Apple's US application 20150112593 : Humanized Navigation Instructions for Mapping Applications

From the specification of Apple's application:

[0003] Conventional navigation instructions are mechanical and not easily understood by many users. For example, a conventional navigation instruction may be "turn right in 0.3 miles to street x." Many users cannot estimate 0.3 miles, and if the street sign for "street x" is not visible the turn can be missed. Another example instruction may be "head north." Heading north is not easy if the user does not know the direction of north. Another instruction may be "in 600 feet, arrive at your destination on the right." In cities with densely packed POIs, it may not be obvious where the destination is located, especially since the location accuracy may not be good enough for the `600 feet` number to be trusted.

[0004] In addition to being overly mechanical, conventional navigation instructions do not account for the mental state of a user and can often confuse and frustrate the user who may be lost in an unfamiliar location.

SUMMARY

[0005] A humanized navigation system provides humanized instructions that mimic a real human navigator, focuses on comprehension rather than precision, and attempts to make the navigation session less stressful for the user. In some implementations, complex navigation situations are classified according to shared common navigation problems. Once a class is determined, humanized navigation instructions are generated and/or selected based on the class and the current location of the user. The humanized navigation instructions include information to aid the user in navigating a route.


The first claim: A method comprising: determining a complex navigation situation has been encountered by a navigation device; determining one or more landmarks or attributes associated with a current location of the navigation device; and generating a humanized navigation instruction using the one or more landmarks or attributes, where the method is performed by one or more hardware processors.