DEFINING ACTIONS FOR DATA STREAMS VIA ICONS

• US 20120151381A1
• Filed: 12/14/2010
• Published: 06/14/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Schiff, Rachel, Mao, Zhihong, Zaragoza, Richard Ignacio
• Granted Patent: US 9,449,308 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/752
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/205 Parsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/221 Parsing markup language streams streaming G06F40/149
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/274 Converting codes to words; Guess-ahead of partial word inputs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/18 for broadcast or conference , e.g. multicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/066 Format adaptation, e.g. format conversion or compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/18 Commands or executable codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/56 Unified messaging, e.g. interactions between e-mail, instant messaging or converged IP messaging [CPM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/7243 with interactive means for internal management of messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72436 for text messaging, e.g. short messaging services [SMS] or e-mails

Abstract

Embodiments provide visual programming constructs including icons representing conditions and actions for processing incoming data streams. A user selects icons corresponding to at least one of the conditions and at least one of the actions to define a rule. The selected condition relates to at least one element possibly present in the incoming data stream. Without compilation of the rule, at least one incoming data stream is analyzed based on the condition to detect a presence of the element within the incoming data stream. The action is performed based on the analysis. In some embodiments, formatting of the incoming data streams is altered according to the conditions and actions to personalize the incoming data stream.

Claims

1. A system for conditional visual formatting of an incoming data stream on a mobile computing device, said system comprising:

a memory area associated with a mobile computing device, said memory area storing at least one user-defined rule, said rule including a condition and a corresponding action, wherein the condition relates to at least one element in the incoming data stream; and

a processor programmed to;

display, to a user of the mobile computing device, icons representing one or more available conditions and one or more actions corresponding thereto;

receive, from the user on the mobile computing device, a selection of the icons representing at least one of the available conditions and at least one of the corresponding actions;

define a rule including the selected condition and the selected action, wherein the defined rule is stored in the memory area;

scan the incoming data stream based on the condition in the user-defined rule to detect said at least one element in the incoming data stream;

alter a visual format of the detected element based on the action in the user-defined rule;

display, to the user, the altered visual format of the detected element in the incoming data stream; and

provide, upon request from the user, the user-defined rule to at least one other computing device, wherein said other computing device applies the user-defined rule to visually format data streams incoming to said other computing device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is programmed to define the rule without compiling the selected condition and corresponding action.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the available conditions relates to one or more of the following in the incoming data stream:

presence of a word, a user associated with the incoming data stream, a property of the user associated with the incoming data stream, a time associated with the incoming data stream, a type of operating system executing on the mobile computing device, and a model of the mobile computing device.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further programmed to transmit the user-defined rule to at least one other user.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is programmed to scan the incoming data stream by receiving the incoming data stream scanned by an application program executing on a computing device other than the mobile computing device.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein said application program comprises an interactive content reader accessible by the mobile computing device via a network.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising means for providing a visual programming language enabling the user to define conditions and corresponding actions for processing incoming data streams.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising means for processing incoming data streams to perform actions based on conditions detected in incoming data streams.

9. A method comprising:

providing a plurality of icons to a user of a user computing device, each of said icons corresponding to one or more visual programming constructs, said constructs forming conditions and actions;

receiving a selection of the provided icons from the user computing device, said selection corresponding to at least one of the conditions and to at least one of the actions, wherein said at least one of the conditions relates to at least one element in at least one incoming data stream;

without compilation of the received selection, analyzing the incoming data stream based on said at least one of the conditions to detect a presence of the element within the incoming data stream; and

performing said at least one of the actions based on said analyzing.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein performing said at least one of the actions comprises hiding a conversation thread from a particular sender.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein analyzing the at least one incoming data stream comprises analyzing one or more of the following:

a social network feed, a web feed, a text message, an electronic mail message, and an instant message.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein performing said at least one of the actions comprises replacing text in the incoming data stream with an image.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein performing said at least one of the actions comprises one or more of the following:

displaying an animation, playing a sound, changing a font color of text in the incoming data stream, and changing a background color of a user interface of the user computing device.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the received selection of the provided icons is associated with a type of the user computing device, and wherein said analyzing and said performing operate based on the received selection only when the user computing device is of the associated type.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the type of the user computing device comprises one or more of the following:

a laptop, a mobile computing device, a gaming console, and a television.

16. One or more computer-readable media having computer-executable components, said components comprising:

a user interface component that when executed by at least one processor causes the at least one processor to display a plurality of icons to a user of a user computing device, each of said icons corresponding to one or more visual programming constructs, said constructs forming conditions and actions, wherein said user interface component further receives from the user a selection of the displayed icons, said selection representing at least one of the conditions and at least one of the actions, wherein said at least one of the conditions relates to at least one element in an incoming data stream;

a communications interface component that when executed by at least one processor causes the at least one processor to receive the incoming data stream; and

a content reader component that when executed by at least one processor causes the at least one processor to analyze, based on the condition and without compilation of the selection received by the user interface component, the incoming data stream received by the communications interface component to detect a presence of the element within the incoming data stream, said content reader component further performing the action based on the detected presence of the element.

17. The computer-readable media of claim 16, wherein the communications interface component receives a plurality of incoming data streams, and wherein the content reader component analyzes each of the received plurality of data streams.

18. The computer-readable media of claim 16, wherein the content reader component alters a visual format of the element based on the action, and wherein the user interface component displays to the user the altered visual format of the element in the incoming data stream.

19. The computer-readable media of claim 16, further comprising a memory component that when executed by at least one processor causes the at least one processor to store the condition and the action from the selection received by the user interface component as a rule in a memory area, and wherein the communications interface component transmits the stored rule to another user.

20. The computer-readable media of claim 16, wherein the user interface component, the communications interface component, and the content reader component are packaged as a downloadable application.