METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ACTIVITY LEVEL VISUALIZATION IN AN ELECTRONIC CALENDAR

• US 20140225897A1
• Filed: 04/17/2014
• Published: 08/14/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/21/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: SARRAZIN, JACOU, BELITSKY, VITALIY
• Application Number:
  US14/255,364
• Publication Number:
  US 20140225897A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/467
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1093 Calendar-based scheduling for persons or groups
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/001 Texturing; Colouring; Generation of texture or colour inpainting G06T5/77
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/40 Scaling of whole images or parts thereof, e.g. expanding or contracting
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/14 Solving problems related to the presentation of information to be displayed
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/00 Control arrangements or circuits for visual indicators common to cathode-ray tube indicators and other visual indicators image data processing or generation, in general G06T

Abstract

The present document describes a system and method of managing and viewing calendar data. Calendar data may include, for each of a plurality of calendar events, data items indicating at least a date of the event. According to some example embodiments, a visual indicator is displayed for each date in a date range. The visual indicator may be generated as a function of the number of events or the duration of time of events for the day. The visual indicator may include a font size and/or bold type of a numerical day displayed. Thus, in some example embodiments, the size and bold type of the numerical day may indicate to a user the relative activity level of the individual days of the date range. The visual indicator may also indicate a conflict between scheduled events.

Claims

1. A method implemented by a processor, comprising:

generating, for each date in a date range, an index as a function of calendar data, the calendar data including data items that indicate a date for a calendar event and a total time occupied by the calendar event; and

displaying a visual indicator as a function of the index, wherein the index represents, for each date, at least one of;

a number of events for the date; and

the total time occupied by the number of events for the date.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the visual indicator comprises, for each date, a respective font setting of a respective numerical day, the font setting being determined as a function of the calendar data.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein, for each numerical day, the respective font setting comprises a respective font size.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein, for each numerical day, the respective font setting comprises a respective bold type.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the calendar data further comprises, for each calendar event;

a respective data item indicating an availability factor of the event; and

generating the index as a function of the calendar data comprises generating the index as a function of the total time occupied by the number of events for the date and the availability factor of each event for the date.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the availability factor indicates that the event is designated as one of free, busy, tentative, and out-of-office.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein generating the index as a function of the calendar data comprises generating the index as a function of a total time occupied by the events designated as either busy or tentative.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the calendar data further comprises, for each of at least one calendar event:

at least one data item indicating at least one participant for the event.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising, for each date, displaying a participant indicator generated as a function of a number of participants of events for the date.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one calendar event comprises a plurality of calendar events, and the visual indicator comprises a conflict indicator that indicates a conflict between two or more of the plurality of calendar events.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving the calendar data from a database.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the calendar data that is received comprises a portion of available calendar data.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the portion of the available calendar data comprises data items upon which the index is based.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein

the calendar data further comprises, for each calendar event:

a respective data item an availability factor of the event, and

the portion of the available calendar data comprises the data items indicating;

the date of the event;

the total time occupied by the event;

and the availability factor of the event.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising receiving an indication of a selected date in the date range and receiving additional data items for events for the selected date.

16. An apparatus, comprising:

a processor configured to generate, for each date in a date range, an index as a function of calendar data, the calendar data including data items that indicate a date for a calendar event and a total time occupied by the calendar event; and

a display displaying a visual indicator as a function of the index, wherein the index represents, for each date, at least one of;

a number of events for the date; and

the total time occupied by the number of events for the date.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the visual indicator comprises, for each date, a respective font setting of a respective numerical day, the font setting being determined as a function of the calendar data.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein for each numerical day, the respective font setting comprises at least one of a font size and a bold type.

19. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein

the calendar data further comprises, for each calendar event:

a respective data item indicating an availability factor of the event, and,

generating the index as a function of the calendar data comprises generating the index as a function of the total time occupied by the number of events for the date and the availability factor of each event for the date.

20. A computer-readable medium having processor-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to implement a method comprising:

generating, for each date in a date range, an index as a function of calendar data, the calendar data including data items that indicate a date for a calendar event and a total time occupied by the calendar event; and

displaying a visual indicator as a function of the index, wherein the index represents, for each date, at least one of;

a number of events for the date; and

the total time occupied by the number of events for the date.