Recommending points of interests in a region

Abstract

Techniques for searching and providing geographical regions are described. The process searches and recommends points of interests based on a user-specified region. Points of interests include spatial objects (e.g., buildings, landmarks, rivers, parks) and their distributions in a geographical region. The process searches and recommends points of interests by partitioning a spatial map into grids to identify representative categories located in each of the grids. In response to the user-specified region, a set of geographical candidates containing the representative categories is retrieved. The process determines whether the user-specified region and the set of geographical candidates include similar or common representative categories and similar or common spatial distributions of the representative categories. Then the process provides the top ranked set of geographical candidates that have similar content information.

1 .- 20 . (canceled) 
     
     
         21 . A method comprising:
 identifying a query region having a first plurality of points of interests in one or more representative categories;   searching for a plurality of geographical region candidates having a second plurality of points of interest and a distribution of the second plurality of points of interest in the one or more representative categories, the second plurality of points of interest and the distribution of the second plurality of points of interest being comparable to the first plurality of points of interest and a distribution of the first plurality of points of interest in the query region; and   providing a predefined number of geographical region candidates of the plurality of geographical region candidates for presentation based at least in part in a result of the searching.   
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 21 , further comprising providing a visual representation of a spatial map from which the query region is identified. 
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 21 , further comprising determining the first plurality of points of interest in the one or more representative categories for the query region. 
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 21 , further comprising pruning a set of geographical regions to obtain the plurality of geographical region candidates. 
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 21 , further comprising determining a similarity between the distribution of the first plurality of points of interest and the distribution of the second plurality of interest. 
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 25 , wherein the determining comprises calculating mutual distances between the first plurality of points of interest and the second plurality of points of interest. 
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 25 , wherein the determining comprises calculating first distances of the first plurality of points of interest with respect to a plurality of reference points and second distance of the second plurality of points of interest with respect to the plurality of reference points. 
     
     
         28 . A system comprising:
 one or more processors; and   memory storing executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform acts comprising:   identifying a query region having a first plurality of points of interests in one or more representative categories;   searching for a plurality of geographical region candidates having a second plurality of points of interest and a distribution of the second plurality of points of interest in the one or more representative categories, the second plurality of points of interest and the distribution of the second plurality of points of interest being comparable to the first plurality of points of interest and a distribution of the first plurality of points of interest in the query region; and   providing a predefined number of geographical region candidates of the plurality of geographical region candidates for presentation based at least in part in a result of the searching.   
     
     
         29 . The system of  claim 28 , the acts further comprising providing a visual representation of a spatial map from which the query region is identified. 
     
     
         30 . The system of  claim 28 , the acts further comprising determining the first plurality of points of interest in the one or more representative categories for the query region. 
     
     
         31 . The system of  claim 28 , the acts comprising pruning a set of geographical regions to obtain the plurality of geographical region candidates. 
     
     
         32 . The system of  claim 28 , the acts further comprising determining a similarity between the distribution of the first plurality of points of interest and the distribution of the second plurality of interest. 
     
     
         33 . The system of  claim 32 , wherein the determining comprises calculating mutual distances between the first plurality of points of interest and the second plurality of points of interest. 
     
     
         34 . The system of  claim 32 , wherein the determining comprises calculating first distances of the first plurality of points of interest with respect to a plurality of reference points and second distance of the second plurality of points of interest with respect to the plurality of reference points. 
     
     
         35 . A computing device comprising:
 one or more processors; and   memory storing executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform acts comprising:   identifying a query region having a first plurality of points of interests in one or more representative categories;   searching for a plurality of geographical region candidates having a second plurality of points of interest and a distribution of the second plurality of points of interest in the one or more representative categories, the second plurality of points of interest and the distribution of the second plurality of points of interest being comparable to the first plurality of points of interest and a distribution of the first plurality of points of interest in the query region; and   providing a predefined number of geographical region candidates of the plurality of geographical region candidates for presentation based at least in part in a result of the searching.   
     
     
         36 . The computing device of  claim 35 , the acts further comprising providing a visual representation of a spatial map from which the query region is identified. 
     
     
         37 . The computing device of  claim 35 , the acts further comprising determining the first plurality of points of interest in the one or more representative categories for the query region. 
     
     
         38 . The computing device of  claim 35 , the acts comprising pruning a set of geographical regions to obtain the plurality of geographical region candidates. 
     
     
         39 . The computing device of  claim 35 , the acts further comprising determining a similarity between the distribution of the first plurality of points of interest and the distribution of the second plurality of interest. 
     
     
         40 . The computing device of  claim 39 , wherein the determining comprises one or more of:
 calculating mutual distances between the first plurality of points of interest and the second plurality of points of interest; or   calculating first distances of the first plurality of points of interest with respect to a plurality of reference points and second distance of the second plurality of points of interest with respect to the plurality of reference points.