AUTOMATIC EVENT GENERATION

• US 20110239146A1
• Filed: 03/23/2010
• Published: 09/29/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/23/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Adler, Scott Joseph, Dutta, Lala
• Application Number:
  US12/730,055
• Publication Number:
  US 20110239146A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/768
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting

Abstract

A text input is received in a calendar context. The text input is processed with a context-neutral extraction process to generate a first set of elements and with a calendar-specific extraction process to generate a second set of elements. A calendar event is created from the first set of elements and the second set of elements and displayed on a display device without confirming the elements of the calendar event with a user.

Claims

7. A machine readable storage medium storing executable instructions which when executed by a processor cause the processor to perform operations, the operations comprising:

displaying a calendar interface on a display device;

receiving an indication that an active drag operation of a selection of text is located over the calendar interface;

extracting a first set of elements from the selection of text;

generating a calendar event using the first set of elements;

displaying the calendar event in a temporary state in the calendar interface while the active drag operation is over the calendar interface, wherein the displayed calendar interface is updated to reflect the first set of elements.

8. The machine readable storage medium of claim 7, further comprising:

receiving an indication that the active drag operation has ended while located over the calendar interface;

displaying the calendar event in a permanent state in the calendar interface in response to the indication.

9. The machine readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the indication further comprises a particular location within the calendar interface that the active drag operation is located.

10. The machine readable storage medium of claim 9, further comprising:

determining, based on the particular location, a second set of elements;

determining that a first element of the second set of elements is not present in the first set of elements;

merging the first element into the first set of elements, wherein display of the temporary event reflects the first element.

11. The machine readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein displaying the calendar event in a temporary state includes increasing the transparency of the displayed event.

12. The machine readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein updating the displayed calendar interface comprises an animated transition from an initial time frame to a new time frame indicated by the calendar event.

13. A method comprising:

receiving a user input including a first set of elements;

displaying a text input field in response to the user input receiving a text input from the text input field;

extracting a second set of elements from the text input using at least one extraction process;

merging the first set of elements with the second set of elements according to a conflict resolution rule;

displaying a calendar event created from the merged elements on a display device in a calendar application, wherein the calendar event is displayed without user confirmation of the merged elements.

1. A method comprising:

receiving a text input in a calendar context from a user;

performing a context-neutral extraction process on the text input to generate a first set of elements;

performing, by a data processing system, a calendar-specific extraction process on the text input to generate a second set of elements;

creating a calendar event from the first set of elements and the second set of elements; and

displaying the calendar event on a display device without confirming extracted elements of the calendar event with the user.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a user input indicating to display a text input field to receive the text input.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the user input is associated with a third set of elements.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

displaying an initial calendar event using the third set of elements;

determining a conflict between the third set of elements and one of the first set of elements and the second set of elements;

replacing a conflicting element in the third set of elements with a corresponding conflicting element in one of the first set of elements and the second set of elements, wherein the displayed calendar event uses the replacing element.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the user input comprises at least two separate user actions.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

displaying an initial calendar event using the third set of elements;

determining a conflict between the third set of elements and one of the first set of elements and the second set of elements;

ignoring the conflict.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the first set of elements comprises one or more of the following:

a start time, an end time, a day of the week, a date, and a duration.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the text input field is displayed within the region.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the text input field is displayed near an edge of the display of the calendar application.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the at least one extraction process comprises a context-neutral extraction process and a calendar-specific extraction process.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the conflict resolution rule comprises a list of elements prioritized according to source.

14-1. The method of claim 13, wherein the first set of elements corresponds to a region on a display of the calendar application.

19. A data processing system comprising:

means for receiving a first set of elements and a second set of elements;

means for merging the first of elements and the second set of elements according to a conflict resolution rule, wherein the first set of elements is associated with a user input to a calendar interface means and the second set of elements is extracted from a text input using at least one extracting means;

means for displaying, on a hardware display device, a calendar event generated using the merged elements, wherein the calendar event is displayed without user confirmation of the merged elements.

20. The data processing system of claim 19, wherein the first set of elements comprises at least one of the following:

start time, end time, date, duration, and day of the week.

21. The data processing system of claim 19, wherein the merged elements comprise at least one of the following:

a subject, a location, a calendar selection, an alarm, a status, a URL, and a note.