Generating context-based options for responding to a notification

• US 9,804,740 B2
• Filed: 06/06/2012
• Issued: 10/31/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/06/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Cranfill, Elizabeth F., Sabatelli, Alessandro F., Pitschel, Donald W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Wathen, Brian W
• Application Number:
  US13/489,547
• Publication Number:
  US 20130328665A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,973 Days
• Field of Search: 705 718, 715811
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72457 according to geographic location

Abstract

A user of a programmable device has a context that may be evaluated and compared to a context of a notification generated by the operating system or an application running on the programmable device. The comparison may be used to generate one or more optional responses to the notification that may allow additional functionality beyond dismissing the notification or opening a corresponding event entry.

Claims

1. At least one non-transitory program storage device, readable by at least one programmable control device, comprising instructions stored thereon for causing the at least one programmable control device to:

receive an event notification from an electronic schedule service of an operating system of a programmable device;

evaluate a first context, the first context including a context of the event notification;

evaluate a second context, the second context including a context of the programmable device at a time the event notification is received, wherein the instructions for causing the at least one programmable control device to evaluate the second context comprise instructions for causing the at least one programmable control device to;

determine a type of the event notification; and

determine a history of responses selected in response to previous notifications with the determined type of the event notification;

generate, at the time the event notification is received, one or more optional responses based on the evaluation of the first context and the evaluation of the second context;

cause display of at least one of the one or more optional responses; and

automatically transmit, in response to causing display of the event notification along with the one or more optional responses, a request to an agent to preload information corresponding to the event notification based on the first context and the second context.

2. The at least one program storage device of claim 1, wherein the one or more optional responses includes a default optional response to the event notification.

3. The at least one program storage device of claim 1, wherein the instructions for causing the at least one programmable control device to generate the one or more optional responses comprise instructions for causing the at least one programmable control device to:

configure a first optional response of the one or more optional responses to generate a second event notification by the electronic schedule service.

4. The at least one program storage device of claim 1, wherein the instructions for causing the at least one programmable control device to generate the one or more optional responses comprise instructions for causing the at least one programmable control device to:

generate the one or more optional responses prior to displaying the event notification.

5. The at least one program storage device of claim 1, wherein the instructions stored thereon further comprise instructions for causing the at least one programmable control device to:

automatically trigger, in response to causing the display of the event notification along with the one or more optional responses, additional event notifications based on the evaluation of the first context and the second context.

6. The at least one program storage device of claim 5, wherein the one or more optional responses include a contextual offer of a snooze option to request for a re-notification of the event notification.

7. The at least one program storage device of claim 1, wherein the instructions stored thereon further comprise instructions that cause the at least one programmable control device to transmit a message to another programmable device, wherein the message comprises a request to perform an action based on the evaluation of the first context and the second context.

8. The at least one program storage device of claim 1, wherein the instructions stored thereon further cause the at least one programmable control device to:

remove the one or more optional responses if no selection is made within a predetermined time.

9. The at least one program storage device of claim 1, wherein the instructions to generate one or more optional responses comprise instructions that cause the at least one programmable control device to:

create a hierarchy for a plurality of possible optional responses, the hierarchy arranges the possible optional responses according to a likelihood of a user'"'"'s interest in the possible optional responses; and

generate, at the time the event notification is received, the one or more optional responses from the possible optional responses by pruning the hierarchy based on the history of the responses selected in response to previous notifications of the determined type of the event notification.

10. The at least one program storage device of claim 9, wherein a number of the one or more optional responses is less than a number of possible optional responses after pruning the hierarchy.

11. At least one non-transitory program storage device, readable by at least one programmable control device, comprising instructions stored thereon for causing the at least one programmable control device to:

receive an event notification from an electronic schedule service of an operating system of a programmable device;

evaluate a first context, the first context including a context of the event notification;

evaluate a second context, the second context including a context of the programmable device at a time the event notification is received, wherein the instructions for causing the at least one programmable control device to evaluate the second context comprise instructions for causing the at least one programmable control device to;

determine a type of the event notification; and

determine a history of responses selected in response to previous notifications with the determined type of the event notification;

generate, at the time the event notification is received, a plurality of optional responses to the event notification based on the evaluation of the first context and the evaluation of the second context;

cause display of a first optional response from the plurality of optional responses to the event notification;

cause display of a second optional response from the plurality of optional responses to the event notification, wherein the second optional response is selected based on an evaluation of the determined history of responses selected; and

automatically trigger, in response to causing display of the event notification along with the first optional response, additional event notifications based on the evaluation of the first context and the second context.

12. The at least one program storage device of claim 11, wherein the instructions for causing the at least one programmable control device to cause display of the first optional response from the plurality of optional responses to the event notification further comprise instructions for causing the at least one programmable control device to:

transmit a request to another programmable device to perform an action.

13. The at least one program storage device of claim 11, wherein the instructions to generate a plurality of optional responses comprise instructions that cause the at least one programmable control device to:

create a hierarchy for a plurality of possible optional responses, the hierarchy arranges the possible optional responses according to a likelihood of the user'"'"'s interest in the possible optional responses; and

generate the optional responses from the possible optional responses by pruning the hierarchy based on the history of the responses selected in response to previous notifications of the determined type of the event notification.

14. The at least one program storage device of claim 13, wherein a number of the optional responses is less than a number of possible optional responses after pruning the hierarchy.

15. The at least one program storage device of claim 11, wherein the instructions stored thereon further comprise instructions for causing the at least one programmable control device to:

automatically transmit, in response to causing display of the event notification along with the first optional response, a request to an agent to preload information corresponding to the event notification based on the first context and the second context.

16. A programmable device, comprising:

at least one programmable control device;

a memory, coupled to the at least one programmable control device;

an operating system stored in the memory, comprising;

logic to generate an event notification from an electronic scheduler to a user of the programmable device;

logic to evaluate a context of the event notification;

logic to evaluate a context of the user at a time the event notification is generated,

wherein the logic to evaluate the context of the user at the time the event notification is generated comprises;

logic to determine a type of the event notification; and

logic to determine a history of responses selected by the user of the programmable device to previous notifications with the determined type of the event notification;

logic to generate one or more optional responses to the event notification is based on the evaluation of the context of the event notification and the evaluation of the context of the user at the time the event notification is generated;

logic to cause display of at least one of the one or more optional responses; and

logic to automatically trigger, in response to causing display of the event notification along with the one or more optional responses, additional event notifications based on the evaluation of the context of the event notification and the context of the user.

17. The programmable device of claim 16, wherein the one or more optional responses includes a default optional response to the event notification.

18. The programmable device of claim 16, further comprising:

logic to perform an action associated with a first optional response selected from the one or more optional responses.

19. The programmable device of claim 18, wherein the action comprises:

transmitting a request to another programmable device to perform an action.

20. The programmable device of claim 18, wherein the action comprises:

transmitting a message to another programmable device.

21. The programmable device of claim 16, further comprising:

logic to automatically transmit, in response to causing display of the event notification along with the one or more optional responses, a request to an agent to preload information corresponding to the event notification based on the context of the event notification and the context of the user.

22. The programmable device of claim 16, wherein the logic to generate one or more optional responses comprises:

logic to create a hierarchy for a plurality of possible optional responses, the hierarchy arranges the possible optional responses according to a likelihood of a user'"'"'s interest in the possible optional responses; and

logic to generate the one or more optional responses from the possible optional responses by pruning the hierarchy based on the history of the responses selected in response to previous notifications of the determined type of the event notification.

23. The programmable device of claim 22, wherein a number of the one or more optional responses is less than a number of possible optional responses after pruning the hierarchy.

24. A method comprising:

generating, by a notification service of an operating system of a programmable device, a notification of an event from an electronic scheduler;

comparing a context of the notification with a context of the programmable device at a time the notification is generated, wherein the comparison includes evaluating the context of the notification and evaluating the context of the programmable device at the time the notification is generated, and wherein the evaluation of the context of the programmable device at the time the notification is generated includes;

determining a type of the notification; and

determining a history of responses received by the programmable device to previous notifications with the same determined type of the notification;

generating one or more optional responses to the notification, wherein the one or more optional responses are determined in response to the comparison of the context of the notification with the context of the programmable device at the time the notification is generated; and

automatically transmitting, in response to causing display of the notification along with the one or more optional responses, a request to an agent to preload information corresponding to the notification based on the context of the event notification and the context of the programmable device.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising performing an action corresponding to the one or more optional responses, wherein performing the action corresponding to the one or more optional responses comprises transmitting a message to another programmable device.

26. The method of claim 24, further comprising automatically triggering, in response to causing display of the notification along with the one or more optional responses, additional event notifications based on the evaluation of the context of the event notification and the context of the programmable device.

27. The method of claim 24, wherein generating one or more optional responses comprises:

creating a hierarchy for a plurality of possible optional responses, the hierarchy arranges the possible optional responses according a likelihood of a user'"'"'s interest in the possible optional responses; and

generating the one or more optional responses from the possible optional responses by pruning the hierarchy based on the history of the responses selected in response to notifications of the determined type of the notification.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein a number of the one or more optional responses is less than a number of possible optional responses after pruning the hierarchy.