1. Technical Field
Various illustrative embodiments relate to searching and identifying points-of-interest (POIs) and navigating to these POIs. The POIs may be off-route with respect to the user's destination route and identified irrespective of the route or the vehicle's geographic location.
2. Background Art
Navigation systems, both vehicle-installed and portable, may offer a point of interest (POI) search as an easy and quick way of searching for well-known destination points. POIs can include hotels, restaurants, amusements parks, coffee shops, and the like. When a POI is selected, the POI can be set as a final destination or a “waypoint,” i.e., an intermediary point along the route.
Often, navigation systems provide limited options for searching for a POI. For example, a user can search for a POI along the route, in a city, near the final destination, or by name. These search options come in handy if a driver is searching for a POI based on these filters. Even if a driver searches by POI name, the navigation system may find the POIs near the vehicle's location or along the route. This presents a challenge, however, if the driver wants to search for a POI that is not along the route or nearby.
Various examples exist in the art that disclose forms of navigation to POIs that are off an intended route. For example, U.S. Publication No. 2010/0088018 to Tsurutome et al. discloses a glance ahead navigation system. The navigation system allows a user to easily “glance ahead” down a route to see points-of-interest (POI) such as businesses along future portions of a route. POIs within a short distance radius of a selected future exit or other future point along the user's route may be presented to the user via an appropriate display. The short distance radius may be defined by constraints associated with the display (e.g., within a represented distance from the exit that can be shown in a current zoom level of the display). Instead of abandoning a navigation session, use of glance ahead suspends navigation while the user views snapshots of points-of-interest at each exit. The navigation system may show branded icons or business details associated with displayed POIs without the need for the user to access a separate screen.
U.S. Publication No. 2010/0094550 to Tsurutome et al. discloses a user interface for dynamic user-defined stopovers during guided navigation. The navigation device includes a route determiner module to formulate a first route from a first geographic location to a second geographic location. A route presentation module presents the first route to a user of the navigation device. A side trip presentation module presents a point-of-interest to the user of said navigation device and formulates a second route to said point-of-interest. An options module presents an option, during presentation of the first route, to recalculate the first route to the second geographic location to comprise the second route.