Verifiable reward system for influencing human travel patterns

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017193614-A1
Application number	US-201514984718-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Dec 30, 2015
Priority date	Dec 30, 2015
Publication date	Jul 6, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

A system for incentivizing travel patterns includes a negotiator that receives a travel template from a traveler, transmits a set of journey options to the traveler, receives a journey selected from the journey options, and sends a journey contract to the traveler based on the selected journey, a journey generator that determines the set of journey options based on the travel template, the traveler's historical behavior, and current network conditions, a rewards engine that calculates the reward associated with each journey option based on a reduction in cost for the journey, a location arbitrator that receives location information from the traveler as the travelers performs the journey in the journey contract, and a verification engine that verifies, whether the traveler's journey complied the terms of the journey contract, and determines the traveler's reward as calculated by the rewards engine based on a degree of compliance with the contract.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method for incentivizing travel patterns, comprising the steps of:
receiving from a user a travel template for an expected journey that includes an origin, a destination, and a time window for the journey; comparing the travel template to current and forecasted travel conditions during said time window on a travel network that connects the origin and destination to determine a reward for each of a plurality of paths connecting the origin and destination during said time period; transmitting each path and an associated reward to the user; receiving from the user a decision regarding the plurality of paths and the associated rewards; and transmitting a confirmation of a journey contract to the user, if the user has selected one of the plurality of paths and its associated reward as the path for the user's journey.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving a request for more path options, if the user rejects all of the plurality of paths.

3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving a list of mobile phone base stations that correspond to a path for the contracted journey, wherein the contracted journey is decomposed into a finite list of locations, each associated with a mobile phone base station, and each associated with a specified time window.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein receiving a list of mobile phone base stations further comprises transmitting path information about the contracted journey to a mobile phone service provider, and receiving the list of phone base stations that correspond to the path from the mobile phone service provider.

5 . The method of claim 3 , wherein receiving a list of mobile phone base stations further comprises receiving a list from a mobile phone service provider of all mobile phone base stations in a geographic vicinity of the contracted journey, and selecting those mobile phone base stations that correspond to the path of the contracted journey.

6 . The method of claim 3 , further comprising verifying performance of the user's journey contract by receiving verification that the user has passed through a threshold number of locations associated with those mobile phone base stations that correspond to the path of the contracted journey within the specified time windows.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein verifying that the user has passed through a threshold number of locations comprises receiving a list of time-stamps from each mobile phone base station passed that were recorded using a location service on the user's mobile phone.

8 . The method of claim 6 , wherein verifying that the user has passed through a threshold number of locations comprises receiving a verification signal from the user that indicates whether the user's phone was at the contracted base station locations during the contracted time windows within an agreed margin of error.

9 . The method of claim 6 , further comprising, upon verifying that the user has passed through a threshold number of locations, transmitting a reward to the user based on the journey contract.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein determining a reward for each of the plurality of paths connecting the origin and destination during said time period comprises calculating ψ(c′−c x ), where ψ(·) is a non-decreasing function, c x is a cost associated with path x, and c′=φ(x′, M x ) wherein x′ represents the expected journey, and M x represents a graph of a road network connecting the origin and destination of the expected journey, wherein connections between graph vertices are weighted based on a current or forecasted traffic load, and φ( ) is a cost function which quantifies an impact of journey x′ on the network given a network forecast M x .

11 . A system for incentivizing travel patterns, comprising:
a negotiator that receives a travel template from a traveler's mobile application, transmits a set of journey options to the traveler, receives a journey selected from the journey options, and sends a journey contract to the traveler based on the selected journey, wherein the travel template includes an origin, a destination and an approximate departure/arrival time, wherein each journey option specifies a route from the origin to the destination associated with a start time or time window and a reward, and the journey contract is a selected journey option; a journey generator that determines the set of journey options based on the travel template, the traveler's historical behavior, and current network conditions; a rewards engine that calculates the reward associated with each journey option based on a reduction in cost for the journey; a location arbitrator that receives location information from the traveler as the travelers performs the journey specified in the journey contract; and a verification engine that verifies, based on the location information, whether the traveler's journey complied the terms of the journey contract, and determines the traveler's reward as calculated by the rewards engine based on a degree of compliance with the contract.

12 . The system of claim 11 , further comprising a normal behavior model that is used by the journey generator to determine a reward for each journey option, wherein the reduction in cost is determined with respect to a normal behavior pattern for the journey option.

13 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the rewards engine determines the reward for each journey option by calculating ψ(c′−c x ), where ψ(·) is a non-decreasing function, c x is a cost associated with journey x, and c′=φ(x′, M x ) wherein x′ represents an expected journey, and M x represents a graph of a road network connecting the origin and destination of the expected journey, wherein connections between graph vertices are weighted based on a current or forecasted traffic load, and φ( ) is a cost function which quantifies an impact of journey x′ on the network given a network forecast M x .

14 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the location arbitrator receives a list of mobile phone base stations that correspond to the contracted journey, wherein the contracted journey is decomposed into a finite list of locations, each associated with a mobile phone base station, and each associated with a specified time window.

15 . The system of claim 14 , wherein the verification engine verifies whether the traveler's journey complied the terms of the journey contract by determining whether the user has passed through a threshold number of locations associated with those mobile phone base stations that correspond to the path of the contracted journey within the specified time windows.

16 . A non-transitory program storage device readable by a computer, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executed by the computer to perform the method steps for incentivizing travel patterns, the method comprising the steps of:
receiving from a user a travel template for an expected journey that includes an origin, a destination, and a time window for the journey; comparing the travel template to current and forecasted travel conditions during said time window on a travel network that connects the origin and destination to determine a reward for each of a plurality of paths connecting the origin and destination during said time period; transmitting each path and an associated reward to the user; receiving from the user a decision regarding the plurality of paths and the associated rewards; and transmitting a confirmation of a journey contract to the user, if the user has selected one of the plurality of paths and its associated reward as the pat

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Kalyanaraman Shivkumar
• Kokku Ravindranath
• Steer Kent

Classifications

• G06Q30/0239

  Online discounts or incentives · CPC title

• G06Q50/14 Primary

  Travel agencies · CPC title

• H04W64/003

  locating network equipment · CPC title