Intelligent surfacing of reminders

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9602975-B2
Application number	US-201514720136-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 22, 2015
Priority date	May 22, 2015
Publication date	Mar 21, 2017
Grant date	Mar 21, 2017

Abstract

Calendar and scheduling applications organize and display user events and provide event reminders. A method of triggering a reminder includes accessing a reminder which describes an event. An individual associated with the event, other than the user, is identified. A future time is predicted when the user will be within proximity of the individual. A time to trigger the reminder for presentation to the user is determined, such that the time to trigger the reminder occurs in advance of the predicted future time when the user will be within proximity of the individual. Based on a determination that the time for triggering the reminder has occurred, the reminder is triggered to be presented to the user.

First claim

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed is:

1. A method of triggering presentation of a reminder on a mobile device, comprising:
accessing, via a processing device, the reminder that is stored in one or more computer storage media, wherein the reminder describes a task associated with a user of the mobile device, wherein the task described in the reminder is not defined with respect to a specific time;
identifying an individual associated with the task, wherein the individual is a person other than the user;
predicting a future time at which the user will be within proximity of the individual;
determining a time to trigger the reminder for presentation to the user, such that the time to trigger the reminder occurs before the future time at which the user is predicted to be within proximity of the individual;
determining that the time for triggering the reminder has occurred; and
based on the determination that the time for triggering the reminder has occurred, causing the reminder to be presented on the mobile device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein predicting the future time at which the user will be within proximity of the individual comprises:
accessing calendar information associated with the user;
identifying an event from the calendar information of the user, wherein the event is associated with the individual and has a scheduled future time; and
identifying the scheduled future time of the event as the future time at which the user is predicted to be within proximity of the individual.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the event is a separate event from the task.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the time to trigger the reminder is determined by:
predicting a future location of the user at which the user will be in proximity of the individual at the predicted future time;
identifying a starting location of the user;
predicting a route the user will travel from the starting location to the future location;
determining an amount of travel time along the predicted route from the starting location to the future location; and
determining the time to trigger the reminder based at least in part on the amount of travel time.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein predicting the route the user will travel from the starting location to the future location comprises:
accessing user profile data associated with the user;
identifying one or more routes the user has historically traveled from the starting location to the future location;
determining a most likely route from the one or more routes the user has historically traveled, based on a probability associated with each of the one or more routes; and
identifying the most likely route as the predicted route the user will travel from the starting location to the future location.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein identifying the starting location of the user comprises identifying a current location of the user as the starting location of the user.

7. The method of claim 4 , wherein identifying the starting location of the user comprises:
accessing user profile data associated with the user;
identifying historical travel patterns of the user from the user profile data;
predicting a second future location of the user where the user will be located prior to the predicted future time, based at least in part on the historical travel patterns of the user;
identifying the predicted second future location as the starting location of the user.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein once triggered, the reminder is configured to persist during a period of time prior to the predicted future time at which the user will be within proximity of the individual.

9. A system for triggering presentation of a calendar event reminder on a mobile device, comprising:
one or more computer-storage media configured to store calendar information associated with a user of a user device;
a data collection component comprising one or more processing devices configured to collect contextual information associated with the user;
one or more computer-storage media configured to store the contextual information associated with the user;
an inference engine comprising one or more processing devices configured to
access an event reminder that describes a task associated with a user of a user device, wherein the task described in the event reminder is not defined with respect to a specific time;
identify an individual associated with the task, wherein the individual is a person other than the user;
determine a future time at which the user is predicted to be within a predetermined proximity of the individual;
determine a time to trigger the reminder for presentation to the user, wherein the time to trigger the reminder occurs a period of time prior to the future time at which the user is predicted to be within the predetermined proximity of the individual;

a reminder surfacing component comprising one or more processing devices configured to
determine that the time for triggering the reminder has occurred; and
cause the reminder to be presented on the mobile device.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein determine the future time at which the user is predicted to be within the predetermined proximity of the individual comprises:
access calendar information associated with the user;
access calendar information associated with the individual;
identify a first event from the calendar information of the user associated with a first location and a first time;
identify a second event from the calendar information of the individual associated with a second location and a second time;
determine that the first location is within a proximity of the second location;
determine that the first time is within a proximity of the second time; and
identify a time associated with the first event or a time associated with the second event as the future time at which the user is predicted to be within the predetermined proximity of the individual.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the first event and the second event are independent with respect to each other.

12. The system of claim 9 , wherein to determine the period of time prior to the future time at which the user is predicted to be within the predetermined proximity of the individual, the inference engine is further configured to:
identify a current location of the user;
identify a future location at which the user is predicted to be within the predetermined proximity of the individual;
determine a route the user is predicted to travel from the current location to the future location;
determine an amount of travel time along the route from the current location to the future location; and
determine the period of time prior to the future time at which the user is predicted to be within the predetermined proximity of the individual based at least in part on the amount of travel time.

13. A method of triggering presentation of a calendar event reminder, comprising:
by way of one or more processing devices:
accessing an event reminder that is stored in an information storage associated with a scheduling application, wherein the event reminder describes an event associated with a user of a user device;
identifying an individual associated with the event, wherein the individual is a person other than the user;
determining a predicted future time at which the user will be within a predetermined proximity of the individual at a point along a predicted route the user will travel, wherein determining the predicted future time comprises:
determining the predicted route the user will travel at a first future time;
determining a predicted loc

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Creighton Jason Timothy
• Wankhede Amol
• Horvitz Eric
• Nandi Ajoy
• Lim Melissa N
• Deshpande Mangesh
• Koch Paul
• Krumm John Charles

Classifications

• G01C21/3697

  Output of additional, non-guidance related information, e.g. low fuel level (G01C21/3679 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04W4/029 Primary

  Location-based management or tracking services · CPC title

• G06Q10/109 Primary

  Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting · CPC title

• H04W4/021

  Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences · CPC title

• G01C21/3438

  Rendezvous; Ride sharing · CPC title