Systems, methods and computer products to automatically complete a GUI task

• US 7,930,636 B2
• Filed: 08/28/2007
• Issued: 04/19/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/28/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Logan, Bryan M., Nixa, Terrence T., Paterson, Kevin G., Garbow, Zachary A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tan; Alvin H
• Application Number:
  US11/846,230
• Publication Number:
  US 20090064000A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,330 Days
• Field of Search: 715/708, 715/712, 715/713
• US Class Current: 715/713
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus

Abstract

Automatically completing a GUI task. Exemplary embodiments a method including providing a user configurable auto-completion application operating in the background of a computer operating system and executing on a computing device, the auto-completion application monitoring and archiving user activities, wherein certain actions by the user are parsed and indexed, analyzing the parsed and indexed actions of the user to determine at least one of relationships, user interactions, user statistics, various states of the user'"'"'s actions over time, and images or video of the user'"'"'s interaction to create an index of the user'"'"'s typical interactions with the system and providing a fast-forward functionality based on the index such that a tree structure is presented to the user on a display device of the computing device, the tree structure indicating the user'"'"'s current state in the system and one or more future states the user typically takes based on a past act.

Claims

1. A method of providing an auto-completion feature in a graphical user interface (GUI), the method consisting of:

providing a user configurable auto-completion application operating in a background of a computer operating system and executing on a computing device, the auto-completion application monitoring and archiving user activities, wherein certain actions by a user are parsed and indexed, and wherein snapshots of images on the GUI are stored, an interval of snapshots being taken and an indexing rate depending on CPU utilization;

analyzing the parsed and indexed actions of the user to determine at least one of relationships, user interactions, user statistics, various states of the user'"'"'s actions over time, and images or video of the user'"'"'s interaction to create an index of typical interactions of the user with the system; and

providing a fast-forward functionality based on the index such that a tree structure is presented to the user on a display device of the computing device, the tree structure indicating a current state of the user in the system and one or more future states the user typically takes based on past actions,

wherein the auto-completion application includes instructions to;

query the indexed actions of the user to locate auto-completion options based on similar application states;

compare an application and a user context to a prior context; and

present auto-completion options that match a state of the application and the user context,

wherein the interval of snapshots being taken and the indexing rate are one of increased or decreased depending on CPU utilization, such that during heavy CPU utilization the interval of snapshots being taken can be maintained, and parsing and analysis of the snapshots are delayed until CPU cycles are available, and wherein indexing can be compressed.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the parsed and indexed actions comprises at least one of keywords, file structures, images, parent/child application relationships, user actions and application results.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein user actions comprises at least one of keystrokes, mouse clicks, and preference settings.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the system simulates intermediate actions required to achieve a chosen result.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the presented tree structure, presents the current state as a base of the tree and likely end results are represented by tree nodes.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein each tree node shows a thumbnail of an end result based on previous actions.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the user may select an end result by selecting an associated thumbnail, the operating system generates a series of macros to automatically provide the end result to the user.

8. A system of providing an auto-completion feature in a graphical user interface (GUI), the system comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable medium;

a computer operating system stored in the non-transitory computer readable medium and executing on a computing device;

a user configurable auto-completion application executing in a background of the computer operating system, the auto-completion application monitoring and archiving user activities, wherein certain actions by a user are parsed and indexed, and wherein snapshots of images on the GUI are stored, an interval of snapshots being taken and an indexing rate depending on CPU utilization;

the user configurable auto-completion application executing in the background of the computer operating system analyzing the parsed and indexed actions of the user to determine at least one of relationships, user interactions, user statistics, various states of the user'"'"'s actions over time, and images or video of the user'"'"'s interaction to create an index of typical interactions of the user with applications executing on the computer operating system; and

the user configurable auto-completion application executing in the background of the computer operating system providing a fast-forward functionality based on the index by presenting a tree structure on a display of the computing device, the tree structure indicating a current state of the user in the system and one or more future states the user typically takes based on past actions,

wherein the auto-completion application includes instructions to;

query the indexed actions of the user to locate auto-completion options based on similar application states;

compare an application and a user context to a prior context; and

present auto-completion options that match a state of the application and the user context,

wherein the interval of snapshots being taken and the indexing rate are one of increased or decreased depending on CPU utilization, such that during heavy CPU utilization the interval of snapshots being taken can be maintained, and parsing and analysis of the snapshots are delayed until CPU cycles are available, and wherein indexing can be compressed.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the parsed and indexed actions comprises at least one of keywords, file structures, widgets, parent/child application relationships, user actions and application results.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein user actions comprises at least one of keystrokes, mouse clicks, and preference settings.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the system simulates intermediate actions required to achieve a chosen result.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the presented tree structure, presents the current state as a base of the tree and likely end results are represented by tree nodes.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein each tree node shows a thumbnail of an end result based on previous actions.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the user may select an end result by selecting an associated thumbnail, the operating system generates a series of macros to automatically provide the end result to the user.