Lifestream annotation method and system

• US 10,339,196 B2
• Filed: 01/05/2015
• Issued: 07/02/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 01/27/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Brown, Stephen J., Schobel, Andreas
• Primary Examiner(s): Recek, Jason D
• Application Number:
  US14/589,844
• Publication Number:
  US 20150254363A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,639 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/36 Creation of semantic tools, e.g. ontology or thesauri
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9558 Details of hyperlinks; Management of linked annotations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes

Abstract

A method and system for collecting information, enriching the collected information, and linking the enriched information is provided. The system includes an application server that is accessible by users via their computer device for performing a variety of functions encompassed in a lifestream data function. Lifestreams (or lifestream data) contains notes, recordings and annotation data elements. The goal of the lifestream data functions is to ultimately enrich the individual data elements in each lifestream which then form a network of enriched lifestreams or aspects of enriched lifestreams to provide a user with: (a) a better organization of his/her data, notes, thoughts and intentions, (b) a better search or filter tool to search for data, notes, thoughts and intentions, and/or (c) a better ranking mechanism for ranking or determining relevance of data, notes, thoughts and intentions.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by at least one computer processor, a first stream of note data items, a second stream of recording data items, and a third stream of annotation data items;

determining, by the at least one computer processor, that;

a plurality of recording data items of the second stream should be linked to a first plurality of note data items of the first stream, and

a plurality of annotation data items of the third stream should be linked to a second plurality of note data items of the first stream;

linking, by the at least one computer processor;

the plurality of recording data items with the first plurality of note data items, and

the plurality of annotation data items with the second plurality of note data items to create a network of linked data items; and

determining, by the at least one computer processor, a relevance of a particular data item within the network of linked data items based on a density of related connections to the particular data item in the network of linked data items.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the annotation comprises physiological sensed data of a user.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the network of linked data items are part of a health tracking service.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the physiological sensed data includes heart rate data gathered from the user.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the annotation comprises externally sensed data of an environment of a user.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the externally sensed data indicates movement through the environment.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the movement data is determined, at least in part, based on location data gathered from a Global Positioning System (GPS) device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein each note data item in the first stream is associated with a distinct time period.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, based on the network of linked data items, that a user has met a first predetermined goal for a specified time period; and

presenting an indication that the user has met the first predetermined goal.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining that the plurality of annotation data items should be linked to the second plurality of note data items is based on commonalities in the plurality of annotation data items and the second plurality of note data items or is based on preferences.

11. The method of claim 1, comprising:

detecting a change in context by the at least one computer processor; and

in response to the detecting the change in context, deriving any of the data items.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the context includes changes related people, faces, location, direction, keywords, logical content blocks, identity of person or place said user is looking at, externally sensed data or a combination thereof.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the first plurality of note data items overlaps with the second plurality of note data items.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein each note data item in the first stream includes text and an indication of a time associated with generation of the note data item.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the first stream of note data items includes text, audio media, visual media, audio-visual media, recorded data, a weblink, a pointer to an information source, or a combination thereof;

the second stream of recording data items includes audio data recordings, video data recordings, audio-video data recordings, or a combination thereof; and

the third stream of annotation data items includes data describing an environment of a user, data describing physiological sensed data of the user, or a combination thereof.

16. A system comprising:

at least one computer processor; and

at least one memory containing instructions that, when executed, cause the computer processor to;

receive, by the at least one processor, a first stream of note data items, a second stream of recording data items, and a third stream of annotation data items;

determine, by the at least one processor, that;

a plurality of recording data items of the second stream should be linked to a first plurality of note data items in the first stream based on preference settings or commonalities in the plurality of recording data items and the first plurality of note data items, and

a plurality of annotation data items of the third stream should be linked to a second plurality of note data items of the first stream based on the preference settings or commonalities in the plurality of annotation data items;

linking, by the at least one computer processor;

the plurality of recording data items with the first plurality of note data items, and

the plurality of annotation data items with the second plurality of note data items to create a network of linked data items; and

provide, by the at least one processor, a search function to a user for searching the network of linked data items and for returning at least one data item from the network of linked data items that is relevant to a search query.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein each data item in the network of linked data items is associated with a distinct time period.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the instructions further cause the at least one computer processor to:

determine, based on the network of linked data items, that the user has met a first predetermined goal for a specified time period; and

present an indication that the user has met the first predetermined goal.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable medium including instructions that, when executed by at least one computer processor, cause the at least one computer processor to:

receive by the at least one processor, a first stream of note data items, a second stream of recording data items, and a third stream of annotation data items;

determine, by the at least one processor, that;

a plurality of recording data items of the second stream should be linked to a first plurality of note data items in the first stream based on preference settings or commonalities in the plurality of recording data items and the first plurality of note data items based on commonalities in the at least two plurality of recording data items and the first plurality of note data items or based on preferences, and

a plurality of annotation data items of the third stream should be linked to a second plurality of note data items of the first stream based on commonalities in the plurality of annotation data items and the second plurality of note data items or based on preferences;

create, by the at least one processor, a network of linked data items by linking the plurality of recording data items with the first plurality of note data items and by linking the plurality of annotation data items with the second plurality of note data items; and

provide, by the at least one processor, a search function to a user for searching the network of linked data items and for returning at least one data item from the network of linked data items that is relevant to a search query.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the third stream of annotation data items includes at least one data item including physiological sensed data of the user.

21. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein the network of linked data items are part of a health tracking service.

22. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein the physiological sensed data includes heart rate data gathered from the user.

23. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the third stream of annotation data items includes at least one data item including externally sensed data of an environment of the user.

24. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 23, wherein the externally sensed data indicates movement through the environment.

25. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 24, wherein the movement data is determined, at least in part, based on location data gathered from a Global Positioning Service (GPS) device.

26. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein each data item in the network of linked data items is associated with a distinct time period.

27. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the instructions further cause the computer processor to:

determine, by the at least one processor, based on the network of linked data items, that the user has met a first predetermined goal for a specified time period; and

present, by the at least one processor, an indication that the user has met the first predetermined goal.