Ambiguous Location Routing with Distance-Based Ranking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing routing information systems face inefficiencies in resolving ambiguous location requests, leading to cumbersome interactions with users, especially when using partial addresses, due to multiple places sharing the same name, which can be exacerbated by slow communications links and limited user interfaces.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that receive routing requests with ambiguous locations, identify potential matches, rank them based on metrics such as distance, and provide routing information for the highest-ranked location, while offering a user interface to select alternative pairings if needed.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If the web site provides a list of possible locations and asks the end-user to select from among them, then the ambiguous location can be resolved, but the interaction becomes cumbersome and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-calculating and storing distance metrics between all location pairs before user queries. When an ambiguous location request is received, the system immediately retrieves pre-computed distance data and applies ranking logic without requiring user interaction, thereby resolving the location ambiguity automatically and eliminating time-consuming user selections.
Solution Approach 2:
The system serves itself by implementing an automatic resolution mechanism that uses distance-based ranking to select the most likely intended location from ambiguous options. The system independently evaluates potential locations using stored distance metrics and programmatically selects the highest-ranked match, eliminating the need for user intervention in the location disambiguation process.
2Measurement precision
If the web site asks the end-user to refine the routing request to resolve ambiguous locations, then the correct location can be identified, but the process becomes cumbersome especially on mobile devices with limited user interface
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs self-service by automatically resolving ambiguous location references using distance-based ranking. When a routing request contains ambiguous locations, the system independently queries distance metrics, ranks potential location pairs, and selects the most probable interpretation without requiring user interaction, thereby simplifying the user interface and improving ease of operation on mobile devices.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention extracts the location disambiguation function from the user interface and relocates it to the backend processing system. By removing the need for user-facing location selection interfaces and implementing automatic resolution through distance-based ranking, the system eliminates complex UI elements while maintaining accurate location identification.
3Productivity
If the system provides routing information for the highest-ranked potentially-matching location automatically, then user interaction is reduced, but there is a risk of providing incorrect routing information if the ranking metric does not accurately reflect user intent
Solution Approach 1:
The system incorporates feedback mechanisms by providing the ranked list of location interpretations to the user and allowing correction if the automatic selection is incorrect. This feedback loop enables the system to learn from user corrections and improve its ranking accuracy over time, thereby maintaining high productivity while ensuring reliability of routing information delivery.
Data Source
AI summary
A routing server receives a request for routing information. The request specifies one or more locations. A specified location may be ambiguous. For an ambiguous location, the routing server identifies a set of potentially-matching locations and ranks the locations according to a metric. The routing server returns routing information for the highest-ranked location that potentially matches an ambiguous location. If a request for routing information specifies two locations, and at least one location is ambiguous, the routing server pairs combinations of potentially-matching locations based on the query and calculates a metric for each pair. In one case, the metric is the distance between the locations in the pair. The routing server ranks the pairs based on the metric, and returns routing information for the highest-ranked pair.