ZONE AWARE TASK MANAGEMENT UTILIZING USER GENERATED PRESENCE HISTORY

• US 20110119068A1
• Filed: 11/16/2009
• Published: 05/19/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/16/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: PEGRAM, BRIAN T., HOCKETT, HUGH E.
• Application Number:
  US12/618,989
• Publication Number:
  US 20110119068A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/1.1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/343 Calculating itineraries, i.e. routes leading from a starting point to a series of categorical destinations using a global route restraint, round trips, touristic trips travelling salesman problem G06Q10/04; optimisation of routes G06Q10/047
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

The disclosure presents a solution for identifying one or more zone based tasks within a task manager application of a computing device. The tasks can be comprised of one or more planned activities. In the solution one or more zones can be determined to be associated the identified tasks. Each of the zones can be associated with one or more bounded geographical regions. A task duration for the identified task can be estimated based on user presence historical data associated with the zones. Further, an optimized task list comprising of two or more tasks can be generated from the computed estimates.

Claims

1. A method for zone based task management comprising:

identifying at least one of a plurality of tasks within a task manager application of a computing device, wherein the plurality of tasks is comprised of at least one of a plurality of planned activities;

determining a plurality of zones associated with at least one of the identified tasks, wherein each of the plurality of zones is associated with at least one bounded geographical region; and

estimating a task duration for the identified task based on user presence historical data associated with the plurality of zones.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the zone associated with the task is at least one of a geometric shape and a free form shape.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the zone associated with the task is defined by absolute geospatial coordinates comprising latitude and longitude.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

collecting a plurality of user presence history data associated with a plurality of zones, wherein the user presence history data are at least one of a geographical location delta and a time duration.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the task duration is a statistical average of a plurality of the user presence historical data associated with at least one of the zones.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the zone based task duration estimate is presented within a user interface.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

ranking a task list, wherein the task list is at least one of a plurality of zones based tasks and traditional tasks, wherein the ranking is based on at least one of shortest cumulative task duration and shortest navigation time.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the ranking is associated with a confidence rating, wherein the confidence rating is an analytic confidence value.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

applying a user specified ruleset to the ranked zone based task list.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the ranked zone based task list is visually presented with a task list duration estimate, wherein the duration estimate is a value indicating the probable duration of time the task list is likely to require.

11. An interface for zone based task management comprising:

a user interface window for creating a zone corresponding to a geographic region, wherein the zone corresponds to a bounded geographic region;

a user interface window for establishing an activity and associating the activity with one or more zones; and

a user interface window for creating a zone based task and automatically estimating a task duration.

12. The interface of claim 11, further comprising:

a task management interface for modifying zone based tasks.

13. The interface of claim 11, wherein the task manager is associated with at least one of a navigation interface and a calendar interface.

14. A computer program product, which is digitally encoded in a tangible storage medium, for zone based task management comprising:

identifying at least one of a plurality of tasks within a task manager computer program product of a computing device, wherein the plurality of tasks is comprised of at least one of a plurality of planned activities;

determining at least one of a plurality of zones associated with the identified task, wherein each of the plurality of zones is defined by at least one bounded geographical region; and

estimating a task duration for the identified task based on user presence historical data associated with the determined zone.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the computer program product is an application programming interface capable of converting a traditional task within a task manager application into a zone based task.

16. The computer program product of claim 14, further comprising:

ranking a plurality of zone based tasks associated with a task list, wherein the ranking is based on at least one of shortest cumulative task duration and shortest navigation time.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the ranked zone based task list is visually presented.