Suggesting things to do during time slots in a schedule

• US 8,560,371 B2
• Filed: 09/26/2008
• Issued: 10/15/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Levitt, Randall J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Jarrett, Scott L
• Application Number:
  US12/238,763
• Publication Number:
  US 20100082376A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,845 Days
• Field of Search: 705/7.13, 705/7.18, 705/7.19
• US Class Current: 705/7.18
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• 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

Architecture for suggesting activities to be performed during time slots of a user schedule, such as a calendar application. In one implementation, a personal activity is suggested for a free time slot. In another implementation, a personal activity can be suggested for both a free time slot and a full time slot. The architecture can also apply filtering to generate suggestions based on user location, preferences (stated or learned), user history, user interaction with content and candidate activities, targeted advertising, and so on. The filtering can be applied to disparate sources of activity information to provide relevant activities for suggestion to the user. Revenue models can be applied as well. The architecture can be deployed as a client/server topology or solely on the client.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented time management system, comprising:

a tracking component for tracking time slots in a schedule of a user; and

an aggregation component for;

aggregating activity information from disparate sources of activity information based on filter criteria to obtain a set of activities, wherein the set of activities is selected based on matching activity information with availability information on a user'"'"'s schedule, a source of the activity information and a weighting of a suggested activity against an existing activity on the user'"'"'s schedule;

a suggestion component for;

generating a candidate list of personal activity suggestions based on at least one from a set of;

user history, user interaction with content, targeted advertising, and content placement, the personal activities suggestions in the candidate list being ranked based on importance of the activity to the user such that a more important activity is ranked higher than a less important activity on the candidate list;

selecting one or more of suggested activities suggestions based on matching activity information with availability information on a user'"'"'s schedule, wherein the selected activity is suggested in one of;

a textual format, an audio format, a video format, or a combination thereof;

suggesting the selected activity for an open time slot in the schedule;

weighting a suggested activity against an existing activity on the user'"'"'s schedule;

suggesting and displaying the one or more selected activities for a time slot filled by the existing activity on a user interface by transparently blocking out the time slot with one or more selected personal activities, wherein the suggested selected personal activities replaces the existing activity when one of the following conditions are satisfied;

the existing activity being a personal activity and the selected activity being a work-related activity;

the existing activity not having an “

important”

attribute assigned to it;

the existing activity being created by the user; and

a location for the selected activity being in a vicinity of a location for the existing activity when the existing activity is a work-related activity;

otherwise not suggesting an activity for the time slot filled by the existing activity; and

receiving user feedback related to the one or more selected activities in a form of ratings which are considered when generating future activities for the candidate list;

a security component for;

authorizing secure handling of user information including a user'"'"'s selections, preferences, and interactions including enabling the user to one of opting in and opting out of tracking user activity information; and

enabling the user to access and update tracked user activity information.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a preferences component for receiving and processing user preferences information, the activity suggested based in part on the user preference information.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising a location component for providing location information of the user, and the activity suggested is based in part on the location information.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a revenue component for enabling revenue models that provide revenue sharing and influenced selection of the suggested activity.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising a presentation component for presenting a list of candidate activities from which the activity is selected and inserted into the open time slot.

6. The system of claim 5, further comprising a filtering component for imposing filter criteria on a sources of activity information to obtain the candidate list of activities.

7. A computer-implemented time management system, comprising:

a tracking component for tracking time slots in a schedule of a user;

an aggregation component for aggregating activity information from disparate sources of activity information based on filter criteria to obtain a set of activities, wherein the set of activities is selected based on matching activity information with availability information on a user'"'"'s schedule, a source of the activity information and weighting a suggested activity against an existing activity on the user'"'"'s schedule; and

a suggestion component for generating, suggesting and displaying a candidate list of personal activities on a user interface by transparently blocking out an open time slot with a suggested time slot activity from the set based in part on filter criteria and from which a personal activity is selected for an open time slot in the schedule, wherein the selected activity is suggested in one of;

a textual format, an audio format, a video format, or a combination thereof and the suggestion component configured to;

generate the candidate list based on at least one from a set of;

user history, user interaction with content, targeted advertising, and content placement, wherein personal activities suggested in the candidate list are ranked based on importance of the activity to the user such that a more important activity is ranked higher than a less important activity on the candidate list;

weight the activities in the candidate list against the existing activity on the user'"'"'s schedule based on one or more of the existing activity being a personal activity and the selected activity being a work-related activity, the existing activity not having an “

important”

attribute assigned to it, the existing activity being created by the user, and a location for the selected activity being in a vicinity of a location for the existing activity when the existing activity is a work-related activity;

suggest the candidate list; and

receive user feedback related to the candidate list of personal activities in a form of ratings which are considered when generating future activities for the candidate list; and

a security component for authorizing secure handling of user information including a user'"'"'s selections, preferences, and interactions, and wherein the security component is configured to enable a user to one of opting in and opting out of tracking user information and activity data and enable the user to access and update tracked user activity information.

8. The system of claim 7, further comprising a location component for detecting and providing location information of the user, the candidate list of personal activities suggested is based in part on the location information.

9. The system of claim 7, further comprising a revenue component for enabling revenue models that provide revenue sharing and influenced selection of the suggested personal activity.

10. A computer-implemented method of managing time, comprising:

tracking time slots in a schedule of a user;

accessing a source of activity information;

aggregating, by a processor, activity information from disparate sources of activity information based on filter criteria to obtain a set of activities, wherein the set of activities is selected based on matching activity information with availability information on a user'"'"'s schedule, a source of the activity information and a weighting of a suggested activity against an existing activity on the user'"'"'s schedule;

generating, by a processor, a candidate list of activity suggestions based on at least one from a set of;

user history, user interaction with content, targeted advertising, and content placement, the activity suggestions in the candidate list being ranked based on importance of the activity to the user such that a more important activity is ranked higher than a less important activity on the candidate list;

selecting a suggested activity from the candidate list based on matching activity information with availability information on a user'"'"'s schedule and the weighting of the suggested activity against an existing activity on user'"'"'s schedule based on the source of the activity information;

suggesting the selected activity for an open time slot in the schedule, wherein the selected activity is suggested in one of;

a textual format, an audio format, a video format, or a combination thereof;

suggesting and displaying the candidate list;

suggesting the selected activity for a time slot in the schedule filled by the existing activity when one of the following conditions are satisfied;

the existing activity being a personal activity and the selected activity being a work-related activity;

the existing activity not having an “

important”

attribute assigned to it;

the existing activity being created by the user; and

a location for the selected activity being in a vicinity of a location for the existing activity when the existing activity is a work-related activity;

otherwise

not suggesting an activity for the time slot filled by the existing activity;

displaying the suggested selected activity on a user interface displaying the time slots by transparently blocking out the open time slot with the suggested selected activity;

the user selecting the suggested selected activity to learn more about the suggested selected activity;

the user opting in and opting out of tracking user activity information; and

the user accessing and updating tracked user activity information; and

user to sending user feedback related to the candidate list of activities in a form of ratings which are considered when generating future activities for the candidate list.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising accessing user preferences and suggesting the activity based on the user preferences.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising placing an activity in the candidate list based on a revenue model and frequency of user selections of activities from previous candidate lists.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising accessing additional information about the activity via the candidate list before insertion of the activity into the open time slot.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising filtering the activity information based on user preferences and enterprise policies.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising initiating and completing a commercial transaction via an active link associated with the activity.