Activity-centric granular application functionality

• US 8,392,229 B2
• Filed: 06/24/2011
• Issued: 03/05/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Macbeth, Steven W., Fernandez, Roland L., Meyers, Brian R., Tan, Desney S., Robertson, George G., Oliver, Nuria M., Murillo, Oscar E., Pedersen, Elin R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Loftis, Johnna
• Assistant Examiner(s): Miller, Alan S
• Application Number:
  US13/168,176
• Publication Number:
  US 20110264484A1
• Time in Patent Office: 620 Days
• Field of Search: 705/7.11, 705/7.12, 715850-865, 717100-109
• US Class Current: 705/7.11
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/00 Arrangements for software engineering testing or debugging G06F11/36; administrative, planning or organisation aspects of software project management G06Q10/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0633 Workflow analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces

Abstract

A system that can enable the atomization of application functionality in connection with an activity-centric system is provided. The system can be utilized as a programmatic tool that decomposes an application'"'"'s constituent functionality into atoms thereafter monitoring and aggregating atoms with respect to a particular activity. In doing so, the functionality of the system can be scaled based upon complexity and needs of the activity. Additionally, the system can be employed to monetize the atoms or activity capabilities based upon respective use.

Claims

1. A method that facilitates activity-centric atomization of an application, comprising:

evaluating, at a computing device, an application to identify capabilities within the application;

separating, at a computing device, the application into a plurality of activity capabilities that are used to complete an activity, wherein the activity is a real world task completed by a user, and wherein the plurality of activity capabilities are identified through a probabilistic analysis of observed events that previously occurred through the application;

monetizing the plurality of activity capabilities of the application based upon usage data of the plurality of activity capabilities to determine how much of a fee to charge for using one or more of the plurality of activity capabilities, wherein usage data comprises the probabilistic analysis of observed events in the application associated with the plurality of capabilities; and

displaying a user interface that only includes the plurality of activity capabilities.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of activity capabilities comprises a service, and wherein the service is at least one of a functionality and a resource.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the method further comprises monetizing the service.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of activity capabilities comprises a view, and wherein the view is a mechanism to display functionality aspects to the user.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein a subset of the plurality of activity capabilities is located remotely from the other of the plurality of activity capabilities.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises offering a new functionality of the application to the user for a per use fee and tracking use of the functionality.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

combining a subset of the plurality of activity capabilities based at least in part upon the activity further; and

defining an activity frame that identifies the subset of the plurality of activity capabilities associated with the activity, wherein the activity frame is an ad hoc template, wherein the user pulls activities into the activity frame as needed.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises enabling viewing of an item created by an application functionality purchased on a per use basis without additional fees by providing a reading functionality to the application that does not require a fee for use.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the probabilistic analysis is performed by a classifier that maps an input attribute vector for a capability to a confidence that the input attribute vector belongs to a class corresponding to the activity.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising employing at least one of a probabilistic and a statistical-based analysis that infers an action that a user desires to be automatically performed.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the action is an aggregation of a subset of the plurality of activity capabilities.

12. One or more computer-storage media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon, that when executed by a computing device perform a method that facilitates activity-centric atomization of an application, the method comprising:

evaluating an application to identify capabilities within the application;

separating the application into a plurality of activity capabilities that are used to complete an activity, wherein the activity is a real world task completed by a user, and wherein the plurality of activity capabilities are identified through a probabilistic analysis of observed events that previously occurred through the application;

determining a fee that should be charged for using one of the plurality of activity capabilities by analyzing usage data, wherein usage data comprises the probabilistic analysis of observed events in the application associated with the plurality of capabilities; and

displaying a user interface that only includes the plurality of activity capabilities with the fee for the one of the plurality of activity capabilities, wherein the user interface is associated with the application.

13. The media of claim 12, wherein the plurality of activity capabilities comprises a service, and wherein the service is at least one of a functionality and a resource.

14. The media of claim 12, wherein the method further comprises receiving a request to activate one of the activity capabilities and enabling related capabilities to be located by a user as an activity capability is used.

15. The media of claim 12, further comprising employing at least one of a probabilistic and a statistical-based analysis that infers an action that a user desires to be automatically performed, wherein the action is an aggregation of a subset of the plurality of activity capabilities.

16. The media of claim 15, further comprising making the action available to a user for a particular use only.

17. The media of claim 12, wherein the probabilistic analysis is performed by a function that maps an input attribute vector for a capability to a confidence that the input attribute vector belongs to a class corresponding to the activity.

18. One or more computer-storage media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon, that when executed by a computing device perform a method that facilitates activity-centric atomization of an application, the method comprising:

evaluating an application to identify capabilities within the application;

separating the application into a plurality of activity capabilities that are used to complete an activity, wherein the activity is a real world task completed by a user, and wherein the plurality of activity capabilities are identified through a probabilistic analysis of observed events that previously occurred through the application;

determining a fee that a user should be charged for using one of the plurality of activity capabilities by analyzing usage data, wherein usage data comprises the probabilistic analysis of observed events in the application associated with the plurality of capabilities; and

displaying a user interface that only includes the plurality of activity capabilities with the fee for the one of the plurality of activity capabilities, wherein the user interface is associated with the application.

19. The media of claim 18, wherein the method further comprises receiving a selection of a single capability within the plurality of activity capabilities and tracking use of the single capability within the application.

20. The media of claim 19, wherein the method further comprises charging a per use fee to the user according to information gathered during the tracking.