Snooze support for event reminders

• US 8,943,407 B2
• Filed: 10/08/2010
• Issued: 01/27/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: May, Darrell, Bocking, Andrew D., Vander Veen, Raymond
• Primary Examiner(s): Ng, Amy
• Assistant Examiner(s): Takele, Meseker
• Application Number:
  US12/901,000
• Publication Number:
  US 20110029870A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,572 Days
• Field of Search: 715/710, 725/135, 709/206
• US Class Current: 715/710
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting

Abstract

Snooze support for event reminders produced on a hand held mobile device is disclosed. Snooze support in at least one example embodiment is characterized by an event reminder rescheduling method. This event reminder rescheduling method includes the step of prompting for a device user to take one of a number of actions in relation to an event reminder released from an event reminders queue. One of the number of actions is requesting, through operation of one or more input components of the mobile device, that the event reminder be generated again after a lapse of a snooze time.

Claims

1. A mobile electronic device comprising:

a processor for controlling operation of the mobile device;

a touch sensitive display coupled to the processor; and

a storage coupled to the processor, the storage storing event information identifying scheduled events, the event information including, for at least one of the scheduled events, a reminder time at which an event reminder is to be generated;

the processor being configured for;

(i) displaying on the display, at the reminder time, a first user interface providing the event reminder that includes information about the event and that includes a count of how many times that a snooze button has been selected for the event reminder, the first user interface also providing a plurality of selectable buttons including the snooze button;

(ii) receiving, from the touch sensitive display after the displaying, a first input indicating selection of the snooze button;

(iii) presenting on the display, after receipt of the first input, a second user interface providing a menu that lists a plurality of selectable snooze time durations;

(iv) receiving, from the touch sensitive display after the presenting of the second user interface, a second input indicating selection of one selected snooze time duration from the plurality;

(v) in response to receipt of the second input, removing the first and second user interfaces from the display and increasing by one the count of how many times that the snooze button has been selected for the event reminder;

(vi) designating expiration of the selected snooze time duration as a new reminder time; and

(vii) updating the event information with the new reminder time at which the first user interface is to be redisplayed and with the increased count.

2. The mobile electronic device of claim 1 wherein the plurality of selectable buttons provided by the first user interface further includes a dismiss event reminder button.

3. The mobile electronic device of claim 2, wherein displaying the first user interface further comprises automatically displaying a selection symbol positioned over the dismiss event reminder button.

4. The mobile electronic device of claim 1 wherein the plurality of selectable buttons provided by the first user interface includes an open event reminder button.

5. The mobile electronic device of claim 1 wherein the scheduled events include calendar events and task events.

6. The mobile electronic device of claim 1 wherein the storage further stores a default snooze time duration and wherein a selection focus is automatically positioned over the default snooze time duration in the second user interface.

7. The mobile electronic device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of user selectable snooze time durations are displayed on an area of the display which was occupied, at least in part, by the snooze button, thereby obscuring at least part of the snooze button.

8. The mobile electronic device of claim 1, wherein the mobile electronic device further comprises:

a keyboard coupled to the processor,

and wherein the processor is further configured for;

upon or after displaying the first user interface, accepting input from the keyboard setting the selected snooze time duration.

9. The device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the processor is further configured for:

repeating (i) to (vii) as long as selection of the snooze button is received at (ii).

10. An event reminder rescheduling method performed by

a mobile device having a processor, a touch sensitive display, and at least one processor readable medium storing an event reminders queue from which event reminders are released at predetermined times according to queue order, event reminders being positioned in the event reminders queue based on respective times at which event reminders are to be generated, the method comprising:

(i) releasing an event reminder from the queue when a first pre-established reminder time has been reached;

(ii) displaying, on the touch sensitive display after the event reminder has been released, a Graphical User Interface (GUI) event reminder window, the GUI event reminder window including a plurality of selectable options including an option indicating that the GUI event reminder window be redisplayed on the touch sensitive display after a lapse of a snooze time duration, the GUI event reminder window also including a display of a count of how many times the option indicating that the GUI event reminder window be redisplayed has been selected for the event reminder;

(iii) receiving, from the touch screen display after displaying the GUI event reminder window, a first input selecting the option indicating that the GUI event reminder window be redisplayed;

(iv) displaying on the touch screen display, after receiving the first input indicating that the GUI event reminder window be redisplayed, a pop-up menu listing a plurality of selectable snooze time durations;

(v) receiving a second input from the touch sensitive display indicating a selection of one of the selectable snooze time durations;

(vi) upon receipt of the second input, calculating a second reminder time based on the selected snooze time duration and increasing by one the count of how many times the option indicating that the GUI event reminder window be redisplayed has been selected for the event reminder; and

(vii) repositioning the event reminder in the event reminder queue according to the second reminder time.

11. The method as claimed in claim 10 further comprising displaying an options menu on the display for a scheduling application, wherein the snooze time duration is configurable from within the options menu.

12. The method as claimed in claim 10 further comprising generating audible sound concurrently when displaying the GUI event reminder window and when redisplaying the GUI event reminder window.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein plurality of selectable options includes an option for dismissing the GUI event reminder window.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the plurality of selectable options includes an option to view an event associated with the event reminder.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the plurality of selectable snooze time durations are displayed in a portion of the display which was occupied, at least in part, by the GUI event reminder window.

16. An electronic device comprising:

a touch sensitive display;

a processor coupled to the touch sensitive display;

an event reminders thread associated with the processor for releasing event reminders from a queue according to queue order, event reminders being positioned in the queue based on when respective reminder times have been reached;

the processor being configured to implement a module for receiving from the touch sensitive display, the module causing the device to;

(i) display a Graphical User Interface (GUI) event reminder window on the touch sensitive display in response to the release of an event reminder from the queue at a first reminder time, the GUI event reminder window including a plurality of selectable options including an option indicating that the GUI event reminder window be redisplayed on the touch sensitive display after a lapse of a snooze time duration, the GUI event reminder window also including a count of how many times the option indicating that the GUI event reminder window be redisplayed has been selected for the event reminder;

(ii) receive, from the touch screen display after displaying the GUI event reminder window, a first input selecting the option indicating that the GUI event reminder window be redisplayed;

(iii) display on the touch screen display, after receiving the first input indicating that the GUI event reminder window be redisplayed, a pop-up menu listing a plurality of selectable snooze time durations;

(iv) receive a second input from the touch sensitive display indicating a selection of one of the plurality of selectable snooze time durations; and

(v) after receiving the second input, processing the second input indicating a selection of one of the snooze time durations, wherein the processing comprises calculating a second reminder time based on the selected snooze time duration, increasing by one the count of how many times the option indicating that the GUI event reminder window be redisplayed has been selected for the event reminder, and repositioning the event reminder in the queue based on the second reminder time.

17. The device as claimed in claim 16 wherein the plurality of selectable snooze time durations includes:

1 minute, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes and 30 minutes.

18. The device as claimed in claim 16 wherein the GUI event reminder window includes an option to directly modify the snooze time duration using keyboard input.