System and Method for Gesture-Based Point of Interest Search

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for storing computer program instructions for retrieving information associated with a point of interest (POI), the program instructions when executed by a processor cause the processor to perform steps including:

• receiving a data signal representing an identifying gesture performed by a user inside a vehicle, the identifying gesture oriented in a direction and identifying an object exterior to the vehicle;
• performing gesture recognition on the data signal to determine a direction vector representing the direction of the identifying gesture;
• accessing location data identifying a current location and orientation of the vehicle;
• analyzing the direction vector and the location data to generate a target region corresponding to the object identified by the identifying gesture;
• retrieving information associated with one or more points of interest located in the target region;
• and
• providing the retrieved information to the user, the retrieved information including information associated with the object identified by the identifying gesture.

A vehicle-based computing system for retrieving information associated with a point of interest (POI), the system comprising:

• a gesture recognition module configured to:
• receive a data signal representing an identifying gesture performed by a user inside a vehicle, the identifying gesture oriented in a direction and identifying an object exterior to the vehicle;
• and
• perform gesture recognition on the data signal to determine a direction vector representing the direction of the identifying gesture;
• a location module configured to access location data identifying a current location and orientation of the vehicle;
• an input analysis module configured to analyze the direction vector and the location data to generate a target region corresponding to the object identified by the identifying gesture;
• a search module configured to retrieve information associated with one or more points of interest located in the target region;
• and
• a data output module configured to provide the retrieved information to the user, the retrieved information including information associated with the object identified by the identifying gesture.