Mapquest, Inc.

Facebook, Inc.

Aol Inc.

Verizon Patent and Licensing Inc.

America Online, Inc.

Johns Hopkins University

David W Nesbitt

W Karl Renner

G Duane Gearhart

Eric Beyeler

Terry M Laurenzo

Michael Dean Swartz

Leonard B Jansen

Austin Brown

Meghan Newlin

George Michael Ringrose

Johnathan Lansing

Gregory Knisely

Greg Knisely

Kevin M Cropper

Jarrett F Reid

A preferred route may be determined from an origin location to a destination location. The determination is made by processing directed links (e.g., one-way edges) in a graph that includes one or more links and two or more nodes. The determination of a preferred route may include an estimate of the time required at one or more intersections along alternative. Individual routing preferences, such as a preference of a rural over an urban route, also may be considered. Techniques are described that may help reduce the time required to identify a preferred route, including the identification and removal of no outlet routes before processing the directed links and techniques using particular data formats.

Automated route determination

A user may indicate a preference of a route when alternative routes are available between an origin and a destination. The mapping system may enable a user to identify a region, a point or a set of points to help control, guide or otherwise influence the determination of a route favored by the user. While the identified region, point or set of points may be included in the route, the identified region, point or set of points need not necessarily be included in the route.

User-controlled alternative routing

Techniques are provided for presenting a route in a manner that emphasizes the route and provides context information. For example, a vivid color or vivid colors may be used to display the route, and pastel colors or other desaturated colors may be used for non-route context information. This may result in a map in which the vivid colors of the route stand out over the faded style of the non-route context information to emphasize the route. In this manner, the map may both emphasize the route and provide context information for the route.

Custom printing of a travel route

Systems and methods are provided for inferring a user's intent to stop at a predefined location or breakpoint along a predetermined route, such as an exit along a highway, and to enable users to report back to systems maintaining exit or breakpoint POI data. An application executing on a user's mobile device may infer or query the user's intent upon detecting a deviation away from the route and to use this as a 'check-in' at a predefined location corresponding to the point of deviation. Then further check-ins and ratings at amenities/locations associated with the exit can also be used to enhance the rating and popularity of the predefined location (e.g., highway exit) itself. The ratings and popularity of highway exits can then be exposed in applications to provide relevant content related to the highest rated or most popular breakpoints located along their route of travel.

Systems and methods for initiating mapping exit routines and rating highway exits

Computer implemented methods are disclosed. The methods may include identifying a plurality of points of interest (POIs) within a pre-determined travel time from an intersection or highway exit and calculating a travel time and distance from the intersection or highway exit to each of the plurality of POIs. The methods may further include, associating each of the plurality of POIs with the intersection or highway exit, and storing the travel time and distance from the intersection or highway exit to each of the plurality of associated POIs in an electronic database as pre-calculated POI data.

Systems and methods for using route matrices for identifying intersection POIs

A computer-implemented method for identifying a route that is configured to travel through multiple points of interest includes receiving a query that includes an origin location, a destination location, and at least a first point of interest and a second point of interest. The method also includes identifying a perimeter that surrounds the received origin and destination locations in response to the query. The perimeter is then used to identify a set of locations for each of the first and second points of interest.

Identifying a route configured to travel through multiple points of interest

Systems and methods are provided for providing improved generation of textual directions based on positional information. In an implementation, textual directions for traversing a path are generated based on positional information associated with the path. According to a method, positional information that specifies a longitude and latitude at a plurality of times is received and processed to generate a routing graph. The generated routing graph includes nodes and route links that connect the plurality of nodes. Textual directions are generated for traversing a path associated with the positional data, based in part on link information associated with the links of the generated routing graph.

Systems and methods for improved generation of textual directions based on positional information

Systems and methods are disclosed for generating and displaying a linear visual indicator of an entire route on a singular screen. One method includes calculating a route based on start and destination location and then determining various conditions along the calculated route. These conditions include, for example, traffic, weather, construction, road type, etc. This discloses generating and displaying a linear depiction of the full route and the navigation mapping screen, to provide the user with an easily understandable and accessible view of the full picture of route conditions.

Systems and methods for electronic display of various conditions along a navigation route

Techniques are provided for presenting a route using a route presentation that provides both a context map and one or more detail route maps. Narrative instructions for the route also may be presented. The presentation of the context map and the one or more detail route maps may be interactive. The route presentation also may be user controllable such that a user may control the portions of a route that are printed. The route presentation also may include a re-routing feature that allows a user to request that a new route be identified that avoids a particular maneuver or maneuvers in a route.

Presenting a travel route

Systems and methods are disclosed for determining shortest route(s) or path(s) to one or more destination nodes from one or more origin nodes. In accordance with one implementation, a computer-implemented method is provided that includes identifying a plurality of origin nodes associated with a route based on a threshold distance from at least one destination node, the origin nodes being options for a departure from the route to the at least one destination node. Further, the method may include calculating, using a processor, a cost associated with travelling from each of the origin nodes to at least one common intermediate node between the route and the at least one destination node, and determining a path to the at least one destination node based on the origin node having the lowest calculated cost.

Computer-implemented systems and methods for planning a route

Systems and methods are provided for inferring a user's intent to stop at a predefined location or breakpoint along a predetermined route, such as an exit along a highway, and to enable users to report back to systems maintaining exit or breakpoint Point of Interest (POI) data. An application executing on a user's mobile device may infer or query the user's intent upon detecting a deviation away from the route and to use this as a 'check-in' at a predefined location corresponding to the point of deviation. Then further check-ins and ratings at amenities/locations associated with the exit can also be used to enhance the rating and popularity of the predefined location (e.g., highway exit) itself. The ratings and popularity of highway exits provide relevant content related to the highest rated or most popular breakpoints located along their route of travel.

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, a computer-implemented method is provided for processing a query for points of interest (POIs) using a hierarchical grid structure representing a geographic area. The method includes receiving a query for POIs; defining a query footprint for the query based on a location corresponding to the query, wherein the query footprint comprises query spatial identifiers for a plurality of levels of the hierarchical grid structure; matching the query spatial identifiers with one or more POI spatial identifiers organized into a plurality of indexes, wherein each one of the plurality of indexes comprises an index of the POI spatial identifiers for one of the plurality of levels; and providing an output specifying one or more POIs corresponding to the matched POI spatial identifiers.

Growing community of inventors

Adamstown, MD, United States of America

David W Nesbitt