Personalizing routes

Navigation services (e.g., in-car navigation systems and online mapping sites) compute routes between two locations to help users navigate. However, these routes may direct users along an unfamiliar path when a familiar path exists, or, conversely, may include redundant information that the user already knows. These overly complicated directions increase the cognitive load of the user, which may lead to a dangerous driving environment. Since the level of detail is user specific and depends on their familiarity with a region, routes need to be personalized. We have developed a system, called MyRoute, that reduces route complexity by creating user specific routes based on a priori knowledge of familiar routes and landmarks. MyRoute works by compressing well known steps into a single contextualized step and rerouting users along familiar routes.