Methods and apparatus for providing improved access to applications

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9443272-B2
Application number	US-201213614653-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 13, 2012
Priority date	Sep 13, 2012
Publication date	Sep 13, 2016
Grant date	Sep 13, 2016

Abstract

A data processing system includes components for providing a pleasant user experience. Those components may include a family interaction engine that provides a family channel. The family interaction engine may provide for creation of a user group. The family channel may present content of interest to multiple users in the user group. When a user is detected near the data processing system, the family interaction engine may automatically present content of interest to that user. When used for presenting media content, the data processing system may also cause supplemental data to automatically be presented, wherein the supplemental data is relevant to the media content and to a predetermined interest of the user. The data processing system may also provide a ranked list of applications for potential activation by the user. The applications may be ordered based on the current context. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. At least one non-transitory machine accessible medium comprising computer instructions for dynamically presenting applications on a data processing system, wherein the computer instructions, in response to being executed on the data processing system, enable the data processing system to carry out a method comprising:
in response to a user transitioning from a first application on a data processing system to a second application, automatically saving application usage pattern data, wherein the application usage pattern data comprises context attributes that identify:
the application from which the user transitioned as an active application,
the application to which the user transitioned as a next application,
current time, and
at least one additional item from a group consisting of:
current location, and
type of activity being engaged in by a user;

automatically calculating probabilities of activation for applications in the data processing system, based at least in part on the context attributes in the application usage pattern data, including the context attributes identifying active applications and corresponding next applications;
automatically saving the calculated probabilities of activation;
determining current context attributes, including which application is currently active;
automatically ranking at least some of the applications into a rank order of predicted activation, based at least in part on (a) the calculated probabilities of activation and (b) the current context attributes, including which application is currently active;
providing a next-application button that enables the user to request a list of potential next applications to be presenting according to the rank order of predicted activation;
in response to user selection of the next-application button, automatically presenting one or more of the ranked applications for potential activation by the user, wherein the presented applications are presented according to the rank order of predicted activation in a user interface that enables the user to select one of the ranked applications for activation;
in response to user selection of one of the ranked applications, activating the selected application;
automatically adjusting a vocabulary of available voice commands, based at least in part on a current context, wherein the operation of automatically adjusting a vocabulary of available voice commands comprises constraining the vocabulary of available voice commands, based on vocabularies for multiple applications, including (a) a vocabulary for the currently active application and (b) a vocabulary for at least one inactive application among the top ranked applications, based at least in part on the rank order of predicted activation;
receiving voice command input from the user; and
in response to the voice command input from the user, automatically using the adjusted vocabulary of available voice commands when interpreting the voice command input.

2. At least one non-transitory machine accessible medium according to claim 1 , wherein:
the applications comprise the currently active application and multiple inactive applications;
the current context attributes identify the currently active application and at least one item from a group consisting of current time, current location, and type of activity being engaged in by the user; and
the operation of automatically presenting one or more of the ranked applications for potential activation by the user comprises automatically presenting one or more of the inactive applications, according to the rank order of predicted activation, without presenting the currently active application for potential activation.

3. At least one non-transitory machine accessible medium according to claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises:
building a context application list that includes at least some of the applications, wherein the data processing system uses current context attributes and the context attributes in the application usage pattern data to determine whether or not to include one or more of the applications in the context application list; and
wherein the operation of automatically presenting one or more of the ranked applications for potential activation by the user comprises presenting one or more applications from the context application list for potential activation by the user.

4. At least one non-transitory machine accessible medium according to claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises:
saving user preference data that identifies one of the applications as a preferred application in a context having at least one particular context attribute; and
automatically utilizing the user preference data to influence the rank order of predicted activation.

5. At least one non-transitory machine accessible medium according to claim 1 , wherein the method comprises automatically adapting to changing user preferences, with regard to which applications are preferred by the user in different contexts.

6. At least one non-transitory machine accessible medium according to claim 5 , wherein the application usage pattern data identifies different applications as being preferred applications in different contexts having different context attributes.

7. At least one non-transitory machine accessible medium according to claim 1 , further comprising:
detecting that the user has performed a predetermined gesture with the data processing system; and
wherein the operation of automatically presenting one or more of the ranked applications according to the rank order of predicted activation is performed in response to detecting that the user has performed the predetermined gesture with the data processing system.

8. At least one non-transitory machine accessible medium according to claim 1 , wherein:
the context attributes which identify the current location indicate whether the user was at work, at home, or at another location when the user activated the next application; and
the context attributes comprise a user-activity attribute that identifies the type of activity that was being engaged in by the user when the user activated the next application; and
the type of activity identified by the user-activity attribute includes details comprising: whether the user was traveling when the user activated said next application; if the user was traveling, whether the user was commuting between home and work; and
if the user was traveling, the type of vehicle that was used.

9. A data processing system that supports dynamic presentation of applications, the data processing system comprising:
a processing element;
a non-transitory machine accessible medium responsive to the processing element; multiple applications in the machine accessible medium; and
instructions in the machine accessible medium which, when executed by the processing element, enable the data processing system to perform a method comprising:
in response to a user transitioning from a first application on a data processing system to a second application, automatically saving application usage pattern data, wherein the application usage pattern data comprises context attributes that identify:
the application from which the user transitioned as an active application, current time, and
at least one item from a group consisting of:
current location, and
type of activity being engaged in by a user;

automatically calculating probabilities of activation for applications in the data processing system, based at least in part on the context attributes in the application usage pattern data, including the context attributes identifying active applications and corresponding next applications;
automatically saving the cal

Assignees

• Wan Chieh-Yih
• Raffa Giuseppe
• Shahabdeen Junaith Ahemed
• Nachman Lama
• Jordan Adam
• Asokan Ashwini
• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Wan Chieh-Yih
• Raffa Giuseppe
• Shahabdeen Junaith Ahemed
• Nachman Lama
• Jordan Adam
• Asokan Ashwini

Classifications

• G06Q10/40 Primary

  Business processes related to social networking or social networking services · CPC title

• H04W4/02

  Services making use of location information · CPC title

• G06Q10/1093

  Calendar-based scheduling for persons or groups · CPC title

• H04L67/306

  User profiles · CPC title

• G06Q50/01 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic