TASK ORIENTED USER INTERFACE PLATFORM

• US 20110016421A1
• Filed: 07/20/2009
• Published: 01/20/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/20/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Abramovski, Igor, Krupka, Eyal, Fireman, Liza
• Application Number:
  US12/505,837
• Publication Number:
  US 20110016421A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/780
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/20 Natural language analysis semantic analysis of natural language G06F40/30

Abstract

An application management system may have a user interface in which a user may input a text phrase that describes a desired action. The system may generate metadata relating to the text phrase and distribute the metadata and text phrase to many different registered applications, some of which may be web based applications. Each application may return one or more suggested actions, along with some optional information from the application. The suggested actions may be ranked and presented on the user interface, and a user may select an action to be performed. The system may launch the application and have the action performed.

Claims

1. A method being performed on a computer processor, said method comprising:

receiving a text phrase;

generating metadata related to said text phrase;

transmitting said metadata and said text phrase to a plurality of applications;

receiving suggested actions from at least one of said plurality of applications;

presenting said suggested actions in a user interface;

receiving a selection of a first suggested action from said user interface, said first suggested action being associated with a first application; and

causing said first application to perform said first suggested action.

2. The method of claim 1, said metadata relating to a context of operation.

3. The method of claim 2, said context being defined by at least one currently executing application.

4. The method of claim 3, said context being further defined by currently displayed data within said currently executing application.

5. The method of claim 3, said context being further defined by currently available data within said currently executing application.

6. The method of claim 1, said metadata comprising location information.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

performing a first parsing of said text phrase to identify a second type of parsing to be performed on said text phrase;

identifying a second application to perform said second type of parsing;

transmitting said text phrase to said second application; and

receiving at least a portion of said metadata from said second application after said second application performs said second parsing.

8. The method of claim 1, at least one of said plurality of applications being a web application.

9. The method of claim 8, said web application comprising a social network.

10. The method of claim 1, at least one of said plurality of applications being a locally executing application.

11. The method of claim 1, said text phrase being received from a speech to text component.

12. A system comprising:

a user interface;

a backend engine operable on a computer processor, said backend engine configured to;

receive a text phrase from said user interface;

generate metadata related to said text phrase;

transmit said metadata and said text phrase to a plurality of applications;

receive at least one suggested action from one of said plurality of applications;

causing said suggested action to be presented on said user interface;

receive a selected suggested action from said user interface, said selected suggested action being capable of being performed by a first application; and

causing said selected suggested action to be performed by said first application.

13. The system of claim 12 further comprising:

a registration system configured to;

receive registration information about a new application; and

store said registration information such that said backend engine may transmit said metadata and said text phrase to said new application.

14. The system of claim 13 further comprising:

an application database configured to store said registration information.

15. The system of claim 12, said user interface comprising a graphical user interface.

16. The system of claim 12, said user interface comprising an audio user interface.

17. The system of claim 12, said backend engine further configured to:

rank a plurality of said suggested actions; and

present said plurality of said suggested actions based on said ranking.

18. A method being performed on a computer processor, said method comprising:

receiving a text phrase from a user interface operating on a first device;

generating metadata related to said text phrase, said metadata comprising context information about said first device and metadata derived from at least one application;

transmitting said metadata and said text phrase to a plurality of applications;

receiving a plurality of suggested actions from at least two of said plurality of applications;

receiving at least one set of application data from one of said plurality of applications;

presenting said plurality of suggested actions and said set of application data in a user interface;

receiving a selection of a first suggested action from said user interface, said first suggested action being associated with a first application; and

causing said first application to perform said first suggested action.

19. The method of claim 18, said plurality of applications comprising at least one web application.

20. The method of claim 19, said web application comprising a social network.