ICAFE PRE-ORDERING

• US 20100191549A1
• Filed: 01/23/2009
• Published: 07/29/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/23/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Vargas, Garrett, Toyama, Kentaro
• Granted Patent: US 9,256,845 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/5
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]

Abstract

Technology for pre-ordering (e.g., pre-fetching content) at a shared computing premise is described. The technology can enable a user to locate and reserve an available seat at a shared computing premise (e.g., an iCafé). A service can transmit to the user a list of nearby iCafés or available seats that is ranked or ordered based on various criteria. The selected iCafé may pre-fetch content. The iCafé may also provide the pre-fetched content on removable media so that the user does not need to view all the pre-fetched content only at the iCafé. The iCafé may provide a search and/or document notification service and perform searches, download documents, and check for changes to specified documents even when the user is not logged on or using a computer at the iCafé. After the documents are retrieved and stored, the iCafé may send a notification to the user.

Claims

1. A method performed by a computing system for identifying a seat at a shared computing premise, comprising:

receiving a first information from a first shared computing premise indicative of availability of a first seat at the first shared computing premise;

receiving a second information from a second shared computing premise indicative of availability of a second seat at the second shared computing premise;

receiving a request from a user to identify a shared computing premise;

computing a first rank for the first seat based on the received first information;

computing a second rank for the second seat based on the received second information;

creating a list including the first and the second seats;

sorting the list based on at least the first and second rank; and

transmitting the sorted list to the user.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving the request from the user via a mobile device communications protocol.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving the request from the user via an SMS protocol and transmitting the sorted list to the user via the SMS protocol.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the first and the second ranks are computed based on a distance between a present geographic location of the user and a geographic location of each of the first and the second shared computing premises, respectively.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the first and the second ranks are computed based on a waiting time for the first and the second seats, respectively.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the first and the second ranks are computed based on availability of previously fetched content at the first and the second shared computing premises, respectively.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the first and the second ranks are computed based on a measure of quality of the first and the second seats, respectively.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the measure of quality is based on one or more of a cost, a processor speed, a download speed, an operating system, and a subjective preference.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving a first bid from the first shared computing premise and a second bid from the second shared computing premise, wherein the computed ranks are based at least partially on the received first and second bids.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving a request from the user to reserve the first seat and transmitting the reservation request to the first shared computing premise.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising providing an estimated time of arrival to the first shared computing premise.

12. The method of claim 10 further comprising causing the first shared computing device to pre-fetch content.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein the reservation request is received from the user via a mobile device communication protocol and transmitted to the first shared computing premise via a different data communications protocol.

14. A computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, perform a method for pre-ordering at a shared computing premise, the method comprising:

collecting information indicative of seat availability;

periodically uploading the collected information to a shared server;

receiving a request to reserve a seat for a user;

pre-fetching content; and

storing the pre-fetched content.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 14 wherein the collecting includes observing whether a user has logged into a computer or used an input device within a specified period of time.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 14 wherein the collecting includes determining based on input from a digital camera whether the seat is occupied.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 14 further comprising storing the pre-fetched content in removable media.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 14 further comprising encrypting the pre-fetched content.

19. A system for pre-ordering, comprising:

a component that is configured to store user-specified criteria;

a component that is configured to retrieve a document matching the user-specified criteria even when a user that has specified the criteria is not logged on; and

a component that is configured to notify the user when the document matching the criteria has been pre-fetched and stored via a mobile device communications protocol.

20. The system of claim 19 further comprising a component that is configured to pre-fetch and store popular content for use at a shared computing premise.