The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 30, 2001
Filed:
Jun. 25, 1999
Mark A. Nikiel, Redmond, WA (US);
Nicholas Berry, Redmond, WA (US);
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA (US);
Abstract
A computer-implementable method for ordering destinations to be visited in a computationally-efficient manner and which achieves an acceptable level of optimization of the order for those destinations is disclosed. The computer-implementable method orders destinations to be visited by identifying the position in an existing order of destinations where the insertion of a new destination will result in the shortest increase to the straight-line length of the route. More specifically, a single, continuous line connects each of the destinations to be visited. The continuous line is composed of multiple “links.” Each link is a straight line connecting two destinations. The total length of the continuous line is the sum of the lengths of each link. The order of the destinations defines the order in which the continuous line visits each destination. A new destination is added at a position in the existing order of destinations that results in the shortest increase to the straight-line length of the continuous line.