Bifocal view: a novel calendar user interface

• US 8,069,417 B2
• Filed: 09/29/2006
• Issued: 11/29/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Mayans, Jason C., Brush, Alice Jane Bernheim, Fisher, Danyel A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Vu; Kieu
• Assistant Examiner(s): RIEGLER, PATRICK F
• Application Number:
  US11/537,523
• Publication Number:
  US 20080082925A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,887 Days
• Field of Search: 715/963, 715/751, 705/7.18
• US Class Current: 715/764
• 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

Abstract

The claimed subject matter provides a system and/or a method that facilitates creating a calendar that enables optimized awareness of at least one event. An interface component can receive data related to an event. An enhanced scheduler component can create a calendar that enables a bifocal calendar view to display an event correlated to a first date with a first time-scale and an event correlated to a second date with a second time-scale.

Claims

1. A system that facilitates creating a calendar that enables optimized awareness of at least one event, comprising:

one or more processors;

an interface component that receives data related to at least one event;

an enhanced scheduler component that creates a calendar that discloses at least two views concurrently, a first event data portion correlates to a date with a first time-scale used by a first concurrent view and a supplemental event data portion correlates to a date with a supplemental time-scale used by a supplemental concurrent view, the enhanced scheduler component displays the event data portions of both the first view and supplemental view upon disclosure of the calendar;

a settings component that implements settings or configurations corresponding to a plurality of user profiles with each user profile relating to a user, the settings component allowing a first user to change how the data of the at least one event relating to the first user is displayed on the calendar such that the data of the at least one event relating to the first user is displayed differently from that of a second user;

a search component that identifies and locates particular data associated with a first event based on search criteria and provides event linkage between the first event and one or more other events by identifying relationships between the first event and the one or more other events; and

an intelligence component that infers states of the system and each user of the calendar to facilitate updating of the calendar, the intelligence component further being configured to generate a probability distribution over the states of the system and each user of the calendar based at least in part on a consideration of data and events associated with the calendar, the inferring states of the system including inferring time-scales, views, event data, display settings, user configurations, visual layout, user settings, the plurality of user profiles, event linkages, scheduling conflicts, clutter reduction, meeting data, and query data associated with the calendar.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the enhanced scheduler component automatically edits at least a portion of an event'"'"'s information to ensure the event information is sized-to-fit within a display space on the calendar.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising a data manager component that evaluates data related to the at least one event to utilize the calendar.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the data manager component provides at least one of the following:

placing an event with a corresponding date within the calendar;

providing event linkage that identifies a relationship between one or more events;

identifying a conflict associated with one or more events;

planning;

scheduling;

searching for an event;

presenting information to the user; and

identifying user-defined event data to display on the calendar that includes at least one of a meeting location, an appointment member, a time of event, and a meeting response.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the settings component that implements at least one of a default user configuration, a user-defined setting, and a combination of a default user configuration and a user-defined setting.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the search component enables a query to be implemented within the calendar, the search component further identifying at least one result associated with the query in the calendar utilizing at least one of a highlight, a bold, a color, a pointer, and a graphic.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the calendar utilizes a color variance to illustrate an intensity that correlates to an amount of events associated with a date.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the date of the first event data portion and the date of the supplemental event data portion are a same date.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the date of the first event data portion and the date of the supplemental event data portion are different dates.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the event of the first event data portion and the event of the supplemental event data portion are a same event.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the event of the first event data portion and the event of the supplemental event data portion are different events.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the first event data portion and the supplemental event data portion are of a different detail level from one another.

8. A user interface that facilitates displaying data associated with a calendar, comprising:

a first field that displays a selected date from a date set with first event data of the selected date in a first time-scale;

a second field that displays the date set with associated event data for at least one non-selected date of the date set in a second time-scale based upon a result of a query that is based upon at least one input parameter, the associated event data that meets at least one input parameter of a query is visually distinguished within the second field;

a third field that displays the calendar that includes the selected date and the date set;

the calendar including a settings component that implements settings or configurations corresponding to a plurality of user profiles with each user profile relating to a user, the settings component allowing a first user to change how data of at least one event relating to the first user is displayed on the user interface such that the data of the at least one event relating to the first user is displayed differently from that of a second user, the settings component utilizing an intelligence component that infers states of the calendar and each user of the calendar to update the first field, the second field, and the third field and generates a probability distribution over the states of the calendar and each user of the calendar, the inferring states of the calendar including inferring time-scales, views, event data, display settings, user configurations, visual layout, user settings, the plurality of user profiles, event linkages, scheduling conflicts, clutter reduction, meeting data, and query data associated with each calendar;

the calendar including a search component that identifies and locates particular data associated with a first event based on search criteria and provides event linkage between the first event and one or more other events by identifying relationships between the first event and the one or more other events; and

a processor operatively coupled to memory executing an instruction in relation to the user interface.

9. The user interface of claim 8, wherein the first field illustrates event data in a more granular manner in comparison to the second field.

10. The user interface of claim 8, wherein the first field and the second field constitute the calendar that enables a user to view event data related to the selected date and event data related to surrounding dates in reference to the selected date.

11. The user interface of claim 10, wherein the calendar utilizes a color variance to illustrate an intensity that correlates to an amount of events associated with a date.

12. The user interface of claim 8, wherein the user interface automatically edits at least a portion of an event'"'"'s information to ensure the event information is sized-to-fit within the display space on the calendar.

13. The user interface of claim 8, wherein at least one of the first field and the second field display event data that includes an event time, an event member, an event member response, an event location, a type of event, an attendance of an event, a priority of an event, a date of an event, and an alert associated with an event.

19. The user interface of claim 8, wherein the second field displays the selected date integrated with the at least one non-selected date and the first event data that meets the at least one input parameter of the query is visually distinguished within the second field.

20. A system that facilitates creating a calendar that enables optimized awareness of at least one event, comprising:

one or more processors;

means for receiving data related to at least one event;

means for creating a calendar that discloses at least two views concurrently, a first event data portion correlates to a date with a first time-scale used by a first concurrent view and a supplemental event data portion correlates to a date with a supplemental time-scale used by a supplemental concurrent view, the first event data portion and the supplemental event data portion are of different detail level from one another, and displaying the event data portions of both the first view and supplemental view upon disclosure of the calendar while the event of the first event data portion and the event of the supplemental event data portion are a same event on a same date;

means for implementing settings or configurations corresponding to a plurality of user profiles with each user profile relating to a user, the means for implementing allowing a first user to change how the data related to the at least one event relating to the first user is displayed on the calendar such that the data related to the at least one event relating to the first user is displayed differently from that of a second user;

means for identifying and locating particular data associated with a first event based on search criteria and means for providing event linkage between the first event and one or more other events by identifying relationships between the first event and the one or more other events; and

means for inferring states of the system and each user of the calendar to facilitate updating of the calendar, the means for inferring states of the system including means for inferring time-scales, views, event data, display settings, user configurations, visual layout, user settings, the plurality of user profiles, event linkages, scheduling conflicts, clutter reduction, meeting data, and query data associated with the calendar, and the means for inferring including means for generating a probability distribution over the states of the system and each user of the calendar.