Recommending actions based on context

• US 9,292,807 B2
• Filed: 05/10/2007
• Issued: 03/22/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/10/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Shahine, Omar H.
• Primary Examiner(s): MANCHO, RONNIE M
• Application Number:
  US11/746,794
• Publication Number:
  US 20080281510A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,239 Days
• Field of Search: 701/209, 701/200, 701/201, 701/207, 701/208, 701/211, 701/400, 701/708, 701/408, 701/516, 701/454, 701/526, 701/527, 701/532, 701/533, 701/535, 701/537, 701/538, 701/541, 340/457, 340/426.19, 340/999, 340/988, 340/995, 340/995.1, 340/995.19, 340/995.24, 707/9, 707/600, 707/805, 705/9, 379/265.06
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3667 Display of a road map G01C21/3614 takes precedence; guidance using 3D or perspective road maps G01C21/3635
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3697 Output of additional, non-guidance related information, e.g. low fuel level G01C21/3679 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds

Abstract

A system creates filters and provides tasks based on a geographic location associated with each task. The geographic location may be in one of several types of coordinate formats, and determined by the actual user location when the task is created of input associated with a desired location. When a user requests tasks for a specified geographic location, the user'"'"'s tasks are filtered by a particular geographic location associated with the request. The filter may allow tasks that match the location and are within a threshold distance of the location. Tasks having a geographical location that are outside the threshold distance from the location are not provided. When managing tasks from a mobile device, the geographic location can be automatically determined by the mobile device. When managing tasks from a non-mobile device, the geographical location may be received or derived from user input.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for accessing tasks, comprising:

receiving user input from a user by a mobile device, the user input task data including a description of one or more tasks to be performed by the user and indicating a planned route provided by the user;

determining a current geographic location of the mobile device and selecting the current geographic location as a first geographic location of the user by at least one of the mobile device and a computer system communicatively coupled to the mobile device;

filtering the one or more tasks by at least one of the mobile device and the computer system based on the first geographic location of the user and the planned route provided by the user;

providing to the user first task data that has been designated as a public task and which passes the filtering and includes a description of one or more first tasks to be performed by the user at the first geographic location along the planned route provided by the user, the one or more first tasks being a subset of the one or more tasks to be performed by the user, by displaying the provided first task data in a map on a display of the mobile device; and

not providing to the user task data designated as private by another user and other task data describing at least one task of the one or more tasks that is outside a threshold distance of the first geographic location.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said determining the current geographic location of the mobile device includes:

receiving address information; and

converting the address information into geographic location coordinates.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said one or more first tasks include a public task and a private task.

4. The method of claim 1,

wherein the filtering the one or more tasks by at least one of the mobile device and the computer system based on the first geographic location of the user further comprises:

using a filter of the threshold distance of the first geographic location;

determining a second geographic location is within the threshold distance of the first geographic location; and

responsive to the second geographic location being within the threshold distance of the first geographic location, providing to the user second task data including a description of one or more second tasks to be performed by the user at the second geographic location by displaying the second task data on the display of the mobile device.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the user input requesting task data including the description of one or more tasks to be performed by the user includes the first geographic location and the threshold distance.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first geographic location is a planned geographic location of a user.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving user input requesting task data including a description of one or more tasks to be performed within the threshold distance of a planned geographic location;

filtering the one or more tasks by at least one of the mobile device and the computer system based on the planned geographic location and the threshold distance to the planned geographic location;

providing to the user task data for at least one task of the one or more tasks which passes the filtering based on the planned geographic location and the threshold distance to the planned geographic location by displaying the task data for the at least one task on the display of the mobile device; and

not providing to the user other task data describing at least one task of the one or more tasks filtering filtered based on the planned geographic location and outside of the threshold distance to the planned geographic location by not displaying the other task data.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

filtering the one or more tasks by at least one of the mobile device and the computer system based on the planned route provided by the user and the threshold distance of the planned route provided by the user;

providing to the user task data which passes the filtering based on the planned route provided by the user and the threshold distance of the planned route provided by the user and which task data includes a description of the one or more tasks to be performed within the threshold distance of the planned route provided by the user by displaying the task data including the description of one or more tasks to be performed within the threshold distance of the planned route provided by the user on the display of the mobile device; and

not providing to the user other task data describing at least one task of the one or more tasks filtered based on the planned route provided by the user and outside of the threshold distance of the planned route provided by the user.

9. One or more processor readable storage devices having processor readable code embodied on said processor readable storage devices, said processor readable code for programming one or more processors to perform a method comprising:

receiving task data by a mobile device including a description of a task to be performed by a user and indicating a planned route provided by the user;

associating a geographic location and the planned route provided by the user with the task by at least one of the mobile device and a computer system communicatively coupled to the mobile device by determining the geographic location for the task along the planned route provided by the user and storing the geographic location in the task data for the task;

storing, by at least one of the mobile device and a computer system, the task data including the associated geographic location along the planned route provided by the user in an accessible memory;

responsive to at least one of the mobile device and the computer system, determining the geographic location along the planned route provided by the user associated with the task passing a filter based on a current geographic location along the planned route provided by the user of the mobile device associated with the user, providing the task data including the description of the task to be performed by the user and that has been designated as a public task, and displaying the provided task data in a map on a display of the mobile device, wherein the map displayed on the mobile device displays an indicator for each task of the one or more tasks along the planned route provided by the user; and

responsive to determining that the geographic location along the planned route provided by the user associated with the task is outside of a threshold distance of the current geographic location along the planned route provided by the user of the mobile device, not providing the task data including the description of the task to be performed by the user and which has been designated as private by another user.

10. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 9, wherein the task data, planned route provided by the user and geographical location coordinates are stored with a user account on a remote data store.

11. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 9, wherein receiving task data includes receiving a selection of an existing task.

12. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 9, wherein further comprising:

automatically determining current geographic location coordinates for the mobile device by the mobile device.

13. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 12, wherein said associating the geographic location includes:

adding a second set of geographical location coordinates for the task to be performed by the user.

14. A mobile computing device, comprising:

a processor;

a transceiver configured to transmit and receive data and in communication with the processor;

an input device configured to receive user input and in communication with the processor, the user input indicating at least one route point along a planned route provided by the user;

a memory device configured to store data and in communication with the processor;

a geographic locator module driven by the processor and configured to determine the current geographic location of the at least one route point along the planned route provided by the user of the mobile device and a threshold distance of the current geographic location of the at least one route point along the planned route provided by the user;

a task management application in communication with the geographic locator module and executing on the processor, the task management application retrieves, from a communicatively coupled network-based service, task data including a description of one or more user generated tasks which task data has geographic location data and the at least one route point along the planned route provided by the user data;

the task management application determines whether the geographic location data and the at least one route point along the planned route provided by the user data of the task data pass a filter based on the current geographical location the at least one route point along the planned route provided by the user of the mobile device and the threshold distance of the current geographic location the at least one route point along the planned route provided by the user, provides for display of task data that has been designated as a public task and having the geographic location data and the at least one route point planned route provided by the user data which pass the filter and for which the user has an account with a task management service, and does not provide task data designated as private by another user and in which the geographic location data and the at least one route point planned route provided by the user data in which the current geographic location is outside of the threshold distance; and

a display device system in communication with the processor and configured to display in a map to the user task data describing the one or more user generated tasks provided from the task management application for display.

15. The mobile computing device of claim 14, wherein the mobile computing device is a smart phone and the network-based service is a web based calendar service.

16. The mobile computing device of claim 14, wherein the geographic locator module determines the mobile computing device'"'"'s current geographical location coordinates from Global Positioning System signals received by the mobile computing device.