SNOOZE SUPPORT FOR EVENT REMINDERS

• US 20110029870A1
• Filed: 10/08/2010
• Published: 02/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: VANDER VEEN, Raymond, May, Darrell, Bocking, Andrew D.
• Granted Patent: US 8,943,407 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/710
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting

Abstract

Snooze support for event reminders produced on a hand held mobile device is disclosed. Snooze support in at least one example embodiment is characterized by an event reminder rescheduling method. This event reminder rescheduling method includes the step of prompting for a device user to take one of a number of actions in relation to an event reminder released from an event reminders queue. One of the number of actions is requesting, through operation of one or more input components of the mobile device, that the event reminder be generated again after a lapse of a snooze time.

Claims

1. A mobile electronic device comprising:

a processor for controlling operation of the mobile device;

a touch screen display coupled to the processor; and

a storage coupled to the processor, the storage storing event information identifying scheduled events, the event information including, for at least one of the scheduled events, a reminder time at which an event reminder is to be generated;

the processor being configured for;

(i) upon or after the reminder time for an event, displaying on the display an event reminder including information about the event, the event reminder including a plurality of selectable options including a SNOOZE option;

(ii) upon or after displaying the event reminder, displaying a plurality of selectable snooze time durations for the SNOOZE option and accepting input through the touch screen display selecting one of the plurality of snooze time durations; and

(iii) upon receiving, through the touch screen display, a selection of the SNOOZE option, causing the event reminder to be removed from the display and causing the event reminder to subsequently be redisplayed on the display after the snooze time duration.

2. The device of claim 1 wherein another one of the selectable options of the event reminder which is displayed on the touch screen is a DISMISS event reminder option.

3. The device of claim 1 wherein another one of the selectable options of the event reminder which is displayed on the touch screen is an OPEN event reminder option.

4. The device of claim 1 wherein the scheduled events include calendar events and task events.

5. The mobile electronic device of claim 2, wherein displaying the event reminder further comprises automatically positioning a selection symbol at the DISMISS event reminder option.

6. The mobile electronic device of claim 1 wherein the storage includes the snooze time duration and wherein the processor is configured to configure the snooze time duration by modifying the snooze time duration in the storage.

7. The mobile electronic device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of user selectable snooze time durations are displayed on an area of the display which was occupied, at least in part, by at least one of the selectable options.

8. The mobile electronic device of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to:

upon or after the reminder time for an event, display an indication of the number of times that the event reminder has already been snoozed.

9. The mobile electronic device of claim 1, wherein the mobile electronic device further comprises:

a keyboard coupled to the processor,

and wherein the processor is further configured for;

upon or after displaying the event reminder, accepting input from the keyboard setting a snooze time duration.

10. An event reminder rescheduling method comprising:

providing a mobile device having a processor, a touch screen display, and at least one processor readable medium storing an event reminders queue from which event reminders are released at predetermined times;

releasing an event reminder from said queue when a first pre-established reminder time has been reached;

generating, upon said touch screen display and after the event reminder has been released, a Graphical User Interface (GUI) event reminder window that shows particulars of said event reminder, the event reminder including a prompt for one of a number of actions in relation to said event reminder, one of said actions being requesting, through operation of the touch screen display, that said event reminder be generated again after a lapse of a snooze time duration;

generating, upon said touch screen display after generating the event reminder window, a plurality of selectable snooze time durations;

receiving an input through the touch screen display selecting one of the selectable snooze time durations as said snooze time duration;

configuring the snooze time duration in response to the selection;

receiving the request that said event reminder be generated again after said lapse of the snooze time duration; and

displaying a further event reminder on the display after the snooze time duration.

11. The event reminder rescheduling method of claim 10, further comprising, prior to displaying a further event reminder on the display after the snooze time duration:

calculating a second reminder time equal to said first reminder time plus said snooze time duration;

repositioning said event reminder in said queue based on said second reminder time; and

re-releasing said event reminder from said queue when said second reminder time has been reached.

12. The method as claimed in claim 10 further comprising generating a GUI options screen for a scheduling application, said snooze time duration being configurable from within said options screen.

13. The method as claimed in claim 10 further comprising generating audible sounds concurrently with generation of said event reminder window.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein another one of the actions is a DISMISS event reminder action.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein another one of the actions is an OPEN event reminder action.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the plurality of selectable snooze time durations are generated on an area of the display which was occupied, at least in part, by the prompt for at least one of the actions.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein displaying a further event reminder on the display includes displaying an indication of the number of times that the event reminder has already been snoozed.

18. An electronic device comprising:

a touch screen display;

a processor coupled to the touch screen display;

an event reminders thread associated with the processor for releasing and re-releasing an event reminder from a queue when first and second reminder times respectively have been reached;

a module associated with the processor for receiving requests initiated through operation of said touch screen display, said module (i) causing generation of first and second Graphical User Interface (GUI) event reminder windows upon said display in response to the release and re-release respectively of said event reminder from said queue, each of said reminder windows showing particulars of said event reminder;

(ii) displaying a plurality of selectable snooze time durations;

(iii) receiving input selecting one of the plurality of snooze time durations; and

(iv) processing, prior to the re-release of the event reminder, a request that said event reminder be generated again after a lapse of the snooze time duration,

said event reminders thread (i) calculating said second reminder time by adding said snooze time duration to said first reminder time; and

(ii) repositioning said event reminder in said queue based on said second reminder time.

19. The device as claimed in claim 18 wherein said snooze time duration can be selected from a set which includes:

1 minute, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes and 30 minutes.

20. The device as claimed in claim 18 wherein said snooze time duration is modifiable from within said first event reminder window.