Data processing: financial – business practice – management – or co – Automated electrical financial or business practice or... – Health care management
Reexamination Certificate
1999-09-15
2004-05-04
Jeanty, Romain (Department: 3623)
Data processing: financial, business practice, management, or co
Automated electrical financial or business practice or...
Health care management
Reexamination Certificate
active
06732080
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems and methods of providing calendar services.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Electronic calendars for mobile terminals are currently in use. These electronic calendars permit updating and viewing of scheduled events by users of the mobile terminals. Additionally, alerts and notifications may be provided to the users. Information from external databases may be used by the personal calendar in the scheduling of events. Navigation systems for vehicles provide travelers access to information involving a route of travel, but do not schedule services for the traveler dependent on the route of travel. Furthermore, electronic calendars deployed in mobile terminals may be synchronized with organizational calendars so as to coordinate the user's personal mobility with an organization for which the user works or otherwise for which the user provides or receives scheduled services.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,732,399, 5,790,974, 5,842,009 and 5,855,066 disclose examples of personal calendars.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,732,399 associates the scheduling of events with electronic documents. A display specifies scheduled events but the system's operation is not responsive to the user's location.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,790,974 describes a mobile personal calendar connected with an office calendar system which coordinates the mobile user's calendar and the user's organization. The '974 Patent identifies conflict situations when the user of the mobile personal calendar is travelling and the current location of the user presents a conflict to the user reaching a scheduled appointment. The personal mobile calendar determines from traffic and other information and the user's current position if a rescheduling change can be accommodated. When there is no conflict, the rescheduled item is added to the calendar display. However, while the '974 Patent describes the identification of travel conflicts which are detected as a consequence of the user's current position, there is no rescheduling by the calendar of services with a service provider dependent upon a stored location.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,842,009 describes a portable calendar providing a user with documents and information relevant to a scheduled event. Queries are automatically formulated to elicit information about the stored scheduled event. The operation of the calendar is not dependent on the location stored within the calendar associated with events scheduled in the calendar.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,855,006 discloses a personal calendar providing the user with information related to a scheduled activity and the capability of making reservations and purchasing tickets. The operation of the calendar is not dependent on the location stored within the calendar associated with events scheduled in the calendar.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is a method and system for providing calendar services to a user of a mobile terminal which affords the user of the mobile terminal worldwide access to scheduled services from service providers and/or information services provided from information service providers. The calendar services are dependent upon location information stored in a calendaring and scheduling server from which the mobile terminal receives the calendaring information displayed by the user's mobile terminal to inform the user of calendar events. The calendar services are provided by a calendar resident in at least one calendaring and scheduling server which communicates with a user of the mobile terminal by a communication system. The services may be scheduled user services having particular properties of time and location which are provided to the user by at least one service provider or which are provided as on-time information services provided by an information service provider. The calendar services include scheduling and rescheduling services provided by a user service provider to the user of the mobile terminal and the providing of alerts to perform unscheduled events.
Scheduled services are rescheduled when a conflict in the user's schedule between different services as to time and/or location, which is dependent on a position stored in the calendar, is detected. With the invention, a location stored in the calendar controls services provided to the user of the mobile terminal and/or the generation of alerts that events not scheduled as to time should be performed as a result of the user of the mobile terminals actual position or scheduled position. A location signal indicating the current location of the mobile terminal may be used in the aforementioned providing of scheduled services or alerts to generate the stored location and may be generated by a GPS receiver located in the mobile terminal or, alternatively, provided by a communication system to which the mobile terminal is connected. At least one calendaring and scheduling server provides the mobile terminal with an identification of the scheduled services and other events which are displayed by the calendar. The software executed by the at least one calendaring and scheduling server, which may be responsive to either the actual location of the mobile terminal or a location associated with calendar events, signals when a conflict exists as a result of the mobile terminal's current location or a location involving a scheduled calendar service that prevents the user of the mobile terminal from obtaining the scheduled calendar service. The software executed by the at least one calendaring and scheduling server controls communications with at least one user service provider server to schedule a calendar service or reschedule a scheduled calendar service so that a scheduling conflict does not exist. Additionally, at least one information service provider server is in communication with the mobile terminal which provides the mobile terminal with on line or other information sources which relate to the stored location and provide the user of the mobile terminal with useful information when the user is located physically at the stored location such as, but not limited to, the user travelling to the location stored in the at least one calendaring and scheduling server.
The at least one calendaring and scheduling server or a separate profile server which interacts with the at least one calendaring and scheduling server stores a personal profile or set of profiles of the user of the mobile terminal which are used by the software of the at least one calendaring and scheduling server to schedule services from information and user service providers. The profile(s) of the user specify the personal service providers which provide the user with scheduled calendar services and the information service providers the user likes to use as sources of on line information. The selected information service providers and user service providers may be service providers the user prefers, has used in the past, or which have been selected by some other party as being suitable such as, for example, any employer. The users are given unique user accounts which permit a single mobile terminal to be used by multiple users. Service specific profiles containing additional information useful for defining the individual profile(s) of each user may be stored by service providers providing scheduled services. The user profile is initially created by the user or a party having a contractual relationship to the proprietor of the at least one calendaring and scheduling server. If the user is an employer who provides the mobile terminal(s) to employees, arrangements may be made with preferred service providers including rates for services and delivery features to be obtained. The profile(s) may also be updated based upon user history and the context of the user's history. The profile may desirably have a home location which may be the user's home or office location etc.
The calendar stored by the at least one calendaring and scheduling server which is transmitted to the mobile ter
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