Search and replay of experiences based on geographic locations

• US 8,682,889 B2
• Filed: 05/28/2009
• Issued: 03/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/28/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Zheng, Yu
• Primary Examiner(s): Trujillo, James
• Assistant Examiner(s): CONYERS, DAWAUNE A
• Application Number:
  US12/473,335
• Publication Number:
  US 20100306233A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,762 Days
• Field of Search: 707/724, 707/725, 706/12
• US Class Current: 707/725
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/487 using geographical or spatial information, e.g. location
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/489 using time information

Abstract

Users are enabled to record and retrieve their experiences temporally and based on geographic locations. Experiences such as meetings, conferences, emails, other forms of communications are indexed along a timeline and associated with geographic locations. A user interface provides replay of experiences with links to associated documents, recordings, etc. employing a user friendly map feature.

Claims

1. A method to be executed at least in part in a computing device for enabling search and replay of experiences based on geographic locations, the method comprising:

receiving content information associated with a user'"'"'s experiences via an experience replay application from a content generator;

receiving location and timing information associated with a location of a user during a time period encompassing the experiences at the experience replay application;

integrating the content information and the location and timing information;

summarizing the integrated content information prior to indexing into a presentable format by including subject headers for an email exchange and a meeting associated with the user;

including an entire body of the email exchange and a recording of the meeting in the summarized integrated content information;

indexing the summarized integrated content information spatially and temporally according to a tree-based index structure beginning at an organization level, dividing the organization spatially down to a room level, and coupling the experiences that occurred at each room level location following a temporal index;

rendering the indexed content information searchable at the experience replay application such that the user'"'"'s experiences during the time period encompassing the experiences is displayed using a visual scheme; and

providing printing information associated with the user'"'"'s experiences by providing at least one relevant application link at the experience replay application to launch at least one relevant application associated with the user'"'"'s experiences.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein integrating the content information includes tagging the content information with the corresponding location and timing information.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the content information includes at least one from a set of:

an attended event, the meeting, a conversation, the email exchange and a received communication.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the content information is received from at least one from a set of:

a communication application, a scheduling application, a calendar application, a presence application, and a database.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the location and timing information is received from one of:

a Global Positioning Service (GPS) server, a cellular network server, and a non-cellular network server.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying the experiences using a visual scheme includes displaying a map of locations corresponding the user'"'"'s experiences within a user defined time frame employing a graphic scheme to represent locations for groups of activities.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

in response to selection of another location on the displayed map, displaying a secondary user interface presenting detailed information associated with experiences at the selected location following timeline.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the secondary user interface presents for each experience a type of experience, a time of the experience, a subject of the experience, and a contact for the experience, and wherein at least a portion of displayed information includes actionable items.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the actionable items include links to at least one from a set of:

a document, a recording, a contact information, and a complete content information associated with selected experiences.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the content information is received from records associated with one of:

a voice communication, a video communication, a text message exchange, an application sharing session, a data sharing session, and a whiteboard sharing session.

11. An enhanced communication system for enabling search and replay of experiences based on geographic locations, the system comprising:

a server comprising a memory and a processor the processor configured to execute a communication management framework and further configured to;

enable a plurality of data sources to store a record of content information associated with a user'"'"'s experiences;

receive the content information associated with the user'"'"'s experiences from the plurality of data sources via an experience replay application;

receive location and timing information associated with a location of a user during a time period encompassing the experiences at the experience replay application;

tag the content information with the location and timing information;

integrate the content information based on the user and the location;

summarize the content information;

index the summarized and tagged content information spatially and temporally according to a tree-based index structure beginning at an organization level, dividing the organization spatially down to a room level, and coupling the experiences that occurred at each room level location following a temporal index; and

render the indexed content information spatially and temporally searchable at the experience replay application; and

a client device comprising another memory and another processor, the other processor configured to execute a location based search engine and further configured to;

receive a user input for at least one of;

a location range and a time period;

perform a search on the indexed content information based on the user input;

present the user'"'"'s experiences based on the user input employing a map-based scheme;

provide a callout balloon displaying at least one of;

a time frame and a subject of a selected experience in response to a selection of one of the user'"'"'s experiences displayed in the map-based scheme;

present a subject of a call associated with the user as an actionable item within the callout balloon; and

provide links to a recording of the call and a contact information of a called party through the actionable item.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the map-based scheme includes:

displaying a map of locations provided by the user input in a primary user interface;

upon selection of another location by the user, displaying a group of experiences for the selected location in a secondary user interface using one of;

a building plan and a building model.

13. The system claim 12, wherein the secondary user interface displays experiences at the room level.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the secondary user interface displays content information for each experience employing actionable items configured to provide detailed content activating at least one other application.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein an integration and search of the content information are performed by employing at least one from a set of:

a branch-and-bound algorithm, a progressive improvement algorithm, and a heuristic algorithm.

16. A computer-readable memory device having instructions stored thereon for enabling search and replay of experiences based on geographic locations, the instructions comprising:

receiving content information via an experience replay application from a content generator including at least one of;

an application and a database providing the content information associated with a user'"'"'s experiences including at least one from a set of;

an attended event, a meeting, a conversation, an email exchange and a received communication from at least one from a set of;

a communication application, a scheduling application, a calendar application, a presence application, and a database;

receiving location and timing information associated with a location a user during a time period encompassing the experiences at the experience replay application;

tagging the content information with the location and timing information;

integrating the content information based on the user and the location;

summarizing the content information into a presentable format by including subject headers for an email exchange and a meeting associated with the user;

including an entire body of the email exchange and a recording of the meeting in the summarized and tagged content information;

indexing the summarized and tagged content information spatially and temporally according to a tree-based index structure beginning at an organization level, dividing the organization spatially down to a room level, and coupling the experiences that occurred at each room level location following a temporal index at the experience replay application;

receiving a user input for at least one of;

a location range and a time period;

performing a search on the indexed content information based on the user input at the experience replay application;

presenting the user'"'"'s experiences based on the user input employing a map-based user interface;

providing a callout balloon displaying at least one of;

a time frame and a subject of a selected experience in response to a selection of one of the user'"'"'s experiences displayed in the map-based user interface;

presenting a subject of a call associated with the user as an actionable item within the callout balloon;

providing links to a recording of the call and a contact information of a called party through the actionable item; and

providing printing information associated with the user'"'"'s experiences by providing at least one relevant application link at the map-based user interface to launch at least one relevant application associated with the user'"'"'s experiences.

17. The computer-readable memory device of claim 16, wherein tagging the content information with the location and timing information includes comparing location and timing information with timing information included in the content information.

18. The computer-readable memory device of claim 16, wherein the experiences are displayed with actionable items employing at least one from a set of:

a graphical shape based scheme, an icon scheme, and a text formatting scheme.