Flow computing

• US 20060253685A1
• Filed: 05/09/2005
• Published: 11/09/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Wong, Curtis G., Drucker, Steven M., Kajiya, James T.
• Granted Patent: US 7,774,299 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 712/25
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3423 where the assessed time is active or idle time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4843 by program, e.g. task dispatcher, supervisor, operating system

Abstract

Systems and methods directed at providing flow computing. An application configured with flow computing capabilities can determine possible results that are intended by a user based on one or more user-initiated actions. The application identifies idling computing resources in the computing device that are available and automatically performs other actions to produce the possible results using the idling computing resources. The application caches the results and provides at least one of the cached results in an interactive data stream. The user directs the data stream by selecting pre-generated choices to achieve the desired outcome.

Claims

1. One or more device-readable media encoded with device-executable instructions including steps comprising:

identifying a user-initiated action performed in an application executing in a computing device;

determining possible results that the user-initiated action is intended to achieve;

identifying idling computing resources in the computing device that are available;

automatically performing other actions in the application to produce the possible results using the idling computing resources; and

providing at least one of the possible results in an interactive data stream.

2. The one or more device-readable media as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

enabling a selection to direct the interactive data stream; and

in response to receiving the selection, including other possible results in the data stream in accordance with the selection.

3. The one or more device-readable media as recited in claim 2, wherein the selection includes at least one of accept, reject, modify, more like this or less like this.

4. The one or more device-readable media as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

storing the possible results in a memory of the computing device; and

providing the at least one of the possible results by retrieving from the memory.

5. The one or more device-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the user-initiated action includes at least one of a click on a link, entry of data, a selection from a menu, or a command.

6. The one or more device-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the possible results are determined based on a prediction algorithm.

7. The one or more device-readable media as recited in claim 6, wherein the prediction algorithm accounts for at least one of a user preference, a user profile, historical personal behavior, or context of a current activity trajectory.

8. The one or more device-readable media as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

determining a usage trajectory based, at least in part, on the user-initiated action; and

determining possible results based on the usage trajectory.

9. The one or more device-readable media as recited in claim 8, wherein the usage trajectory is an Activity Profile Trajectory.

10. The one or more device-readable media as recited in claim 8, further comprising:

presenting the trajectory as a semantic map; and

indicating a current activity focus on the semantic map.

11. The one or more device-readable media as recited in claim 10, further comprising enabling a user to move the current activity focus on the semantic map.

12. An electronic device configured to read the device-readable media and perform the steps as recited in claim 1.

13. A computing device configured with a computer-readable medium encoded with computer-executable components comprising:

an application configured to perform actions;

an analyzer configured to determine a usage trajectory associated with the application based, at least in part, on the actions performed by the application;

a computing resource manager configured to monitor computing resources of the computing device, the computing resource manager further configured to identify idling computing resources; and

a flow computing module configured to determine possible results intended by the performed actions based, at least in part, on the usage trajectory determined by the analyzer, the flow computing module also configured to instruct the application to generate the possible results using the idling computing resources and to store the generated results in a memory of the computing device, the flow computing module further configured to provide at least one of the generated results in an interactive data stream.

14. The computing device as recited in claim 13, wherein the flow computing module is further configured to provide selectable options for directing the data stream and, upon receiving a selection of the options, to include other generated results in the data stream based, at least in part, on the selection.

15. The computing device as recited in claim 13, wherein the flow computing module is also configured to represent the usage trajectory in a semantic map and to include an indicator on the semantic map to represent an activity focus and wherein the flow computing module is further configured to provide the semantic map to a user and to enable the user to modify the activity focus by moving the indication along the semantic map.

16. The computing device as recited in claim 13, the analyzer is further configured to determine the usage trajectory from evaluating at least one of options that have been selected by a user, the context of the tasks performed by the application, or a structure or a usage frequency of commands associated with the application.

17. The computing device as recited in claim 13, wherein the application includes at least one of an information processing application, a word processor, a presentation tool, a spreadsheet, a database, a media viewing and editing tool, a web authoring tool, a media content software, a viewing and editing tool for video, graphics, audio or images, a web browser, or a media player.

18. A system comprising:

means for anticipating possible results that a user may desire from an application;

means for using background computing cycles to automatically generate the possible results; and

means for enabling the user to choose from the possible results to achieve a desired outcome, without requiring the user to initiating commands in the application to generate the results.

19. The system as recited in claim 18, further comprising:

means for the application to receive data associated with a spreadsheet;

means for automatically generating graphs from the received data using the background computing cycles, wherein the graphs are determined to be desirable by the user and wherein the graphs are generated without any command issued by the user; and

means for providing the graphs to the user for selection.

20. The system as recited in claim 18, further comprising:

means for the application to receive an instruction from the user to browser to a first web location;

means for automatically downloading data from other web locations associated with the first web location using the background computing cycles, wherein the background computing cycles include idling processing cycles and unused networking bandwidth;

means for caching the downloaded data; and

means for providing the downloaded data to the user in an interactive data stream.