User interface for an inkable family calendar

• US 8,074,175 B2
• Filed: 02/22/2006
• Issued: 12/06/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/06/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Brush, Alice Jane Bernheim, Neustaedter, Carman G.
• Primary Examiner(s): ZAHR, ASHRAF A
• Application Number:
  US11/359,855
• Publication Number:
  US 20070168892A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,113 Days
• Field of Search: 715/751, 715/963, 157/51, 159/63
• US Class Current: 715/751
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting

Abstract

The subject application relates to a user interface(s), system(s), and/or methodology that facilitate improved management and coordination of activities, events, and occasions using a digital calendar format that can be accessed anywhere, changed or edited with ease, and readily synchronized on different devices. Various input modes can be employed including inking. New items can be created using an inking component and then dragged and dropped onto the appropriate day. Items can be modified or deleted and such alterations can be tracked to ensure that calendar changes can be monitored, and moreover, access to the calendar can be controlled.

Claims

1. A calendar system that facilitates improving activity awareness and coordination of schedules among multiple users, comprising:

a computerized awareness appliance for interacting with a user interface including one or more display views of a calendar grid;

an event space adjacent to the calendar grid and formatted as a customizable notepad, text data being enterable in the event space in multiple selectable input formats including writing with a writing tool and typing;

one or more navigation components that facilitate dragging and dropping the text data in the form of a note from the notepad to a selected day on the calendar grid to form a calendar item, wherein;

a particular word in the note entered as part of the text data is recognized during creation of the calendar item; and

a color associated with the calendar item is automatically selected from among a plurality of available colors based on learning from user association of the color with the particular word;

one or more tracking components that track changes to calendar items made by users; and

a changes area displayed distinctly from and concurrently with the calendar grid, the changes area displaying a history of the changes made to the calendar items, the changes area displaying the history of changes as a chronological list of the changes made to the calendar items.

2. The calendar system of claim 1, the one or more display views of the calendar grid comprising at least one of a month view, a week view, and a day view, the day view comprising at least one day.

3. The calendar system of claim 1, further comprising an artificial intelligence component that determines the color associated with the particular word based on learned user behavior that includes determining that calendar items containing the particular word have previously been made using the selected color.

4. The calendar system of claim 1, wherein:

the particular word is a name of a particular user of the calendar system; and

the color selected is learned based on past use of the color in association with the name of the particular user.

5. The calendar system of claim 1, wherein:

a time entered as part of the text data is recognized during creation of a calendar item; and

the calendar system automatically places the calendar item at the recognized time on the calendar grid.

6. The calendar system of claim 1, the changes displayed in the history comprising at least one of additions of calendar items to the calendar grid, deletions of calendar items from the calendar grid, or changes to existing calendar items displayed in the calendar grid.

7. The calendar system of claim 1, wherein selection of a changed calendar item in the changes area causes a corresponding changed calendar item in the calendar grid to be highlighted on the calendar grid for improved change recognition.

8. The calendar system of claim 1, further comprising one or more customization controls that facilitate personalizing the display of the text data or the calendar grid according to user preferences.

9. The calendar system of claim 1, wherein:

the event space comprises a writable surface that comprises at least one handwriting recognition component to facilitate displaying handwritten data as the handwritten data is written on the writeable surface; and

the handwritten data forms a particular calendar item through a user clicking on a selected day of the calendar grid.

10. The calendar system of claim 9, further comprising an event options window that allows a recurring event to be set for creating multiple calendar items corresponding to a single instance of the handwritten data by clicking on one or more additional days of the selected calendar.

11. The calendar system of claim 1, wherein the changes area further includes an indication of types of actions taken to effectuate the changes in the calendar items listed in the changes area.

12. A digital calendar system comprising one or more computers configured with:

a data input component that receives text data corresponding to one or more calendar items for displaying the one or more calendar items in a calendar grid;

a display component that recognizes a word entered as part of the text data during creation of a particular calendar item, the display component automatically associating a color with the particular calendar item, the color being automatically selected from among a plurality of available colors based on learned user behavior associated with the recognized word, the selected color being displayed in association with the particular calendar item in the calendar grid, the learned user behavior comprising a user previously associating the selected color with one or more previous calendar items having text data including the recognized word; and

an item optimization component that enlarges days in the calendar grid having a predetermined number of calendar items and that shrinks days in the calendar grid having fewer than the predetermined number of calendar items to maintain spatial integrity of the calendar grid.

13. The system of claim 12, further comprising:

a tracking component that records changes to the one or more calendar items made by one or more users; and

the display component displaying a changes area distinct from a display of the calendar grid, the changes area displaying a history of the changes made to the one or more calendar items, the display component highlighting a changed calendar item in the calendar grid when an edited calendar item in the changes area is selected.

14. A method that facilitates managing and organizing data on a digital calendar, the method comprising using one or more processors to perform the following computer-executable acts:

receiving data input;

displaying the data input on a calendar grid in the digital calendar based in part on content of the data input to optimize visibility of such data input; and

optimizing, by the one or more processors, at least one of a size or placement of a first calendar item corresponding to the data input on at least one day on a calendar grid, the optimizing based in part on available space on the at least one day in the calendar grid relative to one or more second calendar items displayed in the calendar grid for that day, the optimizing further being based on an identity of a first user corresponding to the first calendar item, and an identity of a second user corresponding to the one or more second calendar items, out of a plurality of users of the digital calendar, such that the optimizing the at least one of size or placement gives precedence to the first calendar item corresponding to the first user over the one or more second calendar items corresponding to the second user.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising:

tracking changes made to the data input to facilitate managing access control of the digital calendar; and

displaying the changes to the data input in a changes area.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

recognizing a word entered as part of the data input during creation of the first calendar item; and

automatically selecting a color associated with the first calendar item from among a plurality of available colors based on the recognizing the word and learned user behavior corresponding to the word.

17. A computerized appliance comprising a display space having a surface at least a portion of which is writable, the display space to present a user interface including:

an event space able to receive data input by way of multiple selectable input tools, including a writing tool and a typing tool;

a calendar space having a calendar grid to display events recorded in the event space; and

a change history space displayed distinct from and concurrently with the calendar grid, calendar items that have been one of added, moved, deleted, edited or otherwise modified in the calendar grid by a first user being viewable in the change history space by a second user, the selection of an edited calendar item displayed in the change history space causing a corresponding changed calendar item in the calendar grid to be highlighted on the calendar grid in response to the selection of the edited calendar item displayed in the change history space.

18. The computerized appliance according to claim 17, wherein:

a word entered as part of the data input is recognized during creation of a calendar item; and

a color associated with the calendar item is automatically selected from among a plurality of available colors based on the recognized word.

19. The computerized appliance according to claim 17, wherein the user interface optimizes at least one of a size or placement of a calendar item corresponding to the data input on at least one day on a calendar grid based in part on available space on the at least one day in the calendar grid relative to other calendar items for that day, the optimizing taking into consideration an identity of a particular user corresponding to the calendar item out of a plurality of users when optimizing the at least one of size or placement.