LOCATION CONTEXT, SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION, AND SUGGESTIONS FOR MEETING LOCATIONS

• US 20140171129A1
• Filed: 12/17/2012
• Published: 06/19/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Benzatti, Danilo L., Bolles, Gregory A., Faoro, Michael Anthony, Feliberti, Vanessa, Brough, Andrew Winslow, Cook, Jason Andrew, Seetharaman, Shivakumar, Tan, Yeelin, Varo, Gustavo
• Granted Patent: US 9,578,461 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/457
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/025 using location based information parameters

Abstract

Enhanced input field features and techniques for displaying and resolving location information in meeting items are provided. In response to a user'"'"'s interaction with a place name displayed in the location field of a user interface for a meeting item, up to date information is retrieved about the location associated with the place name from a web service and displayed. The display can include a map image tile. In addition to enabling the displaying of up to date information, during creation of the meeting item, the location input field of a meeting item can present location suggestions from within the location input field, for example, as a drop-down listing of possible locations. The suggestions for completing a user'"'"'s input text string to the location input field can be obtained from sources such as a web service, a mailbox, a managed database/directory service, a history cache/database or a combination thereof.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

displaying a location field of a meeting item to a user; and

in response to an interaction with a place name displayed in the location field of the meeting item;

retrieving information about a location associated with the place name from a web service; and

displaying information about the location.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the interaction with the place name comprises:

touching of the displayed place name or clicking or moving of a mouse over the displayed place name.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein retrieving the information about the location from the web service comprises:

using a uniform resource identifier associated with the place name to request the information from the web service.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the meeting item comprises a received meeting invitation.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the meeting item comprises a meeting item form and the location field comprises a location input field, wherein the place name is one of at least one location suggestion for input to the meeting item form, the method comprising:

displaying the at least one location suggestion within the meeting item.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the at least one location suggestion comprises a suggestion based on recipient information associated with a named recipient of the meeting invitation, wherein the recipient information associated with the named recipient comprises contact information of the recipient.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the at least one location suggestion comprises a suggestion based on a list of recently used locations,

wherein in response to receiving a selection of the place name in the location input field:

determining whether the place name is on the list of recently used locations or is not on the list of recently used locations; and

if the place name is on the list of recently used locations, updating a relevance index associated with the place name;

if the place name is not on the list of recently used locations, adding the place name to the list of recently used locations.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying information about the location comprises displaying a map image tile for the location.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein displaying the map image tile for the location comprises:

obtaining geo-coordinates of the location;

passing the geo-coordinates to a web service;

receiving image tile data from the web service; and

rendering the image tile data to display the map image tile, the map image tile comprising a map centered around geo-coordinates of the location.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein in response to a user entering the place name within the location field, pairing the place name with its geo-coordinates.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the place name is a room inside a building and the geo-coordinates are specific to the room and separate from geo-coordinates of the building,

12. The method of claim 10, wherein pairing the place name with its geo-coordinates comprises:

performing a look-up operation of the place name against at least one source; and

returning geo-coordinates for the place name.

wherein the at least one source comprises a server storing directory information of rooms within a building;

a server providing location and mapping services;

a server storing contact information;

a server storing favorite locations; and

/or a server providing a phonebook service.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

upon creation of the meeting item, retrieving geo-coordinates of a user device on which the meeting item was created; and

stamping a location property comprising the geo-coordinates on the meeting item.

14. A user interface for a meeting item, comprising:

an enhanced location input field that surfaces suggestions for a meeting location upon user interaction with the location input filed.

15. The user interface of claim 14, further comprising a location contact card that displays information about a location and a map image tile of the location in response to the user interaction with the location input field.

16. The user interface of claim 14, wherein the suggestions are displayed in a dropdown menu from the location input field.

17. A system comprising:

a processor;

a database; and

a computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that when executed by the processor perform a method comprising;

providing location suggestions within a location input field of a meeting item based on one or more sources;

resolving a place name or address of a location in a location field of the meeting item with geo-coordinates of the location; and

retrieving and displaying information about a resolved location displayed in the location field of a received meeting item from a web service in response to a user interacting with the location field of the received meeting item.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the computer-readable storage medium has instructions stored thereon that when executed by the processor perform the method further comprising:

storing an identifier associated with the location in the database, the identifier used to retrieve the information about the location from the web service; and

storing the geo-coordinates of the location in the database, the geo-coordinates being updated during the retrieving of the information about the location.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the one or more sources comprises:

an external web service for providing suggestions based on street address and/or place names;

or

a directory service for providing suggestions based on specific room locations within a building;

or

a mailbox storing a contact list for providing suggestions based on contact information associated with attendees and an organizer of the meeting item;

or

a history cache or database storing recently used locations;

a combination of the external web service, the directory service, the mailbox, and the history cache or database.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein retrieving and displaying information about the resolved location displayed in the location field of the received meeting item from the web service in response to a user interacting with the location field of the received meeting item comprises:

retrieving an image tile of a map portion around the geo-coordinates from a map or imagery web service; and

displaying the image tile.