USOO781 42OOB2 (12) United States Patent (10) Patent No.: US 7,814.200 B2 Lusher et al. (45) Date of Patent: Oct. 12, 2010 (54) WEB-BASED TASKASSISTANTS FOR 6,571,140 B1* 5/2003 Wewalaarachchi et al. .... 700/83 WIRELESS PERSONAL DEVICES 6,603,984 B2* 8/2003 Kanefsky .................... 455,566 6,857,007 B1 * 2/2005 Bloomfield ... TO9,206 (75) Inventors: Elaine P. Lusher, Pleasanton, CA (US); E.- 4 W E. 53. PyingC CleCC et al...al. .......... 29: SNESERV.S.S. 6,973,490 B1* 12/2005 Robertson et al. ........... 709/224 andy Metzger, Reston, VA (US); Car 2001/0049636 A1* 12/2001 Hudda et al. .................. 705/26 Schuyler, Miami, FL (US) 2001/0049688 A1* 12/2001 Fratkina et al. .......... 707/104.1 2001/0054041 A1* 12/2001 Chang ........................... 707/5 (73) Assignee: Access Systems Americas, Inc., 2001/0056463 A1* 12/2001 Grady et al. ... 709,203 Sunnyvale, CA (US) 2002/0010758 A1 1/2002 Chan ......... ... TO9.218 2002fOO26413 A1 2/2002 Wu ............... ... TOS/39 (*) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this 2002/0059105 A1 5/2002 Maeda et al. ................. 705/26 patent is extended or adjusted under 35 2002/0073170 A1* 6/2002 Hoffman et al. ............ 709/217 U.S.C. 154(b) by 46 days. 2002fOO73235 A1* 6, 2002 Chen et al. ........ ... 709/246 2002/0103935 A1 8/2002 Fishman et al. ... ... 709/246 (21) Appl. No.: 12/177,163 2002/0133545 A1 9, 2002 Fano et al. ........ ... 709,203 9 2002fO165988 A1 11/2002 Khan et al. ................. TO9,246 (22) Filed: Jul. 22, 2008 * cited by examiner (65) Prior Publication Data Primary Examiner Krisna Lim US 2008/O281901 A1 Nov. 13, 2008 (74) Attorney, Agent, Of Firm Berry & Associates P.C. Related U.S. Application Data (57) ABSTRACT (62) Division of application No. 09/861,051, filed on May The present invention relates to a method for enhancing the 17, 2001, now Pat. No. 7,418,482. use of a computer network which is accessed by use of wire less device. Specifically, one embodiment of the present (51) Int. Cl. invention pertains to a method of using server-resident soft G06F 15/173 (2006.01) ware assistants, programs to assist the wireless device user, to (52) U.S. Cl. ...................................................... 709/224 perform a significant amount of the tedious input tasks (58) Field of Classification Search. 709/219, required when wireless devices such as PDAs attempt to 709/217, 218, 224, 223 exploit the services available on the Internet. The method See application file for complete search history. provides a mechanism by which Software assistants can be (56) References Cited programmed to a users’ own specific information and ways of performing tasks that exploit Internet services such as pur U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS chasing, information searches, event planning and complex scheduling. The task can be organized in structural task lists 6,094,655 A * 7/2000 Rogers et al. ...................... 1f1 6,122,664 A * 9/2000 Boukobza et al. ........... TO9,224 that interface with a user's stored preferences and PIM infor 6,167,568 A 12/2000 Gandel et al. ............... 717/176 mation on the portable electronic device. 6,480,711 B1 1 1/2002 Guedalia ................. 455,412.1 6,496,871 B1* 12/2002 Jagannathan et al. ........ 719,317 26 Claims, 11 Drawing Sheets 11 LAPTOP COPU DESKIOF COMPUTER U.S. Patent Oct. 12, 2010 Sheet 1 of 11 US 7,814.200 B2 SERVER Rf DESKTOP COMPUTER U.S. Patent Oct. 12, 2010 Sheet 2 of 11 US 7.814.200 B2 TIG. 2 200 ON-SCREEN CENTRAL 201 a CURSOR PROCESSOR CONTROL BUS 250 WOATE SIGNAL COMM, MEMORY ma PORT (RAM) (SERIAL, USB) NON-WOLAILE 2O3 MEMORY m BLUETOOTH (ROM) DEVICE DAA STORAGE INFRARED DEVICE a - COMM, (OPTIONAL) DENCE DISPLAY L. WIRELESS by H. RF DEVICE (GSM) ALPHA NUMERIC a WIRELESS INPUT DEVCE a MODEM U.S. Patent Oct. 12, 2010 Sheet 3 of 11 US 7,814.200 B2 U.S. Patent Oct. 12, 2010 Sheet 4 of 11 US 7,814.200 B2 U.S. Patent Oct. 12, 2010 Sheet 5 of 11 US 7,814.200 B2 Do Joe USER Fox message to Susan 1 Get healthy food for dinner 51 62 U.S. Patent Oct. 12, 2010 Sheet 6 of 11 US 7.814.200 B2 TIG. 6 as SHOPSEARCHSCHEDULE COMMUNICA Tosk: Purchase a Recording 611 Search By: Nome of Recording Enter Specification: 614 U.S. Patent Oct. 12, 2010 Sheet 7 of 11 US 7,814.200 B2 TIG. 7 T Task Discription O s 70 7 72 713 74 U.S. Patent Oct. 12, 2010 Sheet 8 of 11 US 7.814.200 B2 TIG. 8 ACTIVE TO DO ACTIVE TO DO TASK: TASK TASK TASK 3 PREFERENCE DB PREFERENCE DB PREFERENCE DB MESSAGE FOR MESSAGE FOR MESSAGE FOR TASK TASK 2 TASK 3 801 PAS REQUEST HANDLER 806 - AGENT FOR TASK TASK INTERPRETER U.S. Patent Oct. 12, 2010 Sheet 9 of 11 US 7,814.200 B2 TIG. 9 CARREER NETWORK TODO LIS PROXY SERVER WEBSERVER; TEXT COMPRESSION HTML CONTENT, XML CONTENT, SOFTBOTS WEBSERVER HTML CONTENT, XML CONTENT, SOFTBOTS U.S. Patent Oct. 12, 2010 Sheet 10 of 11 US 7.814.200 B2 TFIG. 1 O 1000 1010-1 "TO DO" IST SELECTED 1020 PRESENT "TO DO, DISPLAY BRANCHONUSER INPUT g" 1032 ors issip" g syll PRESENT "NEW" | PRESENT "DETALS" | PRESENT "SHOW PRESENT "ASSISTANT" TASK DISPLAY DISPLAY DISPLAY DISPLAY BRANCH ON USER INPUT "SHOP "SEARCH" "SCHEDULE SHOP PAN TASK ASK DEFINITION 1052 DEFINITION SEARCH COMMUNICATE LISTEN ACT TASK TASK TASK TASK DEFINITION DEFINITION DEFINITION DEFINITION NITIATE DEFINED TASK PROMP USER TO PREFERENCE SET 1070 1060 DEFINE PREFERENCE DAABASE ACCESS USER PREFERENCE DATABASE 1080 DEFINE AGENT BY PREFERENCE AND TASK DATA - 1085 AGENT RUNS TACK AUTONOMOUSLY 1090 RETURN OUTPUT TO USER 1095 AWAIT FURTHER INPUT 099 U.S. Patent Oct. 12, 2010 Sheet 11 of 11 US 7,814.200 B2 TIG. 11 NAME PARAMETERS SEMANTICS h The PAS initiote O task based on initiate Task-ID, Data ET description T. Reply Toski, MsgD Returntimes results of the actionG. initiated Change the values of the task Update Task-ID, Data parameters as given in Data, Suspend Task-l) Suspend the task Activote Task-ID Reactivate the tosk Get the value of the tosk Query Task-D, Data parameters specified in data u Add the following parameter to the Add Task-D, Data task description. Modify Modify the value of the task Delete the following tosk Delete Task-ID, Doto parameter, The action initiated in msgrid Foil Task-ID, Msg-ID failed, US 7,814,200 B2 1. 2 WEB-BASED TASKASSISTANTS FOR SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION WRELESS PERSONAL DEVICES Accordingly, embodiments of the present invention are CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED directed to a method of augmenting user input to accomplish APPLICATIONS personal, task-oriented, web interaction that relieves user input demands and increases output effectiveness. This novel This application is a divisional application of Ser. No. system also relieves the computational burden on wireless 09/861,051 filed on May 17, 2001, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,418, devices and conserves limited bandwidth between wireless 482, entitled “Web-Based Task Assistants for Wireless Per devices and their web portals, whether implemented as pro sonal Devices, issued Aug. 26, 2008, and assigned to the 10 prietary cellular networks or other, non-proprietary, portals. assignee of the present application. The Subject matter in the The present invention provides direct launching of Internet above-identified co-pending and commonly owned applica tasks from existing PIM applications; allows task personal tion(s) are incorporated herein by reference. ization using PIM data; and allows a user to manage multiple tasks in Support of a single goal. FIELD OF THE INVENTION 15 The present invention relates to a method for enhancing the use of a computer network which is accessed by use of a The present invention relates to a method for using web wireless device. Specifically, one embodiment of the present based task assistants to reduce the user task load when com invention pertains to a method of using server-resident soft municating with the Internet by a wireless device. ware assistants, programs to assist the wireless device user, to perform a significant amount of the tedious input tasks BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION required when wireless devices such as PDAs attempt to exploit the services available on the Internet. The method As the components required to build a computer system provides a mechanism by which Software assistants can be have reduced in size, new categories of computer systems programmed to a users’ own specific information and ways of have emerged. One of the more recent categories of computer 25 performing tasks that exploit Internet services such as pur systems is the portable or "palmtop' computer system, or chasing, information searches, event planning and complex personal digital assistant (PDA). A palmtop computer system scheduling. The task can be organized in structural task lists is a computer that is Small enough to be held in the hand of a that interface with a user's stored preferences and PIM infor user and is thus "palm-sized.” By virtue of their size, palmtop mation on the portable electronic device. computer systems are also lightweight and so are exception 30 Embodiments of the present invention include a method for ally portable and convenient. As a result, palmtops are readily enhancing wireless access to a computer network which carried about in a briefcase or purse, and some palmtops are includes the steps of gaining access to the computer network compact enough to fit into a person's pocket.