Heuristic Insight Provisioning for Calendar and Message Analysis

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Solution Overview

Problem

Users face challenges in efficiently managing their time and tasks due to the need to manually evaluate calendars and electronic messages to prepare for their upcoming days or weeks, leading to potential surprises and inefficiencies.

Innovation Solution

An insight provisioning technique that identifies and analyzes users' calendars and electronic messages to provide insights into their upcoming days or weeks, including scheduling conflicts, requests, and availability, thereby automating the process and offering recommendations for time management.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Loss of information

If users manually evaluate calendars and electronic messages to prepare for upcoming days, then they can understand their schedules and tasks, but it consumes significant time and effort

Engineering Contradiction:

ImproveUnderstanding of schedule and tasksVSAvoidTime spent on manual evaluation

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of informationVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system automatically analyzes calendars and electronic messages using heuristic processing, enabling the information management task to serve itself without requiring user time and effort. The computer-implemented technique performs self-service by autonomously evaluating scheduled events, communications, and patterns to generate insights about upcoming days.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

The manual mechanical process of reviewing calendars and messages is replaced by an automated computational system that uses heuristic analysis and pattern recognition algorithms. This substitution transforms the manual evaluation task into an automated information processing operation that delivers insights without user intervention.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

2Reliability

If users manually review all calendars and messages, then they gain complete awareness of their schedule, but the complexity of the process increases

Engineering Contradiction:

ImproveAwareness of schedule and tasksVSAvoidComplexity of evaluation process

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system extracts only the most relevant and meaningful insights from the vast amount of calendar and message data, rather than presenting all raw information. Heuristic processing identifies and extracts key patterns, conflicts, and important events, filtering out noise and less significant details to provide focused awareness.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The heuristic analysis system acts as an intermediary between the raw data (calendars and messages) and the user. It processes the complex data through multiple analytical layers, transforming unstructured information into structured insights about schedule conflicts, task priorities, and temporal patterns, thereby simplifying the user's awareness process.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

3Loss of information

If the system provides detailed analysis of all calendar events and messages, then users gain comprehensive insights, but the information becomes overwhelming and difficult to process

Engineering Contradiction:

ImproveComprehensive insights into upcoming dayVSAvoidEase of processing information

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of informationVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The system applies different levels of analysis and detail to different types of information based on their importance and characteristics. Critical insights such as schedule conflicts and missed deadlines receive prominent presentation, while less critical patterns are presented with varying degrees of detail, optimizing the information presentation for ease of processing.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

Solution Approach 2:

The comprehensive analysis is segmented into distinct categories and types of insights (e.g., schedule conflicts, task priorities, temporal patterns, communication analysis). This segmentation organizes the information into manageable segments that users can process independently, reducing cognitive overload while maintaining comprehensive coverage.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Data Source

PatentUS11004041B2Providing users with insights into their day

Publication Date: 2021.05.11 MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING LLC

AI summary

A user is provided with insights into their upcoming day. One or more calendars for the user are identified. The identified calendars are then heuristically analyzed to calculate one or more insights into an upcoming day for the user, and these calculated insights are provided to the user. One or more electronic messages each of which was received by or sent by the user are also identified. The identified electronic messages are then heuristically analyzed to calculate one or more insights into an upcoming day for the user, and these calculated insights are provided to the user. The identified calendars and the identified electronic messages are also heuristically analyzed together to calculate one or more insights into an upcoming day for the user, and these calculated insights are provided to the user.