|Publication number||US7499715 B2|
|Application number||US 11/225,792|
|Publication date||Mar 3, 2009|
|Filing date||Sep 13, 2005|
|Priority date||Sep 27, 2004|
|Also published as||DE602005000669D1, DE602005000669T2, US8254962, US20060068812, US20080311929|
|Publication number||11225792, 225792, US 7499715 B2, US 7499715B2, US-B2-7499715, US7499715 B2, US7499715B2|
|Inventors||Fernando Incertis Carro, Amr Mebed|
|Original Assignee||International Business Machines Corporation|
|Export Citation||BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan|
|Patent Citations (12), Referenced by (39), Classifications (17), Legal Events (4)|
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet|
The present invention relates to personal electronic calendars, schedulers, and tasking systems, and more particularly to a method, system, and computer program product for automatically scheduling tasks according to events or conditions occurring in the vicinity of a mobile user.
Portable computing devices such as cellular phones, hand held computers, palm devices, and the like have become increasingly popular in recent years. The technology has advanced to such a degree that people can now access the Internet with wireless technology such as a cellular phone or personal digital assistant (PDA), and can have access to content especially tailored for small portable devices.
With the increased reliance on mobile, pervasive computing, software applications designed to enhance the efficiency, productivity, or comfort of mobile users have evolved. Some of the most popular mobile applications for such wireless devices such as mobile phones or WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) include personal information managers (PIMs), entertainment programs, financial services, and commercial services.
An Increasing number of applications in the field of mobile communications use information related to the position of mobile communication devices. For example, emergency services require the location of the caller. Commercial applications, too, make use of a caller's location in order to determine the services or information to offer. Some applications simply provide the caller with information about the nearest shop, restaurant, or gas station. Other applications are complex, for example billing systems, for differentially charging a user for a service depending on his or her whereabouts.
To provide location-based services to a mobile user, the location of the user must be determined. In the field of mobile telephony, for example, perhaps the most basic information concerning the position of the mobile device is the location of the cell or sector radio mast which is handling the call, which may be, for example, derived from cell or transceiver identification code, or cell-ID. This mast is usually the closest radio mast. Such an estimate can be further refined according to signal strength or direction, if directional antennae are employed. Various alternatives may offer more accuracy, such as triangulation based on directional signals from several masts, or on distance estimates derived from signal strengths, or on transmission times to several masts. Even more accurate position information may be available from the mobile device itself if the mobile device is equipped with a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver. However, the use of GPS requires additional hardware and software to receive the required signals from the geostationary GPS satellites.
One particularly important type of personal application that has emerged is the electronic calendar, or personal information and time manager. Lotus Organizer™ (Lotus Organizer is a registered trademark of Lotus Development Corporation) is an example of a popular electronic, personal information, and time manager for scheduling appointments, maintaining address lists, managing contacts, tracking to-dos, and more. Lotus Organizer's™ daybook-style user interface makes it easy to use; there are, however, practical and functional limitations to its capabilities.
For example, maintaining updated calendar and agenda schedules requires heavy interactions from the user to enter data. Other electronic calendars exist and also are subject to similar functional limitations, as schedules may either fail to accommodate rules or conditions beyond rudimentary duration requirements or may require significant manual input to handle exceptions or variable conditions. For a mobile user, location is an important factor, in addition to time. A mobile user may schedule tasks that are to be executed at a particular time and place, regularly, or upon the occurrence of other events or under certain environmental conditions. Consequently, the scheduling of daily tasks becomes a more complex matter for a nomadic, mobile user, because convenient times for performing many activities are affected by location-related events or conditions.
Generally speaking, there are two main types of schedules: time-based schedules, which may be periodic or prefixed in time, and rule-based schedules, which may be governed by formulas, algorithms, sensed conditions, and the like. There are also event-driven tasks, which may become active under certain events or conditions.
As a mobile user goes to different places, performs different activities at different locations, and communicates with various remote locations, the scheduling of daily user activities may be affected, and may be modified by the occurrence of many different possible location-related events or conditions. Some events or conditions are deterministic and predictable; most of them, however, even those observable and measurable, are essentially random and unpredictable. In fact, in the course of a day, a mobile user may be subject to independent, predictable deterministic, location dependent events, such as sunrise and sunset times; to events that are unknown by the user, even if these events are programmed in advance, such as the occurrence of a public event in a city; and, perhaps in many more cases, to uncertain or random events, such as traffic jams or other common natural conditions, such as adverse weather.
For example, consider the case of a person arriving late at night to a remote fishing resort. He may wish to wake-up the next day at dawn, say 30 minutes before sunrise, unless the weather is unsuitable for sailing or fishing, in which case he might prefer not to be awakened at this early time in the morning, but instead to sleep until 8:00 a.m. This simple example illustrates how the scheduling of a simple user activity, such as “wake me up tomorrow morning,” may depend on both a predictable physical phenomenon such as the time of sunrise for a particular date and location, and an uncertain phenomenon such as the weather conditions at the user's location. To cope with such uncertainty, mobile users frequently opt for conservative schedules based on the worst case, and frequently adapt or modify already planed schedules. In many cases, these modifications are based on outdated or incomplete knowledge of prevailing events or conditions.
Thus, there is a need to exploit the wireless computing technology more fully, in order to extend the utility of location based services to encompass the opportunistic scheduling of mobile users' activities; there is a need to provide mobile users with the capability of automatically scheduling, depending on particular events or conditions that may occur at the actual user location, tasks for which time schedules have not been yet assigned; and there is a need to provide mobile users with the capability of automatically rescheduling, altering, or canceling previously scheduled tasks, depending on information gathered about the occurrence of certain events or conditions related to the user's location.
In one embodiment of the present invention, a method for automatically scheduling tasks to be executed by a mobile user when conditions related to the mobile user's location are met comprises defining at least one mobile task. The method further comprises associating at least one task condition with each mobile task, each task condition comprising at least one task parameter related to a location of the mobile user. Additionally, the method comprises determining a current location of the mobile user. Further, for each task condition, determining the task parameters related to the current location, and determining, according to the task parameters, whether associated task conditions are met. Furthermore, for each mobile task, when all associated task conditions are met, computing a local time at which the mobile task is to be executed and scheduling the mobile task. Additionally, the method comprises detecting a change in the location of the mobile user; and, responsive to detecting a change in the location of the mobile user; determining the current location of the mobile user; and, for each task condition; determining task parameters related to the current location; determining whether or not the task condition is met, according to the task parameters; and updating the schedule of each task by; computing a local time at which the mobile task must be executed; scheduling the mobile task when all associated task conditions are met; and canceling the schedule of the mobile task when at least one associated task condition is not met.
The foregoing, together with other objects, features, and advantages of this invention can be better appreciated with reference to the following specification, claims and drawings, wherein:
As shown in
Fixed tasks (104) are time assigned tasks that have a fixed starting time and duration such as meetings, phone calls, and the like. Mobile tasks (105) are tasks that depend on the user's physical location. The starting time of a mobile task may be based on the user's physical location and on information that is computed or information that is acquired from an information provider (107) via a communications data network (102). The duration of a mobile task can be computed, acquired, or fixed. Examples of mobile tasks include sunrise or sunset time programed activities, Islamic prayer times, and the like.
A mobile device (101) may identify its current physical location from parameters (106) transmitted to it via the communications network (102). For example, the mobile device can use the CELL ID of a GSM network, or a GPS system (108). The current location parameters (106) or the name of the corresponding physical location can then be displayed (106) on the mobile device (101).
When the user moves from one place to another, the personal scheduling management system reschedules the mobile tasks according to the place where the user is situated. The personal scheduling management system then automatically reschedules conflicting activities based on their priorities so that a newly adjusted schedule of tasks is created.
In order to complete the schedule of the mobile task “take picture at sunset,” the physical location of the user has to be known since sunset and outdoor temperature are both dependent on the current physical location of the user. In this example, the mobile device (201) is connected to a GSM network (202). From the GSM network, the mobile device retrieves information about the current country and the CELL-ID of the current location. From a database which associates CELL-IDs and locations, different location parameters (206) can be retrieved. The location parameters may include, for example, location name, longitude and latitude, and location time zone.
Based on the current location parameters, the sunset time can be calculated. The weather information for the current location can be retrieved from an information provider (207) via the communication network (202). Thus it is possible to determine whether the conditions of the task (sunset and ambient temperature under 30 degrees Celsius) are met or not. If the task conditions are met, then the task is scheduled as shown in
For the mobile task “Take picture at sunset” in Cairo, the scheduling management system:
As shown in
When the user travels from Dubai to Cairo, the personal scheduling management system monitors and automatically reschedules all the user's tasks according to the user's current location and conditions.
There are five prayers per day in Islam. Each prayer has a starting and ending “time slot,” which is the time period in which the prayer must be performed. The time slot for each prayer is defined according to the position of the sun. For example the Maghreb prayer takes place at sunset, when the angle of the sun is around 0.83 degrees under the horizon, while the next prayer, the Ishaa prayer, takes place after sunset, when the angle of the sun reaches 17.5 under the horizon. The time slot for the Maghreb prayer is thus from the time the sun reaches 0.833 degrees till the sun reaches 17.5 degrees under the horizon (Ishaa prayer time). The prayer time depends on the sun position, which varies with dependence upon the date and the location of the person on the earth.
The personal scheduling management system defines the prayer times as mobile tasks. Each mobile tasks has a time slot in which the task must be completed; this time slot is the “task condition duration” (for example, the Maghreb prayer can be done from 19:55 till 21:27 from a given location). The prayer itself is about ten minutes long (“task duration”). In the example shown in this figure, the user has allowed the personal management system to automatically schedule the prayer in order to fit with the daily tasks of the user.
Once the process of updating task schedules is initiated, each mobile task that has not already been processed (703) is checked to determine whether or not the location has changed (705). Since the task requires the knowledge of the current physical location, a “get location identifier” (704) command may be sent (720) to the communication network, or to a location input device to obtain the required information. The “location identifier” (720) can be, for example, the CELL-ID of the GSM network.
From the received updated “location identifier” (704), the process determines whether or not the user has moved to a new location (705). If the user has moved to a new location, the coordinates (706) of the new location (which may include longitude, latitude, location name, and time zone) are retrieved. Retrieving (730) the new location coordinates can be performed via a local database that associates the “location identifier” with the “location coordinates,” or via an information provider (107) accessible through the network (102). If the user has not moved to a new location, then there is no need to retrieve the location coordinates, since they are already known.
The method checks to determine whether there are any pending task conditions (707). As illustrated on
In order to schedule a mobile task, the “task conditions” of the task must be met (709). After resolving all the task conditions, the conditions will be applied logically (AND, OR, IF-ELSE) together, and the result will determine whether the task conditions are met or not (709). As illustrated in the example shown in
The process goes back again to check (703) whether there are any pending mobile tasks that have not been processed. After all the tasks have been processed, tasks that have a schedule time conflict are rescheduled (711). The reschedule depends on the priorities assigned to the tasks, and is intended to provide a feasible agenda to the user.
Each task is checked against its schedule (712), and tasks that are on schedule will then perform the appropriate action (713). Actions can be of any kind, such as displaying a message, sounding alarm, calling a number, and so forth. The process then ends (714).
Numerous other applications exist. Some are described below. Each of these applications uses basically the previously described method and system.
For example, the invention may be applied to shipping or sailing. Ships and boats entering or exiting a harbor, or anchoring near a shore, need to know in advance about the behavior of the tide. Based on the height of tide at the ship's current location, a particular activity can be scheduled. This activity can be also rescheduled at a different time or another day if, for example, the tide is too high or too low.
The invention may also be applied to hunting. Animal movement is thought to be loosely related to the moon's phase and ambient temperature. It could be better to schedule hunting based on the phase of the moon and on the temperature, which are dependent on the hunter's location. Likewise, the invention may be applied to fishing. It could be better to fish at a certain time of the day depending on sun's position, which, of course, varies with time based on the person's physical location on the earth. Thus the best schedule for fishing will depend on the location, and fishing times can be automatically rescheduled as the user moves from location to location.
The invention may be applied to astronomical observation. Objects such as the moon, the planets, the stars, and artificial satellites appear at different times or in different celestial positions depending on the observer's location. The present invention enables an observer to schedule observations that depend on time and terrestrial location.
The invention may be advantageously applied by adherents of Hinduism, which specifies dietary rules that are based on phases of the moon. For example, a traveling Hindu might use the invention to schedule dinners with friends. By means of the present invention, based on the person's current physical location, it is possible to determine and inform the user if there will be a full moon or a new moon, in which case the dinner might be rescheduled to a different day.
What has been described is merely illustrative of the application of the principles of the present invention. Other arrangements and methods can be implemented by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
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|U.S. Classification||455/456.3, 455/414.1, 455/456.1, 455/550.1, 455/456.2, 708/111, 701/408|
|International Classification||H04W4/02, H04W8/18|
|Cooperative Classification||H04M1/72572, H04W4/02, H04W8/183, H04M1/72566, H04W8/18|
|European Classification||H04M1/725F2C, H04M1/725F2G, H04W8/18B|
|Sep 30, 2005||AS||Assignment|
Owner name: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION, NEW Y
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:CARRO, FERNANDO INCERTIS;MEBED, AMR;REEL/FRAME:016614/0806;SIGNING DATES FROM 20050728 TO 20050824
|Oct 15, 2012||REMI||Maintenance fee reminder mailed|
|Nov 27, 2012||SULP||Surcharge for late payment|
|Nov 27, 2012||FPAY||Fee payment|
Year of fee payment: 4