System for automatically retrieving information relevant to a user's scheduled event

• US 5,842,009 A
• Filed: 09/30/1996
• Issued: 11/24/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Apple Computer Incorporated (Apple Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Apple Computer Incorporated (Apple Inc.)
• Inventors: Graves, Michael J., Machiraju, Nagabhushan Rao, Borovoy, Richard D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kulik, Paul V.
• Application Number:
  US08/723,793
• Time in Patent Office: 785 Days
• Field of Search: 395/601, 395/615, 395/925, 395/926, 395/963, 395/331, 364/705.08
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 715/963 Calendar or scheduling

Abstract

Portable electronic devices containing user'"'"'s calendars have proliferated. Similarly, files, web pages, databases and information sources have become commonplace. The present invention combines knowledge of the current date and time with knowledge of entries in the user'"'"'s calendar to automatically generate queries against those files, databases and information sources. The results of those queries are then made available to the user in order to provide the user with additional information about the subject of the meeting, the other attendees, their employers, etc. The present invention connects multiple devices together in a passive information retrieval model, leveraging off of mobile, desktop, and server systems, context data and search and retrieval technology. The present invention is thus an automatic search and retrieval system providing its user with relevant information to a scheduled meeting or event.

Claims

1. A method for automatically retrieving information relevant to a scheduled event comprising:

storing the time the scheduled event is scheduled for;

determining that it is time to retrieve information relevant to the scheduled event based on the current time being within a predetermined time of the stored time of the scheduled event;

automatically formulating a query comprising details about the stored scheduled event;

searching an information source comprising information potentially relevant to the scheduled event using the automatically formulated query to identify information from the information source relevant to the query; and

,

retrieving the identified relevant information resulting from searching the information source using the automatically formulated query.

2. The electronic computing method of claim 1 wherein the step of storing the time the scheduled event is scheduled for is via a program running on a portable computing device.

3. The electronic computing method of claim 2 wherein the step of determining that it is time to retrieve information relevant to the scheduled event is via a program running on the portable computing device.

4. The electronic computing method of claim 3 wherein the step of automatically formulating a query comprising details about the stored scheduled event is via a program running on a desktop computing device.

5. The electronic computing method of claim 4 wherein the step of searching an information source comprising information potentially relevant to the scheduled event is via a program running on a server computing device.

6. The electronic computing method of claim 5 wherein the step of retrieving the identified relevant information resulting from searching the information source using the automatically formulated query is via the program running on the server computing device, the program running on the desktop computing device and the program running on the portable computing device.

7. An electronic computing system for automatically retrieving information relevant to a scheduled event comprising:

a means for storing the time the scheduled event is scheduled for;

a timing means for indicating when it is time to retrieve information relevant to the scheduled event based on the current time being within a predetermined time of the stored time of the scheduled event;

a query formulation means for automatically formulating a query comprising details about the stored scheduled event when the timing means indicates that it is time to retrieve information relevant to the scheduled event;

an information source comprising information potentially relevant to the scheduled event;

a search engine for searching the information source using the automatically formulated query to identify and retrieve information from the information source relevant to the query; and

,

a display means for the user to view the identified and retrieved relevant information resulting from the query by the search engine of the information source using the automatically formulated query.

8. The electronic computing system of claim 7 wherein the means for storing the time the scheduled event is scheduled for is a program running on a portable computing device.

9. The electronic computing system of claim 8 wherein the timing means for indicating when it is time to retrieve information relevant to the scheduled event is a program running on the portable computing device.

10. The electronic computing system of claim 9 wherein the query formulation means for automatically formulating a query comprising details about the stored scheduled event is a program running on a desktop computing device.

11. The electronic computing system of claim 10 wherein the information source comprising potentially relevant information is running on a server computing device.

12. The electronic computing system of claim 11 wherein the display means for the user to view the retrieved relevant information is on the portable computing device.

13. A system for automatically retrieving information relevant to a scheduled event comprising:

a program for storing the scheduled event;

a query formulation means for automatically formulating a query comprising details about the stored scheduled event when the current time is within a predetermined time period of the scheduled event;

an information source;

a search engine for querying the information source using the automatically formulated query to retrieve information relevant to the query; and

,

a means to display the retrieved relevant information resulting from the query by the search engine of the information source using the automatically formulated query.

14. A method of automatically retrieving information relevant to a scheduled event comprising:

storing the scheduled event;

automatically formulating a query comprising details about the stored scheduled event when the current time is within a predetermined time period of the scheduled event;

querying an information source using the automatically formulated query to retrieve information relevant to the query; and

,

displaying the retrieved relevant information resulting from the query of the information source using the automatically formulated query.

15. A program storage medium having a program stored therein for causing a computer to perform the steps of:

storing a scheduled event;

automatically formulating a query comprising details about the stored scheduled event when the current time is within a predetermined time period of the scheduled event;

querying an information source using the automatically formulated query to locate information relevant to the query; and

,

retrieving the located relevant information resulting from the query of the information source using the automatically formulated query.