Natural language personal information management

• US 8,423,347 B2
• Filed: 06/06/2006
• Issued: 04/16/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/06/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Tunning, Brian R., Gridley, Evan J.
• Primary Examiner(s): COLUCCI, MICHAEL C
• Application Number:
  US11/448,251
• Publication Number:
  US 20070282595A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,506 Days
• Field of Search: 707/1, 709/200, 709/205, 709/225, 709/248, 709/238, 709/206, 715/772, 704/1, 704/201, 455/466, 455/564, 455/412.2, 705/37, 705/7.14, 379/88.01
• US Class Current: 704/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3329 Natural language query formulation or dialogue systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/284 Lexical analysis, e.g. tokenisation or collocates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting

Abstract

A PIM application provides a single page natural language interface for entering and managing PIM data. The natural language interface may receive a natural language entry as a text character string. The entry may be associated with a task, calendar, contact or other PIM data type. The received entries are processed (for example, parsed) to determine the PIM data type and other information. The original entry is not discarded from the natural language interface as a result of processing. After processing one or more received natural language entries, the entries remain in the natural language interface to be viewed and managed. The entry is maintained so it can be managed with other natural language entries provided in the interface.

Claims

1. A method for managing PIM data in a user interface of a personal information management (PIM) application, comprising:

receiving a first natural language entry from a user into the user interface of the personal information management (PIM) application on an electronic device, the first natural language entry includes text, the PIM application includes a plurality of types of PIM data;

processing the first natural language entry to identify which type of PIM data the first natural language entry is associated with;

creating a first new entry in the PIM application based on text in the first natural language entry, the first new entry is for the identified type of PIM data;

receiving a second natural language entry in the interface of the PIM application, wherein the first natural language entry is maintained in the interface during said receiving the second natural language entry;

processing the second natural language entry to identify which type of PIM data the second natural language entry is associated with, the determining the type of PIM data includes recognizing text in the second natural language entry;

creating a second new entry in the PIM application based on the text that was recognized in the second natural language entry, the second new entry is for the identified type of PIM data; and

maintaining the first and second natural language entries in the interface of the PIM application, the first and second entries are for different types of PIM data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first natural language entry includes an indicator that specifically identifies the type of PIM data.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the indicator specifies that the first natural language entry is a task.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of processing includes:

performing preliminary parsing on the first natural language entry by code on a client computer.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of processing includes:

transmitting the first natural language entry to a remote parsing service.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of processing includes:

receiving meta data associated with fields of the first natural language entry.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said creating a new entry in a personal information management (PIM) application based on the one or more fields includes creating a new entry in a calendar program based on time or date information in the one or more fields.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving edits to the first natural language in the interface entry after creating the second new entry;

parsing the edited the first natural language entry to determine which type of PIM data is associated with the edited first natural language entry; and

editing the first new entry based on the edits to the first natural language entry.

9. One or more computer storage media having processor readable code embodied on said computer storage media, said processor readable code for programming one or more processors to perform a method comprising:

identifying user data in natural language entries within a user interface of a personal information management (PIM) application having a plurality of types of PIM data, including identifying which type of PIM data is associated with each natural language entry, the identifying including determining whether a first of the natural language entries includes an indicator that identifies the type of PIM data;

storing the user data by the PIM application, including storing at least a portion of each natural language entry in a format associated with the identified type of PIM data;

saving the natural language entries a file; and

managing the natural language entries in the user interface after the user data is stored, based on the saved natural language entries.

10. One or more computer storage media according to claim 9, wherein said step of storing includes:

transmitting the natural language entry to be stored at a remote data store.

11. One or more computer storage media according to claim 9, wherein said step of managing the natural language entry includes:

displaying the natural language entry in a list of one or more natural language entries within the interface, the list contains entries associated with the plurality of the types of PIM data which include task PIM data, contact PIM data and calendar PIM data.

12. One or more computer storage media according to claim 11, wherein said step of managing includes:

receiving a request to edit the natural language entry in the list of one or more natural language entries, the user data in the natural language entry is first user data;

displaying the edited natural language entry in the user interface response to the request to edit, the edited natural language entry including second user data;

identifying the second user data in the edited natural language entry within the user interface; and

storing the second user data by the PIM application.

13. One or more computer storage media according to claim 11, wherein said natural language entry is a text entry, the identifying which type of PIM data is associated with each natural language entry includes determining the type of PIM data by parsing the text if there is no indicator that identifies the type of PIM data.

14. The one or more computer storage media according to claim 9, wherein the managing the natural language entry in the user interface after the user data is stored includes:

displaying text of the first natural language entry, along with text of other natural language entries that are associated with other types of PIM data;

receiving edits to the text of the first natural language entry;

parsing the edited text of the first natural language entry to determine which type of PIM data is associated with the edited text of the first natural language entry; and

editing the user data based on the edits to the text of the first natural language entry.

15. An apparatus for processing data, comprising:

a communication interface;

a storage device; and

one or more processors in communication with said storage device and said communication interface, said one or more processors perform a method comprising,

identifying personal information management data in a natural language entry within a user interface of a personal information management (PIM) application, the PIM application includes a plurality of types of PIM data that include task, contact and calendar PIM data, the natural language entry includes a text entry,

parsing the natural language entry to identify which type of PIM data the personal information management data corresponds to, the parsing including determining whether the natural language entry includes an indicator that identifies the natural language entry as task PIM data;

storing the personal information management data in a native data format of a personal information management tool,

storing the natural language entry in a file,

receiving input through the user interface to edit the natural language entry after the storing the natural language entry in the file,

parsing the natural language entry to identify which type of PIM data the edited natural language entry corresponds to; and

changing the stored personal information management data in response to the receiving the input and the identifying which type of PIM data the edited natural language entry corresponds to.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, further comprising:

detecting a time associated with the natural language entry has transpired;

processing the stored personal information management data in response to detecting the time has transpired; and

automatically changing the appearance of the natural language entry in the interface in response to detecting the time has transpired.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein said step of storing the personal information management data includes transmitting the personal information management data to a remote data store, said step of changing the stored personal information management data in response to receiving the input includes transmitting updated personal information management data to the data store.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the parsing further comprises:

determining whether the natural language entry is calendar PIM data or contact PIM data by parsing the text if there is no indicator that identifies the natural language entry as task PIM data.