Patent ID: 8301364
Filing Date: 2012-10-30
Classification: G01C,G06F

Abstract:
1. A computer implemented method of operating a navigation system to provide geographic location information, the method comprising: receiving a query text string representing a query for a geographic location from a user; obtaining data records that represent a plurality of candidate geographic locations from a geographic database stored on a computer readable medium, each of the data records comprising a record text string; computing a text matching score for each of the candidate geographic locations, wherein the text matching score indicates how much of the query text string matches the record text string; for each of the plurality of candidate geographic locations, applying a usage pattern weight of one of the candidate geographic locations to the text matching score of one of the candidate geographic locations to obtain an overall score value for the one of the candidate geographic locations, wherein the usage pattern weight is increased when users have selected the one of the candidate geographic locations and decreased with a time fade out; and ranking by computer the candidate geographic locations based on the respective overall score values, wherein the overall score value s and wherein the time fade out is defined by a predetermined half-life of the usage pattern weight and an amount of time elapsed from a preceding time fade out.