GPS technology is great at getting you from Point A to Point B. What if you had a system that alerted you to risk of crime, weather, points of interest, and cost savings tips along the way? Microsoft seems headed this way given a newly-awarded patent that ties GPS location to useful information for pedestrians. Here is a description: "As a pedestrian travels, various difficulties can be encountered, such as traveling through an unsafe neighborhood or being in an open area that is subject to harsh temperatures. A route can be developed for a person taking into account factors that specifically affect a pedestrian. Moreover, the route can alter as a situation of a user changes; for instance, if a user wants to add a stop along a route." This is a classic example of the Attribute Dependency Technique, one of five in Systematic Inventive Thinking. It creates a correlation (dependency) between a person's location and the type of information that is sent to the device. Microsoft's new concept gathers data, analyzes the data and user requirements, then generates suggested routes. It considers the user's preferences such as avoiding neighborhoods that exceed a certain threshold of violent crime statistics. The system might direct you to "take the subway" rather than walk if rain was expected. It even considers cost factors such as parking, extra traffic, and other situations that might make you vary your path.