SCHEDULING EVENTS FROM ELECTRONIC MESSAGES

• US 20070073810A1
• Filed: 08/01/2006
• Published: 03/29/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Adams, Neil, Raymond, Vander Veen
• Granted Patent: US 8,429,292 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/205
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72436 for text messaging, e.g. short messaging services [SMS] or e-mails
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72451 according to schedules, e.g. using calendar applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/00 Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/12 Wireless traffic scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices

Abstract

Scheduling an event on an electronic communications device configured for sending and receiving electronic messages over a communications network, including extracting information from an electronic message at the communications device; displaying on a display of the communications device an event scheduling interface for scheduling an event, the event scheduling interface having a plurality of input fields for receiving information about the event; and automatically populating at least one of the input fields in dependence on the extracted information.

Claims

1. A method for scheduling an event on an electronic communications device configured for sending and receiving electronic messages over a communications network, including:

extracting information from an electronic message at the communications device;

displaying on a display of the communications device an event scheduling interface for scheduling an event, the event scheduling interface having a plurality of input fields for receiving information about the event; and

automatically populating at least one of the input fields in dependence on the extracted information.

2. The method of claim 1 including, after populating the input fields and upon receiving a predetermined user input, storing an event record for the event including information contained in the input fields.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the input fields include an attendee field for identifying participants in the event, the method including sending an event notification of the event over the communications network to the participants identified in the attendee field.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the electronic message includes a recipient field for identifying recipients of the electronic message, wherein the attendee field is automatically populated in dependence on the recipients identified in the recipient field.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the electronic message includes a message body, extracting information includes identifying at least one of a time or date in the message body and extracting the at least one identified time or date, wherein at least one of a time input field or a date input field of the event scheduling interface is automatically populated with the at least one extracted time or date, respectively.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein identifying at least one of a time or date in the message body includes identifying the first occurrence in the message body of a time or date meeting predetermined criteria.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the predetermined criteria specifies that any time or date contained in a header portion of a previous message embedded in the message body is ignored.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the electronic message includes a message body, extracting information includes identifying event location information in the message body and extracting the location information, wherein a location input field of the event scheduling interface is automatically populated in dependence on the extracted location information.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the electronic message includes a subject field identifying a subject of the electronic message and the event scheduling interface includes a subject input field, wherein the extracted information includes text from the electronic message subject field and the event scheduling interface subject input field is automatically populated with at least some of the text from the electronic message subject field.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the electronic message is an email message that includes a plurality of email message fields including a sender field for identifying a sender of the electronic message, a time field for identifying at least one of a time sent and a time received of the electronic message, a recipients field for identifying the recipients of the electronic message, a subject field for identifying a subject of the electronic message, and a message body field, wherein the extracted information includes information extracted from at least one of the email message fields.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the extracting of information from the electronic message is done after displaying the event scheduling interface.

12. The method of claim 1 including, prior to the extracting of information and the displaying of the event scheduling interface, (i) displaying the electronic message and (ii) displaying, in response to a user input a menu that includes a user selectable option to schedule a new event associated with the electronic message;

wherein a user selection of the option to schedule a new event triggers the extracting of information and displaying of the event scheduling interface.

13. A communications device enabled to communicate over a communications network with other devices, comprising:

a display;

a user input device;

a messaging module for exchanging electronic messages with other devices;

a storage storing electronic messages sent or received by the device; and

a scheduling module configured for displaying on the display an event scheduling interface for scheduling a future event, the event scheduling interface having a plurality of input fields for receiving information about the event, the scheduling module being configured for automatically populating at least one of the input fields in dependence on information extracted from a selected electronic message stored in the storage

14. The device of claim 13 wherein the scheduling module is configured for, after populating the input fields and upon receiving a predetermined user input, storing an event record for the event including information contained in the input fields.

15. The device of claim 13 wherein the input fields include an attendee field for identifying participants in the event, the scheduling module being configured for causing the messaging module to send an event notification of the event over the communications network to the participants identified in the attendee field.

16. The device of claim 15 wherein the electronic message includes a recipient field for identifying recipients of the electronic message, wherein the scheduling module is configured for automatically populating the attendee field in dependence on the recipients identified in the recipient field.

17. The device of claim 13 wherein the electronic message includes a message body, the scheduling module being configured for identifying at least one of a time or date in the message body meeting predetermined criteria and extracting the at least one identified time or date, wherein at least one of a time input field or a date input field of the event scheduling interface is automatically populated with the at least one extracted time or date, respectively.

18. The device of claim 13 wherein the electronic message includes a message body, the scheduling module being configured for identifying event location information in the message body and extracting the location information, wherein a location input field of the event scheduling interface is automatically populated in dependence on the extracted location information.

19. The device of claim 13 wherein the electronic message is an email message that includes a plurality of email message fields including a sender field for identifying a sender of the electronic message, a time field for identifying at least one of a time sent and a time received of the electronic message, a recipients field for identifying the recipients of the electronic message, a subject field for identifying a subject of the electronic message, and a message body field, wherein the extracted information includes information extracted from at least one of the email message fields.

20. A computer program product comprising a computer readable medium carrying computer executable instructions for scheduling an event on an electronic communications device configured for sending and receiving electronic messages over a communications network, the instructions including instructions for:

extracting information from an electronic message at the communications device;

displaying on a display of the communications device an event scheduling interface for scheduling an event, the event scheduling interface having a plurality of input fields for receiving information about the event; and

automatically populating at least one of the input fields in dependence on the extracted information.

21. The computer program product of claim 20 wherein the computer readable medium is a physical medium or is a transmitted signal.