Generating context-based options for responding to a notification

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9804740-B2
Application number	US-201213489547-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 6, 2012
Priority date	Jun 6, 2012
Publication date	Oct 31, 2017
Grant date	Oct 31, 2017

Abstract

A user of a programmable device has a context that may be evaluated and compared to a context of a notification generated by the operating system or an application running on the programmable device. The comparison may be used to generate one or more optional responses to the notification that may allow additional functionality beyond dismissing the notification or opening a corresponding event entry.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. At least one non-transitory program storage device, readable by at least one programmable control device, comprising instructions stored thereon for causing the at least one programmable control device to:
receive an event notification from an electronic schedule service of an operating system of a programmable device;
evaluate a first context, the first context including a context of the event notification;
evaluate a second context, the second context including a context of the programmable device at a time the event notification is received, wherein the instructions for causing the at least one programmable control device to evaluate the second context comprise instructions for causing the at least one programmable control device to:
determine a type of the event notification; and
determine a history of responses selected in response to previous notifications with the determined type of the event notification;

generate, at the time the event notification is received, one or more optional responses based on the evaluation of the first context and the evaluation of the second context;
cause display of at least one of the one or more optional responses; and
automatically transmit, in response to causing display of the event notification along with the one or more optional responses, a request to an agent to preload information corresponding to the event notification based on the first context and the second context.

2. The at least one program storage device of claim 1 , wherein the one or more optional responses includes a default optional response to the event notification.

3. The at least one program storage device of claim 1 , wherein the instructions for causing the at least one programmable control device to generate the one or more optional responses comprise instructions for causing the at least one programmable control device to:
configure a first optional response of the one or more optional responses to generate a second event notification by the electronic schedule service.

4. The at least one program storage device of claim 1 , wherein the instructions for causing the at least one programmable control device to generate the one or more optional responses comprise instructions for causing the at least one programmable control device to:
generate the one or more optional responses prior to displaying the event notification.

5. The at least one program storage device of claim 1 , wherein the instructions stored thereon further comprise instructions for causing the at least one programmable control device to:
automatically trigger, in response to causing the display of the event notification along with the one or more optional responses, additional event notifications based on the evaluation of the first context and the second context.

6. The at least one program storage device of claim 5 , wherein the one or more optional responses include a contextual offer of a snooze option to request for a re-notification of the event notification.

7. The at least one program storage device of claim 1 , wherein the instructions stored thereon further comprise instructions that cause the at least one programmable control device to transmit a message to another programmable device, wherein the message comprises a request to perform an action based on the evaluation of the first context and the second context.

8. The at least one program storage device of claim 1 , wherein the instructions stored thereon further cause the at least one programmable control device to:
remove the one or more optional responses if no selection is made within a predetermined time.

9. The at least one program storage device of claim 1 , wherein the instructions to generate one or more optional responses comprise instructions that cause the at least one programmable control device to:
create a hierarchy for a plurality of possible optional responses, the hierarchy arranges the possible optional responses according to a likelihood of a user's interest in the possible optional responses; and
generate, at the time the event notification is received, the one or more optional responses from the possible optional responses by pruning the hierarchy based on the history of the responses selected in response to previous notifications of the determined type of the event notification.

10. The at least one program storage device of claim 9 , wherein a number of the one or more optional responses is less than a number of possible optional responses after pruning the hierarchy.

11. At least one non-transitory program storage device, readable by at least one programmable control device, comprising instructions stored thereon for causing the at least one programmable control device to:
receive an event notification from an electronic schedule service of an operating system of a programmable device;
evaluate a first context, the first context including a context of the event notification;
evaluate a second context, the second context including a context of the programmable device at a time the event notification is received, wherein the instructions for causing the at least one programmable control device to evaluate the second context comprise instructions for causing the at least one programmable control device to:
determine a type of the event notification; and
determine a history of responses selected in response to previous notifications with the determined type of the event notification;

generate, at the time the event notification is received, a plurality of optional responses to the event notification based on the evaluation of the first context and the evaluation of the second context;
cause display of a first optional response from the plurality of optional responses to the event notification;
cause display of a second optional response from the plurality of optional responses to the event notification, wherein the second optional response is selected based on an evaluation of the determined history of responses selected; and
automatically trigger, in response to causing display of the event notification along with the first optional response, additional event notifications based on the evaluation of the first context and the second context.

12. The at least one program storage device of claim 11 , wherein the instructions for causing the at least one programmable control device to cause display of the first optional response from the plurality of optional responses to the event notification further comprise instructions for causing the at least one programmable control device to:
transmit a request to another programmable device to perform an action.

13. The at least one program storage device of claim 11 , wherein the instructions to generate a plurality of optional responses comprise instructions that cause the at least one programmable control device to:
create a hierarchy for a plurality of possible optional responses, the hierarchy arranges the possible optional responses according to a likelihood of the user's interest in the possible optional responses; and
generate the optional responses from the possible optional responses by pruning the hierarchy based on the history of the responses selected in response to previous notifications of the determined type of the event notification.

14. The at least one program storage device of claim 13 , wherein a number of the optional responses is less than a number of possible optional responses after pruning the hierarchy.

15. The at least one program storage device of claim 11 , wherein the instructions stored thereon further comprise instructions for

Assignees

• Cranfill Elizabeth F
• Sabatelli Alessandro F
• Pitschel Donald W
• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Cranfill Elizabeth F
• Sabatelli Alessandro F
• Pitschel Donald W

Classifications

• G06F3/0482 Primary

  Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus · CPC title

• G06Q10/109 Primary

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

• G06F9/542

  Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications · CPC title

• H04M1/72572

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04M1/72457

  according to geographic location · CPC title