Systems and methods for proactively identifying and surfacing relevant content on a touch-sensitive device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10200824-B2
Application number	US-201615166226-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 26, 2016
Priority date	May 27, 2015
Publication date	Feb 5, 2019
Grant date	Feb 5, 2019

Abstract

Systems and methods for proactively assisting users with accurately locating a parked vehicle are disclosed herein. An example method includes: automatically, and without instructions from a user: determining that a user of the electronic device is in a vehicle that has come to rest at a geographic location. Upon determining that the user has left the vehicle at the geographic location, the method includes automatically, and without instructions from a user: determining whether positioning information, retrieved from the location sensor to identify the geographic location, satisfies accuracy criteria. Upon determining that the positioning information does not satisfy the accuracy criteria, the method includes: providing a prompt to the user to input information about the geographic location. In response to providing the prompt, the method includes receiving information from the user about the geographic location and storing the information as vehicle location information.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing executable instructions that, when executed by an electronic device with a touch-sensitive surface, a display, and a location sensor, cause the electronic device to:
automatically, and without instructions from a user:
determine that a user of the electronic device is in a vehicle that has come to rest at a geographic location;
upon determining that the user has left the vehicle at the geographic location, determine whether positioning information, retrieved from the location sensor to identify the geographic location, satisfies accuracy criteria;

upon determining that the positioning information does not satisfy the accuracy criteria, provide a prompt to the user to input information about the geographic location;
in response to providing the prompt, receive information from the user about the geographic location and store the information as vehicle location information; and
in accordance with a determination that the user is heading towards the geographic location, display a user interface object that includes the vehicle location information, wherein the user interface object is displayed on a lock screen of the electronic device.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the executable instructions, when executed by the electronic device, cause the electronic device to:
upon determining that the positioning information satisfies the accuracy criteria, automatically, and without instructions from a user, store the positioning information as the vehicle location information.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the user interface object is a maps object that includes an identifier for the user's current location and a separate identifier for the geographic location.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 3 , wherein, after a user unlocks the electronic device, the user interface object is displayed in response to a swipe gesture that causes the electronic device to enter a search mode.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 4 , wherein the electronic device determines whether the user is heading towards the geographic location in response to receiving the swipe gesture.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein:
the prompt is an audio prompt provided by a virtual assistant that is available via the electronic device,
receiving the information from the user includes receiving a verbal description from the user that identifies the geographic location, and
displaying the user interface object includes displaying a selectable affordance that, when selected, causes the device to playback the verbal description.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein:
the prompt is displayed on the display of the electronic device,
receiving the information from the user includes receiving a textual description from the user that identifies the geographic location, and
displaying the user interface object includes displaying the textual description from the user.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein:
determining whether the user is heading towards the geographic location includes using new positioning information received from the location sensor to determine that the electronic device is moving towards the geographic location.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8 , wherein:
determining whether the user is heading towards the geographic location includes
(i) determining that the electronic device remained at a different geographic location for more than a threshold period of time and
(ii) determining that the new positioning information indicates that the electronic device is moving away from the different geographic location and towards the geographic location.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein determining that the user is in the vehicle that has come to rest at the geographic location includes (i) determining that the user is in the vehicle by determining that the electronic device is travelling above a threshold speed (ii) determining that the vehicle has come to rest at the geographic location by one or more of: (a) determining that the electronic device has remained at the geographic location for more than a threshold period of time, (b) determining that a communications link between the electronic device and the vehicle has been disconnected, and (c) determining that the geographic location corresponds to a location within a parking lot.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein determining that the vehicle has come to rest at the geographic location includes determining that the electronic device has remained at the geographic location for more than a threshold period of time.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein determining that the vehicle has come to rest at the geographic location includes determining that a communications link between the electronic device and the vehicle has been disconnected.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein determining that the vehicle has come to rest at the geographic location includes determining that the geographic location corresponds to a location within a parking lot.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the accuracy criteria includes a criterion that is satisfied when accuracy of a GPS reading associated with the positioning information is above a threshold level of accuracy.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the executable instructions that cause the electronic device to determine whether positioning information, retrieved from the location sensor to identify the geographic location, satisfies accuracy criteria include executable instructions that cause the electronic device to:
determine whether positioning information, retrieved from the location sensor to identify the geographic location, satisfies accuracy criteria at the time it is determined that the user has left the vehicle at the geographic location.

16. A method, comprising:
at an electronic device including one or more processors, memory, a touch-sensitive surface, a display, and a location sensor:
automatically, and without instructions from a user:
determining that a user of the electronic device is in a vehicle that has come to rest at a geographic location;
upon determining that the user has left the vehicle at the geographic location, determining whether positioning information, retrieved from the location sensor to identifying the geographic location, satisfies accuracy criteria;

upon determining that the positioning information does not satisfy the accuracy criteria, providing a prompt to the user to input information about the geographic location;
in response to providing the prompt, receiving information from the user about the geographic location and storing the information as vehicle location information; and
in accordance with a determination that the user is heading towards the geographic location, display a user interface object that includes the vehicle location information, wherein the user interface object is displayed on a lock screen of the electronic device.

17. The method of claim 16 , further comprising:
upon determining that the positioning information satisfies

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Gross Daniel C
• Coffman Patrick L
• Dellinger Richard R
• Foss Christopher P
• Gauci Jason J
• Haghighi Aria D
• Irani Cyrus D
• Jones Bronwyn A
• Kapoor Gaurav
• Lemay Stephen O
• Morris Colin C
• Siracusa Michael R
• Yang Lawrence Y
• Ramerth Brent D
• Bellegarda Jerome R
• Dolfing Jannes G A
• Pagallo Giulia P
• Wang Xin
• Hatori Jun
• Moha Alexandre R
• Clark Kevin D
• Kohlschuetter Karl Christian
• Andersen Jesper S
• Arras Hafid
• Carlhian Alexandre
• Deniau Thomas
• Martel Mathieu J
• Toudji Sofiane

Classifications

• H04W4/029 Primary

  Location-based management or tracking services · CPC title

• H04W4/40

  for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P] · CPC title

• G06F9/453

  Help systems · CPC title

• H04W4/50

  Service provisioning or reconfiguring · CPC title

• G06F3/0488

  using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures · CPC title