U.S. patent application number 14/880407 was filed with the patent office on 2018-01-18 for identifying origin and destination pairs.
The applicant listed for this patent is INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION. Invention is credited to HAO CHEN, FENG LI, QI CHENG LI, SHAO CHUN LI, FANG QUAN XIE, XIN ZHOU.
Application Number | 20180018214 14/880407 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 56046826 |
Filed Date | 2018-01-18 |
United States Patent
Application |
20180018214 |
Kind Code |
A9 |
CHEN; HAO ; et al. |
January 18, 2018 |
IDENTIFYING ORIGIN AND DESTINATION PAIRS
Abstract
The present disclosure relates to identifying an
origin/destination pair. Aspects include identifying an
origin/destination pair in a service, which includes determining a
current time when the current operation is executed in response to
failure of a current operation for recording an origin/destination
pair. Aspects also include determining a previous time when a last
operation was executed for recording an origin/destination pair and
identifying a missing point causing failure of the current
operation based on a time interval between the current time and the
previous time.
Inventors: |
CHEN; HAO; (BEIJING, CN)
; LI; FENG; (BEIJING, CN) ; LI; QI CHENG;
(BEIJING, CN) ; LI; SHAO CHUN; (BEIJING, CN)
; XIE; FANG QUAN; (Fu Zhou City, CN) ; ZHOU;
XIN; (BEIJING, CN) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION |
ARMONK |
NY |
US |
|
|
Prior
Publication: |
|
Document Identifier |
Publication Date |
|
US 20160124791 A1 |
May 5, 2016 |
|
|
Family ID: |
56046826 |
Appl. No.: |
14/880407 |
Filed: |
October 12, 2015 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F 11/0787 20130101;
G06F 11/0745 20130101; G06F 11/0793 20130101; H04L 67/22 20130101;
G06F 11/0751 20130101; G06Q 50/30 20130101; G01C 21/3617
20130101 |
International
Class: |
G06F 11/07 20060101
G06F011/07 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Oct 30, 2014 |
CN |
201410599389.6 |
Claims
1.-10. (canceled)
11. An apparatus for identifying a missing point in an
origin/destination pair, the apparatus comprising: a current time
determining unit configured to, in response to failure of a current
operation for recording an origin/destination pair associated with
a user, determine a current time when the current operation is
executed; a previous time determining unit configured to determine
a previous time when a last operation for recording the
origin/destination pair was executed; and a missing point
identifying unit configured to identify a missing point causing the
failure of the current operation based on a time interval between
the current time and the previous time.
12. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the previous time
determining unit comprises a first reading unit configured to read
the previous time from a terminal device of the user.
13. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the missing point
identifying unit comprises: a popular information obtaining unit
configured to, in response to the time interval being greater than
a predetermined threshold, obtain information about popular origins
and destinations associated with the user, each popular origin or
destination being associated with a time; and a first identifying
unit configured to identify the missing point based on the
information about popular origins and destinations.
14. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the popular
information obtaining unit comprises a second reading unit
configured to read the information about popular origins and
destinations from a terminal device of the user.
15. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the first
identifying unit comprises a missing point selecting unit
configured to select, from among the popular origins and
destinations, a point of a same type as the missing point with the
associated time prior to the current time as the missing point, the
type indicating whether the missing point is an origin or a
destination.
16. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the information
about popular origins and destinations associated with the user
includes popular origin/destination pairs, and wherein the first
identifying unit comprises: a reference pair selecting unit
configured to select a reference origin/destination pair that
matches the current operation from among the popular
origin/destination pairs based on the current time and a type of
the missing point, the type indicating whether the missing point is
an origin or a destination; and a reference pair based identifying
unit configured to identify the missing point based on the
reference origin/destination pair.
17. The apparatus according to claim 16, wherein the reference pair
based identifying unit comprises: an origin identifying unit
configured to, in response to the missing point being an origin,
determine an origin in the reference origin/destination pair as the
missing point; and a destination identifying unit configured to, in
response to the missing point being a destination, select a popular
destination from among the popular origin/destination pairs as the
missing point, such that the time associated with the selected
popular destination is immediately adjacent to the time associated
with an origin in the reference origin/destination pair.
18. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the
origin/destination pair is a pair of originating
location/termination location, and wherein the missing point
identifying unit comprises: a location determining unit configured
to, in response to the time interval being less than a
predetermined threshold, determine one or more locations reached by
the user during the time interval, each of the locations
corresponding to a potential originating location or terminating
location of the service; a location selecting unit configured to
select a location from the one or more locations based on a type of
the missing point, the type indicating whether the missing point is
an originating location or a termination location; and a second
identifying unit configured to determine the potential originating
location or termination location corresponding to the selected
location as the missing point.
19. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the location
selecting unit comprises a distance based selecting unit configured
to select a location from among the one or more locations, a
distance between the selected location and a location where the
last operation was executed being less than a predetermined
threshold.
20. A computer program product for identifying an
origin/destination pair in a service, the computer program product
comprising: a non-transitory storage medium readable by a
processing circuit and storing instructions for execution by the
processing circuit for performing a method comprising: determining
a current time when a current operation is executed in response to
a failure of the current operation for recording the
origin/destination pair associated with a user; determining a
previous time when a last operation for recording the
origin/destination pair was executed; and identifying a missing
point causing the failure of the current operation based on a time
interval between the current time and the previous time.
Description
FOREIGN PRIORITY
[0001] This application claims priority to Chinese Patent
Application No. 201410599389.6 filed Oct. 30, 2014; and all the
benefits accruing therefrom under 35 U.S.C. .sctn.119, the contents
of which in its entirety are herein incorporated by reference.
BACKGROUND
[0002] Embodiments of the present invention relate to a method and
apparatus for identifying origin/destination pairs.
[0003] In many services, it is needed to collect information about
an origin/destination pair. For example, integrated circuit (IC)
cards have been widely applied in public transportation services
such as bus and subway. In use, a user has to swipe card at a start
station (origin) and a destination station (destination) so as to
generate origin/destination pair information. Based on such pair
information, various operations such as charging, route statistics
and analysis may be performed to the user. For another example, in
expressway management, electronic road pricing (ERP) is also
required to provide an intelligent traffic management based on
origin/destination pair information. For example, in a parking
management, information about checking in/out of a parking lot
should generally be required to record, which may also be regarded
as a kind of origin/destination pair information.
[0004] However, during actual use, due to technical reasons such as
IC card fault, POS machine fault, and communication fault, as well
as artificial reasons such as subjective negligence, etc., loss of
origin or destination information might be incurred. In this case,
it will cause service failure. For example, in a public
transportation system, when a user swipes card at the destination,
if the origin information is lost, agate at a terminal will not be
opened. Traditionally, this problem needs to be solved in a manual
manner, which will bring various inconveniences to the user per se,
other users and the service provider, particularly at rush time of
the service. The same problem also exists in other services such as
an ERP service and a parking management service.
SUMMARY
[0005] In one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a
method for identifying an origin/destination pair in a service. The
method comprises: in response to failure of a current operation for
recording an origin/destination pair, determining a current time
when the current operation is executed; determining a previous time
when a last operation for recording an origin/destination pair was
executed; and identifying a missing point causing failure of the
current operation based on a time interval between the current time
and the previous time.
[0006] In another aspect of the present invention, there is
provided an apparatus for identifying an origin/destination pair in
a service. The apparatus includes a current time determining unit
configured to, in response to failure of a current operation for
recording an origin/destination pair, determine a current time when
the current operation is executed. The apparatus also includes a
previous time determining unit configured to determine a previous
time when a last operation for recording an origin/destination pair
was executed and a missing point identifying unit configured to
identify a missing point causing failure of the current operation
based on a time interval between the current time and the previous
time.
[0007] In another aspect of the present invention, there is
provided a computer program product for identifying an
origin/destination pair in a service, the computer program product
including a non-transitory storage medium readable by a processing
circuit and storing instructions for execution by the processing
circuit for performing a method. The method includes determining a
current time when a current operation is executed in response to a
failure of the current operation for recording the
origin/destination pair associated with a user. The method also
includes determining a previous time when a last operation for
recording the origin/destination pair was executed and identifying
a missing point causing the failure of the current operation based
on a time interval between the current time and the previous
time.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0008] Through the more detailed description of some embodiments of
the present disclosure in the accompanying drawings, the above and
other objects, features and advantages of the present disclosure
will become more apparent, wherein:
[0009] FIG. 1 shows an example computer system/server which is
applicable to implement embodiments of the present invention;
[0010] FIG. 2 shows a schematic flowchart of a method for
identifying a missing point in an origin/destination pair according
to embodiments of the present invention;
[0011] FIG. 3 shows a schematic flowchart of a method for
identifying a missing point in an origin/destination pair according
to embodiments of the present invention; and
[0012] FIG. 4 shows a schematic block diagram of an apparatus for
identifying a missing point in an origin/destination pair according
to embodiments of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0013] Exemplary embodiments will be described in more detail with
reference to the accompanying drawings, where the embodiments of
the present disclosure have been illustrated. However, the present
disclosure can be implemented in various manners, and thus should
not be construed to be limited to the embodiments disclosed herein.
On the contrary, those embodiments are provided for the thorough
and complete understanding of the present disclosure, and
completely conveying the scope of the present disclosure to those
skilled in the art.
[0014] According to embodiments of the present invention, a user's
historical operation records or location/movement information
within a past period of time may be flexibly utilized based on a
time interval between a user's current operation and the last
recorded operation, so as to automatically identify a missing point
in an origin/destination pair. Embodiments of the present invention
can accurately identify a missing point in a full automatic way,
thereby enhancing service efficiency and user experience. Other
features and advantages of the present invention will become easily
comprehensible through the description below.
[0015] Referring now to FIG. 1, where an example computer
system/server 12 which is applicable to implement embodiments of
the present invention is shown. Computer system/server 12 is only
illustrative and is not intended to suggest any limitation as to
the scope of use or functionality of embodiments of the invention
described herein.
[0016] As shown in FIG. 1, computer system/server 12 is shown in
the form of a general-purpose computing device. The components of
computer system/server 12 may include, but are not limited to, one
or more processors or processing units 16, a system memory 28, and
a bus 18 that couples various system components including system
memory 28 to processor 16.
[0017] Bus 18 represents one or more of any of several types of bus
structures, including a memory bus or memory controller, a
peripheral bus, an accelerated graphics port, and a processor or
local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures. By way of
example, and not limitation, such architectures include Industry
Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, Micro Channel Architecture (MCA)
bus, Enhanced ISA (EISA) bus, Video Electronics Standards
Association (VESA) local bus, and Peripheral Component Interconnect
(PCI) bus.
[0018] Computer system/server 12 typically includes a variety of
computer system readable media. Such media may be any available
media that is accessible by computer system/server 12, and it
includes both volatile and non-volatile media, removable and
non-removable media.
[0019] System memory 28 can include computer system readable media
in the form of volatile memory, such as random access memory (RAM)
30 and/or cache memory 32. Computer system/server 12 may further
include other removable/non-removable, volatile/non-volatile
computer system storage media. By way of example only, storage
system 34 can be provided for reading from and writing to a
non-removable, non-volatile magnetic media (not shown and typically
called a "hard drive"). Although not shown, a magnetic disk drive
for reading from and writing to a removable, non-volatile magnetic
disk (e.g., a "floppy disk"), and an optical disk drive for reading
from or writing to a removable, non-volatile optical disk such as a
CD-ROM, DVD-ROM or other optical media can be provided. In such
instances, each can be connected to bus 18 by one or more data
media interfaces. As will be further depicted and described below,
memory 28 may include at least one program product having a set
(e.g., at least one) of program modules that are configured to
carry out the functions of embodiments of the invention.
[0020] Program/utility 40, having a set (at least one) of program
modules 42, may be stored in memory 28 by way of example, and not
limitation, as well as an operating system, one or more application
programs, other program modules, and program data. Each of the
operating system, one or more application programs, other program
modules, and program data or some combination thereof, may include
an implementation of a networking environment. Program modules 42
generally carry out the functions and/or methodologies of
embodiments of the invention as described herein.
[0021] Computer system/server 12 may also communicate with one or
more external devices 14 such as a keyboard, a pointing device, a
display 24, etc.; one or more devices that enable a user to
interact with computer system/server 12; and/or any devices (e.g.,
network card, modem, etc.) that enable computer system/server 12 to
communicate with one or more other computing devices. Such
communication can occur via Input/Output (I/O) interfaces 22. Still
yet, computer system/server 12 can communicate with one or more
networks such as a local area network (LAN), a general wide area
network (WAN), and/or a public network (e.g., the Internet) via
network adapter 20. As depicted, network adapter 20 communicates
with the other components of computer system/server 12 via bus 18.
It should be understood that although not shown, other hardware
and/or software components could be used in conjunction with
computer system/server 12. Examples include, but are not limited
to: microcode, device drivers, redundant processing units, external
disk drive arrays, RAID systems, tape drives, and data archival
storage systems, etc.
[0022] Hereinafter, the mechanism and principle of embodiments of
the present invention will be described in detail. Unless otherwise
stated, the term "based on" used hereinafter and in the claims
expresses "at least partially based on." The term "comprise" or
"include" or a similar expression indicates an open inclusion,
i.e., "including, but not limited to . . . . " The term "plural" or
a similar expression indicates "two or more." The term "one
embodiment" indicates "at least one embodiment." The term "another
embodiment" indicates "at least one another embodiment."
Definitions of other terms will be provided in the description
infra.
[0023] FIG. 2 shows a schematic flowchart of a method 200 for
identifying a missing point in an origin/destination pair according
to embodiments of the present invention. In one embodiment, the
method 200 may be implemented by a client device in charge of
interacting with a terminal device used by the user. For example,
in a public transportation management system, the user's terminal
device may be a device such as a dedicated or general IC card or
mobile phone or the like. At this point, the method 200 may be
implemented by a gate in charge of interacting with the terminal
device.
[0024] In particular, at the ease of discussion, in the description
below, a check-in/check-out management system in a public
transportation system will be mainly referenced as an example.
Correspondingly, the IC card will be described as an example of a
terminal device, and the gate will be described as an example of a
client. However, it would be appreciated that they are only
example, not intended to limit the scope of the present invention
in any manner. Embodiments of the present invention may be
applicable for any other appropriate fields such as road
management, tolling, parking lot management and the like.
[0025] The method 200 starts in step S210, where in response to a
failure of current operation for recording an origin/destination
pair, the time when a current operation is executed is determined.
In the context of the present disclosure, an operation for
recording an origin/destination pair is an interactive operation
which is performed between a terminal device of a user and a client
device and which is capable of recording origin or destination
information in order to form an interactive operation of an
origin/destination pair.
[0026] As an example, when checking in/out a bus station with an IC
card, the user may perform a "card swiping" operation. In other
words, the user places the IC card at a location close enough to a
sensing area of a gate, such that the gate can read information in
the IC card. The gate may identify a user's identity through the
read information, record the user's check-in/check-out information,
and transmit user information to a backend server, etc. In this
point, the card swiping operation is an operation for recording an
origin/destination pair. In other applications, any other form of
operation for recording an origin/destination pair is possible.
[0027] According to embodiments of the present invention, a service
provider requires paired appearance of the origin and destination
so as to form an origin/destination pair. Otherwise, the user's
operation will fail. Specifically, in one embodiment, the gate only
allows a user to pass unidirectionally. For example, a gate
arranged at an entry of a bus station only allows a user to enter
into a bus station, while a gate arranged at an exit of a bus
station only allows a user to leave the bus station. Each time when
the user performs a card swiping operation, the gate will record
whether the user performs an operation at an exit or at an entry. A
plurality of card swiping records of the user may be stored in an
IC card in a temporal order.
[0028] Therefore, in such an embodiment, when the user swipes card
at an entry gate, the gate will read the user's last card swiping
record from the user's IC card. If the entry gate finds that the
last card swiping is also performed at an entry gate, it is
determined that a missing point exists in the origin/destination
pair and the type of the missing point is destination.
[0029] Likewise, when the user swipes card at an exit gate, the
gate will read the user's last card swiping record from the user's
IC card. If the exit gate finds that the last card swiping is also
performed at an exit gate, it is determined that a missing point
exists in the origin/destination pair and the type of the missing
point is entry.
[0030] In response to detecting that a missing point exists in the
origin/destination pair, in step S210, the gate may determine the
execution time of the current recording operation (e.g., a card
swiping operation). In one embodiment, a gate for executing the
method 200 may be equipped with a clock. In this embodiment, the
gate may directly read the current time. Alternatively, in other
embodiments, the gate may also obtain the current time from other
device such as a backend server.
[0031] The method 200 proceeds to step S220, where a time when the
last operation for recording the origin/destination pair was
performed by a user is obtained. As mentioned above, in one
embodiment, information regarding a predetermined number of
previous card swiping actions executed by the user may be stored in
an IC card. In such an embodiment, the gate may read the time of
last card swiping from the IC card. Alternatively or additionally,
for example, when the IC card fails or the storage resource is
limited, such information may also be saved in a backend server of
the system. Accordingly, the gate may communicate with a backend
server and obtains the time of the last card swiping performed by
the current user.
[0032] In step S230, a missing point causing the failure of the
current operation for recording the origin/destination pair is
identified based on a time interval between the current time of the
current operation obtained in step S210 and the previous time of
the last operation obtained in step S220.
[0033] Generally, according to embodiments of the present
invention, there are at least two kinds of information that may be
used for identifying or predicting a missing origin or destination.
The first kind of information is historical information about the
user's origins and destinations, particularly those representative
records, i.e., popular origins and destinations. Another kind of
information is the user's location/movement information within a
specific period of time obtained through technical means such as
location sensing. Any kind of the two kinds of information may be
used for estimating a missing origin or destination.
[0034] In order to enhance the accuracy of identifying a missing
point, according to embodiments of the present invention, in step
S230, it is determined which one of the historical information
about the popular origins and destinations and the user's
location/movement information is more advantageous for prediction
accuracy based on the current operation time and the last operation
time. Generally, a reasonable assumption is that a longer time
interval indicates a strong regularity, while a shorter time
interval indicates stronger timeliness. Therefore, in one
embodiment, if the time interval is greater than a predefined
adjustable threshold, it may be believed that the historical
information regarding popular origins and destinations is dominant.
Otherwise, if the time interval is less than a threshold, it may be
believed that the user's recent activities are dominant.
[0035] Reference is now made to FIG. 3 where a schematic flowchart
of a method 300 for identifying a missing point in an
origin/destination pair based on a time interval between the
current operation time and the last operation time is shown. It
would be appreciated that the method 300 is an example
implementation of step S230 in the method 200.
[0036] In step S310, it is determined whether the time interval
between the time of the current operation as obtained in step S210
and the time of the last operation as obtained in step S220 is
greater than a threshold. The threshold may be preset and may also
be adjusted during use process.
[0037] If the time interval is greater than a threshold (branch
"yes"), it is believed that the user's historical information about
origins and destinations plays a dominant role in identifying a
missing point. In this case, the method 300 proceeds to step S320,
where information about popular origins and destinations associated
with the user is obtained. The popular origins and destinations are
obtained through performing statistics and analysis to the user's
historical origin and destination information.
[0038] At the ease of discussion, an example of a public
transportation management system is still used. The user's entry
and exit card swiping records may be stored in a corresponding
gate; moreover, the most recent several records may be temporarily
stored in the user's IC card. The gate may periodically send the
user's card swiping records to the backend server. Therefore, the
backend server may obtain the user's previous origin and
destination information. The backend server may analyze these
historical data, thereby finding the origins and destinations
frequently used by the user, i.e., popular origins and
destinations. According to embodiments of the present invention,
each popular origins and destinations have an associated time which
indicates a time when the user arrives at the corresponding
point.
[0039] Moreover, in one embodiment, a common pattern for origins
and destinations may be determined through analysis. Specifically,
a common pair relationship between origins and destinations may be
determined. For example, if it is found through statistics that the
user always checks in from Station A at a certain time and checks
out from Station B at a subsequent specific time, it may be
believed that pair "A/B" is a common origin/destination pair.
Additionally, different common origin/destination pairs may be
assigned different priorities. For example, each origin/destination
pair may be determined based on their respective appearance
frequencies.
[0040] Additionally, in one embodiment, information about popular
origin and destination may be extracted according to different
dimensions (including a pattern of a popular origin/destination
pair). For example, in one embodiment, information about the
popular origin and destination may be extracted based on a time
dimension. As an example, in one embodiment, work days (e.g.,
Monday-Friday) and rest days (e.g., Saturday to Sunday) may be
counted separately. In this way, information about the user's
popular origins and destinations in work days may be obtained.
Similarly, the information about the user's popular origins and
destinations in rest days may be obtained.
[0041] In one embodiment, the time dimension is not necessarily
partitioned by work days and rest days. For example, the user may
designate partition of time dimensions. For example, the user may
indicate: counting popular origin/destination pairs in
Monday-Wednesday and Thursday-Sunday separately. Additionally, in
addition to or supplemental to time dimension, other dimensions may
be used. As an example, in one embodiment, a territory dimension
may be used. For example, popular origins and destinations
information in different territories is counted separately. As will
be described hereinafter, such extraction of popular origin and
destination information based on different dimensions is
advantageous to accuracy of identifying a missing point.
[0042] According to embodiments of the present invention, any
currently known or future developed data analysis and/or mining
technology may be used in combination with embodiments of the
present invention. The scope of the present invention is not
limited in this aspect.
[0043] In step S320, information about the user's popular origins
and destinations within a past period of time may be obtained in
any appropriate manner. For example, in one embodiment, the backend
server may replicate the extracted information about popular
origins and destinations to the user's IC card at an appropriate
time. For example, when the user goes to a location specified by a
service provider to complete a specific task (e.g., fee payment),
the information about the popular origin and destination will be
replicated from the backend server to the IC card. In such an
embodiment, the gate may directly read information regarding the
popular origins and destinations from the user's IC card. According
to embodiments of the present invention, the popular origins and
destinations are sorted according to the priority or time.
[0044] Alternatively or additionally, in response to failure in the
user's card swiping operation, the gate may communicate with the
backend server and requests information about popular origins and
destinations associated with the user. As a response, the backend
server may return information about popular origins and
destinations to the gate. The communication between the gate and
the backend server may be implemented by virtue of any currently
known or future developed communication medium.
[0045] Next, in step S330, a missing point causing failure of the
current card swiping operation may be identified based on the
obtained information about the popular origins and destinations. In
one embodiment, in step S330, a point of the same type as the
missing point with the associated time prior to the time of the
current operation may be selected from the popular origins and
destinations as the missing point.
[0046] The type of the missing point indicates whether the point
missing in the origin/destination pair is an origin point or a
destination point. As mentioned above, in a public transportation
management system, each gate is arranged at an exit or entry of a
bus station. Therefore, if the user fails in an attempt to swipe
card at the exit gate, it may be determined that the missing
previous point is the start point. Otherwise, if the user fails in
swiping card at an entry gate, it may be determined that the
missing previous point is destination.
[0047] Consider a specific example. Suppose the user fails in
swiping card at an exit gate of a bus station at 10:00 AM. Then, it
may be determined that the time of the current operation is 10:00
AM, and the missing point is an origin. In this case, a popular
origin may be selected from the popular origins and destinations
obtained in step S320, such that the associated time of the popular
origin is before 10:00 AM. The selected popular origin may be
determined as a missing point. It would be appreciated that this
process is likely applicable to the case where the missing point is
a destination.
[0048] Alternatively, in one embodiment, the information about a
popular origin/destination pair included in the information
obtained in step S320 may be taken into consideration.
Specifically, in such an embodiment, based on the time of the
current operation and the type of the missing point, a reference
origin/destination pair matching the current operation may be
selected from a popular origin/destination pair. The term "match"
used here refers to the matching in terms of time and location. A
specific example will be described infra. If there are a plurality
of matching popular origin/destination pairs, then selection may be
made based on the priority of each pair. Other selection mechanism
is also feasible, e.g., random selection. Afterwards, the missing
point may be identified based on the selected reference
origin/destination pair.
[0049] In the following, the cases where the missing origin and the
missing destination will be discussed separately. First, consider
the case of the missing point being an origin. Suppose the user
fails in swiping card at an exit of the bus station A at 8:00 AM.
Then, the current operation time is 8:00 AM, and the missing point
is an origin. In this case, in popular origin/destination pairs
associated with the user, a popular origin/destination pair with
the destination being station A and the operation time being around
8:00 AM may be searched as the reference origin/destination pair.
In response to finding such reference origin/destination pair, the
origin in the pair may be determined as the missing point.
[0050] On the other hand, if the missing point is a destination,
then an origin matching the user's current location and the time of
the current operation may be searched in popular origin/destination
pairs. For the purpose of discussion, suppose the user fails in
swiping card at an entry of the bus station B at 6:10 PM. Then, the
time of the current operation is 6:10 PM, and the missing point is
the destination. In this case, in popular origin/destination pairs
associated with the user, an origin/destination pair whose origin
is station B and operation time is around 6:10 PM may be searched
as a reference origin/destination pair. In response to finding such
reference origin/destination pair, the last popular destination
temporally adjacent to the origin in the reference
origin/destination may be determined as a missing point.
[0051] In particular, as mentioned above, in one embodiment, the
information about popular origins and destinations may be extracted
based on different dimensions. In such an embodiment, when
selecting a reference origin/destination pair, the dimensional
information may also be taken into consideration. With the temporal
dimension as an example, it may be determined whether the current
date is a work day or a rest day. If the current date is a work
day, the search may only be performed in the popular origins and
destinations for the work day; if the current date is a rest day,
search may be performed only in popular origins and destinations
for the rest day. In this way, the accuracy of identifying can be
significantly enhanced.
[0052] If it is determined in step S310 that the time interval
between the current operation time and the time of the last
operation is less than a predetermined threshold, it is believed
that the user may be in a continuous activity. Correspondingly, the
role played by regularity might not be as significant as
timeliness. Therefore, a missing point may be identified based on
the user's location/movement information.
[0053] To this end, the method 300 proceeds to step S340, where one
or more locations reached by the user during the time interval
between the time of the current operation and the time of the last
operation are determined. According to embodiments of the present
invention, each location determined here corresponds to one
potential origin and/or destination of the service. For example, in
the public transportation management system, it may be ensured that
a client device such as a gate exists in a predetermined
neighboring domain of each determined location.
[0054] The user's location information may be obtained through
various manners. For example, in one embodiment, the user's
location information may be obtained based on a global satellite
positioning (GPS) system on the user's mobile phone or other
portable device. Alternatively or additionally, any appropriate
positioning technology such as a cellular network positioning
technology may also be used. The scope of the present invention is
not limited in this aspect.
[0055] Next, in step S350, a location is selected from the
locations determined in step S340, and a missing point is
identified based on the selected location. Location selection is
performed at least based on a type of a missing point.
Specifically, if the missing point is an origin, then the selected
location should correspond to the origin, e.g., having an entry
gate; otherwise, if the missing point is a destination, the
selected location should correspond to a destination, e.g., having
an exit gate. If there are a plurality of candidate locations, in
one embodiment, a location closest in time may be selected from the
candidate locations, and a potential origin or destination
corresponding to the location is determined as a missing point (it
depends on the type of the missing point).
[0056] In order to further enhance the accuracy of missing point
identification, in step S350, the location of the user's last
operation may also be taken into consideration. Specifically, in
one embodiment, a location whose distance from the location where
the last operation was executed is less than a predetermined
threshold may be selected from the one or more locations. As an
example, suppose the user fails in swiping card to check out of the
bus station A, and the last card swiping is an exit card swiping
performed at the bus station B. At this point, it may be determined
whether a location C whose distance from the station B is less than
a predetermined distance exists in the determined plurality of
candidate locations, and the location C is arranged with an entry
gate nearby. In the case of existence, it may be inferred that
abnormality likely occurs when checking in at location C to station
A after the user checks out of the bus station B. therefore, the
origin corresponding to location C may be determined as a missing
point.
[0057] The principle and mechanism of the present invention has
been described above with reference to a plurality of example
embodiments. It should be understood that the embodiments as
described above are only example, not intended to limit the scope
of the present invention in any manner. Based on the teaching and
inspiration provided here, those skilled in the art can envisage
any possible transformations or amendments. For example, in the
above description, the origin/destination pair is described as a
location pair, i.e., an origination location/termination location
pair. However, the scope of the present invention is not limited
thereto. Alternatively or additionally, the origin/destination pair
may be a pair of originating time/termination time.
[0058] For example, in parking lot or building management, when it
is found an originating time of entry into the parking lot or
building or a termination time of exit from the parking lot or
building misses, its behavior habit may be inferred based on the
user's historical data, thereby completing identification of the
missing originating or termination time. As an example, suppose
card swiping error occurs when the user attempts to swipe card to
check out of the parking lot at 18:10 PM. In this case, the missing
point is the originating time when the user entered into the
parking lot. In one embodiment, the user's historical (popular)
origin/destination information can be obtained and analyzed. If it
is found that the user frequently checks in the parking lot at
around 7:30 AM and checks out of the parking lot at around 18:00
PM, 7:30 AM may be determined as the missing originating time
point.
[0059] FIG. 4 shows a schematic block diagram of an apparatus for
identifying a missing point in an origin/destination pair according
to embodiments of the present invention. As shown in the figure,
the apparatus 400 comprises a current time determining unit 410
configured to, in response to failure of a current operation for
recording an origin/destination pair associated with a user,
determine a current time when the current operation is executed; a
previous time determining unit 420 configured to determine a
previous time when a last operation for recording an
origin/destination pair was executed; and a missing point
identifying unit 430 configured to identify a missing point causing
the failure of the current operation based on a time interval
between the current time and the previous time.
[0060] In one embodiment, the previous time determining unit 420
may comprise a first reading unit configured to read the previous
time from a terminal device of the user.
[0061] In one embodiment, the missing point identifying unit 430
may comprise: a popular information obtaining unit configured to,
in response to the time interval being greater than a predetermined
threshold, obtain information about popular origins and
destinations associated with the user, each popular origin or
destination being associated with a time; and a first identifying
unit configured to identify the missing point based on the
information about popular origins and destinations.
[0062] In one embodiment, the popular information obtaining unit
may comprise a second reading unit configured to read the
information about popular origins and destinations from a terminal
device of the user.
[0063] In one embodiment, the first identifying unit may comprise a
missing point selecting unit configured to select, from among the
popular origins and destinations, a point of a same type as the
missing point with the associated time prior to the current time as
the missing point, the type indicating whether the missing point is
an origin or a destination.
[0064] In one embodiment, the information about popular origins and
destinations associated with the user includes popular
origin/destination pairs, and the first identifying unit may
comprise: a reference pair selecting unit configured to select a
reference origin/destination pair that matches the current
operation from among the popular origin/destination pairs based on
the current time and a type of the missing point, the type
indicating whether the missing point is an origin or a destination;
and a reference pair based identifying unit configured to identify
the missing point based on the reference origin/destination
pair.
[0065] In one embodiment, the reference pair based identifying unit
may comprise: an origin identifying unit configured to determine an
origin in the reference origin/destination pair as the missing
point if the missing point is an origin; and a destination
identifying unit configured to select a popular destination from
among the popular origin/destination pairs as the missing point if
the missing point is a destination, such that the time associated
with the selected popular destination is immediately adjacent to
the time associated with an origin in the reference
origin/destination pair.
[0066] In one embodiment, the missing point identifying unit 430
may comprise: a location determining unit configured to, in
response to the time interval being less than a predetermined
threshold, determine one or more locations reached by the user
during the time interval, each of the locations corresponding to a
potential originating location or terminating location of the
service; a location selecting unit configured to select a location
from the one or more locations based on a type of the missing
point, the type indicating whether the missing point is an
originating location or a termination location; and a second
identifying unit configured to determine the potential originating
location or termination location corresponding to the selected
location as the missing point.
[0067] In one embodiment, the location selecting unit may comprise:
a distance based selecting unit configured to select a location
from among the one or more locations, a distance between the
selected location and a location where the last operation was
executed being less than a predetermined threshold.
[0068] It should be noted that for the sake of clarity, FIG. 4 does
not show optional units or sub-units included in the apparatus 400.
All features and operations as described above are suitable for
apparatus 400, respectively, which are therefore not detailed here.
Moreover, partitioning of units or subunits in apparatus 400 is
example, rather than limitative, intended to describe its main
functions or operations logically. A function of one unit may be
implemented by a plurality of other units; on the contrary, a
plurality of units may be implemented by one unit. The scope of the
present invention is not limited in this aspect.
[0069] Moreover, the units included in the apparatus 400 may be
implemented by various manners, including software, hardware,
firmware or a random combination thereof. For example, in some
embodiments, the apparatus may be implemented by software and/or
firmware. Alternatively or additionally, the apparatus 400 may be
implemented partially or completely based on hardware. for example,
one or more units in the apparatus 400 may be implemented as an
integrated circuit (IC) chip, an application-specific integrated
circuit (ASIC), a system on chip (SOC), a field programmable gate
array (FPGA), etc. The scope of the present intention is not
limited to this aspect.
[0070] The present invention may be a system, a method, and/or a
computer program product. The computer program product may include
a computer readable storage medium (or media) having computer
readable program instructions thereon for causing a processor to
carry out aspects of the present invention.
[0071] The computer readable storage medium can be a tangible
device that can retain and store instructions for use by an
instruction execution device. The computer readable storage medium
may be, for example, but is not limited to, an electronic storage
device, a magnetic storage device, an optical storage device, an
electromagnetic storage device, a semiconductor storage device, or
any suitable combination of the foregoing. A non-exhaustive list of
more specific examples of the computer readable storage medium
includes the following: a portable computer diskette, a hard disk,
a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable
programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), a static
random access memory (SRAM), a portable compact disc read-only
memory (CD-ROM), a digital versatile disk (DVD), a memory stick, a
floppy disk, a mechanically encoded device such as punch-cards or
raised structures in a groove having instructions recorded thereon,
and any suitable combination of the foregoing. A computer readable
storage medium, as used herein, is not to be construed as being
transitory signals per se, such as radio waves or other freely
propagating electromagnetic waves, electromagnetic waves
propagating through a waveguide or other transmission media (e.g.,
light pulses passing through a fiber-optic cable), or electrical
signals transmitted through a wire.
[0072] Computer readable program instructions described herein can
be downloaded to respective computing/processing devices from a
computer readable storage medium or to an external computer or
external storage device via a network, for example, the Internet, a
local area network, a wide area network and/or a wireless network.
The network may comprise copper transmission cables, optical
transmission fibers, wireless transmission, routers, firewalls,
switches, gateway computers and/or edge servers. A network adapter
card or network interface in each computing/processing device
receives computer readable program instructions from the network
and forwards the computer readable program instructions for storage
in a computer readable storage medium within the respective
computing/processing device.
[0073] Computer readable program instructions for carrying out
operations of the present invention may be assembler instructions,
instruction-set-architecture (ISA) instructions, machine
instructions, machine dependent instructions, microcode, firmware
instructions, state-setting data, or either source code or object
code written in any combination of one or more programming
languages, including an object oriented programming language such
as Smalltalk, C++ or the like, and conventional procedural
programming languages, such as the "C" programming language or
similar programming languages. The computer readable program
instructions may execute entirely on the user's computer, partly on
the user's computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on
the user's computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on
the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario, the remote
computer may be connected to the user's computer through any type
of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area
network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external
computer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet
Service Provider). In some embodiments, electronic circuitry
including, for example, programmable logic circuitry,
field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA), or programmable logic arrays
(PLA) may execute the computer readable program instructions by
utilizing state information of the computer readable program
instructions to personalize the electronic circuitry, in order to
perform aspects of the present invention.
[0074] Aspects of the present invention are described herein with
reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of
methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products
according to embodiments of the invention. It will be understood
that each block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block
diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations
and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer readable
program instructions.
[0075] These computer readable program instructions may be provided
to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose
computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to
produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via
the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing
apparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts
specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
These computer readable program instructions may also be stored in
a computer readable storage medium that can direct a computer, a
programmable data processing apparatus, and/or other devices to
function in a particular manner, such that the computer readable
storage medium having instructions stored therein comprises an
article of manufacture including instructions which implement
aspects of the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block
diagram block or blocks.
[0076] The computer readable program instructions may also be
loaded onto a computer, other programmable data processing
apparatus, or other device to cause a series of operational steps
to be performed on the computer, other programmable apparatus or
other device to produce a computer implemented process, such that
the instructions which execute on the computer, other programmable
apparatus, or other device implement the functions/acts specified
in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
[0077] The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate
the architecture, functionality, and operation of possible
implementations of systems, methods and computer program products
according to various embodiments of the present invention. In this
regard, each block in the flowchart or block diagrams may represent
a module, segment, or portion of code, which comprises one or more
executable instructions for implementing the specified logical
function(s). It should also be noted that, in some alternative
implementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of
the order noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in
succession may, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or
the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order,
depending upon the functionality involved. It will also be noted
that each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart
illustration, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams
and/or flowchart illustration, can be implemented by special
purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specified functions
or acts, or combinations of special purpose hardware and computer
instructions.
[0078] The descriptions of the various embodiments of the present
invention have been presented for purposes of illustration, but are
not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the embodiments
disclosed. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to
those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope
and spirit of the described embodiments. The terminology used
herein was chosen to best explain the principles of the
embodiments, the practical application or technical improvement
over technologies found in the marketplace, or to enable others of
ordinary skill in the art to understand the embodiments disclosed
herein.
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