Calendar Conflict Grouping and Visual Highlighting
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current electronic calendar systems do not efficiently manage conflicts between multiple calendar invitations, requiring users to manually identify and resolve overlapping events, which becomes cumbersome with a large number of invitations.
Innovation Solution
A computer-implemented method and apparatus that identifies and groups conflicting calendar invitations, presenting them together for easy resolution, using graphical indicators to facilitate user handling before acceptance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If users manually review and identify conflicts among multiple calendar invitations, then they can resolve scheduling conflicts, but the process becomes increasingly cumbersome and time-consuming as the number of invitations increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the review process by automatically grouping calendar invitations into conflict groups based on time overlaps. Instead of reviewing all invitations individually, the system divides them into manageable groups where conflicts are identified and presented together, reducing the cognitive load and time required for users to resolve scheduling conflicts.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs self-service by automatically detecting and grouping conflicts without requiring user intervention for each individual invitation. The conflict detection and grouping is performed autonomously by the calendar management system, allowing users to simply review the grouped conflicts rather than manually analyzing each invitation.
2Reliability
If users accept calendar invitations one by one, then they can schedule events, but they may inadvertently accept lower-priority events that conflict with higher-priority events already scheduled
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by automatically detecting and grouping conflicts before the user makes acceptance decisions. The system pre-identifies time overlaps and groups conflicting invitations together, allowing users to review and resolve conflicts in a structured manner rather than making decisions without full awareness of potential conflicts.
Solution Approach 2:
The system provides feedback by presenting grouped conflict information to the user, showing which invitations conflict with each other and with already-scheduled events. This feedback mechanism helps users make informed decisions about which events to accept, improving scheduling accuracy without requiring complex manual conflict management.
3Measurement precision
If users review all unprocessed calendar invitations to identify conflicts, then they can ensure proper scheduling, but the difficulty increases significantly when numerous invitations are present
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the review process by automatically grouping calendar invitations into conflict groups based on time overlaps. Instead of reviewing all invitations individually, the system divides them into manageable groups where conflicts are identified and presented together, reducing the cognitive load and time required for users to resolve scheduling conflicts.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses visual indicators including color coding to highlight conflicting invitations and groups them together in the calendar interface. This visual differentiation makes it easier for users to quickly identify and distinguish between conflicting events and non-conflicting events, improving ease of operation while maintaining accurate conflict identification.
Data Source
AI summary
A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program code for managing calendar conflicts. A plurality of calendar invitations waiting to be processed is identified to form a plurality of unprocessed calendar invitations. Calendar invitations are grouped within the plurality of unprocessed calendar invitations together that conflict with each other to form a group of conflicting calendar invitations. Each conflicting calendar invitation in the group of conflicting calendar invitations is presented in association with other calendar invitations in the group for resolution.