Google patents voice commands for off-screen map locations
Google describes a system that lets users ask a digital assistant about places that are not currently visible on their navigation map. The system listens for specific words in the user's voice to find locations outside the current view and then adjusts the map to show them.
In the filing’s own words
The present disclosure is generally related to systems and methods of interfacing among multiple applications in a networked computer environment. A data processing system can access a navigation application to retrieve point locations within a reference frame corresponding to a geographic region displayed in a viewport of the navigation application. Each point location can have an identifier. The data processing system can parse an input audio signal to identify a request and a referential word. The data processing system can identify a point location within the reference frame based on the referential word parsed from the input audio signal and the identifier for the point location. The data processing system can generate an action data structure including the point location identified. The data processing system can transmit the action data structure to the navigation application to initiate a navigation guidance process using the point location.
What exactly they claim (claim 1)
1. A method implemented by one or more processors, the method comprising: receiving an input audio signal detected by a sensor of a client device while a display of the client device is rendering a viewport of a navigation application, the viewport displaying a first reference frame corresponding to a first geographic region; identifying, based on the input audio signal, a request and a referential word; determining that the identified referential word is classified as a distal word; in response to determining that the referential word is classified as the distal word, identifying a subset of point locations corresponding to a second geographic region that is currently outside the viewport of the navigation application; identifying, based on the request, a specific point location from the identified subset of point locations; and causing the navigation application to display the specific point location within a second reference frame corresponding to the second geographic region.
Facts
- Company
- Google (GOOGLE LLC)
- Official title
- INTERFACING BETWEEN DIGITAL ASSISTANT APPLICATIONS AND NAVIGATION APPLICATIONS
- Publication number
- US20260279347A1
- Application number
- 19673755
- Filed
- May 11, 2026
- Published
- Sep 17, 2026
- Inventors
- 2
- Claims
- 20
Classified under
G10L 15/1822 Physics & computingG01C 21/3476 Physics & computingG01C 21/3608 Physics & computingG01C 21/3626 Physics & computingG06F 40/30 Physics & computingG06N 5/022 Physics & computingMore from Google in AI & software
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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.