RU2772928C1 - Systems and methods for service request distribution - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: computing technology.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to a method and system for service request distribution. The method includes the stages of: accepting a service request from the terminal of the service requester, wherein the service request constitutes a transport service request and contains the loading or pickup location and the location of the unloading or dropoff point; determining the first service provider to provide transport services; generating a first service order distributing the service request to the first service provider; accepting a navigation request, associated with the first service order, at a second time; generating route information based on the second location of the first service provider at the second time and the location of the loading or pickup point; based on the route information, determining whether the service request should be redistributed to a second service provider; generating a second service order redistributing the service request to the second service provider; and transmitting signals to the terminal of the second service provider.

EFFECT: increase in the accuracy of order distribution.

9 cl, 9 dwg

Description

The field of technology to which the invention belongs

The present invention relates generally to an online-to-offline service, and more particularly relates to systems and methods for distributing service requests.

State of the art

Online-to-offline services (for example, services such as calling a taxi) are becoming more and more popular. Through the online service platform, the user can request the service of the online-to-offline service through an application installed in his mobile phone (eg, smartphone). Taking the taxi call service as an example, the online service platform can schedule a taxi service vehicle or a taxi service provider after receiving a service request containing a location of a pickup or pick-up point and a location of a pick-up or drop-off point. In some cases, due to a location error in the location device (for example, GPS location drift), the location device may transmit incorrect location data of the service provider to the online service platform. If the online service platform uses the wrong location when determining the service provider to service the service request in question, this may result in incorrect order allocation. For example, the online service platform may erroneously allocate a service request and forward it to a service provider located far away from the service requester. Therefore, it is desirable to develop new systems and methods for distributing a service request in such a way as to improve the accuracy of today's systems and methods for distributing orders, thereby increasing the utility of service vehicles and thereby improving the user's experience.

Disclosure of the essence of the invention

According to one aspect of the present invention, a system is provided for distributing a service request for an online-to-offline service. The system may include at least one storage device containing one or more instruction sets, and at least one processor in communication with this at least one storage device. When executing said one or more sets of instructions, the at least one processor may receive a service request from the service requester terminal, this service request is a transport service request and contains the location of the loading point and the location of the unloading or disembarking point. In response to the received service request, the at least one processor may determine a first service provider to provide a transport service, that service provider is located at a first point in time at a first location within a first threshold distance from a loading or landing point. The at least one processor may generate a first service order distributing a service request to the first service provider. The at least one processor may receive, from the terminal of the first service provider, a navigation request associated with the first service order at a second time. In response to this navigation request, the at least one processor may generate routing information based on the location of the second point where the first service provider is located at the second point in time and the location of the loading or landing point. Based on this routing information, said at least one processor can determine whether the pending service request should be reallocated to some second service provider. In response to determining that the service request should be reallocated to the second service provider, at least one processor may generate a second service order reallocating that service request to the second service provider and transmit appropriate signals to that second service provider, these signals being offered to the terminal of the second service provider. present information associated with the second service order on the display.

In some embodiments, in response to determining that the service request needs to be reallocated to the second service provider, the at least one processor may signal appropriate signals to the service requester's terminal, prompting the terminal to present information indicating reallocation of the first service order on a display.

In some embodiments, in response to determining that a service request needs to be reallocated to a second service provider, the at least one processor may signal appropriate signals to the first service provider's terminal, prompting that terminal to present information indicating reallocation of the first service order on a display.

In some embodiments, said at least one processor may determine the first distance between the second point where the first service provider is located at the second point in time and the point of loading or landing based on the routing information and compare this first distance with a second threshold distance, this second threshold the distance is not less than the first threshold distance.

In some embodiments, the at least one processor may determine that the pending service request should be reallocated to the second service provider if the first distance is greater than the second threshold distance. The at least one processor may determine that the service request should not be reallocated to the second service provider if the first distance is not greater than the second threshold distance.

In some embodiments, the at least one processor may determine the second distance that the first service provider has moved between the first time and the second time. The at least one processor may determine the ratio of said second distance to the distance between the third location where the first service provider was located at said first time and the loading or landing point. The at least one processor may determine that the pending service request should be reallocated to the second service provider if the found ratio is not greater than a certain threshold. The at least one processor may determine that the pending service request should not be reallocated to the second service provider if the ratio found is greater than a specified threshold.

In some embodiments, said at least one processor may locate a third location where the first service provider was located at the first time based on the location of the second location where the first service provider is located at the second time and said second distance.

In some embodiments, the at least one processor may search for one or more candidate service providers within a first threshold distance from a loading or landing point. The at least one processor may determine routes from the locations where each of the plurality of one or more candidate service providers are located to the point of loading or landing. The at least one processor may select as the first service provider the candidate provider with the shortest route. The at least one processor may allocate the service request in question to the selected first service provider.

In some embodiments, the at least one processor may search for one or more candidate service providers within a second threshold distance from the pickup or landing point of the service requester. The at least one processor may determine routes from the locations where each of the one or more candidate service providers are located to the point of loading or landing. The at least one processor may select as the second service provider the candidate provider with the shortest route. The at least one processor may reallocate the service request in question to the selected second service provider.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a method is provided. The method may include one or more of the following operations. At least one processor may receive a service request from the service requester's terminal, the service request being a transport service request and containing the location of the loading or embarkation point and the location of the unloading or disembarking point. In response to the received service request, the at least one processor may determine a first service provider to provide transport service, this first service provider is at the first point in time at the first point within the first threshold distance from the loading or landing point. The at least one processor may generate a first service order distributing this service request to the first service provider. Said at least one processor may receive, from a terminal of the first service provider, a navigation request associated with said first service order at a second time. In response to this navigation request, the at least one processor may generate routing information based on the location of the second location where the first service provider is located at the second point in time and the location of the loading or landing point. The at least one processor may determine whether the pending service request should be reallocated to any second service provider based on the generated routing information. In response to determining that the pending service request should be reallocated to said second service provider, said at least one processor may generate a second service order reallocating the pending service request to said second service provider and transmit to the terminal of that second service provider appropriate signals suggesting that to the terminal to present information associated with the second service order on the display.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a non-volatile computer-readable medium is provided. This non-volatile computer-readable medium may contain executable instructions, upon execution of which said at least one processor performs a method. The method may include one or more of the following operations. The at least one processor may receive a service request from the service requester's terminal, this service request being a transport service request and containing the location of the loading or landing point and the location of the unloading or disembarking point. In response to the received service request, the at least one processor may determine any first service provider to provide transport service, that first service provider was at the first point in time at the first point within the first threshold distance from the loading or landing point. The at least one processor may generate a first service order distributing this service request to the first service provider. The at least one processor may receive, from the terminal of the first service provider, a navigation request associated with said first service order at a second time. In response to this navigation request, the at least one processor may generate routing information based on the location of the second location where the first service provider is located at the second point in time and the location of the loading or landing point. The at least one processor may determine whether the pending service request should be reallocated to any second service provider based on the generated routing information. In response to determining that the pending service request should be reallocated to said second service provider, said at least one processor may generate a second service order reallocating the pending service request to said second service provider and transmit to the terminal of that second service provider appropriate signals suggesting that to the terminal to present information associated with the second service order on the display.

Additional features will in part be set forth in the following description, and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon review of the following description and the accompanying drawings, or may be learned by making or operating the examples. These features of the present invention may be realized or obtained through the practice or use of various aspects of the methodologies, means and combinations set forth in the detailed examples discussed above.

Brief description of the drawings

The present invention is further described in terms of exemplary embodiments. These example options are described in detail with reference to the drawings. The drawings are not to scale. These options are non-exhaustive examples of options, where the same reference numbers represent similar structures across several views of the drawings, in which:

fig. 1 is a simplified diagram illustrating an example of an online-to-offline (O2O) service system according to some embodiments of the present invention;

fig. 2 is a simplified diagram illustrating examples of components of a computing device, in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention;

fig. 3 is a simplified diagram illustrating hardware and/or software components in an example mobile terminal, in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a processing device, in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a service request distribution procedure, according to some embodiments of the present invention;

fig. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating an example of a procedure for determining whether to redistribute a service request, in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention;

fig. 7 is a flow diagram illustrating an example of a procedure for determining whether a service request should be reallocated, according to some embodiments of the present invention;

fig. 8 is a simplified diagram illustrating an example of an order redistribution situation, according to some embodiments of the present invention; and

fig. 9 is a simplified diagram illustrating an example of a user interface presenting information indicative of service order reallocation, in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention.

Implementation of the invention

The following description is presented to enable any person skilled in the art to make and use the present invention, and is written in the context of a particular application and its requirements. Various modifications of the embodiments discussed here will become readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the general principles defined here may be applied to other embodiments and applications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Thus, the present invention is not limited to the options presented here, but rather, it should be considered according to the broadest scope, consistent with the Claims.

The terminology used here is only intended to describe specific examples of variations and is not intended to be limiting. As described herein, singular forms may be intended to cover plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It should be further understood that the terms "comprise", "comprises" and/or "comprising", "include (in itself)", "includes" and/or "comprising", when they are present in the present description, indicate the presence of established features, integers, steps, operations, elements and/or components, but do not prevent or exclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components and/or groups of listed objects.

These and other features and characteristics of the present invention, as well as the modes of operation and functions of the structural elements and combinations of parts related thereto, as well as the economics of manufacture, may become better understood upon reading the following description with reference to the accompanying drawings, which all form part of this description. It should be clearly understood, however, that these drawings are for illustration and description only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. It is understood that the drawings are not to scale.

The logic diagrams used herein illustrate the operations of systems implemented in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention. It should be clearly understood that the operations shown in the logic diagram may not be performed in the order shown in the diagram. On the contrary, the operations can be performed in reverse order or simultaneously. Moreover, one or more operations can be added to these logic circuits. One or more operations may be excluded from these logics.

In addition, although the system and method in the present description is mainly discussed in relation to the distribution of the request for transport services, it should also be understood that the proposed description is not intended to serve as any restrictions. The system and method of the present invention can be applied to any other kind of online-to-offline (O2O) service. For example, the system or method of the present invention may be applied to transportation systems operating in a variety of environments, including land, sea, air, or the like, as well as any combination of such systems. Vehicles in such transportation systems may include taxis, private cars, passing cars, buses, trains, subways, bullet trains, high-speed rail, subways, sea and river vessels, spaceships, hot air balloons, driverless vehicles, or others. similar vehicles, or combinations of such vehicles. The transport system may also be any transport system for management and/or distribution, such as a system for sending and/or receiving express delivery. An application for implementing a system or method according to the present invention may be installed on a user device and may be a web page, a browser plug-in, a client terminal, a customer system, an internal analysis system, an artificial intelligence robot, or other similar system or method, or a combination of these. objects.

The terms "passenger", "requester", "service requester", and "client" are used interchangeably herein to refer to a person, object, or instrument that can request or order a service. In addition, the terms "driver", "provider" and "service provider" are also used interchangeably herein to refer to a person, object or tool that can provide a service or facilitate the provision of a service.

The terms “service request”, “service submission request”, “requests” and “order” are used interchangeably in this specification to refer to a request that may be initiated by a passenger, a service requester, a customer, a driver, a provider, a service provider, or other similar entity. or any combination of these items. This service request can be accepted by anyone - the passenger, the service requester, the customer, the driver, the service provider or the service provider. The request for the provision of a service (service) may be paid or free.

The terms "service provider terminal" and "driver terminal" are used interchangeably herein to refer to a mobile terminal used by a service provider to provide or facilitate the provision of a service. The terms "service requester terminal" and "passenger terminal" are used interchangeably herein to refer to a mobile terminal used by a service requester to request or order a service.

The positioning technology used in the present invention may be based on a global positioning system (GPS), a global navigation satellite system (GLONASS), a COMPASS navigation system, a Galileo satellite navigation system ( Galileo), a quasi-zenith satellite system (QZSS), Wi-Fi based positioning technology or other similar system, or a combination of such systems. One or more of the above location systems can be used interchangeably in the present invention.

In one aspect, the present invention is directed to systems and methods for distributing a request for a service. For example, after receiving a transport service request containing the location of the loading or embarkation point and the location of the unloading or disembarking point, the system may determine the first service provider (for example, the driver) within the first threshold distance from the location of the loading or embarkation point at the first time using the location of the first point where the first service provider was at that first point in time. The system may allocate the service request in question to the found first service provider. The system location device may receive and transmit the location information of the first site of the first service provider for the system to determine the first service provider. However, due to location errors in the location device (eg GPS location drift), the location data of the first location where the first service provider is located may be incorrect. If the system determines the first service provider using incorrect location data for the first location, this may lead to incorrect order allocation, resulting in a decrease in the efficiency and correct use of service vehicles. To solve this problem, the system may evaluate whether the first order distribution option is correct and determine whether the pending service request should be reallocated to the second service provider. For example, the system may locate a second location where said first service provider was at a second point in time (eg, the point in time it requested navigation) and determine a route from that second point to a loading or landing point. The system may further determine whether the pending service request should be reallocated to the second service provider, based on the route from the second point to the loading or landing point. For example, if the first distance along the route from the second point to the point of loading or landing is greater than the second threshold distance, the system may reallocate this service request to the second service provider, thereby replacing the first service provider. Such a redistribution mechanism in the system can reduce the frequency of order distribution errors due to location errors and improve the accuracy of the order distribution system.

In FIG. 1 is a simplified diagram illustrating an example of an online-to-offline (O2O) service system in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention. For example, the O2O service system 100 may be an online service platform for processing a service request from a user. In some embodiments, this service (service) may be a transport service, such as a taxi call service, a chauffeur or car rental service with a driver, a high-speed car transportation service, a car delivery service, a carpooling service (carpooling), a bus service, a service for hiring (temporary) drivers and a shuttle service. In some embodiments, the online-to-offline service may be any online service such as food ordering, shopping, or the like, or combinations of these services. The O2O service system 100 may be an online platform including a server 110, a communication network 120, a requestor terminal 130, a provider terminal 140, and a storage device 150.

In some embodiments, server 110 may be a single server or a group of servers. The group of servers may be centralized or distributed (for example, server 110 may be a distributed system). In some embodiments, server 110 may be local or remote. For example, server 110 may access and access information and/or data stored in requestor terminal 130, provider terminal 140, and/or storage device 150 via communication network 120. As another example, server 110 may be directly connected to requestor terminal 130, provider terminal 140, and/or storage device 150 to access stored information and/or data. In some embodiments, server 110 may be implemented on a cloud platform. Just by way of example, the cloud platform may be a private cloud, a public cloud, a hybrid cloud, a community cloud, a distributed cloud, an inter-cloud system, a multi-cloud system, or other similar cloud, or any combination of such clouds. In some embodiments, server 110 may be implemented on computing device 200 having one or more of the components illustrated in FIG. 2 in the present description.

In some embodiments, server 110 may include a processor device 112. This processor device 112 may process information and/or data related to a service request to perform one or more of the functions described in the present invention. For example, the processing device 112 may receive a service request from the requester terminal 130 via a communication port system (not shown in the drawings), and distribute the service request to a service provider (eg, a driver). This communication port system may be configured to communicate with server 110, requestor terminal 130, provider terminal 140, and/or storage device 150 via communication network 120. In some embodiments, processor device 112 may include one or more processors (eg, single-core processor(s) or multi-core processor(s)). Just by way of example, the processing device 112 may comprise one or more hardware processors such as a central processing unit (CPU), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), an application-specific instruction set processor (application -specific instruction-set processor (ASIP)), graphics processing unit (GPU), physical processor (physics processing unit (PPU)), digital signal processor (DSP), field-programmable gate array ( field-programmable gate array (FPGA), programmable logic device (PLD), controller, microcontroller module, reduced instruction-set computer (RISC), microprocessor, or other similar device, or any combination of such devices.

Communication network 120 may facilitate the exchange of information and/or data. In some embodiments, one or more components of O2O service system 100 (e.g., server 110, requester terminal 130, provider terminal 140, and/or storage device 150) may communicate information and/or data to other component(s) of O2O service system 100 via communication network 120. For example, server 110 may receive/receive a service request from requester terminal 130 via communication network 120 . This service request may be a transport service request containing the location of the loading or embarkation point and/or the location of the unloading or disembarking point. In some embodiments, communications network 120 may be some type of wired or wireless communications network, or a combination of such networks. Just by way of example, the communication network 120 may be a cable network, a wired network, an optical fiber network, a telecommunications network, an intranet, the Internet, a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN )), wireless local area network (WLAN), metropolitan area network (MAN), public telephone switched network (PSTN), Bluetooth network, ZigBee network, near field communication (NFC) or other similar network, or a combination of such networks. In some embodiments, communication network 120 may include one or more network access points. For example, communications network 120 may include wired or wireless network access points, such as base stations and/or Internet exchange points 120-1, 120-2, ... , through which one or more components of O2O service system 100 may be connected. with a communication network 120 for exchanging data and/or information.

In some embodiments, the service requester may be a user of the requester's terminal 130. In some embodiments, the user of the requester's terminal 130 may be someone other than the requester. For example, user A of the requester terminal 130 may use the requester terminal 130 to send a service request for user B, or receive a service and/or information or commands from the server 110. In some embodiments, the service provider may be a user of the provider terminal 140. In some embodiments, the user of the provider's terminal 140 may be someone other than the provider. For example, user C of provider terminal 140 may use provider terminal 140 to receive a service request for user D and/or information or commands from server 110. In some embodiments, the terms “requester” and “requester terminal” may be used interchangeably, the terms “user” and “user terminal” may be used interchangeably, and the terms “provider” and “provider terminal” may be used interchangeably.

In some embodiments, requester terminal 130 may be a mobile device 130-1, a tablet computer 130-2, a laptop computer 130-3, an in-vehicle device 130-4, or other similar device, or a combination of such devices. In some embodiments, mobile device 130-1 may be a smart home device, wearable device, mobile device, virtual reality device, augmented reality device, or other similar device, or any combination of such devices. In some embodiments, the smart home device may be a smart lighting device, a smart appliance control device, a smart monitoring device, a smart TV, a smart video camera, an interphone, or other similar device, or any combination of such devices. In some embodiments, the wearable device may be a wristband, shoes, glasses, helmet, watch, clothing, backpack, smart accessory, or other similar device, or some combination of such devices. In some embodiments, the mobile device may be a mobile phone, personal digital assistance (PDA), gaming device, navigation device, point of sale (POS) device, laptop computer, desktop computer, and/ or other similar device, or any combination of such devices. In some embodiments, the virtual reality device and/or the augmented reality device may be a virtual reality helmet, virtual reality glasses, a virtual reality insert, an augmented reality helmet, augmented reality glasses, an augmented reality insert, or other similar device, or any combination thereof. devices. For example, the virtual reality device and/or the augmented reality device may be Google Glass™, RiftCon™, Fragments™, Gear VR™, and the like. In some embodiments, the embedded device 130-4 on the vehicle may be an on-board computer, an on-board television, or the like. In some embodiments, the requester terminal 130 may be a device using location technology to determine the location of the requester and/or the requester terminal 130.

In some embodiments, provider terminal 140 may be similar to or the same device as requester terminal 130. In some embodiments, provider terminal 140 may be a location technology device for locating a user of provider terminal 140 (eg, service provider) and/or provider terminal 140. In some embodiments, requester terminal 130 and/or provider terminal 140 may communicate with one or more other devices to locate the requester, requester terminal 130, provider, and/or provider terminal 140. In some embodiments, requester terminal 130 and/or provider terminal 140 may periodically transmit location information to server 110.

The positioning technology used in the present invention may be based on a global positioning system (GPS), a global navigation satellite system (GLONASS), a COMPASS navigation system, a Galileo satellite navigation system, a quasi-zenith satellite system (QZSS) , location technologies based on Wi-Fi or other similar system, or a combination of such systems. One or more of the above location systems can be used interchangeably in the present invention.

The memory device 150 may store data and/or instructions. In some embodiments, memory 150 may store data received from requester terminal 130 and/or from provider terminal 140. In some embodiments, storage device 150 may be connected to communication network 120 to communicate with one or more components in O2O service system 100 (e.g., server 110, requestor terminal 130, provider terminal 140, etc.). In some embodiments, storage device 150 may store data and/or commands that server 110 may execute or use to implement examples of the methods described in the present invention. In some embodiments, the storage device 150 may include a mass storage device, a removable media storage device, a volatile read-and-write storage device, a read-only memory (ROM) or other similar device, or any combination thereof. devices. Examples of mass storage devices include magnetic disk, optical disk, solid state drives, and the like. Examples of removable media storage devices include a flash drive, a floppy disk (floppy disk), an optical disk, a memory card, a zip disk, a magnetic tape, and the like. Examples of volatile readable and writable storage devices include random access memory (RAM). Examples of RAM include dynamic RAM (DRAM), double date rate synchronous dynamic RAM (DDR SDRAM), static RAM (SRAM), thyristor RAM (thyristor RAM (T-RAM)) and "capacitorless" RAM (zero-capacitor RAM (Z-RAM)) etc. Examples of ROM ROM include mask-programmed ROM (mask ROM (MROM)), programmable ROM (PROM (programmable ROM (PROM))), erasable programmable ROM (EPROM (erasable programmable ROM (EPROM))), electrically erasable programmable ROM ( EEPROM (electrically-erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM))), ROM on a compact disk (compact disk ROM (CD-ROM)) and ROM on a digital versatile disk (digital versatile disk ROM), etc. In some embodiments, the storage device 150 may be implemented on a cloud platform. Just by way of example, the cloud platform may be a private cloud, a public cloud, a hybrid cloud, a community cloud, a distributed cloud, an inter-cloud system, a multi-cloud system, or other similar cloud, or any combination of such cloud types.

In some embodiments, storage device 150 may be connected to network 120 to communicate with one or more components in O2O service system 100 (eg, server 110, requestor terminal 130, provider terminal 140, etc.). One or more components in the O2O service system 100 may access and access data or commands stored in the storage device 150 via the communications network 120 . In some embodiments, storage device 150 may be directly connected to or communicate with one or more components in O2O service system 100 (eg, server 110, requestor terminal 130, provider terminal 140, etc.). In some embodiments, storage device 150 may be part of server 110.

In some embodiments, one or more components in the O2O service system 100 (e.g., server 110, requester terminal 130, provider terminal 140, etc.) may be authorized to access storage device 150. In some embodiments, one or more components in the O2O service system 100 can read and/or modify information regarding the requester, provider, and/or society when one or more conditions are met. For example, server 110 may read and/or modify information about one or more users after completing a service. As another example, provider terminal 140 may access and access information regarding the requester when it receives a service request from requester terminal 130, but this provider terminal 140 may not modify the requester's relevant information.

In some embodiments, the communication of one or more components of the O2O service system 100 may be initiated by requesting a service. The object of this service request can be any product. In some embodiments, the product may be a tangible product or an intangible product. A tangible product may be food, medicine, consumer goods, chemicals, household appliances, clothing, automobiles, household items, luxury items, or other similar products, or any combination of such products. An intangible product may be a service product, a financial product, a knowledge product, an Internet product, or a similar product, or any combination of these products. The Internet Products may be a standalone server product, a web product, a mobile Internet product, a commercial server product, an embedded product, or the like, or any combination of such products. The mobile internet product may be used in a mobile terminal software, program, system, or other similar entity, or any combination of such entities. The mobile terminal may be a tablet computer, laptop computer, mobile phone, personal digital assistant (PDA), smart wrist watch, point-of-sale (POS) device, on-board computer, on-board television, wearable device, or other similar terminal, or any combination of these devices. For example, said product may be any software and/or application used on a computer or mobile phone. This software and/or application may be related to socialization, shopping, transportation, entertainment, education, investment or other similar industries, or any combination thereof. In some embodiments, the transportation software and/or application may include travel software and/or application, vehicle scheduling software and/or application, mapping software and/or application, and the like. . As part of the vehicle scheduling software and/or application, such vehicle may be a horse, cart, rickshaw (e.g. wheelchair, motorcycle, tricycle, etc.), car (e.g. taxi, bus , private car, etc.), train, subway, ship, aircraft (for example, an airplane, helicopter, reusable spacecraft (“shuttle”), rocket, hot air balloon, etc.) or other similar vehicle or combinations of such means.

Even a person of ordinary skill in the art should understand that when any element of the O2O service system 100 is operating, that element may be operating using electrical signals and/or electromagnetic signals. For example, when the requester terminal 130 is processing a task such as determining, identifying, or selecting an object, that requester terminal 130 may operate logic circuits in its processor to process such a task. When the requester terminal 130 transmits a service request to the server 110, the processor of that requester terminal 130 may generate electrical signals encoding the service request. The processor of the requester terminal 130 may then pass these electrical signals to an output port (eg, part of the communication port system). If the requester terminal 130 communicates with the server 110 via a wired communication network, this output port may be physically connected to a cable that can further transmit the electrical signal it receives to the input port of the server 110. If the requester terminal 130 communicates with the server 110 via a wireless communication network, the output port of this requester terminal 130 may be one or more antennas that can convert an electrical signal into an electromagnetic signal. Likewise, provider terminal 140 may process the task by operating logic in its processor and receive a command and/or service request from server 110 via electrical signals or electromagnetic signals. In an electronic device, such as a requester terminal 130, a provider terminal 140, and/or a server 110, when the device's processor processes a command, transmits a command, and/or performs an action, that command and/or action is implemented by means of electrical signals. For example, when a processor calls data from a storage medium or stores data on a storage medium (e.g., memory 150), the processor may provide electrical signals to a reader/writer on the storage medium, which may read from or write to the storage medium. structured data on it. This structured data may be transmitted to the processor in the form of electrical signals over the data bus of the electronic device. Here, the term "electrical signal" may refer to a single electrical signal, a series of electrical signals, and/or multiple discrete electrical signals.

In FIG. 2 is a simplified diagram illustrating examples of components of a computing device, in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention. Server 110, requester terminal 130, provider terminal 140, and/or storage device 150 may be implemented in computing device 200 in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention. A particular diagram may use a functional block diagram to explain the operation of a hardware platform containing one or more user interfaces. The computer may be a computer with general or special functions. Both types of computers may be configured to implement any particular system, in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention. The computing device 200 may be configured to implement any of the components that perform one or more of the functions discussed in the present invention. For example, this computing device 200 may implement any of the components of the O2O service system 100 as described herein. In FIG. 1 through 2, for convenience only, only one such computing device is shown. Even an ordinary person in the field should understand, at the time of filing this application, that the computer functions related to the service, as described here, can be implemented in a distributed manner on several similar platforms in order to distribute the processor load

The computing device 200, for example, may have communication ports COM 250 connected to a communications network to facilitate the transmission and reception of data. This computing device 200 may also include a processor (eg, processor 220) in the form of one or more processors (eg, logic circuits) for executing program instructions. For example, processor 220 may include interface circuits and processor circuits. The interface circuits may be configured to receive electronic signals from bus 210, where the electronic signals encode structured data and/or instructions for processing in processor circuits. Processor circuits may perform logic calculations and then determine the conclusion, result, and/or instruction encoded as electronic signals. The interface circuits can then transmit these electronic signals from the processor circuits over bus 210.

An exemplary computing device may include an internal communication bus 210, program memory, and data memory in various forms, such as a disk 270 and read only memory (ROM) 230 or random access memory (RAM) 240 for various data files to be processed and/or transmitted by the computing device. An exemplary computing device may also include program instructions stored in ROM (ROM) 230, RAM (RAM) 240, and/or other types of non-volatile storage media for storage by processor 220. The methods and/or procedures of the present invention may be implemented through these software commands. The computing device 200 also includes an input/output (I/O) component 260 that supports input/output functions between the computer and other components. The computing device 200 may also receive programs and data via a communications network.

Just for illustration, in FIG. 2 shows only one CPU and/or other processor. The use of multiple CPUs and/or other processors is also contemplated; thus, operations and/or method steps performed by one CPU and/or other processor as described in the present invention may be performed jointly or separately by multiple CPUs and/or other processors. For example, if in the present description the CPU and/or another processor of the computing device 200 performs both operation A and operation B, it should be understood that these operation A and operation B may also be performed by two different CPUs and/or other processors together. or separately in the computing device 200 (eg, the first processor performs operation A and the second processor performs operation B, or both the first and second, the processors jointly perform operations A and B).

In FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating example hardware and/or software components of an example mobile device according to some embodiments of the present invention. Requester terminal 130 may be implemented in mobile device 300 in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention. As illustrated in FIG. 3, mobile device 300 may include a communications module 310, a display 320, a graphics processing unit (GPU) 330, a central processing unit (CPU) 340, input/output (I/O) components 350, a storage device 360, and a data store 390. CPU 340 may include interface circuits and processor circuits similar to processor 220. In some embodiments, mobile device 300 may also include any other suitable component, including, but not limited to, a system bus or controller (not shown). In some embodiments, the storage device 360 from the data store 390 may be loaded with an operating system 370 for mobile devices (eg, iOS™, Android™, Windows Phone™, etc.) and one or more applications 380 for execution by the CPU 340 Applications 380 may include a browser or some other suitable mobile application for transmitting tracking data to server 110. User interaction with the information flow may be via I/O devices 350, and the results of the interaction may be transmitted to processing device 112 and/or other components of the system. 100 through communication network 120.

To implement the various modules, blocks, and their functionality described above, computer hardware platforms may be used as hardware platforms for one or more of the elements described herein (eg, the components of the server 110 shown in FIG. 1). Since these hardware elements, operating systems, and programming languages are in common use, it can be assumed that those skilled in the art may be familiar with this technique and may be able to provide the information required when distributing a service request according to the methods described in the present invention. A computer with a user interface may be used to implement a personal computer (PC) or some other type of workstation or terminal. When properly programmed, a user interface computer can also act as a server. It can also be considered that those skilled in the art may also be very familiar with such structures, or with the general operations of this type of computing device. Thus, no further explanation is provided for these drawings.

In FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a processing device according to some embodiments of the present invention. This processing unit 112 may include a data acquisition module 402, a first distribution module 404, a navigation module 406, a decision module 408, a second distribution module 410, and a transmission module 412.

The data collection module 402 may receive a service request from a service requester terminal (eg, requester terminal 130). This service request may be an O2O service request (eg, transport service). In some embodiments, the data collection module 402 may receive information regarding the service request (for example, the location of the loading or landing point, the location of the unloading or disembarking point, or the time of loading or landing, etc.) from the application installed in the terminal 130 of the requester, (eg, taxi calling applications) via the communication network 120.

The first distribution module 404 may determine the first service provider to provide transport service, the first service provider is located at the first point in time at the first point within the first threshold distance from the point of loading or landing. In some embodiments, the first distribution module 404 may search for one or more candidate service providers within a first threshold distance (eg, 2.5 km, 3 km, 3.5 km, 4 km, 5 km, etc.) from the loading point, or landing at this first time. Said one or more candidate service providers may be available to provide transport services. In some embodiments, the first distribution module 404 may obtain an indication of the availability status for each of said one or more service providers within the first threshold distance from the loading or landing point and determine one or more candidate service providers based on the availability status for each. service provider. This availability status may indicate whether the vehicle 150 associated with the respective service provider is available to transport the passenger to their drop off or drop off point. In some embodiments, the first distribution module 404 may determine a route from the location of each of the one or more candidate service providers to the point of loading or landing. Based on the found one or more routes corresponding to one or more candidate providers, the first distribution module 404 may then select the service provider that matches the shortest route as the first service provider. This first distribution module 404 may generate a first service order distributing the service request in question to the first service provider.

The navigation module 406 may receive a navigation request associated with the first service order at a second time. This navigation module 406 may generate routing information based on the location of the second location where the first service provider is located at the second point in time and the location of the loading or landing point. For example, navigation module 406, in response to a navigation request, may generate a route from a specified second location to a loading or landing location. In some embodiments, the resulting route may be the shortest route from the second point to the loading or landing point.

The decision module 408 may determine whether to redistribute the service request to the second service provider based on the routing information. In some embodiments, solver 408 may determine a first distance from the second location where the first service provider is located at the second time (eg, the navigation request time) to the loading or landing point. This decision module 408 may further compare this first distance with a second threshold distance and determine whether the pending service request should be reallocated to the second service provider based on the result of the comparison. For example, if the first distance is greater than the second threshold distance, decision module 408 may determine that the pending service request should be redistributed to the second service provider. Otherwise, decision module 408 may determine that the pending service request should not be reallocated to the second service provider. In some embodiments, the second threshold distance may be no less than the first threshold distance. Note that the second threshold distance can be adjusted according to various scenarios. For example, solver 408 may adjust the second threshold distance to be less than the first threshold distance in an area of high population density (eg, downtown).

In some embodiments, if the first distance is greater than the second threshold distance, decision module 408 may further determine the second distance that said first service provider has moved between the first time and the second time. The solver 408 may determine the ratio of this second distance to the distance between the third location where the first service provider was located at the first point in time and the loading or landing point. This third location may indicate the relatively real/correct location where the first service provider was located at the first point in time (eg, Location C shown in FIG. 8). If the found ratio is not greater than some threshold value (eg, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, etc.), the processor may determine that the pending service request should be reallocated to the second service provider. Otherwise, the processor may determine that the pending service request should not be reallocated to the second service provider.

The second distribution module 410 may generate a second service order reallocating the pending service request to the second service provider in response to determining that the service request should be reallocated to the second service provider. For example, the second distribution module 410 may search for one or more candidate service providers within a second threshold distance from a loading or landing point at some third time. The second distribution module 410 may determine the route from the location of each of the one or more candidate service providers to the point of loading or landing. The location location of each of the one or more candidate service providers may be the location where the corresponding candidate of the population of one or more candidate service providers is located at the specified third point in time. Based on the found one or more routes corresponding to one or more candidate providers, the second distribution module 410 may then select the service provider having the shortest route as the second service provider. The second distribution module 410 may reallocate the pending service request to the selected second service provider to provide the service.

The transmitter module 412 may transmit signals to the terminal of the second service provider (eg, provider terminal 140) via the communication network 120 (or via the communication port system over the communication network 120). These signals may prompt the second service provider terminal to present information associated with the second service order on the display. In some implementations, transmitter module 412 may signal a service requester terminal (eg, requester terminal 130) via communication network 120 (or via communication port system over communication network 120). These signals may prompt the service requester terminal to present information indicative of the first service order reallocation on the display. In some embodiments, the transmitter module 412 may signal the service provider's terminal via the communication network 120 (or via the communications port system over the communication network 120). These signals may prompt said service requester terminal to present information indicative of reassignment of the first service order on the display.

It should be noted that the above description of the processing device 112 is merely for purposes of illustration and is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. Even ordinary people skilled in the art can make numerous changes or modifications, while remaining within the provisions of the present invention. For example, the processing device 112 may further include a memory module to facilitate data storage. As another example, the first distribution module 404 and the second distribution module 410 may be integrated in one module. However, these variations and modifications do not constitute a departure from the scope of the present invention.

In FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating an example of a procedure for distributing a service request in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention. In some embodiments, procedure 500 may be performed by O2O service system 100. For example, procedure 500 may be stored in memory 150 and/or data storage (eg, ROM 230, RAM 240, etc.) in the form of instructions and may be called and/or executed by server 110 (eg, processor device 112 in server hardware 110 or processor 220 in processor device 112 in server hardware 110). The steps of the illustrated procedure below are intended to serve as illustrations. In some embodiments, procedure 500 may be performed using one or more of the steps not described here and/or without one or more of the steps discussed here. In addition, the order in which the operations of procedure 500 as illustrated in FIG. 5 and described below should not be considered exhaustive.

At operation 502, a processor (eg, data collection unit 402 in processor device 112) may receive a service request from a service requester terminal (eg, requester terminal 130). This service request may be an O2O service request (eg, transport service). In some embodiments, the service requester may transmit a request for a service (eg, transport service) via an application (eg, a taxi call application) installed in the requester's terminal 130. This service request may contain the location of the loading or landing point and/or the location of the unloading or disembarking point of the service requester. The data collection module 402 may receive information regarding the service request (eg, the location of the loading or landing point, the location of the unloading or disembarking point, or the time of loading or landing, etc.) from this application via the communication network 120 .

In some embodiments, the service request may be a real-time request or a scheduled time request. For example, a real-time request may be a request requiring a service provider to provide service immediately or within a designated time period reasonably close to the requested time (eg, 1 minute, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, etc.). A scheduled time request may be a request requiring a service provider to provide service at a designated time (eg, at some time an hour later).

In some embodiments, such a service request may be a transport service request that contains an indication of the location of a loading or embarkation point and/or a location of an unloading or disembarking point, but which has not been formally created (or transmitted) by the service requester. For example, the service request may be a request that has not yet been sent. In some embodiments, the not yet transmitted request may be in the form of a partially entered request that has not yet been transmitted, or in the form of a fully entered request that has not yet been transmitted. For example, a partially entered query can be a query containing one of the parameters - the location of the loading or landing point, or the location of the unloading or disembarking point, or part of one of these parameters - the location of the loading or landing point, or the location of the unloading or disembarking point. A fully entered query can be a query containing both the location of the loading or embarkation point and the location of the unloading or disembarking point. In some embodiments, an application installed in the requester's terminal 130 may be configured to receive a user-entered command (eg, request for a service). Such requests not yet transmitted may also trigger execution of the procedure presented in the present invention (eg, procedure 500 shown in FIG. 5).

At operation 504, the processor (e.g., the first distribution module 404 in the processor device 112) may determine the first service provider to provide the transportation service, that first service provider was at the first point in time within the first threshold distance from the pickup or drop off point. In some embodiments, this processor may search for one or more candidate service providers within a first threshold distance from a pickup or landing point at the first moment. In some embodiments, since both the first time the processor searches for the first service provider and the time the processor allocates a service order to the first service provider may be nearly simultaneous, the first time may be referred to as "first order allocation time". ". Said one or more candidate service providers may be available to provide transport services. In some embodiments, the processor may obtain the availability status of each of a plurality of one or more service providers within a first threshold distance from a pickup or landing point and determine one or more candidate service providers based on the availability status of each of the service providers. This availability status may indicate whether the vehicle 150 associated with the respective service provider is available to transport the passenger to their pickup or drop-off point. The provider terminal 140 belonging to each service provider may periodically or in real time transmit its availability status and/or current location to the server 110. The processor may determine one or more candidate providers available to provide transport service based on the availability status. In some embodiments, the processor may determine a route from the location of each of the one or more candidate service providers to the point of loading or landing. Such location location of each of the population of one or more candidate service providers may be the location where the corresponding one of the population of one or more candidate service providers was located at the specified first point in time. The processor may obtain an indication of the location of each of a plurality of one or more candidate service providers via a location device in the O2O service system 100 (eg, via a GPS system device). The resulting location may be the correct location or the incorrect location. If there are location errors (eg, due to location drift or degradation of GPS signals) when the location device performs this location determination, the obtained location may be incorrect. For example, as shown in FIG. 8, Location B represents the first location where the first service provider was located at the first time according to the location device, when in fact that first service provider may be at Location C at that first time. The location of the first location (t .e Point B) received by the location device may be an invalid location. In some embodiments, the processor may derive a route from the location of each candidate service provider to the loading or landing point based on a database of a third party providing mapping services or navigation services (eg, a commercial mapping server). Based on the found one or more routes corresponding to the specified one or more candidate providers, the processor may then select the service provider with which the shortest route is associated as the first service provider. This processor may allocate the service request in question to the first service provider to provide the service.

In some embodiments, the value of the first threshold distance may be preset by the O2O service system 100. The first threshold distance may have any predetermined numerical value such as 2.5 km, 3 km, 3.5 km, 4 km, 5 km, and so on. The value of the first threshold distance can be adjusted according to different scenarios and different purposes. For example, if the time requested in the service request under consideration is specified as an interval (eg, 7:00 to 9:30 or 17:00 to 19:30), the first threshold distance value is adjusted to be smaller. As another example, when the loading or landing point specified in the service request is in the suburbs, the first threshold distance value is adjusted to make it larger. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the predetermined first threshold distance may vary, and such variations may be within the protection scope of the present invention.

At operation 506, the processor (eg, first distribution module 404 in processor device 112) may generate a first service order distributing the pending service request to the first service provider. The first service order may contain, without limitation, the location of a pickup or drop-off point, the location of an unloading or drop-off point, itinerary information, passenger information (eg, number of passengers, gender, age, etc.), and so on. The processor (eg, transmitter module 412 of processor device 112) may transmit the first service order to the terminal of the first service provider (eg, provider terminal 140).

After receiving the first service order, the first service provider may be ready to provide the service based on the information related to the first service order. For example, the first service provider may request the navigation associated with the first service order at a second time (eg, request a route from the first service provider's current location at a specified second time to a loading or landing point). The second time is later than the first time. In some embodiments, the second point in time may denote the point in time for the navigation request (also referred to as the "point in time of transmission of the navigation request"). In some cases, due to the movement of the car 150 associated with the first service provider, at some speed, the location of this car 150 (i.e., the location of the first service provider) may move from the point where this first service provider is located at the first time, to the second point where the first service provider is located at the second point in time. For example, as shown in FIG. 8, assuming that the derived location of the first location where the first service provider was located (i.e., Location B) is an incorrect location, the correct location of that first service provider at the specified first time is indicated by Location C, and the second location where the first the service provider is at the second point in time, designated by Point D, the first service provider may move from Point C to Point D.

At operation 508, a processor (eg, navigation module 406 in processor device 112) may receive a navigation request associated with the first service order at a second time point. In some embodiments, the first service provider may transmit the navigation request through the provider's terminal 140 (eg, through an application installed in the provider's terminal 140) at a second point in time. The navigation request may include the location of the first service provider at the time of transmission of the navigation request (ie, the location of the second location) and the location of the loading or landing point of the service requester. Said navigation module 406 may receive a navigation request from provider terminal 140 via communication network 120 (eg, from an application installed in provider terminal 140).

At operation 510, a processor (eg, navigation module 406 of processor device 112) may generate routing information based on the location of the second location where the first service provider was located at the second point in time and the location of the pickup or landing point. The navigation module 406 may generate a route from the second point to the loading or landing point in response to the specified navigation request. In some embodiments, the generated route may be the shortest route from the second point to the loading or landing point. For example, navigation module 406 may generate one or more routes from a second point to a loading or landing point based on a third party database (eg, a commercial map server). The shortest route from the set of generated one or more routes may be designated as the target route for transmission to the provider terminal 140 located at the first service provider.

In some embodiments, the processor may incorrectly allocate a service request to a service requester whose first time location is incorrectly located due to location errors caused by the location device in the O2O service system 100. For example, if the location of service provider A is erroneously identified by the location device in the O2O service system 100 as “Location B”, but the correct location of service provider A is actually “Location C”, “Location B” may be far from the correct location, those. "Point C". In this case, the processor erroneously selects service provider A as the target service provider for providing the service because the route from the wrong location, “Point B”, to the pickup or landing point is the shortest compared to the routes for other candidate service providers located in within the first threshold distance. Clearly, the service request in question is erroneously allocated to the wrong service provider (ie, service provider A). To solve such problems, the processor may evaluate whether the order allocation is correct and determine whether the service request should be reallocated to the second service provider instead of the first service provider.

At operation 512, the processor (eg, decision module 408 in second processor device 112) may determine whether to redistribute the service request to the second service provider based on the specified routing information. In some embodiments, the processor may determine a first distance from the second location where the first service provider is located at the second time (eg, the time the navigation request is transmitted) to the loading or landing point. As used here, the distance from point P1 to point P2 may indicate the length of the route from point P1 to point P2. The processor may further compare the first distance with the second threshold distance and determine whether to reallocate the service request to the second service provider based on the result of the comparison. For example, if the first distance is greater than the second threshold distance, decision module 408 may determine that the pending service request should be redistributed to the second service provider. Otherwise, decision module 408 may determine that this service request should not be redistributed to the second service provider. In some embodiments, the second threshold distance may be no less than the first threshold distance. Note that the second threshold distance can be adjusted according to various scenarios. For example, solver 408 may adjust the second threshold distance to be less than the first threshold distance in an area having a high population density (eg, downtown).

In some embodiments, if the first distance is greater than the second threshold distance, the processor may further determine the second distance that said first service provider has moved between the first time and the second time. The processor may determine the ratio of the second distance to the distance between the third location where the first service provider was located at the first point in time and the loading or landing point. This third location may indicate the relatively real/correct location where the first service provider was located at the specified first time (eg, Location C shown in FIG. 8). If the found ratio is not greater than some threshold value (eg, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, etc.), the processor may determine that the pending service request should be reallocated to the second service provider. . Otherwise, the processor may determine that the pending service request should not be reallocated to the second service provider. More descriptions regarding the determination that the service request should be redistributed to the second service provider can be found elsewhere in this specification (eg, in and in FIGS. 6-8).

At operation 514, in response to determining that the pending service request should be reallocated to the second service provider, the processor (eg, second distribution module 410 in processor device 112) may generate a second service order by reallocating said service request to the second service provider. The operation of generating the second service order may be similar to the operation of generating the first service order in operations 504 and 506. moment of time. In some embodiments, the second threshold distance may be no less than the first threshold distance. While the second threshold distance may be adjusted to be less than the first threshold distance in a particular scenario, for example, the processor may adjust the second threshold distance to be less than the first distance threshold in a high population density area (e.g., in a business city centre). Said one or more candidate service providers may be available to provide transport services. The second distribution module 410 may determine routes from the points where one or more candidate service providers are located to the point of loading or landing. The location of each of the plurality of one or more candidate service providers may be the point where the corresponding provider of the plurality of one or more candidate service providers is located at the third point in time. The second distribution module 410 may obtain the location of each of a plurality of one or more candidate service providers via a location device in the O2O service system 100 (eg, from GPS signals). In some embodiments, the second distribution module 410 may obtain a route from the point where each of the candidate service providers is located to the point of loading or landing based on a database of a third party providing mapping services or navigation services (for example, a commercial map server). To determine one or more routes corresponding to one or more candidate providers, the second distribution module 410 may then select the service provider that corresponds to the shortest route as the second service provider. The second distribution module 410 may redistribute the pending service request to the second service provider to provide the service.

At operation 516, in response to determining that the pending service request should be reallocated to the second service provider, the processor (eg, transmitter module 412 of processing device 112) may signal the second service provider terminal (eg, provider terminal 140) via communication network 120 (or through the communication port system over communication network 120). These signals may prompt the terminal of the second service provider to present information regarding the second service order on the display. The information associated with the second service order may include, but is not limited to, indications of the location of the loading or landing point, the location of the unloading or disembarking point, routing information (for example, the first route from the specified second point to the loading or landing point, and/or the second route from the point of loading or embarkation to the point of disembarkation or disembarkation, etc.), passenger information (for example, number of passengers, gender, age, etc.), etc. In some embodiments, information associated with the second service order may be presented on the display in various forms, such as a message, audio, video, image, and the like.

In some embodiments, in response to determining that the service request should be reallocated to the second service provider, the processor may signal the service requester terminal (e.g., requester terminal 130) via communication network 120 (or via communication port system over communication network 120) . These signals may prompt the service requester terminal to present information indicative of the first service order reallocation on the display. For example, as shown in FIG. 9, these signals may control the terminal to present information indicating the reallocation of the first service order on the user interface display of the application 900 installed in the terminal 130 of the requester (eg, taxi application). Just to illustrate, as popup 902 on the user interface screen shows, the information presented indicates "The driver for your request is currently being changed", indicating that the first service order is being redistributed. In some embodiments, information indicating the reallocation of the first service order may be presented on the display of the first service provider's terminal in various forms, such as a message, audio, video, image, or the like.

In some embodiments, in response to determining that a pending service request should be reallocated to a second service provider, the processor may signal the terminal of the first service provider via communication network 120 (or via communication port system over communication network 120). These signals may prompt the terminal to present information on the display indicating the reallocation of the first service order. For example, similar to the information presented in the pop-up window 902, the information presented on the display, on the user interface screen of the application installed in the terminal of the first service provider, may mean "Sorry, a new order is being changed for you." In some embodiments, information indicating the reallocation of the first service order may be presented on the display of the first service provider's terminal in various forms, for example, in the form of a message, audio, video, image, or the like.

In some embodiments, after receiving the information shown above, the service requester and/or service provider (eg, the first service provider or the second service provider) may also send response information to the O2O service system 100. For example, the service requester may send response information accepting/rejecting redistribution of the service order in question. As another example, the first service provider may send response information confirming the reallocation of this service order. As a further example, the second service provider may send response information accepting/rejecting redistribution of the service order in question. The service requester and/or service provider may send the response information in various forms, such as in the form of a phone call, a message, or a dialog box in a taxi call service application.

It should be noted that the above description of procedure 500 is merely for purposes of illustration and is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. Even ordinary experts in this field can make various changes and modifications within the framework of the provisions of the present invention. For example, if the second service provider is also an error provider as the first service provider, the processor may further determine a third service provider to provide the service. In some embodiments, the processor may execute at least one part of procedure 500 multiple times (eg, operations 512 and 514) until the processor determines the optimal service provider that satisfies the service request in question, for example, the actual route from the location of this optimal service provider to the point of loading or landing is the shortest. However, such variations and modifications do not deviate from the scope of the present invention.

In FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an example procedure for determining whether to redistribute a service request in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention. In some embodiments, procedure 600 may be performed by O2O service system 100. For example, procedure 600 may be stored in memory 150 and/or data storage (eg, ROM 230, RAM 240, etc.) in the form of instructions and called and/or executed 110 (eg, , processor device 112 in server hardware 110, or processor 220 in processor device 112 in server hardware 110). The steps of the illustrated procedure below are intended to be illustrative. In some embodiments, procedure 600 may be performed using one or more of the steps not described here and/or without one or more of the steps discussed here. In addition, the order in which the steps of procedure 600 as illustrated in FIG. 6 and described below should not be considered exhaustive.

At operation 602, the processor (eg, decision module 408 in processor device 112) may determine a first distance between the second location where the first service provider is located at the second point in time and the pickup or landing point based on the routing information. In some embodiments, the processor (eg, first distribution module 404) may determine a first service provider to provide a service (eg, transport service) from a collection of one or more candidate service providers that are within a first threshold distance (eg, 2.5 km). , 3 km, 3.5 km, 4 km, 5 km, etc.) from the point of loading or landing. Unlike other candidate service providers, the route from the first point to the point of loading or landing may be the shortest. Said first item may indicate the location of said first service provider A at a first point in time (eg, at a point in time when the processor is searching for one or more candidate service providers). In some cases, upon receipt of the distributed first service order, the first service provider may request navigation from its location to the point of loading or landing at a second point in time. The location corresponding to the second point in time (ie, the second point) may be different from the location corresponding to the first point in time. For example, the first service provider moves to the second point between the first time and the second time. In some embodiments, the second point in time indicates the point in time when the navigation request was transmitted. In some embodiments, the processor (eg, navigation module 406) may generate the shortest route from the specified second point to the loading or landing point. The processor (eg, solver 408) may determine the first distance along the shortest route from the second point to the loading or landing point. Note that, in some embodiments, if the service provider did not move between the first time and the second time, the location corresponding to the second time may be the same as the location corresponding to the first time.

At operation 604, the processor (e.g., decision module 408 in processor device 112) may compare the first distance with a second threshold distance (e.g., 2.5 km, 3 km, 3.5 km, 4 km, 5 km, etc.). ). In some embodiments, the second threshold distance may be no less than the first threshold distance. Note that the second threshold distance can be adjusted according to various scenarios. For example, the processor may adjust the second threshold distance to be less than the first threshold distance in an area having a high population density (eg, downtown). The processor may determine whether the pending service request should be reallocated to the second service provider based on the result of the comparison. For example, if the first distance is greater than the second threshold distance, decision module 408 may proceed to operation 606, determining that the pending service request should be reallocated to the second service provider. As another example, if the first distance is not greater than the second threshold distance, decision module 408 may proceed to operation 608, determining that the pending service request should not be reallocated to the second service provider. If decision module 408 determines that the pending service request should not be reallocated to the second service provider, this means that the first service provider may be the optimal service provider A and may proceed with the first service order.

In some embodiments, although the first distance is greater than the second threshold distance, the processor may not reallocate the pending service request to the second service provider. For example, after receiving the first service order, the first service provider may immediately take action to pick up the service requester. Before it is determined that the service request in question should be reallocated to the second service provider, the first service provider in this case has already incurred a relatively large cost in order to pick up the service requester. In this case, the processor may, in the interest of the first service provider, not decide that the service request in question should be reallocated. In some embodiments, if the first distance is greater than the second threshold distance, the processor may then perform at least one part of the procedure 700 illustrated in FIG. 7 (eg, steps 706 and 708) to determine whether the pending service request should be reallocated.

In FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating an example procedure for determining whether a service request should be reallocated according to some embodiments of the present invention. In some embodiments, procedure 700 may be performed by O2O service system 100. For example, procedure 700 may be stored in memory 150 and/or data storage (eg, ROM 230, RAM 240, etc.) in the form of instructions and may be invoked and/or executed by server 110 (eg, processor device 112 in server hardware 110, or processor 220 of that processor device 112 in server hardware 110). The steps of the illustrated procedure below are intended to serve as illustrations. In some embodiments, procedure 700 may be performed using one or more additional steps not described here and/or without one or more of the steps discussed here. In addition, the order in which the steps of procedure 700 as illustrated in FIG. 5 and described below should not be considered exhaustive.

Steps 702 and 704 may be similar to steps 602 and 604 of procedure 600 discussed above and a detailed description of which can be found herein in conjunction with FIG. 6.

At operation 706, if the first distance is greater than the second threshold distance, the processor (eg, decision module 408 in processor device 112) may determine the second distance that the first service provider has moved between the first time and the second time. In some embodiments, the second distance may denote the distance that the vehicle associated with the first service provider travels between the first time and the second time. In some embodiments, the first service provider's terminal may transmit its tracking data to the O2O service system 100 in real time or near real time via the communications network 120 . This tracking data may include, but is not limited to, location information corresponding to multiple points in time, the speed of the vehicle associated with the terminal, the direction of travel of the vehicle associated with the terminal, and so on. The processor may determine the second distance based on the tracking data. For example, the processor may determine the average speed of the vehicle between the specified first time and the specified second time and the amount of time between the first time and the second time. The second distance may be equal to the product of the average speed and the amount of time. As another example, the processor may directly obtain a second distance value from an information source storing vehicle tracking data. In some embodiments, said information source may be generated by an automotive server associated with the vehicle associated with the service provider.

At operation 708, the processor may determine the ratio of the second distance to the distance between the third location where the first service provider was located at the first point in time and the loading or landing point. This third item may indicate the relatively real/correct location where the first service provider was located at the first point in time. In some embodiments, if the first location represents the correct location where the first service provider is located at the first point in time, the third location may be the same as or close to the first location. In some embodiments, if the first location represents an incorrect location due to location errors in the location device in the O2O service system 100, the third location may be located far from the first location. For example, as shown in FIG. 8, Location C indicates the third location, Location B indicates the first location, Location C is located far from Location B. In some embodiments, the processor may locate the third location based on the location of the second location, where the first service provider was located at the second point in time, and the second distances. The third point may be a point at a second distance (eg 5 km) from the second point in the direction of travel. In some embodiments, the processor may determine the distance between the third location and the loading or landing location. More specifically, the processor may obtain an indication of the shortest route from the third point to the loading or landing point and determine the distance according to that shortest route. The processor may further determine the ratio of the second distance to the found distance between the third location and the loading or landing location.

In some embodiments, if the found ratio is not greater than a threshold value (eg, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, etc.), the processor may proceed to operation 710, where it determines whether that the service request in question should be redistributed to the second service provider. If the ratio found is greater than this threshold, the processor may proceed to operation 712 where it determines that the pending service request should not be reallocated to the second service provider. Note that this threshold can be adjusted by the O2O service system 100.

It should be noted that the above description of the procedure 700 for determining whether a pending service request should be reallocated is merely for purposes of illustration and is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. Even ordinary experts in this area can determine many variations and modifications within the provisions of the present invention. For example, operation 706 and operation 708 may be integrated into a single operation. As another example, operation 708 may be omitted. The processor may compare the second distance value with some value (eg, 500 m, 1 km, 2 km, 3 km, etc.) and determine whether to reallocate the pending service request based on the result of the comparison. If the value of the second distance is greater than this value, the processor may reallocate the service request. Otherwise, the processor may not reallocate the service request. However, these variations and modifications do not deviate from the scope of the present invention.

In FIG. 8 is a simplified diagram illustrating an example order reassignment scenario in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 8, Item A indicates the location of the point of loading or landing of the service requester. Upon receiving a service request from a service requester, the processor may search for one or more candidate service providers within a first threshold distance from the location of the loading or landing point (ie, Point A). For example, dashed circle 810 denotes a search area within a first threshold distance from Location A. The processor may determine a first service provider from a collection of one or more candidate service providers. The route from the first point where the service provider was located at the first point in time to the point of loading or landing may be the shortest. Note that the first location may represent an incorrect location due to location errors in the location device in the O2O service system 100 (e.g., due to location drift), while the actual location of the first service provider's correct location may be far from this first paragraph. For example, Location B denotes the first location of the first service provider found by the location device at the first point in time. Suppose Item B represents the wrong location. Point C denotes the correct location of the first service provider A at the first point in time (also referred to here as the third point). As seen in FIG. 8, the correct location (ie, Point C) is far from the wrong location (ie, Point B) and outside of the search area 810. The processor receives the incorrect location data from the location device and uses the incorrect location to determine the first service provider. In other words, the processor may erroneously allocate the service request in question to the selected first service provider. The processor may further determine whether to reallocate the pending service request to the second service provider.

In some embodiments, the first service provider may request navigation at a second time. Point D denotes the second point where the first service provider is located at the second point in time. The processor may determine the first distance between the second location and the loading or landing location. If this first distance between the second location and the loading or landing point is greater than the second threshold distance, such as the route distance from the second point to the loading or landing point, the processor may reallocate the pending service request to the second service provider instead of the first service provider. Otherwise, the processor may not reallocate this service request, and the first service provider may continue to perform the service.

In some embodiments, although the first distance between the second location and the loading or landing point is greater than the second threshold distance, the processor may not reallocate the pending service request to the second service provider instead of the first service provider, because the first service provider may already have incurred relatively high costs for providing service to the second point in time. For example, if, before the processor determines whether to reallocate the request from the service requester, the first service provider has moved from the third location (i.e., Location C) to the second location (i.e., Location D), the processor may determine the distance between the third point and the second point (also referred to here as the second distance), for example, the distance along the route from Point C to Point D. This distance along the route from Point C to Point D can be determined based on the tracking data of the first service provider (or vehicle associated with this first service provider). The processor may determine whether to reallocate the pending service request based on the second distance and the distance between the third location and the loading or landing location (eg, the en-route distance from Point C to Point A). If the ratio of the second distance to the distance between the third location and the loading or landing point is no greater than a certain threshold value, the processor may determine that the pending service request should be reallocated to the second service provider. Otherwise, the processor may not determine to redistribute this service request to the second service provider.

Based on the basic principles thus described, it may be quite apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading the present Detailed Description that the foregoing Detailed Description is for the purpose of illustrating examples only and is not intended to be limiting. Various changes, improvements, and modifications are possible and are intended for those skilled in the art, although this may not be explicitly stated here. These changes, improvements and modifications are intended by the present description and are within the meaning and scope of the present invention.

In addition, certain terminology has been used to describe embodiments of the present invention. For example, the terms "one option", "any of the options" and "some options" mean that a particular feature, structure or characteristic, described in connection with the considered options, is included in at least one of the variants of the present invention. Therefore, it is emphasized and should be understood that two or more references to "any option" or "one option" or "any alternative" in various parts of the present invention do not necessarily all refer to the same option. Moreover, specific features, structures, or characteristics can be combined as appropriate in one or more embodiments of the present invention.

Further, those skilled in the art will appreciate that aspects of the present invention may be illustrated and described herein in any of a number of patentable classes or contexts containing any new and useful processes, machines, manufacturing techniques, or compositions of materials, or any or new and useful enhancements to these features. Accordingly, aspects of the present invention may be implemented entirely in hardware, entirely in software (including, firmware, resident downloadable software, microcode, and the like), or as a combination of software and hardware, which may all be here, generally referred to as a "module", "unit", "component", "device", or "system". In addition, aspects of the present invention may take the form of a computer program product embodied in one or more computer-readable storage media in which computer-readable program code is recorded. The one or more computer-readable media may comprise a ROM (ROM), RAM (RAM), magnetic disk, optical disk, or other similar media or combination of media.

The computer-readable signal carrier may comprise a propagating data signal carrying a computer-readable program code, for example, in the video band or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagating signal may take any of a variety of forms, including electromagnetic, optical, or the like, or any suitable combination of such signals. Computer-readable media can be any computer-readable media that is not computer-readable storage media and that can communicate, distribute, or transport a program for use by or in connection with a system, apparatus, or device for executing instructions. The program code recorded on a computer-readable medium may be transmitted using any suitable medium, including a wireless transmission line, a wired transmission line, an optical fiber cable, an RF cable, or the like, or any suitable combination of the above media. .

Computer program code for performing operations according to aspects of the present invention may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including object-oriented programming languages such as Java, Scala, Smalltalk, Eiffel, JADE, Emerald, C++, C#, VB . NET, Python or similar language, conventional procedural programming languages such as C programming language, Visual Basic, Fortran 2003, Perl, COBOL 2002, PHP, ABAP, Python dynamic programming languages, Ruby and Groovy or any other languages programming. This program code may run entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a standalone software package, partly on the user's computer, and partly on a remote computer, or entirely on a remote computer or on a server. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through some type of communications network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or a connection may be made to an external computer (for example, via the Internet using the Internet provider) or in a cloud computing environment, or may be offered as a service, such as software as a service (software as a service (SaaS)).

In addition, the order of processing elements or sequences given herein, or the use of numbers, letters, or other designations, is not intended to limit the procedures and methods claimed herein to any particular order, except as may be specified in the Claims. Although the foregoing discussion has been discussed with reference to various examples that are currently considered to be various useful embodiments of the present invention, it should be understood that such details are given by way of example only and that the appended claims are not limited to the variations described, but rather are intended to cover modifications and equivalent configurations that fit within the meaning and scope of the described options. For example, while the various components described herein may be implemented in hardware, they may also be implemented as a pure software solution, such as installed on an existing server or mobile device.

Similarly, it should be understood that in the above description of embodiments of the present invention, various features are sometimes grouped in one embodiment, in the drawing or in the description of such an embodiment or drawing in order to simplify the description and help in understanding one or more of the various options. The method according to the present invention, however, should not be interpreted as reflecting the intention that the claimed subject matter requires more features than is explicitly stated in each claim. Rather, the claimed subject matter does not lie in all the features of one of the options described above.

Claims (55)

1. A system for distributing a service request for an online-to-offline service, comprising: at least one storage device containing one or more instruction sets; at least one processor in communication with said at least one storage device, wherein upon execution of said one or more instruction sets, said at least one processor is configured to cause the system to execute: receiving a service request from a terminal of the service requester, the service request being a transport service request and comprising a loading or embarkation location and an unloading or disembarkation location; in response to an accepted service request: determining a first service provider to provide a transportation service, the first service provider being at a first location within a first threshold distance from the pickup or pickup location at the first time; generating a first service order distributing a service request to said first service provider; receiving from the terminal of the first service provider a navigation request associated with the first service order at a second point in time; in response to a navigation request: generating routing information based on the second location of the first service provider at the second point in time and the location of the loading or landing point; determining whether to redistribute the service request to the second service provider based on the routing information; in response to determining that the service request should be redistributed to the second service provider: generating a second service order redistributing the service request to the second service provider; and signaling to the terminal of the second service provider, the signals instructing the terminal to display information associated with the second service order, wherein, in determining whether to redistribute the service request to the second service provider, based on the routing information, said at least one processor is configured to cause the system to execute: determining a first distance between a second location of the first service provider at a second point in time and a loading or landing location based on the routing information; and comparing the first distance with a second threshold distance, wherein the second threshold distance is not less than the first threshold distance. 2. A method for distributing a service request for an online-to-offline service, comprising the steps of: receiving a service request from a terminal of the service requester, the service request being a transport service request and containing a loading or embarkation location and an unloading or disembarkation location; in response to an accepted service request: determining a first service provider to provide a transport service, the first service provider being at a first location within a first threshold distance from a pickup or pickup location at a first time; generating a first service order distributing a service request to the first service provider; receiving from the terminal of the first service provider a navigation request associated with the first service order at a second time point; in response to this navigation request: generating routing information based on the second location of the first service provider at the second point in time and the location of the loading or landing; determining whether to redistribute the service request to the second service provider based on the routing information; in response to determining that the service request should be redistributed to the second service provider: generating a second service order redistributing the service request to the second service provider; and transmitting signals to the terminal of the second service provider, the signals instructing the terminal of the second service provider to display information associated with the second service order, wherein, in the step of determining whether the service request should be redistributed to the second service provider, based on the routing information: determining a first distance between the second location of the first service provider at the second point in time and the loading or landing location based on the routing information; and comparing the first distance with the second threshold distance, wherein the second threshold distance is not less than the first threshold distance. 3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising the step of: in response to determining that the service requester should be reallocated to the second service provider, transmitting to the service requester terminal signals instructing the service requester terminal to display information indicating the reallocation of the first service order. 4. The method according to claim 2, further comprising the step of: in response to determining that the service request should be reallocated to the second service provider, transmitting signals to the first service provider terminal instructing the first service provider terminal to display information indicating reallocating the first service order. 5. The method of claim 2, wherein in the step of determining whether the service request should be redistributed to the second service provider based on the routing information: if the first distance is greater than the second threshold distance, determining that the service request should be redistributed to the second service provider; a if the first distance is equal to or less than the second threshold distance, it is determined that the service request should not be redistributed to the second service provider. 6. The method of claim 2, wherein in the step of determining whether the service request should be redistributed to the second service provider based on the routing information: determining a second distance that the first service provider has moved between the first time and the second time; determining the ratio of the second distance to the distance between the third location where the first service provider was located at the first point in time and the loading or landing location; determining that the service request should be redistributed to the second service provider if the determined ratio is equal to or less than a threshold value; and determining that the service request should not be redistributed to the second service provider if the determined ratio is greater than the specified threshold. 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the third location where the first service provider was at the first time is determined based on the second location of the first service provider at the second time and the second distance. 8. The method according to any one of paragraphs. 2-7, in which at the stage of generating the first service order: searching for one or more candidate service providers within a first threshold distance from a loading or landing location; determining a route from a location of each of said one or more candidate service providers to a loading or landing location; select the first service provider, which corresponds to the shortest route; and distributing the service request to the first service provider. 9. The method according to any one of paragraphs. 2-7, in which at the stage of generating the second service order: searching for one or more candidate service providers within a second threshold distance from a pickup or landing location of the service requester; determining a route from a location of each of said one or more candidate service providers to a loading or landing location; selecting a second service provider that corresponds to the shortest route; and redistributing the service request to the second service provider.

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