Complementary and shadow calendars

• US 10,216,734 B2
• Filed: 09/04/2018
• Issued: 02/26/2019
• 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:
  US16/120,977
• Publication Number:
  US 20180373707A1
• Time in Patent Office: 175 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, 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 one or more 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;

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 the user signal comprising:

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

3. The method of claim 1, 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. One or more computer-storage media having embodied thereon computer-usable instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, implement a method for enabling a computing device to construct a complementary calendar for a user of a user device, 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 historically performed by the user and one or more of time data, or location data, associated with the user activity;

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

automatically generating an entry based on the user signal, 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 corresponds to a future activity that may be performed by the user;

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.

9. The one or more computer-storage media of claim 8, the method further comprising:

displaying the complementary calendar.

10. The one or more computer-storage media of claim 8, the method further comprising:

identifying a recurring activity based upon the user signal; and

deriving the entry based upon the recurring activity.

11. The one or more computer-storage media of claim 8, the method further 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.

12. The one or more computer-storage media of claim 8, the method further comprising:

generating a suggestion based upon the user signal; and

providing the suggestion.

13. The one or more computer-storage media of claim 8, the method further comprising:

displaying the complementary calendar; and

augmenting the entry based upon a confidence metric.

14. The one or more computer-storage media of claim 8, the method further comprising:

verifying the entry based upon the primary calendar.

15. A system for constructing a complementary calendar for a user of a user device, the system comprising:

one or more processors;

one or more computer storage media having embodied thereon instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to implement steps comprising;

receive schedule data from a primary calendar;

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 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;

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

automatically generate an entry based on one or more 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;

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

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

16. The system of claim 15, wherein identify the user signal comprises:

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

17. The system of claim 15, 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.

18. The system of claim 15, the steps further comprising:

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

provide the dynamic notification.

19. The system of claim 18, the dynamic notification indicative of a meeting attendance delay, and the steps further comprising:

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

20. The system of claim 15, the steps further comprising:

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

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

provide a conflict alert.