Global contact synchronization

• US 9,338,590 B2
• Filed: 07/31/2014
• Issued: 05/10/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Buzd, LLC
• Original Assignee: Buzd, LLC
• Inventors: Goldsmith, David, Shuster, Gary Stephen
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong, Dung
• Application Number:
  US14/448,988
• Publication Number:
  US 20150156606A1
• Time in Patent Office: 649 Days
• Field of Search: 4554561-4564, 4554141-4143, 379/201.01, 379/218.01
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1093 Calendar-based scheduling for persons or groups
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/08 User group management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 56/00 Synchronisation arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

A situational and global context aware calendar, communications, and/or relationship management method and system is disclosed. The system is configured to receive non-calendaring related context information, and, based on that context information, to automatically determine one or more parameters of a meeting request.

Claims

1. A computing system comprising:

one or more processors;

a memory storing instructions that, in response to execution by the one or more processors, causes the computing system to;

receive, from a user of the computing system, a request for location information for each of a plurality of contacts;

determine location information for respective contacts from the Internet and/or network activity of one or more of the respective contacts, wherein the Internet activity comprises one or more posts to social media data sources, and images and/or video associated with the one or more posts is analyzed using facial recognition technology to determine the location information for one or more of the respective contacts;

determine a local time for the respective contacts based on the location information; and

provide visual indications of the determined local times for the respective contacts to the user, the computing system configured to display the determined local times in association with the respective contacts.

2. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further configured to cause the computing system to:

determine one or more events associated with the respective contacts; and

provide indications to the user of the determined one or more events.

3. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further configured to cause the computing system to:

determine, for respective contacts, holiday context information based on the location information for the respective contacts.

4. The computing system of claim 3, wherein the holiday context information is configured for display to the user in a pop-up that is activated in response to the user selecting a particular contact.

5. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further configured to cause the computing system to:

for each of the respective contacts, determine an unacceptable call time period.

6. The computing system of claim 5, wherein the instructions are further configured to cause the computing system to:

in response to the user requesting to call a particular contact, wherein the local time of the particular contact is within the unacceptable call time period, provide a visual alert.

7. The computing system of claim 5, wherein the instructions are further configured to cause the computing system to:

in response to the user requesting to call a particular contact, wherein the local time of the part contact is within the unacceptable call time period, provide an audible alert.

8. The computing system of claim 5, wherein if the determined local time for a particular contact is in the unacceptable call time period, provide the local time for the particular contact in a first text color different from a second text color for contacts within an acceptable call time period.

9. The computing system of claim 5, wherein if the determined local time for a particular contact is in the unacceptable call time period, provide the local time for the particular contact in a first text size different from a second text size for contacts within an acceptable call time period.

10. The computing system of claim 5, wherein if the determined local time for a particular contact is in the unacceptable call time period, provide the local time for the particular contact in a first text shading different from a second text shading for contacts within an acceptable call time period.

11. The computing system of claim 5, wherein the unacceptable call time period is determined based on the preferences of the respective contact.

12. A computing system comprising:

one or more processors;

a memory storing instructions that, in response to execution by the one or more processors, causes the computing system to;

receive, from a user of the computing system, a request for location information for each of a plurality of contacts;

determine location information for respective contacts from the Internet and/or network activity of one or more of the respective contacts, wherein the Internet activity comprises one or more posts to social media data sources, and audio data in the one or more posts is analyzed using voice recognition technology to determine location information for one or more of the respective contacts;

determine a local time for the respective contacts based on the location information; and

provide visual indications of the determined local times for the respective contacts to the user, the computing system configured to display the determined local times in association with the respective contacts.

13. The computing system of claim 12, wherein the location information is further determined from a geolocation based on data obtained from one or more of the social media data sources.

14. The computing system of claim 12, wherein the location information is further determined by analyzing metadata associated with the audio data.

15. A computing system comprising:

one or more processors;

a memory storing instructions that, in response to execution by the one or more processors, causes the computing system to;

receive, from a user of the computing system, a request for location information for each of a plurality of contacts stored in a contact data structure on the computing device;

determine location information for respective contacts from the Internet and/or network activity of one or more of the respective contacts, wherein the Internet activity comprises one or more posts to social media data sources, and images and/or video associated with the one or more posts is analyzed using facial recognition technology to determine the location information for one or more of the respective contacts;

determine a local time for the respective contacts based on a current time zone and/or time associated with the location information; and

provide visual indications of the determined local times for the respective contacts to the user, the computing system configured to display the determined local times in association with the respective contacts.

16. The computing system of claim 15, wherein the Internet activity comprises email.

17. The computer system of claim 15, wherein the location information is further determined by identifying objects and/or places in one or more of the images and/or video.

18. The computing system of claim 15, wherein text associated with the one or more posts is analyzed to determine location information for one or more of the respective contacts.

19. The computing system of claim 15, wherein the location information is further determined by analyzing metadata associated with images posted to one or more of the social media data sources.

20. The computing system of claim 15, wherein the location information is further determined from a geolocation based on data obtained from one or more of the social media data sources.