Technical solutions for customized tours

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11532245-B2
Application number	US-201916589735-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 1, 2019
Priority date	Oct 1, 2019
Publication date	Dec 20, 2022
Grant date	Dec 20, 2022

Abstract

An apparatus and method for configuring a customized tour includes providing a list of tour subject indicators with a relevance value for locations to be toured, receiving user selection data regarding the subject indicators, and configuring a tour route based on an aggregate relevance score calculated for the tour subject indicators and locations indicated by one or more users. The method and apparatus may further include defining at least one tour route record comprising an ordered list of locations that satisfies at least a minimum aggregate relevance score constraint and a maximum tour duration constraint and saving information defining the at least one tour route record in a computer memory for use in delivering a corresponding tour.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method for configuring a customized tour of a mapped space, the method comprising:
providing, by one or more processors, an ordered arrangement of tour subject indicators configured for output by a user interface device, wherein each of the tour subject indicators is associated by an electronic data structure to a relevance value for one or more locations of the mapped space and to content about a subject indicated by the tour subject indicator for delivery at corresponding ones of the one or more locations, wherein the relevance value indicates a degree of relevance of each location of the one or more locations to the each of the tour subjects;
receiving, by the one or more processors from the user interface device, user selection data from a user indicating a lesser subset selected from the ordered arrangement of tour subject indicators;
calculating, by the one or more processors, an aggregate relevance score for the lesser subset of tour subject indicators and locations of the mapped space;
defining, by the one or more processors, at least one tour route record comprising an ordered list of locations being a lesser subset of all locations in the mapped space that satisfies at least a minimum aggregate relevance score constraint and a maximum tour duration constraint; and
saving information defining the at least one tour route record in a computer memory for use in delivering a corresponding tour.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the calculating further comprises aggregating edge values of a graph database linking the lesser subset of tour subject indicators to the locations of the mapped space, wherein nodes of the graph comprise the tour subject indicators.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising, by the one or more processors, calculating an estimated tour duration based on the ordered list of locations, at least in part by summing estimated transit times between each location and estimated linger times at each location.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising estimating, by the one or more processors, the estimated linger times at the each location at least in part based on a predetermined delivery period for the content for delivery at the each location.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the defining further comprises the calculating the aggregate relevance score for each of alternative tour routes satisfying the minimum aggregate relevance score constraint and the maximum tour duration.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising selecting, by the one or more processors, a selected route from the alternative tour routes based on the selected route having a greatest of aggregate relevance scores determined by the calculating.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the defining further comprises generating the ordered list of locations in part by eliminating candidate locations for periods during which the candidate location is indicated as unavailable.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising calculating, by the one or more processors, periods during which the candidate location is unavailable at least in part based on scheduled use of the location by one or more prior tours.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising by the one or more processors for each of the tour subject indicators, weighting the relevance value by an interest factor indicating a user's level of interest in the indicated subject.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising, by the one or more processors, determining the interest factor based on one or more of user input, prior user feedback for a cohort matching the user, or electronic data indicating user preferences.

11. The method of claim 9 , further comprising, by the one or more processors, adjusting at least one of the relevance value or interest factor based on user feedback received during or after completing at least a portion of a tour following the tour route record.

12. The method of claim 9 , further comprising tracking, by the one or more processors, progress of the user along the tour, at least in part by receiving a signal from a wireless transmitter progressing through the tour with the user.

13. The method of claim 10 , further comprising modifying the at least one tour record during the tour, based at least in part on the user feedback.

14. The method of claim 10 , further comprising receiving at least a portion of the user feedback as biometric data indicating a neurological response of the user to delivery of the content, from a biometric sensor positioned to detect the neurological response.

15. The method of claim 9 , further comprising, by the one or more processors, processing the user feedback by a machine-learning algorithm trained to predict at least one of the interest factor or the relevance value for specific user cohorts.

16. The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating an electronic tour guide for content corresponding to locations indicated by the at least one tour route record relevant to subjects referenced by the lesser subset selected from the ordered arrangement of tour subject indicators.

17. The method of claim 16 , further comprising providing the electronic tour guide to at least one of a mobile device belonging to the user, or a mobile device belonging to a tour guide.

18. The method of claim 1 further comprising combining, by the one or more processors, two or more lesser subsets selected from the ordered arrangement of tour subject indicators each corresponding to a different user.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising, by the one or more processors, selecting the two or more lesser subsets based on a similarity measure exceeding a threshold value.

20. The method of claim 18 further comprising, by the one or more processors, prioritizing tour subject indicators in the two or more lesser subsets for including in the at least one tour route record, at least in part by an algorithm that includes an equal number of unique tour subject indicators for each participating user.

21. An apparatus for configuring a customized tour of a mapped space, the apparatus comprising at least one processor coupled to a memory, the memory holding program instructions that when executed by the at least one processor cause the apparatus to perform:
providing an ordered arrangement of tour subject indicators configured for output by a user interface device, wherein each of the tour subject indicators is associated by an electronic data structure to a relevance value for one or more locations of the mapped space and to content about a subject indicated by the tour subject indicator for delivery at corresponding ones of the one or more locations, wherein the relevance value indicates a degree of relevance of each location of the one or more locations to the each of the tour subjects;
receiving user selection data from a user indicating a lesser subset selected from the ordered arrangement of tour subject indicators;
calculating an aggregate relevance score for the lesser subset of tour subject indicators and locations of the mapped space;
defining at least one tour route record comprising an ordered list of locations being a lesser subset of all locations in the mapped space that satisfies at least a minimum aggregate relevance score constraint and a maximum tour duration constraint; and
saving information defining the at least one tour route record in the memory for use in delivering a corresponding tour.

22. The apparatus of claim 21 , wh

Assignees

• Warner Bros Entertainment Inc

Inventors

• Klappert Walter
• Ferguson Daniel

Classifications

• G06Q50/14 Primary

  Travel agencies · CPC title

• G06Q10/047

  Optimisation of routes or paths, e.g. travelling salesman problem · CPC title

• G09B29/008 Primary

  Touring maps or guides to public transport networks · CPC title

• G06N20/00

  Machine learning · CPC title

• G06Q10/02

  Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events · CPC title