Integrated journey planner

A system for providing journey information to a user, the system comprising:

• input means for receiving unique location reference information identifying the start and end locations of a user-defined journey;
• means for considering at least some possible predetermined pairs of access points to a transport network of a single mode of transport, the access points being at different locations than the start and end locations;
• selection means for selecting those pairs of access points which minimize a selection factor between the start and end locations and the access points respectively;
• requesting means for generating an information request containing a selected pair of access points and sending the request to a knowledge store holding information regarding the single mode of transport;
• receiving means for receiving multiple different responses representing different travel options from the knowledge store;
• constructing means for constructing a travel option for the user specified journey from the response received from the knowledge store;
• and
• means for providing all the comparative multiple travel options to the user on a single viewing page for ease of comparison and user selection.

A method of determining a unique location reference from user-specified location name, the method comprising:

• reading a user-specified location name;
• interpreting the user-specified location name by finding the closest matches thereto from pre-stored location names having predetermined unique location references associated therewith;
• accessing demographic data regarding the closest matches from a geographic/demographic database of the predetermined location references;
• and
• ranking the closest matches in order of the demographic size of each possible match.

An integrated journey planner for providing travel information for a user-specified journey;

• the journey planner comprising:
• means for deconstructing a user enquiry specifying the journey into a plurality of information requests, each specifying a part of the journey using a single mode of transport;
• means for sending each request to an appropriate one of a plurality of knowledge stores, each store holding travel information regarding a different mode of transport;
• means for reconstructing the responses to the requests received from the plurality of knowledge stores into at least one multi-modal travel option, for the user-specified journey, incorporating different modes of transport;
• means for displaying travel options determined by the journey planner to the user;
• and
• means for expanding the travel options provided to the user for the purposes of travel option comparison.

A method of determining a route between start and end map locations, the method comprising:

• searching a network of nodes, representing road data at a plurality of geographic road locations and neighboring locations, in a recursive manner to establish a route between the nodes representing the start and the end locations;
• and
• traversing the selected route from the end node to the start node in order to optimise the route selection along the route from each intermediate node to the end node,
• wherein the traversing/optimising step comprises for each intermediate node calculating a hypothetical route from the start to the end node and comparing it with the selected route, the hypothetical route being identical to the selected route from the start to the current intermediate node and including a partial hypothetical route from the current intermediate node to the end node, the partial hypothetical route being an ideal route maximising a user-defined criterion.

A road network routing engine for determining a route between start and end map locations, the routing engine comprising:

• a search engine for searching a network of nodes, representing road data at a plurality of geographic road locations and neighboring locations, in a recursive manner to establish a route between the nodes representing the start and the end locations;
• optimising means for traversing the selected route from the end node to the start node optimising the route selection along the route from each intermediate node to the end node;
• and
• calculating means for calculating, for each intermediate node, a hypothetical route from the start to the end node and comparing it with the selected route, the hypothetical route being identical to the selected route from the start to the current intermediate node and including a partial hypothetical route from the current intermediate node to the end node, the partial hypothetical route being an ideal route maximising a user-defined criteria.

An integrated journey planner for providing travel information for a user-specified journey;

• the journey planner comprising:
• means for deconstructing a user enquiry specifying the journey into a plurality of information requests, each specifying a part of the journey using a single mode of transport;
• means for sending each request to an appropriate one of a plurality of knowledge stores, each store holding travel information regarding a different mode of transport;
• and
• means for reconstructing the responses to the requests received from the plurality of knowledge stores into at least one multi-modal travel option, for the user-specified journey, incorporating different modes of transport, wherein
• the deconstruction means is arranged to deconstruct each user enquiry using a recursive subdivision procedure for each possible mode of transport until for each subdivision one of the following group of conditions is met;
• the group comprising:
• the subdivision relates only to one service provider and one mode of transport;
• the subdivision relates to a continuous portion of a road network;
• and
• the mode of transport is not available for the subdivision.

An integrated journey planner for providing travel information for a user-specified journey;

• the journey planner comprising:
• means for deconstructing a user enquiry specifying the journey into a plurality of information requests, each specifying a part of the journey using a single mode of transport;
• means for sending each request to an appropriate one of a plurality of knowledge stores, each store holding travel information regarding a different mode of transport, wherein the sending means is arranged to send the requests to different knowledge stores in batches, each batch containing requests with a specified start or end time, the batches being sent sequentially from a user-defined time such that the start or end time results for one batch can be used as the end or start time specifications for the next batch;
• and
• means for reconstructing the responses to the requests received from the plurality of knowledge stores into at least one multi-modal travel option, for the user-specified journey, incorporating different modes of transport.

An integrated journey planner for providing travel information for a user-specified journey, the journey planner comprising:

• means for deconstructing a user enquiry specifying the journey into a plurality of information requests, each specifying a part of the journey using a single mode of transport;
• means for sending each request to an appropriate one of a plurality of knowledge stores, each store holding travel information regarding a different mode of transport;
• means for reconstructing the responses to the requests received from the plurality of knowledge stores into at least one multi-modal travel option, for the user-specified journey, incorporating different modes of transport;
• means for displaying travel options determined by the journey planner to the user;
• means for expanding the travel option details provided to the user for the purposes of travel option comparison;
• means for selecting one of the displayed travel options, and booking means receptive to the selecting means for carrying out on-line booking of any of the selected modes of transport requiring ticket purchasing;
• and
• means for obtaining information related to the selected travel option, the obtaining means being arranged to retrieve the desired information over a communications network.

An integrated journey planner for providing travel information for a user-specified journey;

• the journey planner comprising:
• means for deconstructing a user enquiry specifying the journey into a plurality of information requests, each specifying a part of the journey using a single mode of transport;
• means for sending each request to an appropriate one of a plurality of knowledge stores, each stare holding travel information regarding a different mode of transport;
• means for reconstructing the responses to the requests received from the plurality of knowledge stores into at least one multi-modal travel option, for the user-specified journey, incorporating different modes of transport;
• a user enquiry processing means for understanding and linking the enquiry to associated locally stored data, wherein the processing means comprises a name resolver arranged to interpret the user-specified journey by finding the closest match of pre-stored data to the user-specified journey, and is arranged to use artificial intelligence to determine its acceptance.

An integrated journey planner for providing travel information for a user-specified journey;

• the journey planner comprising:
• means for deconstructing a user enquiry specifying the journey into a plurality of information requests, each specifying a part of the journey using a single mode of transport;
• means for sending each request to an appropriate one of a plurality of knowledge stores, each store holding travel information regarding a different mode of transport;
• and
• means for reconstructing the responses to the requests received from the plurality of knowledge stores into at least one multi-modal travel option, for the user-specified journey, incorporating different modes of transport,
• wherein the deconstruction means is arranged to deconstruct each user enquiry using a recursive subdivision procedure for each possible mode of transport until for each subdivision one of the following group of conditions is met, the group comprising:
• the subdivision relates only to one mode of transport;
• and
• the mode of transport is not available for the subdivision.

An integrated journey planner for providing travel information for a user-specified journey;

• the journey planner comprising;
• means for deconstructing a user enquiry specifying the journey into a plurality of information requests, each specifying a part of the journey using a single mode of transport;
• means for sending each request to an appropriate one of a plurality of knowledge stores, each store holding travel information regarding a different mode of transport;
• and
• means for reconstructing the responses to the requests received from the plurality of knowledge stores into at least one multi-modal travel option, for the user-specified journey, incorporating different modes of transport,
• wherein the sending means is arranged to send the requests to the different knowledge stores in batches, each batch containing requests with a specified start or end time.

An integrated journey planner for providing travel information for a user-specified journey;

• the journey planner comprising:
• means for deconstructing a user enquiry specifying the journey into a plurality of information requests, each specifying a part of the journey using a single mode of transport;
• means for sending each request to an appropriate one of a plurality of knowledge stores, each store holding travel information regarding a different mode of transport;
• and
• means for reconstructing the responses to the requests received from the plurality of knowledge stores into at least one multi-modal travel option, for the user-specified journey, incorporating different modes of transport,
• wherein the reconstructing means is arranged to reconstruct the received responses into a plurality of multi-modal travel options over the user-specified journey, each travel option using a plurality of different modes of transport.

An integrated journey planner for providing travel information for a user-specified journey;

• the journey planner comprising:
• means for deconstructing a user enquiry specifying the journey into a plurality of information requests, each specifying a part of the journey using a single mode of transport;
• means for sending each request to an appropriate one of a plurality of knowledge stores, each store holding travel information regarding a different mode of transport;
• and
• means for reconstructing the responses to the requests received from the plurality of knowledge stores into at least one multi-modal travel option, for the user-specified journey, incorporating different modes of transport,
• wherein the reconstructing means is arranged recursively to combine together each of the received responses until all possible travel options corresponding geographically to the user-specified journey are assembled.

An integrated journey planner for providing travel information for a user-specified journey;

• the journey planner comprising:
• means for deconstructing a user enquiry specifying the journey into a plurality of information requests, each specifying a part of the journey using a single mode of transport;
• means for sending each request to an appropriate one of a plurality of knowledge stores, each store holding travel information regarding a different mode of transport;
• means for reconstructing the responses to the requests received from the plurality of knowledge stores into at least one multi-modal travel option, for the user-specified journey, incorporating different modes of transport;
• means for displaying travel options determined by the journey planner to the user;
• and
• means for selecting one of the displayed travel options, and booking means receptive to the selecting means for carrying out on-line booking of any of the selected modes of transport requiring ticket purchasing.

A method of providing journey information to a user, the method comprising:

• receiving unique location reference information identifying the start and end locations of a user-defined journey;
• considering at least some possible predetermined pairs of access points to a transport network of a single mode of transport, the access points being at different locations than the start and end locations;
• selecting those pairs of access points which minimize a selection factor between the start and end locations and the access points respectively;
• generating an information request containing a selected pair of access points and sending the request to a knowledge store holding information regarding the single mode of transport;
• constructing a travel option for the user-specified journey from the response received from the knowledge store;
• determining the unique location reference information from user-specified start and end location names,
• wherein the determining step comprises interpreting the user-entered location names by finding the closest matches to pre-stored location names having predetermined unique location references for use with the receiving step, and using artificial intelligence to determine acceptance of the closest matching pre-stored location names to the user-entered names.

A method of providing journey information to a user, the method comprising:

• receiving unique location reference information identifying the start and end locations of a user-defined journey;
• considering at least some possible predetermined pairs of access points to a transport network of a single mode of transport, the access points being at different locations than the start and end locations;
• selecting those pairs of access points which minimize a selection factor between the start and end locations and the access points respectively;
• generating an information request containing a selected pair of access points and sending the request to a knowledge store holding information regarding the single mode of transport;
• constructing a travel option for the user-specified journey from the response received from the knowledge store;
• determining the unique location reference information from a user-specified location name and from an automatic current location of user determining procedure;
• interpreting a user-entered location name by finding the closest match to pre-stored location names having predetermined location co-ordinates for use with the receiving step:
• and
• using artificial intelligence to determine acceptance of the closest matching pre-stored location names to the user-entered location name.