs to become part of their Guide. Some of the POIs have their own Story Graphs and the path through that Story Graph is selected based upon the factors for path selection outlined above.

[0231] The POIs included in the Guide are selected automatically when the user elects to use the application in automatic mode. In automatic mode the system selects which POIs to present based upon availability along the route, expressed user preference, and which POIs had previously been presented in order to create dynamic guides.

[0232] FIG. 4 shows how the electronic device performs path selection within a Guide Graph. The resulting Guide is an aggregation of all the information about the POI or set of POIs. The system delivers to the user only specific parts of the Guide Graph based on user preferences, time available, usage history, etc. To select these parts quickly templates could be used. Instead of selecting individual POIs the user desires to be delivered the user could select from preselected templates, in FIG. 4 being Template 1 and Template 2. This allows the user to quickly select between two different Guides to be presented to the user.

[0233] FIG. 5 shows part of the method being implemented as a tour guide application on an electronic device. First a user enters a destination S51. The application generates a list of possible destinations S52 based upon the destination input by the user in step S52. Once a destination is selected by user an overview map of the route is provided along with a scrollable list of points of interest along the route S53. Once a user selects a point of interest from the list S53 a POI page is provided with a brief description of the POI, images and video may be provided, as well as an audio button provided to allow the description of the POI to be read to the user S54. S55 shows a navigation pane. S56 is a notification page for when the POI is arrived at and may contain text and images.

[0234] FIG. 6 demonstrates one manner in which the overall time to convey information conveyed in a story graph is determine. The system uses the speed and direction of the electronic device and determines when the POI is within a 30° angle, from direction of travel, of the POI for a T1 and then based on the same metrics when the POI is at a 120° angle from direction of travel for a T2. The time M for the information in the Story Graph to be conveyed is the difference between the estimated T2 and T1. With time M being determined this limits which path through a Story Graph is taken for a given POI based on the time that the POI is estimated to be in view of the user. This time M can be actively updated and more information conveyed if the speed or direction of the electronic device deviates significantly.

[0235] FIG. 7 is a flow chart of the present method of creating and delivering a dynamic customized tour guide to a user. The steps of the method are as follows. S701: Receiving on an electronic device an information about a geographical location of the electronic device for creating the guide; the electronic device having a system for determining geographical location; the geographical location being an arbitrary location in any place on Earth. Further receiving an information of a speed and a direction of an electronic device movement. The geographical location of the electronic device, the speed of the electronic device, and the direction of the electronic device define electronic device movement parameters. S702: Defining a topic of the guide. S703: Sending request from the electronic device to a server to select information about points of interest along a route. S704: A server software selects publicly available information related to points of interest. S705: the route is a predefined route from a point A to a point B or wherein the route is an estimated route based on a predictive analysis of the electronic device movement parameters. S706: The server software selects the publicly available information about the points of interest according the topic of the guide. S707: Dynamically creating a brief description of each point of interest along the route based on the route, the electronic device moment parameters, and the previously selected publicly available about the points of interest. S708: The description having a number of words equal to M×W, where M is a duration of time in minutes while the user passing said point of interest and W is a number words per minute, wherein M is calculated using the speed of the electronic device movement; creating an audio description of said point of interest with M×W words. S709: Delivering the description to the user when passing the corresponding point of interest. S701: The description is delivered on at least one of a loudspeaker or a display in an audio description, a video description, or a text description. S711: The loudspeaker L71 or the display D72 is connected by a wired connection to, a wireless connection to, or integrated as part of, the electronic device.

[0236] In a preferred method of practicing the invention the information about the geographical location in step S701 is a current user location received from a GPS inside the electronic device.

[0237] In a preferred method of practicing the invention the defined topics of the guide in S702 include architecture, history, nature, or current events.

[0238] In a preferred method of practicing the invention in step S708 the words per minute used to convey information W is 150.

[0239] In a preferred method of practicing the invention starting the delivering of the audio description of step S709 when the user is 100 meters from the point of interest.

[0240] In a preferred method of practicing the invention the information storage is a server containing pre-selected data about each of the points of interest

[0241] In a preferred method of practicing the invention the pre-selected data has nodes that are standalone pieces of comprehensive content that can be delivered as a sentence or paragraph and wherein the pre-selected data has edges that are connections between the nodes and represent the order, sequence, and priority of individual pieces of information for the brief description to be dynamically generated from (FIGS. 1-4).

[0242] In a preferred method of practicing the invention the preplanned route of S705 has at least a start point A and at least a selected end point B and is determined by the first user using a third party navigation application which determines the preplanned route.

[0243] In a preferred method of practicing the invention the route in S705 is instantly calculated based on the electronic device movement parameters.

[0244] In a preferred method of practicing the invention the publicly available information of S704 includes websites, publicly available application interfaces (APIs) and information previously stored on the server. In a preferred method of practicing the invention the publicly available information of S704 includes data in text, photo, audio and video formats.

[0245] The system and method while described from the perspective of a single user works on a large scale with many individually customized travel guide for a multitude of individual users having a different location and moving in a different direction. The speed at which guides are created and the number of simultaneous user guide creation requests that can simultaneously be processed is hardware limited. The system and method is scalable and is limited in number of individual guides being created by the host hardware for its implementation. Host hardware includes central processing units (CPUs), random access memory (RAM), non-transitory computer readable mediums (hard drive disks [HDDs], solid state drives [SSDs]), and the electronic devices of the users which include smartphones, tablets, smart glasses, and vehicle infotainment systems.

[0246] In a preferred method of practicing the invention the server simultaneously supports at least one thousand individually customized travel guides for at least one thousand individual users, each of the one thousand different users having separate and distinct electronic device movement parameters.

[0247] In a preferred method of practicing the invention the brief description of S707 for each POI is at least 30 seconds. In a preferred method of practicing the invention the brief description of S707 for each POI is at least 10 seconds.

[0248] In a preferred method of practicing the invention creating the brief description in S707 of each point of interest is less than 1 sec.

[0249] In a preferred method of practicing the invention creating the brief description in S707 of each point of interest is less than 30 sec.

[0250] In a preferred method of practicing the invention the point of interest in S703 is a city, a site of historic significance, a restaurant, a place of lodging, a museum, a geographical area, or other waypoint along the route.

[0251] In a preferred method of practicing the invention the description in S708 is smaller than or equal to a total information about each point of interest that the server has.

[0252] It is to be understood that the above described embodiments are merely illustrative of numerous and varied other embodiments which may constitute applications of the principles of the invention. Such other embodiments may be readily devised by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit or scope of this invention and it is our intent they be deemed within the scope of our invention.