Patent Application
20060136121
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to electronic calendars. More specifically, the present invention provides a method, system, and computer program product for conveying a changing local time zone in an electronic calendar.
2. Background Art
For someone who travels across time zones, it would be useful to be able to see a calendar in terms of a changing (as they travel) local time zone. This would allow them to determine what time an entry (e.g., appointment, meeting, etc.) is “really” scheduled. Using a pencil and paper, this is a straightforward task, where some days may not necessarily appear as 24 hour slots in a calendar. This may occur, for example, when traveling from Los Angeles to Boston, where a day might appear as only 21 hours due to the 3 hour time “loss.” When using an electronic calendar, however, it becomes more difficult to automatically track changing local time zones.
Multiple solutions are possible, each with its own drawbacks. For example:
Accordingly, there is a need for a method, system, and computer program product for conveying a changing local time zone in an electronic calendar that obviates the deficiencies of the prior art.
In general, the present invention provides a method, system, and computer program product for conveying a changing local time zone in an electronic calendar. In particular, the present invention utilizes travel information in a “travel document” to determine the local time zone for each entry in an electronic calendar, and displays information in the electronic calendar that reflects the local time zones. To this extent, each entry in the electronic calendar will reflect the local time corresponding to the scheduled physical location of the user of the electronic calendar at that time, based on the travel information provided in the travel document. For example, assume that the user of the electronic calendar is scheduled to travel from Boston (Eastern Standard Time (EST)) to San Francisco (Pacific Standard Time (PST)), travel from San Francisco to Chicago (Central Standard Time (CST)), and then return to Boston. Also assume that this information has been provided in a travel document for use by an electronic calendar. In accordance with the present invention, those entries in the electronic calendar occurring while the user is scheduled to be in Boston would be displayed in EST, those entries occurring while the user is scheduled to be in San Francisco would be displayed in PST, while those entries occurring while the user is scheduled to be in Chicago would be displayed in CST. Those entries which are not related to the travel information within the travel document are displayed in a conventional manner, typically in the user's “home” time zone.
A first aspect of the present invention provides a method for conveying a changing local time zone in an electronic document, comprising: providing at least one travel document containing travel information corresponding to at least one trip; determining a local time zone for each entry in the electronic document scheduled to occur during each trip, based on the travel information contained in the at least one travel document; updating the electronic document to reflect local time zone information for each entry scheduled to occur during each trip; and displaying the local time zone information in the electronic document for each entry scheduled to occur during each trip, independently of a current date.
A second aspect of the present invention provides a system for conveying a changing local time zone in an electronic document, comprising: a system for providing at least one travel document containing travel information corresponding to at least one trip; a system for determining a local time zone for each entry in the electronic document scheduled to occur during each trip, based on the travel information contained in the at least one travel document; a system for updating the electronic document to reflect local time zone information for each entry scheduled to occur during each trip; and a system for displaying the local time zone information in the electronic document for each entry scheduled to occur during each trip, independently of a current date.
A third aspect of the present invention provides a program product stored on a recordable medium for conveying a changing local time zone in an electronic document, which when executed comprises: program code for providing at least one travel document containing travel information corresponding to at least one trip; program code for determining a local time zone for each entry in the electronic document scheduled to occur during each trip, based on the travel information contained in the at least one travel document; program code for updating the electronic document to reflect local time zone information for each entry scheduled to occur during each trip; and program code for displaying the local time zone information in the electronic document for each entry scheduled to occur during each trip, independently of a current date.
A fourth aspect of the present invention provides a method for deploying an application for conveying a changing local time zone in an electronic document, comprising: providing a computer infrastructure being operable to: provide at least one travel document containing travel information corresponding to at least one trip; determine a local time zone for each entry in the electronic document scheduled to occur during each trip, based on the travel information contained in the at least one travel document; update the electronic document to reflect local time zone information for each entry scheduled to occur during each trip; and display the local time zone information in the electronic document for each entry scheduled to occur during each trip, independently of a current date.
A fifth aspect of the present invention provides computer software embodied in a propagated signal for conveying a changing local time zone in an electronic document, the computer software comprising instructions to cause a computer system to perform the following functions: provide at least one travel document containing travel information corresponding to at least one trip; determine a local time zone for each entry in the electronic document scheduled to occur during each trip, based on the travel information contained in the at least one travel document; update the electronic document to reflect local time zone information for each entry scheduled to occur during each trip; and display the local time zone information in the electronic document for each entry scheduled to occur during each trip, independently of a current date.
These and other features of this invention will be more readily understood from the following detailed description of the various aspects of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:
The drawings are merely schematic representations, not intended to portray specific parameters of the invention, and are not necessarily to scale. The drawings are intended to depict only typical embodiments of the invention, and therefore should not be considered as limiting the scope of the invention. In the drawings, like numbering represents like elements.
As indicated above, the present invention provides a method, system, and computer program product for conveying a changing local time zone in an electronic calendar. In particular, the present invention introduces a new type of document into an electronic calendar—a “travel document.” This is in addition to the standard calendar document types such as appointment, meeting, all-day event, etc. Each travel document contains travel information that includes at least one location transition between time zones. Using a set of one or more of these travel documents, it is possible to determine the local time zone for each entry in a user's electronic calendar. This data can then be used by the electronic calendar to provide local time zone information, such that each entry in the electronic calendar will reflect the local time corresponding to the scheduled physical location of the user of the electronic calendar at that time.
An illustrative travel document 10 is depicted in
In the travel document 10 illustrated in
Data can be entered into a travel document 10 using, for example, a graphical user interface (GUI) or other suitable now known or later developed technique. An illustrative GUI 30 is depicted in
It should be noted that the start location 14 is not strictly necessary in the travel document 10—only a start time zone 16 is needed. Thus, the start location field 32 in the GUI 30 may not be required. The same is true for the end location 20 in the travel document 10—only an end time zone 18 is needed. However, use of the start location field 32 and end location field 38 allows a richer GUI 30 that provides a closer match to a typical user's mental travel model (e.g., an airline itinerary). It should also be noted that the start time zone field 34 and the end time zone field 40 in the GUI 30 can be automatically filled in based on the data entered into the start location field 32 and end location field 38, respectfully. This can be accomplished, for example, using a city/country to time zone lookup.
In the travel document 10 described above, each trip 12 includes a start location 14 and an end location 20. In an alternate embodiment of the present invention, the start location 14 is not included in the travel document 10. In this case, the start location 14 can be implied from where the “previous” trip in the electronic calendar “left” the user (i.e., using the end location 20 of the previous trip). If only an end location 20 is provided, then travel would essentially be instantaneous, marked by a specific moment when time zones change as opposed to an “air travel” model where it is gradual over a flight.
The start time/date 18 in the travel documents 10 depicted in
A system 50 for conveying a changing local time zone in an electronic calendar 52 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention is illustrated in
Examples of entries 56 in an electronic calendar for a user 58 having a travel itinerary corresponding to the travel document 10 illustrated in
(A) Tuesday, Mar. 1, 2005:
(B) Wednesday, Mar. 2, 2005:
(C) Thursday, Mar. 3, 2005:
When entries 56 such as those listed above are displayed using prior art electronic calendar systems, it can be difficult for a user to track changing local time zones in an electronic calendar. This problem is exacerbated when the user is a frequent traveler and the travel transitions multiple time zones. The present invention obviates this and other problems of prior art electronic calendar systems by conveying a changing local time zone in the electronic calendar 52. An example of how the above-listed entries 56 could be displayed in an electronic calendar 52 in accordance with the present invention is illustrated in
In
In another embodiment of the present invention, as shown in
Other techniques for displaying the local time zone information can also be used. For example, as shown in
Using the present invention, changed travel plans can easily be accommodated by changing, adding, and/or deleting one or more travel documents 10. Then, after performing a display refresh, the changed travel plans will be reflected in the electronic calendar 52.
The travel documents 10 could be stored separately from the standard data used by the electronic calendar system 54 to generate the electronic calendar 52. This would allow the present invention to support a shared calendar, and would allow more than one user to share appointments, meetings, etc., but have different travel plans (i.e., use different travel documents 10).
The time zone information provided when entering entries 56 into the electronic calendar 52 can be used by the system 50 to generate a “hint” to the user 58 that a travel document 10 might be warranted. For example, if an entry is scheduled to occur at 12:00 PM PST on Jan. 1, 2004 and none of the existing travel documents 10 include travel information corresponding to this entry, then the system 50 can ask the user 58 if he/she would like to provide a travel document 10. A dialog provided by the system 50 to the user 58 in this case could comprise, for example:
“You have provided an entry in Pacific Standard Time. There is no currently no travel document indicating that you will be located in this time zone at the time of the entry. Would you like to create one now . . . YES/NO.”
A flow diagram 90 of an algorithm for conveying a changing local time zone in an electronic calendar in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention is illustrated in
Referring now to
Travel documents 102, calendar entries 104, and other data used in the practice of the present invention can be stored locally to computer system 100, for example, in storage unit 106, and/or may be provided to computer system 100 over a network 108. Storage unit 106 can be any system capable of providing storage for data and information under the present invention. As such, storage unit 106 may reside at a single physical location, comprising one or more types of data storage, or may be distributed across a plurality of physical systems in various forms. In another embodiment, storage unit 106 may be distributed across, for example, a local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN) or a storage area network (SAN) (not shown).
Network 108 is intended to represent any type of network over which data can be transmitted. For example, network 108 can include the Internet, a wide area network (WAN), a local area network (LAN), a virtual private network (VPN), a WiFi network, or other type of network. To this extent, communication can occur via a direct hardwired connection or via an addressable connection in a client-server (or server-server) environment that may utilize any combination of wireline and/or wireless transmission methods. In the case of the latter, the server and client may utilize conventional network connectivity, such as Token Ring, Ethernet, WiFi or other conventional communications standards. Where the client communicates with the server via the Internet, connectivity could be provided by conventional TCP/IP sockets-based protocol. In this instance, the client would utilize an Internet service provider to establish connectivity to the server.
As shown in
I/O interfaces 116 may comprise any system for exchanging information to/from an external source. External devices/resources 118 may comprise any known type of external device, including speakers, a CRT, LED screen, handheld device, keyboard, mouse, voice recognition system, speech output system, printer, monitor/display (e.g., display 120), facsimile, pager, etc.
Bus 114 provides a communication link between each of the components in computer system 100, and likewise may comprise any known type of transmission link, including electrical, optical, wireless, etc. In addition, although not shown, additional components, such as cache memory, communication systems, system software, etc., may be incorporated into computer system 100.
Shown in memory 112 is electronic calendar system 122, which can be any known or later developed system/program capable of providing electronic calendaring capabilities. The electronic calendar system 122 provides a user interface (not shown) for displaying an electronic calendar 124 to a user 126 on the display 120. The electronic calendar system 122 includes a system 130 for providing at least one travel document 102 containing travel information corresponding to at least one trip, a system 132 for determining a local time zone for each entry 104 in the electronic calendar 124 scheduled to occur during each trip, based on the travel information contained in the at least one travel document 102, a system 134 for updating the electronic calendar 124 to reflect local time zone information for each entry 104 scheduled to occur during each trip, and a system 136 for displaying the local time zone information in the electronic calendar 124 for each entry 104 scheduled to occur during each trip, independently of a current date. The systems 122, 130, 132, 134, and 136 within memory 112 may be provided as a computer program product(s).
It should be appreciated that the teachings of the present invention could be offered as a business method on a subscription or fee basis. For example, computer system 100 could be created, maintained, supported, and/or deployed by a service provider that offers the functions described herein for customers. That is, a service provider could be used to convey a changing local time zone in an electronic calendar, as describe above. It should also be understood that the present invention can be realized in hardware, software, a propagated signal, or any combination thereof. Any kind of computer/server system(s)—or other apparatus adapted for carrying out the methods described herein—is suited. A typical combination of hardware and software could be a general purpose computer system with a computer program that, when loaded and executed, carries out the respective methods described herein. Alternatively, a specific use computer, containing specialized hardware for carrying out one or more of the functional tasks of the invention, could be utilized. The present invention can also be embedded in a computer program product or a propagated signal, which comprises all the respective features enabling the implementation of the methods described herein, and which—when loaded in a computer system—is able to carry out these methods. Computer program, propagated signal, software program, program, or software, in the present context mean any expression, in any language, code or notation, of a set of instructions intended to cause a system having an information processing capability to perform a particular function either directly or after either or both of the following: (a) conversion to another language, code or notation; and/or (b) reproduction in a different material form.
The foregoing description of the preferred embodiments of this invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed, and obviously, many modifications and variations are possible. For example, a travel document 10 could be used as an automatic feed into various availability/location indicators for an individual, including, for instance:
(A) Instant Messaging status—“Jeff is online and in San Francisco” or “Jeff is currently in-transit to Paris”; or
(B) Out of Office mail replies and/or voicemail outgoing messages—“Jeff is in Chicago and will return on March 14.” This could even be taken further (assuming detailed itinerary information in the travel document 10 connected to a travel data feed) to an automatically generated message such as “Jeff is currently in-transit to Paris scheduled to arrive at 6 PM, but his flight is 1 hour late.” Without a travel document 10, an electronic calendar has enough information for simple availability/location indicators such as “Jeff is in a meeting until 4 PM.” Use of a travel document 10 helps greatly, however, with both locational information (where you actually are) and long time spans (a 2 week trip which contains many separate meetings or possibly no meetings). Such modifications and variations that may be apparent to a person skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scope of this invention as defined by the accompanying claims.
