Complementary and shadow calendars

• US 10,089,310 B2
• Filed: 01/14/2014
• Issued: 10/02/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 01/14/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Weinberg, Shira, Somech, Haim, Fynn, Scott Vernon, Barash, Uri, Hamilton, Colleen Elizabeth, Howard, III, Robert J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Singh, Gurkanwaljit
• Application Number:
  US14/154,554
• Publication Number:
  US 20150199649A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,722 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3338 Query expansion
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/41 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1093 Calendar-based scheduling for persons or groups
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/33 Arrangements for monitoring the users' behaviour or opinions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/066 Format adaptation, e.g. format conversion or compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users

Abstract

One or more techniques and/or systems are provided for constructing a complementary calendar and/or a shadow calendar. A user may maintain a primary calendar within which the user may schedule user specified tasks and/or meetings, but may inadvertently omit other entries. Accordingly, a complementary calendar may be constructed based upon inferences derived from user signal data (e.g., information used to identify/infer activities of the user, such as social network profile information, messages, temporal information, locational information, documents, etc.). The complementary calendar may be automatically populated with entries corresponding to inferences derived from user signals and/or real-time conditions (e.g., weather, store hours, traffic conditions, etc.). The primary calendar and the complementary calendar may be merged to create a shadow calendar. The complementary calendar and/or the shadow calendar may be displayed to the user and/or may be used to provide dynamic notifications and/or suggestions to the user (e.g. regarding conflicting entries/obligations, etc.).

Claims

1. A method for enabling a computing device to construct a complementary calendar for a user of a user device, wherein the complementary calendar is a calendar that is automatically constructed and comprises automatically-generated entries, and wherein the complementary calendar is constructed in addition to calendars maintained by the user, the method comprising:

receiving schedule data from a primary calendar;

identifying a user signal associated with the user of the user device, based on data received from the user device, wherein the user signal comprises a user activity performed by the user and one or more of time data, or location data, associated with the user activity performed by the user;

evaluating a device context of the device to identify the activity of the user as the user signal;

automatically generating an entry based on inferences derived from the user signal comprising the user activity performed by the user, data received from the primary calendar, and one or more of the time data, or the location data, associated with the user activity performed by the user, wherein the entry is based at least in part on a confidence metric indicative of a confidence that the entry corresponds to an activity that the user will actually perform;

populating the complementary calendar, wherein the complementary calendar is automatically populated with the entry based on the user signal; and

generating a notification to the user based upon the automatically-generated entry in the complementary calendar.

2. The method of claim 1, the identifying a user signal comprising:

evaluating a social network profile of the user to identify the activity of the user as the user signal.

3. The method of claim 1, the identifying a user signal comprising:

evaluating a device context of the device to identify the activity of the user as the user signal, the device context comprising at least one of;

a device location, a device time, a mode of transportation, a device location check-in, an alarm, a charging state, a connectivity state, or user data stored on the device.

4. The method of claim 1, comprising:

evaluating the user signal against at least one of traffic information, weather information, real-time data, or supplemental information to generate a dynamic notification; and

providing the dynamic notification.

5. The method of claim 4, the dynamic notification indicative of a meeting attendance delay, and the method comprising:

providing a notification of the meeting attendance delay to one or more meeting attendees of a meeting.

6. The method of claim 1, comprising:

identifying the primary calendar of the user, the primary calendar comprising a user entry generated by the user;

evaluating the entry in the complementary calendar against the user entry in the primary calendar to identify a conflict; and

providing a conflict alert.

7. The method of claim 6, comprising:

providing a conflict suggestion based upon the conflict.

8. The method of claim 1, comprising:

displaying the complementary calendar.

9. The method of claim 1, the user signal comprising at least one of temporal information or locational information, and the method comprising:

identifying a recurring activity based upon the user signal; and

deriving the entry based upon the recurring activity.

10. The method of claim 1, comprising:

merging the complementary calendar with at least one of the primary calendar or one or more potential official calendars to create a shadow calendar, wherein the shadow calendar comprises the entry in the complementary calendar and one or more user-generated entries from the primary calendar or the one or more potential official calendars.

11. The method of claim 1, comprising:

generating a suggestion based upon the user signal; and

providing the suggestion.

12. The method of claim 1, comprising:

displaying the complementary calendar; and

augmenting the entry based upon a confidence metric.

13. The method of claim 1, comprising:

verifying the entry based upon the primary calendar.

14. The method of claim 1, comprising:

adjusting the entry based upon a user entry within the primary calendar.

15. The method of claim 1, comprising:

generating a user activity inference based upon the primary calendar; and

populating the complementary calendar with a second entry derived from the user activity inference.

16. The method of claim 1, comprising;

automatically populating the complementary calendar with a plurality of entries corresponding to inferences derived from at least one of;

one or more user signals, one or more real-time conditions, or the primary calendar.

17. A system for enabling a computing device to construct a complementary calendar for a user of a user device, wherein the complementary calendar is a calendar that is automatically constructed and comprises automatically-generated entries, and wherein the complementary calendar is constructed in addition to calendars maintained by the user, comprising:

one or more processors;

one or more memories having embodied thereon computer-usable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, provide a calendar construction component configured to;

receive schedule data from a primary calendar;

determine, from the user device, a device context, the device context comprising at least one of;

a device location, a device time, a mode of transportation, a device location check-in, an alarm, a charging state, a connectivity state, or user data stored on the user device;

evaluate the device context to identify an activity performed by the user;

identify a user signal associated with the user of the user device, based on data received from the user device, wherein the user signal comprises the user activity performed by the user and one or more of time data, or location data, associated with the user activity performed by the user;

automatically generate an entry based on inferences derived from the user signal comprising the user activity performed by the user, data received from the primary calendar, and one or more of the time data, or the location data, associated with the user activity performed by the user, wherein the entry is based at least in part on a confidence metric indicative of a confidence that the entry corresponds to an activity that the user will actually perform;

populate the complementary calendar, wherein the complementary calendar is automatically populated with the entry derived from the user signal; and

generate a notification to the user based upon the automatically-generated entry in the complementary calendar.

18. The system of claim 17, the calendar construction component configured to:

merge the complementary calendar with at least one of the primary calendar or one or more potential official calendars to create a shadow calendar.

19. A computer readable medium comprising instructions which when executed at least in part via a processing unit perform a method for enabling a computing device to construct a complementary calendar for a user of a user device, wherein the complementary calendar is a calendar that is automatically constructed and comprises automatically-generated entries, and wherein the complementary calendar is constructed in addition to calendars maintained by the user, the method comprising:

receiving schedule data from a primary calendar;

identifying a user signal associated with the user of the user device, based on data received from the user device, wherein the user signal comprises a user activity performed by the user and one or more of time data, or location data, associated with the user activity performed by the user, wherein identifying the user signal comprises evaluating a device context of the user device, the device context comprising at least one of;

a device location, a device time, a mode of transportation, a device location check-in, an alarm, a charging state, a connectivity state, or user data stored on the user device; and

automatically generating an entry based on inferences derived from the user activity performed by the user, data received from the primary calendar, and one or more of the time data, or the location data, associated with the user activity, wherein the entry is based at least in part on a confidence metric indicative of a confidence that the entry corresponds to an activity that the user will actually perform;

populating the complementary calendar, wherein the complementary calendar is automatically populated with the entry derived from the user activity performed by the user; and

displaying the automatically-constructed complementary calendar comprising the automatically-generated entries.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 19, the method further comprising augmenting the entry based upon the confidence metric.