Automatic generation of geographic imagery tours

A method in a computing system for automatically generating geographic imagery tours, the method comprising:

• receiving, by one or more computing devices, an indication of a geographic area according to a current viewport of a client device;
• obtaining, by the one or more computing devices, respective metrics of noteworthiness for a plurality of entities located in the geographic area;
• selecting, by the one or more computing devices, from a machine-readable knowledge repository that describes semantic relations between the plurality of entities, several of the plurality of entities that share a set of attributes defining a commonality, in view of the corresponding metrics of noteworthiness, wherein the commonality is based on shared relevance to a common current or historical event and is not specified by a user, wherein digital imagery is available for each of the selected entities, and wherein the several entities of the plurality of entities are further selected according to a tour duration for a geographic imagery tour;
• generating, by the one or more computing devices, the geographic imagery tour that includes a representation of the respective digital imagery for the selected entities;
• and
• receiving, by the one or more computing devices, a plurality of concept templates that specify predefined themes or subjects including the commonality of the geographic imagery tour,
• wherein each concept template is stored as text with substitutive variables, and
• wherein selecting the entities includes substituting information retrieved via the machine-readable knowledge repository for the substitutive variables to generate semantic relationships.

A computing device, comprising:

• one or more processors;
• a user interface;
• and
• a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing thereon instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computing device to:
• determine a geographic context of the computing device, wherein the geographic context includes a selection of a single geographic area according to a current viewport of a client device,
• transmit an indication of the geographic context to a server via a communication network,
• receive, from the server, available geographic imagery tours in response to the indication of the geographic context, wherein each geographic imagery tour includes a representation of respective digital imagery for a plurality of entities within the single geographic area that share a commonality based on shared relevance to a common current or historical event, and that correspond to the geographic context, and wherein the plurality of entities of each geographic imagery tour are selected according to a tour duration,
• receive a selection of one of the available geographic imagery tours,
• retrieve content for the selected geographic imagery tour from the server, and
• provide the content of the selected geographic imagery tour via the user interface.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing thereon instructions for automatically generating geographic imagery tours, wherein the instructions, when executed by one or more computing devices, are configured to:

• receive an indication of a geographic context, including receive a selection of a single geographic area according to a current viewport of a client device;
• automatically select, from a machine-readable knowledge repository in which data that describes attributes of entities within the single geographic area is organized according to semantic relations between the entities, a group of entities satisfying conditions of (i) corresponding to the geographic context, (ii) having references to related digital imagery in the knowledge repository, and (iii) sharing a set of one or more attributes that define a commonality based on shared relevance to a common current or historical event, wherein the group of entities is selected from among candidate entities matching the conditions (i)-(iii) in view of metrics of noteworthiness of the entities, without receiving a selection of the commonality from a user, and wherein the group of entities is further selected according to a tour duration for a geographic imagery tour;
• and
• generate the geographic imagery tour that includes a representation of the respective digital imagery for the selected group of entities.