Method of locating points of interest in a geographic area

A computer-implemented method of locating points of interest for a user in a geographic area, comprising:

• receiving, with one or more processing circuits, an input from the user relating to at least one current state of the user;
• wherein (a) the at least one current state of the user corresponds with at least one of a plurality of current state functions, and (b) the plurality of current state functions respectively include a plurality of point of interest (POI) utility measures where (i) each POI utility measure comprising a relevance score corresponding with one or more state functions, and (ii) the plurality of POI utility measures are ordered in a selected sequence for each of the plurality of current state functions;
• calculating, with the one or more processing circuits, for pairs of the plurality of POI utility measures and the plurality of current state functions, an approximation ratio for each one of at least two POI utility measures with respect to each one of the plurality of current state functions, wherein each approximation ratio reflects a degree of dominance which is in an inverse relationship with the corresponding relevance score which reflects a user preference ;
• wherein each approximation ratio is calculated for each pair of the plurality of POI utility measures and the plurality of current state functions using a function that generates an output that decreases in value as the relevance score increases in value;
• using, with the one or more processing circuits, the at least one current state of the user as an index into a list including both the plurality of current state functions with the respective plurality of POI utility measures to select at least one of the plurality of current state functions for performing, using the computed approximation ratio, approximate lexicographic optimization with respect to the plurality of current state functions for both (a) rating, with the one or more processing circuits, a plurality of points of interest with respect to the selected at least one of the plurality of current state functions, and (b) based on said rating, automatically selecting, with the one or more processing circuits, a set of points of interest from the rated plurality points of interest;
• and
• providing, with the one or more processing circuits, the set of points of interest to the user.