Geographic reminders

• US 8,537,003 B2
• Filed: 05/20/2009
• Issued: 09/17/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Khachaturov, Vassilii, Novik, Lev, Khosravy, Moe
• Primary Examiner(s): Zimmerman, Brian
• Assistant Examiner(s): EUSTAQUIO, CAL J
• Application Number:
  US12/468,874
• Publication Number:
  US 20100295676A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,581 Days
• Field of Search: 340/539.11, 340/539.13, 340/8.1, 340/457, 340/988, 455/456.3, 455/456.1
• US Class Current: 340/540
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/24 Reminder alarms, e.g. anti-loss alarms

Abstract

Described is a technology by which a mobile device outputs an alert for a reminder based upon a current location of the mobile device with respect to an entity (person, place or thing) associated with the reminder. The reminders may be maintained and provided by a service. Each reminder includes a reference to target-related information. When the device moves to within a threshold proximity of the target, and other criteria (e.g., time of day) is satisfied, an alert is output by the device. A user may gesture with a device towards an entity to set a reminder associated with that entity, or to get any reminder associated with that entity. A device may also get reminders by scanning or image processing, e.g., by reading a barcode associated with a product to get any reminders associated with that product.

Claims

1. In a computing environment, a method comprising:

receiving a reminder at a mobile device from a remote source that maintains a plurality of reminders;

determining whether to output an alert corresponding to the reminder, based at least in part on a pointing gesture made using the mobile device and an image received from the mobile device, by evaluating one or more criteria associated with the reminder, including target-related information, against current state data that includes current location-related data and the image received from the mobile device, wherein the one or more criteria include at least one constraint and at least one parameter;

responsive to a determination that the one or more criteria associated with the reminder are satisfied, outputting the alert; and

responsive to a determination that the one or more criteria associated with the reminder are not satisfied, preventing the reminder from being output.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the target-related information corresponds to a place having specified hours of operation, wherein the current state data includes current time, and wherein evaluating the criteria comprises comparing the specified hours of operation against the current time to determine whether to output the alert.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the target-related information corresponds to a category, and wherein evaluating the criteria comprises determining whether the current location-related data indicates a threshold proximity to any entity that corresponds to that category.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the target-related information corresponds to an entity that is discernible by detecting a gesture, and wherein evaluating the criteria comprises determining that the current location-related data is within a threshold proximity of that entity.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the target-related information corresponds to an entity that is discernible by a scanning or image processing operation, and wherein evaluating the criteria comprises determining that the current location-related data is within a threshold proximity of that entity.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein evaluating the one or more criteria comprises determining whether the at least one constraint is able to be satisfied based upon the current state data.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising, providing the reminder to the remote source.

8. In a computing environment, a system comprising:

a service configured to maintain reminders for users, the service including logic configured to select a set of one or more selected reminders for a particular user based upon data for that particular user including location information and user preference data, the logic configured to determine a plurality of geographic tiles from the location information and to select the set of one or more selected reminders based upon whether each reminder corresponds to a location within one of the geographic tiles, the service configured to download the set of one or more selected reminders to a device associated with that particular user, based at least in part on a direction of movement associated with the device.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the data for the particular user comprises current location data and other context information received from the device, and wherein the service is further configured to use the context information to select the set of one or more selected reminders.

10. The system of claim 8 wherein the logic is further configured to remove a set of one or more reminders from the device based upon the direction of movement associated with the device.

11. The system of claim 8 wherein the service is configured to maintain the reminders as reminder objects, each reminder object including a reference to a target object that represents an entity comprising a person, place or thing.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein at least one of the reminder objects includes time information that indicates when the reminder is active.

13. The system of claim 11 wherein at least one of the reminder objects includes output content that is used by the device to output an alert when the reminder triggers the alert.

14. The system of claim 8 wherein the device comprises a handheld mobile device, a device mounted to a vehicle, or a device mounted to an airplane.

15. In a computing environment, a method comprising:

receiving a reminder at a location aware mobile device, the reminder received from a reminder service; and

outputting an alert when one or more criteria associated with the reminder is satisfied based on current state data associated with the mobile device, the one or more criteria including at least one constraint and at least one parameter, the state data including receiving an image from the mobile device, including that the mobile device is at a location that satisfies a location-related criterion associated with the reminder, based at least in part on the image.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

associating a person, place or thing with the reminder by detecting a gesture directed towards the person, place or thing;

generating the reminder; and

providing the reminder to the reminder service.

17. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

determining the location of a person, place or thing by detecting a gesture directed towards the person, place or thing that indicates that the mobile device is at a location that satisfies the location-related criterion associated with the reminder.

18. The method of claim 15 wherein the one or more criteria associated with the reminder includes a space-time constraint that prevents outputting of the alert if the mobile device cannot satisfy the location-related criterion associated with the reminder by a certain time, given traveling conditions with respect to a current location and current time of the mobile device.

19. The method of claim 15 wherein the reminder is associated with a product, and further comprising outputting an alert for that reminder upon identifying that product via a scanning, gesturing or image processing operation.

20. The method of claim 15 wherein the image comprises at least one of an image of a barcode, an image of a person, and image of a landmark, or an image of an object.