Activity assistant

• US 9,798,817 B1
• Filed: 07/29/2015
• Issued: 10/24/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Chau, Stephen, Szybalski, Andrew Timothy, Lafon, Stephane, Frome, Andrea Lynn, Morrison, Jerry Howard, Prothro, Derek King, Nguyen, Huy Tuan
• Primary Examiner(s): Uddin, Mohammed R
• Application Number:
  US14/813,056
• Time in Patent Office: 818 Days
• Field of Search: 707802, 707791, 707733, 707999007
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/34 Recording or statistical evaluation of computer activity, e.g. of down time, of input/output operation ; Recording or statistical evaluation of user activity, e.g. usability assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24575 using context
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/288 Entity relationship models
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

Disclosed herein are methods and systems that relate to an “activity assistant” that provides users with dynamically-selected “activities” that are intelligently tailored to the user'"'"'s world. The subject technology receives the one or more global parameters of one or more selected activities. The subject technology further receives the one or more account-specific parameters of a selected user account. For the selected user account, and for each of the one or more selected activities, the subject technology: (a) determines one or more signals based at least in part on one or more of the global parameters of the selected activity and one or more of the account-specific parameters of the selected user account, and (b) uses the determined signals as a basis for determining an importance of the selected activity for the selected user.

Claims

1. A method performed by a computing device, the method comprising:

receiving one or more global parameters of one or more selected activities from a global activity database that comprises data defining a plurality of activities, wherein the data for each activity comprises one or more global parameters;

receiving one or more account-specific parameters of a selected user account from a user-account database including data for each of a plurality of user accounts;

for the selected user account, and for each of the one or more selected activities;

(a) receiving a current user mood input;

(b) determining one or more signals based at least in part on one or more of the global parameters of the selected activity and one or more of the account-specific parameters of the selected user account, wherein one of the one or more signals is the level of similarity between the received current user mood input and a mood associated with the selected activity, wherein each signal provides an indication of importance of the selected activity to the selected user account; and

(c) using the determined signals as a basis for determining an importance score of the selected activity for the selected user; and

providing for display the one or more selected activities in an arrangement that is based at least in part on the importance scores of the selected activities relevant to one another.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the data for a given one of the user accounts:

(i) comprises one or more account-specific parameters, and (ii) identifies any of the plurality of activities that are associated with the given account.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the one or more account-specific parameters includes data indicating one or more user-specific parameters or one or more user-specific signals.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the one or more user-specific parameters includes plans regarding an activity.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the one or more user-specific parameters includes a user'"'"'s history related to the plans regarding the activity.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the one or more user-specific parameters includes time constraints based on user preferences.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein the one or more user-specific parameters includes preferences that modify one or more global parameters.

8. The method of claim 3, wherein the one or more user-specific signals includes a signal indicating a user'"'"'s interest in one or more types of activities.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more global parameters includes a parameter for designating an activity as one of a public activity, a private activity and a private shared activity.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the public activity is viewable by one or more users other than a user that created the activity.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the one or more users other than the user that created the activity is notified when the user adds the activity.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the user that created the activity specifies a subset of the one or more users that is notified.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the private activity is only viewable by a user that created the activity.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the private shared activity is viewable by a user that created the activity and one or more other users specified by the user.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending a push notification to a specific user computing device when a selected activity score exceeds a relevance threshold for a current user context.

16. A computer based activity-assistant system comprising:

a global activity database comprising data that defines a plurality of activities, wherein the data for each activity comprises one or more global parameters;

a user-account database comprising data for each of a plurality of user accounts, wherein the data for a given one of the user accounts;

(i) comprises one or more account-specific parameters, and

(ii) identifies any of the plurality of activities that are associated with the given account; and

one or more servers, each including at least one processor, communicatively coupled to the global activity database and the user-account database, wherein the one or more servers are configured, for a selected user account, to;

for each of one or more selected activities;

(a) receive a current user mood input;

(b) determine one or more signals based at least in part on one or more of the global parameters of the selected activity and one or more of the account-specific parameters of the selected user account, wherein one of the one or more signals is the level of similarity between the received current user mood input and a mood associated with the selected activity, wherein each signal is indicative of importance of the selected activity to the selected user account, and

(c) use the determined signals as a basis to determine a score for the selected activity; and

cause a graphical display to display the one or more selected activities in an arrangement that is based at least in part on the scores of the selected activities relevant to one another.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the one or more account-specific parameters includes data indicating one or more user-specific parameters or one or more user-specific signals.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the one or more user-specific parameters includes a parameter for designating an activity as one of a public activity, a private activity and a private shared activity.

19. An article of manufacture including a non-transitory computer-readable medium, having stored thereon program instructions that, upon execution by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

accessing and retrieving data from a global activity database that comprises data defining a plurality of activities, wherein the data for each activity comprises one or more global parameters, wherein the one or more global parameters includes a parameter for designating an activity as one of a public activity, a private activity and a private shared activity;

accessing and retrieving data from a user-account database including data for each of a plurality of user accounts, wherein the data for a given one of the user accounts;

(i) comprises one or more account-specific parameters, wherein the one or more account-specific parameters includes data indicating one or more user-specific signals including a signal indicating a user'"'"'s mood, and (ii) identifies any of the plurality of activities that are associated with the given account;

for a selected user account;

for each of one or more selected activities;

(a) receiving a current user mood input;

(b) determining one or more signals based at least in part on one or more of the global parameters of the selected activity and one or more of the account-specific parameters of the selected user account, wherein one of the one or more signals is the level of similarity between the received current user mood input and a mood associated with the selected activity, wherein each signal that are indicative of importance of the selected activity to the selected user account, and

(c) using the determined signals as a basis for determining a score for the selected activity; and

providing for display the one or more selected activities in an arrangement that is based at least in part on to the scores of the selected activities relevant to one another.