Intelligent surfacing of reminders

• US 9,602,975 B2
• Filed: 05/22/2015
• Issued: 03/21/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/22/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Creighton, Jason Timothy, Wankhede, Amol, Nandi, Ajoy, Lim, Melissa N., Deshpande, Mangesh, Horvitz, Eric, Koch, Paul, Krumm, John Charles
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Tyler J
• Application Number:
  US14/720,136
• Publication Number:
  US 20160345132A1
• Time in Patent Office: 669 Days
• Field of Search: 701/516
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3438 Rendez-vous, i.e. searching a destination where several users can meet, and the routes to this destination for these users; Ride sharing, i.e. searching a route such that at least two users can share a vehicle for at least part of the route
• 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 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72451 according to schedules, e.g. using calendar applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

Calendar and scheduling applications organize and display user events and provide event reminders. A method of triggering a reminder includes accessing a reminder which describes an event. An individual associated with the event, other than the user, is identified. A future time is predicted when the user will be within proximity of the individual. A time to trigger the reminder for presentation to the user is determined, such that the time to trigger the reminder occurs in advance of the predicted future time when the user will be within proximity of the individual. Based on a determination that the time for triggering the reminder has occurred, the reminder is triggered to be presented to the user.

Claims

1. A method of triggering presentation of a reminder on a mobile device, comprising:

accessing, via a processing device, the reminder that is stored in one or more computer storage media, wherein the reminder describes a task associated with a user of the mobile device, wherein the task described in the reminder is not defined with respect to a specific time;

identifying an individual associated with the task, wherein the individual is a person other than the user;

predicting a future time at which the user will be within proximity of the individual;

determining a time to trigger the reminder for presentation to the user, such that the time to trigger the reminder occurs before the future time at which the user is predicted to be within proximity of the individual;

determining that the time for triggering the reminder has occurred; and

based on the determination that the time for triggering the reminder has occurred, causing the reminder to be presented on the mobile device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein predicting the future time at which the user will be within proximity of the individual comprises:

accessing calendar information associated with the user;

identifying an event from the calendar information of the user, wherein the event is associated with the individual and has a scheduled future time; and

identifying the scheduled future time of the event as the future time at which the user is predicted to be within proximity of the individual.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the event is a separate event from the task.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the time to trigger the reminder is determined by:

predicting a future location of the user at which the user will be in proximity of the individual at the predicted future time;

identifying a starting location of the user;

predicting a route the user will travel from the starting location to the future location;

determining an amount of travel time along the predicted route from the starting location to the future location; and

determining the time to trigger the reminder based at least in part on the amount of travel time.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein predicting the route the user will travel from the starting location to the future location comprises:

accessing user profile data associated with the user;

identifying one or more routes the user has historically traveled from the starting location to the future location;

determining a most likely route from the one or more routes the user has historically traveled, based on a probability associated with each of the one or more routes; and

identifying the most likely route as the predicted route the user will travel from the starting location to the future location.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein identifying the starting location of the user comprises identifying a current location of the user as the starting location of the user.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein identifying the starting location of the user comprises:

accessing user profile data associated with the user;

identifying historical travel patterns of the user from the user profile data;

predicting a second future location of the user where the user will be located prior to the predicted future time, based at least in part on the historical travel patterns of the user;

identifying the predicted second future location as the starting location of the user.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein once triggered, the reminder is configured to persist during a period of time prior to the predicted future time at which the user will be within proximity of the individual.

9. A system for triggering presentation of a calendar event reminder on a mobile device, comprising:

one or more computer-storage media configured to store calendar information associated with a user of a user device;

a data collection component comprising one or more processing devices configured to collect contextual information associated with the user;

one or more computer-storage media configured to store the contextual information associated with the user;

an inference engine comprising one or more processing devices configured to

access an event reminder that describes a task associated with a user of a user device, wherein the task described in the event reminder is not defined with respect to a specific time;

identify an individual associated with the task, wherein the individual is a person other than the user;

determine a future time at which the user is predicted to be within a predetermined proximity of the individual;

determine a time to trigger the reminder for presentation to the user, wherein the time to trigger the reminder occurs a period of time prior to the future time at which the user is predicted to be within the predetermined proximity of the individual;

a reminder surfacing component comprising one or more processing devices configured to

determine that the time for triggering the reminder has occurred; and

cause the reminder to be presented on the mobile device.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein determine the future time at which the user is predicted to be within the predetermined proximity of the individual comprises:

access calendar information associated with the user;

access calendar information associated with the individual;

identify a first event from the calendar information of the user associated with a first location and a first time;

identify a second event from the calendar information of the individual associated with a second location and a second time;

determine that the first location is within a proximity of the second location;

determine that the first time is within a proximity of the second time; and

identify a time associated with the first event or a time associated with the second event as the future time at which the user is predicted to be within the predetermined proximity of the individual.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the first event and the second event are independent with respect to each other.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein to determine the period of time prior to the future time at which the user is predicted to be within the predetermined proximity of the individual, the inference engine is further configured to:

identify a current location of the user;

identify a future location at which the user is predicted to be within the predetermined proximity of the individual;

determine a route the user is predicted to travel from the current location to the future location;

determine an amount of travel time along the route from the current location to the future location; and

determine the period of time prior to the future time at which the user is predicted to be within the predetermined proximity of the individual based at least in part on the amount of travel time.

13. A method of triggering presentation of a calendar event reminder, comprising:

by way of one or more processing devices;

accessing an event reminder that is stored in an information storage associated with a scheduling application, wherein the event reminder describes an event associated with a user of a user device;

identifying an individual associated with the event, wherein the individual is a person other than the user;

determining a predicted future time at which the user will be within a predetermined proximity of the individual at a point along a predicted route the user will travel, wherein determining the predicted future time comprises;

determining the predicted route the user will travel at a first future time;

determining a predicted location of the individual at a second future time;

determining that the point along the predicted route is within the predetermined proximity of the predicted location of the individual;

determining that the user will reach the point along the predicted route while the individual is at the predicted location of the individual;

identifying a time associated with when the user will reach the point along the route as the predicted future time when the user will be within the predetermined proximity of the individual;

determining a time to trigger the reminder for presentation to the user, wherein the time to trigger the reminder is determined to occur a period of time prior to the predicted future time when the user will be within the predetermined proximity of the individual;

determining that the time to trigger the reminder has occurred; and

based on the determination that the time for triggering the reminder has occurred, causing the reminder to be presented to the user.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein determining the predicted route the user will travel at the first future time is based at least in part on one or more of:

calendar information associated with the user;

user profile information associated with the user;

or

one or more historical travel patterns associated with the user.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein determining the predicted location of the individual at the second future time is based at least in part on one or more of:

calendar information associated with the individual;

user profile information associated with the individual;

or

one or more historical travel patterns associated with the individual.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein a destination location of the predicted route to which the user is predicted to travel is independent of the location where the individual is predicted to be located.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein determining the route the user is predicted to travel at the first future time comprises:

identifying a route that the user is currently traveling;

determining a predicted remainder of the current route that the user will travel; and

identifying the predicted remainder of the current route as the route the user is predicted to travel at the first future time.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the predicted route is a route that is suggested to the user.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein the event described in the event reminder is not defined with respect to a specific time.

20. The method of claim 13, wherein once triggered, the reminder is configured to persist during a period of time prior to the predicted future time at which the user will be within a predetermined proximity of the individual.