User interface for controlling access to computer objects

• US 20050256842A1
• Filed: 07/25/2005
• Published: 11/17/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Cheng, Lili, Turski, Andrzej, Marcjan, Cezary
• Granted Patent: US 7,636,890 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database

Abstract

A computer object access control graphical user interface allows a user to set computer locations where a computer object may be accessed and other users who may access the computer object. The computer object may be a computer file, a computer message, person contact information, etc. The access control user interface may operate, for example, to save a computer object to one or more computer locations, and also to specify sharing of the computer object with one or more other users so that they can access the object. Saving a computer object and setting the sharing of it are together referred to as controlling access to the object, the former referring to where the object may be accessed from and the latter referring to who may access the object. This provides, therefore, a unified interface for selecting and displaying destinations that can be either a file store or a person, thereby unifying the control of access to a computer object.

Claims

1. A computer object access control graphical user interface rendered on a computer display screen for controlling access to a computer object, comprising:

a query field for indicating a query to access the computer object; and

a recent object field rendered with the query field and listing plural computer objects that have been accessed by the user, the plural computer objects including objects obtained from computer locations and computer communications objects.

2. The computer object access control graphical user interface of claim 1, in which the plural computer objects are listed in reverse chronological order in the recent object field.

3. The computer object access control graphical user interface of claim 1, in which the query field receives a query in a chunk expression language format.

4. The computer object access control graphical user interface of claim 1, further comprising an automatic context association system to automatically control access to objects related to the computer object.

5. The computer object access control graphical user interface of claim 1, wherein the computer communications objects are at least one of email and instant messaging.

6. Software to render the computer object access control graphical user interface of claim 1, the software embodied on computer readable medium.

7. An electrical signal representation of computer-executable instructions to render the computer object access control graphical user interface of claim 1.

8. A method for automatically controlling access to one or more objects, comprising:

monitoring computer system activity to collect context data;

storing metadata indicative of the context data;

employing the metadata to create associations between objects; and

automatically controlling access to an object based on the object'"'"'s associations with other objects, wherein controlling access to the object comprises setting object sharing controls.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein employing the metadata to create associations further comprises chunking the objects into sub-groups based on one or more criteria.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein employing the metadata to create associations further comprises determining a relative importance of the objects.

11. The method of claim 8, the context data being at least one of user computer activities, computer actions, interactions between the user and computer objects, computer system events, computer communications and external data.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the associated objects are at least one of computer files and contacts.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising supplying contextual information not readily available to the computer system.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein the context data is collected from multiple users.

15. Computer-executable instructions for performing the method of claim 8, the computer-executable instructions embodied on computer readable medium.

16. An electrical signal representation of computer-executable instructions for performing the method of claim 8.

17. A system to automatically control access to one or more objects, comprising:

a data collection system comprising a system activity monitor to collect context data relating to computer system activity; and

a relationship processing system comprising an association system to employ the context data to create context associations between objects, wherein access to an object is automatically controlled utilizing the context associations between objects and wherein automatically controlling access to the object comprises specifying users who can have access to the object and computer locations from where the object can be accessed.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the relationship processing system further comprises a chunking system to chunk the objects into sub-groups based on one or more criteria.

19. Computer-executable instructions for implementing the system of claim 17, the computer-executable instructions embodied on computer readable medium.

20. An electrical signal representation of computer-executable instructions for implementing the system of claim 17.