MULTIMODAL REVERSAL OF TASKS

Systems and processes for reversing performance of tasks with different types of inputs are described. An example method includes, determining whether to reverse performance of a task based on a displayed application and/or a current session of a digital assistant and reversing the determined tasks when the appropriate determination is reached. An example method includes, performing a task in response to detecting a first type of input and reversing performance of the task in response to detecting a second type of input indicating reversal of the task.

FIELD

This relates generally to intelligent automated assistants and, more specifically, to multimodal reversal of tasks with intelligent automated assistants.

BACKGROUND

Intelligent automated assistants (or digital assistants) can provide a beneficial interface between human users and electronic devices. Such assistants can allow users to interact with devices or systems using natural language in spoken and/or text forms. For example, a user can provide a speech input containing a user request to a digital assistant operating on an electronic device. The digital assistant can interpret the user's intent from the speech input and operationalize the user's intent into tasks. The tasks can then be performed by executing one or more services of the electronic device, and a relevant output responsive to the user request can be returned to the user. Digital assistants that can interact with previously performed tasks based on multimodal user input are desired.

SUMMARY

Example methods are disclosed herein. An example method includes, at a computer system that is configured to communicate with a display generation component and an input device: detecting an input including a request to perform a first task associated with a first application; in response to detecting the input including the request to perform the first task associated with the first application, performing the first task associated with the first application; detecting a first user speech input including a request to perform a second task associated with a second application different from the first application; in response to detecting the first user speech input including the request to perform the second task associated with the second application different from the first application, performing the second task associated with the second application different from the first application; detecting a second user speech input including a request to reverse performance of a most recently performed task; in response to detecting the second user speech input including the request to reverse performance of the most recently performed task: in accordance with a determination that a user interface corresponding to the first application is being displayed via the display generation component and the first task associated with the first application is the most recently performed task, reversing performance of the first task associated with the first application; and in accordance with a determination that a digital assistant session in which the first user speech input was received is ongoing and the second task associated with the second application different from the first application is the most recently performed task, reversing performance of the second task associated with the second application different from the first application.

Example non-transitory computer-readable media are disclosed herein. An example non-transitory computer-readable storage medium stores one or more programs configured to be executed by one or more processors of a computer system that is in communication with a display generation component and an input device, the one or more programs including instructions for: detecting an input including a request to perform a first task associated with a first application; in response to detecting the input including the request to perform the first task associated with the first application, performing the first task associated with the first application; detecting a first user speech input including a request to perform a second task associated with a second application different from the first application; in response to detecting the first user speech input including the request to perform the second task associated with the second application different from the first application, performing the second task associated with the second application different from the first application; detecting a second user speech input including a request to reverse performance of a most recently performed task; in response to detecting the second user speech input including the request to reverse performance of the most recently performed task: in accordance with a determination that a user interface corresponding to the first application is being displayed via the display generation component and the first task associated with the first application is the most recently performed task, reversing performance of the first task associated with the first application; and in accordance with a determination that a digital assistant session in which the first user speech input was received is ongoing and the second task associated with the second application different from the first application is the most recently performed task, reversing performance of the second task associated with the second application different from the first application.

Example computer systems are disclosed herein. An example computer system comprises one or more processors; wherein the computer system is configured to communicate with a display generation component, an input device, and memory storing one or more programs configured to be executed by the one or more processors, the one or more programs including instructions for: detecting an input including a request to perform a first task associated with a first application; in response to detecting the input including the request to perform the first task associated with the first application, performing the first task associated with the first application; detecting a first user speech input including a request to perform a second task associated with a second application different from the first application; in response to detecting the first user speech input including the request to perform the second task associated with the second application different from the first application, performing the second task associated with the second application different from the first application; detecting a second user speech input including a request to reverse performance of a most recently performed task; in response to detecting the second user speech input including the request to reverse performance of the most recently performed task: in accordance with a determination that a user interface corresponding to the first application is being displayed via the display generation component and the first task associated with the first application is the most recently performed task, reversing performance of the first task associated with the first application; and in accordance with a determination that a digital assistant session in which the first user speech input was received is ongoing and the second task associated with the second application different from the first application is the most recently performed task, reversing performance of the second task associated with the second application different from the first application.

An example computer system comprises means for detecting an input including a request to perform a first task associated with a first application; means, in response to detecting the input including the request to perform the first task associated with the first application, for performing the first task associated with the first application; means for detecting a first user speech input including a request to perform a second task associated with a second application different from the first application; means, in response to detecting the first user speech input including the request to perform the second task associated with the second application different from the first application, for performing the second task associated with the second application different from the first application; means for detecting a second user speech input including a request to reverse performance of a most recently performed task; means, in response to detecting the second user speech input including the request to reverse performance of the most recently performed task, for: in accordance with a determination that a user interface corresponding to the first application is being displayed via the display generation component and the first task associated with the first application is the most recently performed task, reversing performance of the first task associated with the first application; and in accordance with a determination that a digital assistant session in which the first user speech input was received is ongoing and the second task associated with the second application different from the first application is the most recently performed task, reversing performance of the second task associated with the second application different from the first application.

Reversing performance of different tasks based on applications that are being displayed via display generation components of the computer system and the current state of digital assistant sessions allows the digital assistant to intelligently determine which tasks are to be reversed based on generic and/or ambiguous user inputs. Thus, a wider range of tasks can be reversed with the same inputs (e.g., without requiring the user to specify a task that should be reversed). This allows a user to interact with the digital assistant and the computer system more efficiently and reduces the number of inputs required to reverse tasks. This results in reduced power consumption by the computer system and in the case of portable computer systems, increased battery life.

An example method includes, at a computer system that is configured to communicate with a display generation component and an input device: detecting, via a first type of input, an input including a request to perform a first task; in response to detecting, via the first type of input, the input including the request to perform the first task, performing the first task; detecting, via a second type of input different from the first type of input, an input including a request to reverse performance of the first task; and in response to detecting, via the second type of input different from the first type of input, the input including the request to reverse performance of the first task, reversing performance of the first task.

An example non-transitory computer-readable storage medium stores one or more programs configured to be executed by one or more processors of a computer system that is in communication with a display generation component and an input device, the one or more programs including instructions for: detecting, via a first type of input, an input including a request to perform a first task; in response to detecting, via the first type of input, the input including the request to perform the first task, performing the first task; detecting, via a second type of input different from the first type of input, an input including a request to reverse performance of the first task; and in response to detecting, via the second type of input different from the first type of input, the input including the request to reverse performance of the first task, reversing performance of the first task.

An example computer system comprises one or more processors; wherein the computer system is configured to communicate with a display generation component, an input device, and memory storing one or more programs configured to be executed by the one or more processors, the one or more programs including instructions for: detecting, via a first type of input, an input including a request to perform a first task; in response to detecting, via the first type of input, the input including the request to perform the first task, performing the first task; detecting, via a second type of input different from the first type of input, an input including a request to reverse performance of the first task; and in response to detecting, via the second type of input different from the first type of input, the input including the request to reverse performance of the first task, reversing performance of the first task.

An example computer system comprises means for detecting, via a first type of input, an input including a request to perform a first task; means, in response to detecting, via the first type of input, the input including the request to perform the first task, for performing the first task; means for detecting, via a second type of input different from the first type of input, an input including a request to reverse performance of the first task; and means, in response to detecting, via the second type of input different from the first type of input, the input including the request to reverse performance of the first task, for reversing performance of the first task.

Performing a task in response to detecting a first type of input and reversing performance of the task in response to detecting a second type of input different from the first type of input allows the digital assistant to intelligently reverse performance of tasks regardless of the type of input received. Thus, performance of tasks can be reversed more naturally (e.g., without requiring the user to provide a specific type of input). This allows a user to interact with the digital assistant and the computer system more naturally and efficiently, reducing the number of inputs required to reverse tasks. This results in reduced power consumption by the computer system and in the case of portable computer systems, increased battery life.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description of examples, reference is made to the accompanying drawings in which are shown by way of illustration specific examples that can be practiced. It is to be understood that other examples can be used and structural changes can be made without departing from the scope of the various examples.

A need exists for efficient and intuitive ways to interact with a digital assistant to reverse performance of tasks. Method and processes for such ways to reverse performance of tasks are described herein and provide examples of how digital assistants can determine which tasks to reverse when provided with generic and/or ambiguous inputs or when provided inputs of different types. This allows a user to more efficiently interact with the digital assistant and the computer system, reducing power consumption and conserving battery life.

Although the following description uses terms “first,” “second,” etc. to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by the terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another. For example, a first input could be termed a second input, and, similarly, a second input could be termed a first input, without departing from the scope of the various described examples. The first input and the second input are both inputs and, in some cases, are separate and different inputs.

1. System and Environment

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of system 100 according to various examples. In some examples, system 100 implements a digital assistant. The terms “digital assistant,” “virtual assistant,” “intelligent automated assistant,” or “automatic digital assistant” refer to any information processing system that interprets natural language input in spoken and/or textual form to infer user intent, and performs actions based on the inferred user intent. For example, to act on an inferred user intent, the system performs one or more of the following: identifying a task flow with steps and parameters designed to accomplish the inferred user intent, inputting specific requirements from the inferred user intent into the task flow; executing the task flow by invoking programs, methods, services, APIs, or the like; and generating output responses to the user in an audible (e.g., speech) and/or visual form.

Specifically, a digital assistant is capable of accepting a user request at least partially in the form of a natural language command, request, statement, narrative, and/or inquiry. Typically, the user request seeks either an informational answer or performance of a task by the digital assistant. A satisfactory response to the user request includes a provision of the requested informational answer, a performance of the requested task, or a combination of the two. For example, a user asks the digital assistant a question, such as “Where am I right now?” Based on the user's current location, the digital assistant answers, “You are in Central Park near the west gate.” The user also requests the performance of a task, for example, “Please invite my friends to my girlfriend's birthday party next week.” In response, the digital assistant can acknowledge the request by saying “Yes, right away,” and then send a suitable calendar invite on behalf of the user to each of the user's friends listed in the user's electronic address book. During performance of a requested task, the digital assistant sometimes interacts with the user in a continuous dialogue involving multiple exchanges of information over an extended period of time. There are numerous other ways of interacting with a digital assistant to request information or performance of various tasks. In addition to providing verbal responses and taking programmed actions, the digital assistant also provides responses in other visual or audio forms, e.g., as text, alerts, music, videos, animations, etc.

As shown in FIG. 1, in some examples, a digital assistant is implemented according to a client-server model. The digital assistant includes client-side portion 102 (hereafter “DA client 102”) executed on user device 104 and server-side portion 106 (hereafter “DA server 106”) executed on server system 108. DA client 102 communicates with DA server 106 through one or more networks 110. DA client 102 provides client-side functionalities such as user-facing input and output processing and communication with DA server 106. DA server 106 provides server-side functionalities for any number of DA clients 102 each residing on a respective user device 104.

In some examples, DA server 106 includes client-facing I/O interface 112, one or more processing modules 114, data and models 116, and I/O interface to external services 118. The client-facing I/O interface 112 facilitates the client-facing input and output processing for DA server 106. One or more processing modules 114 utilize data and models 116 to process speech input and determine the user's intent based on natural language input. Further, one or more processing modules 114 perform task execution based on inferred user intent. In some examples, DA server 106 communicates with external services 120 through network(s) 110 for task completion or information acquisition. I/O interface to external services 118 facilitates such communications.

User device 104 can be any suitable electronic device. In some examples, user device 104 is a portable multifunctional device (e.g., device 200, described below with reference to FIG. 2A), a multifunctional device (e.g., device 400, described below with reference to FIG. 4A), or a personal electronic device (e.g., device 600, described below with reference to FIGS. 6A-6B). A portable multifunctional device is, for example, a mobile telephone that also contains other functions, such as PDA and/or music player functions. Specific examples of portable multifunction devices include the Apple Watch®, iPhone®, iPod Touch®, and iPad® devices from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, California. Other examples of portable multifunction devices include, without limitation, earphones/headphones, speakers, and laptop or tablet computers. Further, in some examples, user device 104 is a non-portable multifunctional device. In particular, user device 104 is a desktop computer, a game console, a speaker, a television, or a television set-top box. In some examples, user device 104 includes a touch-sensitive surface (e.g., touch screen displays and/or touchpads). Further, user device 104 optionally includes one or more other physical user-interface devices, such as a physical keyboard, a mouse, and/or a joystick. Various examples of electronic devices, such as multifunctional devices, are described below in greater detail.

Examples of communication network(s) 110 include local area networks (LAN) and wide area networks (WAN), e.g., the Internet. Communication network(s) 110 is implemented using any known network protocol, including various wired or wireless protocols, such as, for example, Ethernet, Universal Serial Bus (USB), FIREWIRE, Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Enhanced Data GSM Environment (EDGE), code division multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP), Wi-MAX, or any other suitable communication protocol.

Server system 108 is implemented on one or more standalone data processing apparatus or a distributed network of computers. In some examples, server system 108 also employs various virtual devices and/or services of third-party service providers (e.g., third-party cloud service providers) to provide the underlying computing resources and/or infrastructure resources of server system 108.

In some examples, user device 104 communicates with DA server 106 via second user device 122. Second user device 122 is similar or identical to user device 104. For example, second user device 122 is similar to devices 200, 400, or 600 described below with reference to FIGS. 2A, 4A, and 6A-6B. User device 104 is configured to communicatively couple to second user device 122 via a direct communication connection, such as Bluetooth, NFC, BTLE, or the like, or via a wired or wireless network, such as a local Wi-Fi network. In some examples, second user device 122 is configured to act as a proxy between user device 104 and DA server 106. For example, DA client 102 of user device 104 is configured to transmit information (e.g., a user request received at user device 104) to DA server 106 via second user device 122. DA server 106 processes the information and returns relevant data (e.g., data content responsive to the user request) to user device 104 via second user device 122.

In some examples, user device 104 is configured to communicate abbreviated requests for data to second user device 122 to reduce the amount of information transmitted from user device 104. Second user device 122 is configured to determine supplemental information to add to the abbreviated request to generate a complete request to transmit to DA server 106. This system architecture can advantageously allow user device 104 having limited communication capabilities and/or limited battery power (e.g., a watch or a similar compact electronic device) to access services provided by DA server 106 by using second user device 122, having greater communication capabilities and/or battery power (e.g., a mobile phone, laptop computer, tablet computer, or the like), as a proxy to DA server 106. While only two user devices 104 and 122 are shown in FIG. 1, it should be appreciated that system 100, in some examples, includes any number and type of user devices configured in this proxy configuration to communicate with DA server system 106.

Although the digital assistant shown in FIG. 1 includes both a client-side portion (e.g., DA client 102) and a server-side portion (e.g., DA server 106), in some examples, the functions of a digital assistant are implemented as a standalone application installed on a user device. In addition, the divisions of functionalities between the client and server portions of the digital assistant can vary in different implementations. For instance, in some examples, the DA client is a thin-client that provides only user-facing input and output processing functions, and delegates all other functionalities of the digital assistant to a backend server.

2. Electronic Devices

Attention is now directed toward embodiments of electronic devices for implementing the client-side portion of a digital assistant. FIG. 2A is a block diagram illustrating portable multifunction device 200 with touch-sensitive display system 212 in accordance with some embodiments. Touch-sensitive display 212 is sometimes called a “touch screen” for convenience and is sometimes known as or called a “touch-sensitive display system.” Device 200 includes memory 202 (which optionally includes one or more computer-readable storage mediums), memory controller 222, one or more processing units (CPUs) 220, peripherals interface 218, RF circuitry 208, audio circuitry 210, speaker 211, microphone 213, input/output (I/O) subsystem 206, other input control devices 216, and external port 224. Device 200 optionally includes one or more optical sensors 264. Device 200 optionally includes one or more contact intensity sensors 265 for detecting intensity of contacts on device 200 (e.g., a touch-sensitive surface such as touch-sensitive display system 212 of device 200). Device 200 optionally includes one or more tactile output generators 267 for generating tactile outputs on device 200 (e.g., generating tactile outputs on a touch-sensitive surface such as touch-sensitive display system 212 of device 200 or touchpad 455 of device 400). These components optionally communicate over one or more communication buses or signal lines 203.

It should be appreciated that device 200 is only one example of a portable multifunction device, and that device 200 optionally has more or fewer components than shown, optionally combines two or more components, or optionally has a different configuration or arrangement of the components. The various components shown in FIG. 2A are implemented in hardware, software, or a combination of both hardware and software, including one or more signal processing and/or application-specific integrated circuits.

Memory 202 includes one or more computer-readable storage mediums. The computer-readable storage mediums are, for example, tangible and non-transitory. Memory 202 includes high-speed random access memory and also includes non-volatile memory, such as one or more magnetic disk storage devices, flash memory devices, or other non-volatile solid-state memory devices. Memory controller 222 controls access to memory 202 by other components of device 200.

In some examples, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of memory 202 is used to store instructions (e.g., for performing aspects of processes described below) for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device, such as a computer-based system, processor-containing system, or other system that can fetch the instructions from the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device and execute the instructions. In other examples, the instructions (e.g., for performing aspects of the processes described below) are stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium (not shown) of the server system 108 or are divided between the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of memory 202 and the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of server system 108.

Peripherals interface 218 is used to couple input and output peripherals of the device to CPU 220 and memory 202. The one or more processors 220 run or execute various software programs and/or sets of instructions stored in memory 202 to perform various functions for device 200 and to process data. In some embodiments, peripherals interface 218, CPU 220, and memory controller 222 are implemented on a single chip, such as chip 204. In some other embodiments, they are implemented on separate chips.

Audio circuitry 210, speaker 211, and microphone 213 provide an audio interface between a user and device 200. Audio circuitry 210 receives audio data from peripherals interface 218, converts the audio data to an electrical signal, and transmits the electrical signal to speaker 211. Speaker 211 converts the electrical signal to human-audible sound waves. Audio circuitry 210 also receives electrical signals converted by microphone 213 from sound waves. Audio circuitry 210 converts the electrical signal to audio data and transmits the audio data to peripherals interface 218 for processing. Audio data are retrieved from and/or transmitted to memory 202 and/or RF circuitry 208 by peripherals interface 218. In some embodiments, audio circuitry 210 also includes a headset jack (e.g., 312, FIG. 3). The headset jack provides an interface between audio circuitry 210 and removable audio input/output peripherals, such as output-only headphones or a headset with both output (e.g., a headphone for one or both cars) and input (e.g., a microphone).

I/O subsystem 206 couples input/output peripherals on device 200, such as touch screen 212 and other input control devices 216, to peripherals interface 218. I/O subsystem 206 optionally includes display controller 256, optical sensor controller 258, intensity sensor controller 259, haptic feedback controller 261, and one or more input controllers 260 for other input or control devices. The one or more input controllers 260 receive/send electrical signals from/to other input control devices 216. The other input control devices 216 optionally include physical buttons (e.g., push buttons, rocker buttons, etc., dials, slider switches, joysticks, click wheels, and so forth. In some alternate embodiments, input controller(s) 260 are, optionally, coupled to any (or none) of the following: a keyboard, an infrared port, a USB port, and a pointer device such as a mouse. The one or more buttons (e.g., 308, FIG. 3) optionally include an up/down button for volume control of speaker 211 and/or microphone 213. The one or more buttons optionally include a push button (e.g., 306, FIG. 3).

A quick press of the push button disengages a lock of touch screen 212 or begin a process that uses gestures on the touch screen to unlock the device, as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/322,549, “Unlocking a Device by Performing Gestures on an Unlock Image,” filed Dec. 23, 2005, U.S. Pat. No. 7,657,849, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. A longer press of the push button (e.g., 306) turns power to device 200 on or off. The user is able to customize a functionality of one or more of the buttons. Touch screen 212 is used to implement virtual or soft buttons and one or more soft keyboards.

Touch-sensitive display 212 provides an input interface and an output interface between the device and a user. Display controller 256 receives and/or sends electrical signals from/to touch screen 212. Touch screen 212 displays visual output to the user. The visual output includes graphics, text, icons, video, and any combination thereof (collectively termed “graphics”). In some embodiments, some or all of the visual output correspond to user-interface objects.

Touch screen 212 has a touch-sensitive surface, sensor, or set of sensors that accepts input from the user based on haptic and/or tactile contact. Touch screen 212 and display controller 256 (along with any associated modules and/or sets of instructions in memory 202) detect contact (and any movement or breaking of the contact) on touch screen 212 and convert the detected contact into interaction with user-interface objects (e.g., one or more soft keys, icons, web pages, or images) that are displayed on touch screen 212. In an exemplary embodiment, a point of contact between touch screen 212 and the user corresponds to a finger of the user.

Touch screen 212 uses LCD (liquid crystal display) technology, LPD (light emitting polymer display) technology, or LED (light emitting diode) technology, although other display technologies may be used in other embodiments. Touch screen 212 and display controller 256 detect contact and any movement or breaking thereof using any of a plurality of touch sensing technologies now known or later developed, including but not limited to capacitive, resistive, infrared, and surface acoustic wave technologies, as well as other proximity sensor arrays or other elements for determining one or more points of contact with touch screen 212. In an exemplary embodiment, projected mutual capacitance sensing technology is used, such as that found in the iPhone® and iPod Touch® from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, California.

In some embodiments, in addition to the touch screen, device 200 includes a touchpad (not shown) for activating or deactivating particular functions. In some embodiments, the touchpad is a touch-sensitive area of the device that, unlike the touch screen, does not display visual output. The touchpad is a touch-sensitive surface that is separate from touch screen 212 or an extension of the touch-sensitive surface formed by the touch screen.

Device 200 also includes power system 262 for powering the various components. Power system 262 includes a power management system, one or more power sources (e.g., battery, alternating current (AC)), a recharging system, a power failure detection circuit, a power converter or inverter, a power status indicator (e.g., a light-emitting diode (LED)) and any other components associated with the generation, management and distribution of power in portable devices.

Device 200 also includes one or more optical sensors 264. FIG. 2A shows an optical sensor coupled to optical sensor controller 258 in I/O subsystem 206. Optical sensor 264 includes charge-coupled device (CCD) or complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) phototransistors. Optical sensor 264 receives light from the environment, projected through one or more lenses, and converts the light to data representing an image. In conjunction with imaging module 243 (also called a camera module), optical sensor 264 captures still images or video. In some embodiments, an optical sensor is located on the back of device 200, opposite touch screen display 212 on the front of the device so that the touch screen display is used as a viewfinder for still and/or video image acquisition. In some embodiments, an optical sensor is located on the front of the device so that the user's image is obtained for video conferencing while the user views the other video conference participants on the touch screen display. In some embodiments, the position of optical sensor 264 can be changed by the user (e.g., by rotating the lens and the sensor in the device housing) so that a single optical sensor 264 is used along with the touch screen display for both video conferencing and still and/or video image acquisition.

Device 200 optionally also includes one or more contact intensity sensors 265. FIG. 2A shows a contact intensity sensor coupled to intensity sensor controller 259 in I/O subsystem 206. Contact intensity sensor 265 optionally includes one or more piezoresistive strain gauges, capacitive force sensors, electric force sensors, piezoelectric force sensors, optical force sensors, capacitive touch-sensitive surfaces, or other intensity sensors (e.g., sensors used to measure the force (or pressure) of a contact on a touch-sensitive surface). Contact intensity sensor 265 receives contact intensity information (e.g., pressure information or a proxy for pressure information) from the environment. In some embodiments, at least one contact intensity sensor is collocated with, or proximate to, a touch-sensitive surface (e.g., touch-sensitive display system 212). In some embodiments, at least one contact intensity sensor is located on the back of device 200, opposite touch screen display 212, which is located on the front of device 200.

Device 200 also includes one or more proximity sensors 266. FIG. 2A shows proximity sensor 266 coupled to peripherals interface 218. Alternately, proximity sensor 266 is coupled to input controller 260 in I/O subsystem 206. Proximity sensor 266 is performed as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/241,839, “Proximity Detector In Handheld Device”; Ser. No. 11/240,788, “Proximity Detector In Handheld Device”; Ser. No. 11/620,702, “Using Ambient Light Sensor To Augment Proximity Sensor Output”; Ser. No. 11/586,862, “Automated Response To And Sensing Of User Activity In Portable Devices”; and Ser. No. 11/638,251, “Methods And Systems For Automatic Configuration Of Peripherals,” which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety. In some embodiments, the proximity sensor turns off and disables touch screen 212 when the multifunction device is placed near the user's ear (e.g., when the user is making a phone call).

Device 200 optionally also includes one or more tactile output generators 267. FIG. 2A shows a tactile output generator coupled to haptic feedback controller 261 in I/O subsystem 206. Tactile output generator 267 optionally includes one or more electroacoustic devices such as speakers or other audio components and/or electromechanical devices that convert energy into linear motion such as a motor, solenoid, electroactive polymer, piezoelectric actuator, electrostatic actuator, or other tactile output generating component (e.g., a component that converts electrical signals into tactile outputs on the device). Contact intensity sensor 265 receives tactile feedback generation instructions from haptic feedback module 233 and generates tactile outputs on device 200 that are capable of being sensed by a user of device 200. In some embodiments, at least one tactile output generator is collocated with, or proximate to, a touch-sensitive surface (e.g., touch-sensitive display system 212) and, optionally, generates a tactile output by moving the touch-sensitive surface vertically (e.g., in/out of a surface of device 200) or laterally (e.g., back and forth in the same plane as a surface of device 200). In some embodiments, at least one tactile output generator sensor is located on the back of device 200, opposite touch screen display 212, which is located on the front of device 200.

In some embodiments, the software components stored in memory 202 include operating system 226, communication module (or set of instructions) 228, contact/motion module (or set of instructions) 230, graphics module (or set of instructions) 232, text input module (or set of instructions) 234, Global Positioning System (GPS) module (or set of instructions) 235, Digital Assistant Client Module 229, and applications (or sets of instructions) 236. Further, memory 202 stores data and models, such as user data and models 231. Furthermore, in some embodiments, memory 202 (FIG. 2A) or 470 (FIG. 4A) stores device/global internal state 257, as shown in FIGS. 2A and 4A. Device/global internal state 257 includes one or more of: active application state, indicating which applications, if any, are currently active; display state, indicating what applications, views or other information occupy various regions of touch screen display 212; sensor state, including information obtained from the device's various sensors and input control devices 216; and location information concerning the device's location and/or attitude.

Operating system 226 (e.g., Darwin, RTXC, LINUX, UNIX, OS X, IOS, WINDOWS, or an embedded operating system such as VxWorks) includes various software components and/or drivers for controlling and managing general system tasks (e.g., memory management, storage device control, power management, etc.) and facilitates communication between various hardware and software components.

Communication module 228 facilitates communication with other devices over one or more external ports 224 and also includes various software components for handling data received by RF circuitry 208 and/or external port 224. External port 224 (e.g., Universal Serial Bus (USB), FIREWIRE, etc.) is adapted for coupling directly to other devices or indirectly over a network (e.g., the Internet, wireless LAN, etc.). In some embodiments, the external port is a multi-pin (e.g., 30-pin) connector that is the same as, or similar to and/or compatible with, the 30-pin connector used on iPod® (trademark of Apple Inc.) devices.

Contact/motion module 230 optionally detects contact with touch screen 212 (in conjunction with display controller 256) and other touch-sensitive devices (e.g., a touchpad or physical click wheel). Contact/motion module 230 includes various software components for performing various operations related to detection of contact, such as determining if contact has occurred (e.g., detecting a finger-down event), determining an intensity of the contact (e.g., the force or pressure of the contact or a substitute for the force or pressure of the contact), determining if there is movement of the contact and tracking the movement across the touch-sensitive surface (e.g., detecting one or more finger-dragging events), and determining if the contact has ceased (e.g., detecting a finger-up event or a break in contact). Contact/motion module 230 receives contact data from the touch-sensitive surface. Determining movement of the point of contact, which is represented by a series of contact data, optionally includes determining speed (magnitude), velocity (magnitude and direction), and/or an acceleration (a change in magnitude and/or direction) of the point of contact. These operations are, optionally, applied to single contacts (e.g., one finger contacts) or to multiple simultaneous contacts (e.g., “multitouch”/multiple finger contacts). In some embodiments, contact/motion module 230 and display controller 256 detect contact on a touchpad.

Graphics module 232 includes various known software components for rendering and displaying graphics on touch screen 212 or other display, including components for changing the visual impact (e.g., brightness, transparency, saturation, contrast, or other visual property) of graphics that are displayed. As used herein, the term “graphics” includes any object that can be displayed to a user, including, without limitation, text, web pages, icons (such as user-interface objects including soft keys), digital images, videos, animations, and the like.

In some embodiments, graphics module 232 stores data representing graphics to be used. Each graphic is, optionally, assigned a corresponding code. Graphics module 232 receives, from applications etc., one or more codes specifying graphics to be displayed along with, if necessary, coordinate data and other graphic property data, and then generates screen image data to output to display controller 256.

Haptic feedback module 233 includes various software components for generating instructions used by tactile output generator(s) 267 to produce tactile outputs at one or more locations on device 200 in response to user interactions with device 200.

Text input module 234, which is, in some examples, a component of graphics module 232, provides soft keyboards for entering text in various applications (e.g., contacts module 237, email client module 240, IM module 241, browser module 247, and any other application that needs text input).

GPS module 235 determines the location of the device and provides this information for use in various applications (e.g., to telephone module 238 for use in location-based dialing; to camera module 243 as picture/video metadata; and to applications that provide location-based services such as weather widgets, local yellow page widgets, and map/navigation widgets).

Digital assistant client module 229 includes various client-side digital assistant instructions to provide the client-side functionalities of the digital assistant. For example, digital assistant client module 229 is capable of accepting voice input (e.g., speech input), text input, touch input, and/or gestural input through various user interfaces (e.g., microphone 213, accelerometer(s) 268, touch-sensitive display system 212, optical sensor(s) 264, other input control devices 216, etc.) of portable multifunction device 200. Digital assistant client module 229 is also capable of providing output in audio (e.g., speech output), visual, and/or tactile forms through various output interfaces (e.g., speaker 211, touch-sensitive display system 212, tactile output generator(s) 267, etc.) of portable multifunction device 200. For example, output is provided as voice, sound, alerts, text messages, menus, graphics, videos, animations, vibrations, and/or combinations of two or more of the above. During operation, digital assistant client module 229 communicates with DA server 106 using RF circuitry 208.

User data and models 231 include various data associated with the user (e.g., user-specific vocabulary data, user preference data, user-specified name pronunciations, data from the user's electronic address book, to-do lists, shopping lists, etc.) to provide the client-side functionalities of the digital assistant. Further, user data and models 231 include various models (e.g., speech recognition models, statistical language models, natural language processing models, ontology, task flow models, service models, etc.) for processing user input and determining user intent.

In some examples, digital assistant client module 229 utilizes the various sensors, subsystems, and peripheral devices of portable multifunction device 200 to gather additional information from the surrounding environment of the portable multifunction device 200 to establish a context associated with a user, the current user interaction, and/or the current user input. In some examples, digital assistant client module 229 provides the contextual information or a subset thereof with the user input to DA server 106 to help infer the user's intent. In some examples, the digital assistant also uses the contextual information to determine how to prepare and deliver outputs to the user. Contextual information is referred to as context data.

In some examples, the contextual information that accompanies the user input includes sensor information, e.g., lighting, ambient noise, ambient temperature, images or videos of the surrounding environment, etc. In some examples, the contextual information can also include the physical state of the device, e.g., device orientation, device location, device temperature, power level, speed, acceleration, motion patterns, cellular signals strength, etc. In some examples, information related to the software state of DA server 106, e.g., running processes, installed programs, past and present network activities, background services, error logs, resources usage, etc., and of portable multifunction device 200 is provided to DA server 106 as contextual information associated with a user input.

In some examples, the digital assistant client module 229 selectively provides information (e.g., user data 231) stored on the portable multifunction device 200 in response to requests from DA server 106. In some examples, digital assistant client module 229 also elicits additional input from the user via a natural language dialogue or other user interfaces upon request by DA server 106. Digital assistant client module 229 passes the additional input to DA server 106 to help DA server 106 in intent deduction and/or fulfillment of the user's intent expressed in the user request.

A more detailed description of a digital assistant is described below with reference to FIGS. 7A-7C. It should be recognized that digital assistant client module 229 can include any number of the sub-modules of digital assistant module 726 described below.

Applications 236 include the following modules (or sets of instructions), or a subset or superset thereof:

Examples of other applications 236 that are stored in memory 202 include other word processing applications, other image editing applications, drawing applications, presentation applications, JAVA-enabled applications, encryption, digital rights management, voice recognition, and voice replication.

In conjunction with touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, and text input module 234, contacts module 237 are used to manage an address book or contact list (e.g., stored in application internal state 292 of contacts module 237 in memory 202 or memory 470), including: adding name(s) to the address book; deleting name(s) from the address book; associating telephone number(s), e-mail address(es), physical address(es) or other information with a name; associating an image with a name; categorizing and sorting names; providing telephone numbers or e-mail addresses to initiate and/or facilitate communications by telephone module 238, video conference module 239, e-mail client module 240, or IM module 241; and so forth.

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, audio circuitry 210, speaker 211, microphone 213, touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, and text input module 234, telephone module 238 are used to enter a sequence of characters corresponding to a telephone number, access one or more telephone numbers in contacts module 237, modify a telephone number that has been entered, dial a respective telephone number, conduct a conversation, and disconnect or hang up when the conversation is completed. As noted above, the wireless communication uses any of a plurality of communications standards, protocols, and technologies.

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, audio circuitry 210, speaker 211, microphone 213, touch screen 212, display controller 256, optical sensor 264, optical sensor controller 258, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, text input module 234, contacts module 237, and telephone module 238, video conference module 239 includes executable instructions to initiate, conduct, and terminate a video conference between a user and one or more other participants in accordance with user instructions.

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, and text input module 234, e-mail client module 240 includes executable instructions to create, send, receive, and manage e-mail in response to user instructions. In conjunction with image management module 244, e-mail client module 240 makes it very easy to create and send e-mails with still or video images taken with camera module 243.

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, text input module 234, GPS module 235, map module 254, and music player module, workout support module 242 includes executable instructions to create workouts (e.g., with time, distance, and/or calorie burning goals); communicate with workout sensors (sports devices); receive workout sensor data; calibrate sensors used to monitor a workout; select and play music for a workout; and display, store, and transmit workout data.

In conjunction with touch screen 212, display controller 256, optical sensor(s) 264, optical sensor controller 258, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, and image management module 244, camera module 243 includes executable instructions to capture still images or video (including a video stream) and store them into memory 202, modify characteristics of a still image or video, or delete a still image or video from memory 202.

In conjunction with touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, text input module 234, and camera module 243, image management module 244 includes executable instructions to arrange, modify (e.g., edit), or otherwise manipulate, label, delete, present (e.g., in a digital slide show or album), and store still and/or video images.

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, and text input module 234, browser module 247 includes executable instructions to browse the Internet in accordance with user instructions, including searching, linking to, receiving, and displaying web pages or portions thereof, as well as attachments and other files linked to web pages.

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, text input module 234, e-mail client module 240, and browser module 247, calendar module 248 includes executable instructions to create, display, modify, and store calendars and data associated with calendars (e.g., calendar entries, to-do lists, etc.) in accordance with user instructions.

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, text input module 234, and browser module 247, widget modules 249 are mini-applications that can be downloaded and used by a user (e.g., weather widget 249-1, stocks widget 249-2, calculator widget 249-3, alarm clock widget 249-4, and dictionary widget 249-5) or created by the user (e.g., user-created widget 249-6). In some embodiments, a widget includes an HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) file, a CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) file, and a JavaScript file. In some embodiments, a widget includes an XML (Extensible Markup Language) file and a JavaScript file (e.g., Yahoo! Widgets).

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, text input module 234, and browser module 247, the widget creator module 250 are used by a user to create widgets (e.g., turning a user-specified portion of a web page into a widget).

In conjunction with touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, and text input module 234, search module 251 includes executable instructions to search for text, music, sound, image, video, and/or other files in memory 202 that match one or more search criteria (e.g., one or more user-specified search terms) in accordance with user instructions.

In conjunction with touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, audio circuitry 210, speaker 211, RF circuitry 208, and browser module 247, video and music player module 252 includes executable instructions that allow the user to download and play back recorded music and other sound files stored in one or more file formats, such as MP3 or AAC files, and executable instructions to display, present, or otherwise play back videos (e.g., on touch screen 212 or on an external, connected display via external port 224). In some embodiments, device 200 optionally includes the functionality of an MP3 player, such as an iPod (trademark of Apple Inc.).

In conjunction with touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, and text input module 234, notes module 253 includes executable instructions to create and manage notes, to-do lists, and the like in accordance with user instructions.

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, text input module 234, GPS module 235, and browser module 247, map module 254 are used to receive, display, modify, and store maps and data associated with maps (e.g., driving directions, data on stores and other points of interest at or near a particular location, and other location-based data) in accordance with user instructions.

In conjunction with touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, audio circuitry 210, speaker 211, RF circuitry 208, text input module 234, e-mail client module 240, and browser module 247, online video module 255 includes instructions that allow the user to access, browse, receive (e.g., by streaming and/or download), play back (e.g., on the touch screen or on an external, connected display via external port 224), send an e-mail with a link to a particular online video, and otherwise manage online videos in one or more file formats, such as H.264. In some embodiments, instant messaging module 241, rather than e-mail client module 240, is used to send a link to a particular online video. Additional description of the online video application can be found in U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/936,562, “Portable Multifunction Device, Method, and Graphical User Interface for Playing Online Videos,” filed Jun. 20, 2007, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/968,067, “Portable Multifunction Device, Method, and Graphical User Interface for Playing Online Videos,” filed Dec. 31, 2007, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

Each of the above-identified modules and applications corresponds to a set of executable instructions for performing one or more functions described above and the methods described in this application (e.g., the computer-implemented methods and other information processing methods described herein). These modules (e.g., sets of instructions) need not be implemented as separate software programs, procedures, or modules, and thus various subsets of these modules can be combined or otherwise rearranged in various embodiments. For example, video player module can be combined with music player module into a single module (e.g., video and music player module 252, FIG. 2A). In some embodiments, memory 202 stores a subset of the modules and data structures identified above. Furthermore, memory 202 stores additional modules and data structures not described above.

In some embodiments, device 200 is a device where operation of a predefined set of functions on the device is performed exclusively through a touch screen and/or a touchpad. By using a touch screen and/or a touchpad as the primary input control device for operation of device 200, the number of physical input control devices (such as push buttons, dials, and the like) on device 200 is reduced.

The predefined set of functions that are performed exclusively through a touch screen and/or a touchpad optionally include navigation between user interfaces. In some embodiments, the touchpad, when touched by the user, navigates device 200 to a main, home, or root menu from any user interface that is displayed on device 200. In such embodiments, a “menu button” is implemented using a touchpad. In some other embodiments, the menu button is a physical push button or other physical input control device instead of a touchpad.

FIG. 2B is a block diagram illustrating exemplary components for event handling in accordance with some embodiments. In some embodiments, memory 202 (FIG. 2A) or 470 (FIG. 4A) includes event sorter 270 (e.g., in operating system 226) and a respective application 236-1 (e.g., any of the aforementioned applications 237-251, 255, 480-490).

Event sorter 270 receives event information and determines the application 236-1 and application view 291 of application 236-1 to which to deliver the event information. Event sorter 270 includes event monitor 271 and event dispatcher module 274. In some embodiments, application 236-1 includes application internal state 292, which indicates the current application view(s) displayed on touch-sensitive display 212 when the application is active or executing. In some embodiments, device/global internal state 257 is used by event sorter 270 to determine which application(s) is (arc) currently active, and application internal state 292 is used by event sorter 270 to determine application views 291 to which to deliver event information.

In some embodiments, application internal state 292 includes additional information, such as one or more of: resume information to be used when application 236-1 resumes execution, user interface state information that indicates information being displayed or that is ready for display by application 236-1, a state queue for enabling the user to go back to a prior state or view of application 236-1, and a redo/undo queue of previous actions taken by the user.

Event monitor 271 receives event information from peripherals interface 218. Event information includes information about a sub-event (e.g., a user touch on touch-sensitive display 212, as part of a multi-touch gesture). Peripherals interface 218 transmits information it receives from I/O subsystem 206 or a sensor, such as proximity sensor 266, accelerometer(s) 268, and/or microphone 213 (through audio circuitry 210). Information that peripherals interface 218 receives from I/O subsystem 206 includes information from touch-sensitive display 212 or a touch-sensitive surface.

In some embodiments, event monitor 271 sends requests to the peripherals interface 218 at predetermined intervals. In response, peripherals interface 218 transmits event information. In other embodiments, peripherals interface 218 transmits event information only when there is a significant event (e.g., receiving an input above a predetermined noise threshold and/or for more than a predetermined duration).

In some embodiments, event sorter 270 also includes a hit view determination module 272 and/or an active event recognizer determination module 273.

Hit view determination module 272 provides software procedures for determining where a sub-event has taken place within one or more views when touch-sensitive display 212 displays more than one view. Views are made up of controls and other elements that a user can see on the display.

Another aspect of the user interface associated with an application is a set of views, sometimes herein called application views or user interface windows, in which information is displayed and touch-based gestures occur. The application views (of a respective application) in which a touch is detected correspond to programmatic levels within a programmatic or view hierarchy of the application. For example, the lowest level view in which a touch is detected is called the hit view, and the set of events that are recognized as proper inputs is determined based, at least in part, on the hit view of the initial touch that begins a touch-based gesture.

Hit view determination module 272 receives information related to sub events of a touch-based gesture. When an application has multiple views organized in a hierarchy, hit view determination module 272 identifies a hit view as the lowest view in the hierarchy which should handle the sub-event. In most circumstances, the hit view is the lowest level view in which an initiating sub-event occurs (e.g., the first sub-event in the sequence of sub-events that form an event or potential event). Once the hit view is identified by the hit view determination module 272, the hit view typically receives all sub-events related to the same touch or input source for which it was identified as the hit view.

Active event recognizer determination module 273 determines which view or views within a view hierarchy should receive a particular sequence of sub-events. In some embodiments, active event recognizer determination module 273 determines that only the hit view should receive a particular sequence of sub-events. In other embodiments, active event recognizer determination module 273 determines that all views that include the physical location of a sub-event are actively involved views, and therefore determines that all actively involved views should receive a particular sequence of sub-events. In other embodiments, even if touch sub-events were entirely confined to the area associated with one particular view, views higher in the hierarchy would still remain as actively involved views.

Event dispatcher module 274 dispatches the event information to an event recognizer (e.g., event recognizer 280). In embodiments including active event recognizer determination module 273, event dispatcher module 274 delivers the event information to an event recognizer determined by active event recognizer determination module 273. In some embodiments, event dispatcher module 274 stores in an event queue the event information, which is retrieved by a respective event receiver 282.

In some embodiments, operating system 226 includes event sorter 270. Alternatively, application 236-1 includes event sorter 270. In yet other embodiments, event sorter 270 is a stand-alone module, or a part of another module stored in memory 202, such as contact/motion module 230.

In some embodiments, application 236-1 includes a plurality of event handlers 290 and one or more application views 291, each of which includes instructions for handling touch events that occur within a respective view of the application's user interface. Each application view 291 of the application 236-1 includes one or more event recognizers 280. Typically, a respective application view 291 includes a plurality of event recognizers 280. In other embodiments, one or more of event recognizers 280 are part of a separate module, such as a user interface kit (not shown) or a higher level object from which application 236-1 inherits methods and other properties. In some embodiments, a respective event handler 290 includes one or more of: data updater 276, object updater 277, GUI updater 278, and/or event data 279 received from event sorter 270. Event handler 290 utilizes or calls data updater 276, object updater 277, or GUI updater 278 to update the application internal state 292. Alternatively, one or more of the application views 291 include one or more respective event handlers 290. Also, in some embodiments, one or more of data updater 276, object updater 277, and GUI updater 278 are included in a respective application view 291.

A respective event recognizer 280 receives event information (e.g., event data 279) from event sorter 270 and identifies an event from the event information. Event recognizer 280 includes event receiver 282 and event comparator 284. In some embodiments, event recognizer 280 also includes at least a subset of: metadata 283, and event delivery instructions 288 (which include sub-event delivery instructions).

Event comparator 284 compares the event information to predefined event or sub-event definitions and, based on the comparison, determines an event or sub event, or determines or updates the state of an event or sub-event. In some embodiments, event comparator 284 includes event definitions 286. Event definitions 286 contain definitions of events (e.g., predefined sequences of sub-events), for example, event 1 (287-1), event 2 (287-2), and others. In some embodiments, sub-events in an event (287) include, for example, touch begin, touch end, touch movement, touch cancellation, and multiple touching. In one example, the definition for event 1 (287-1) is a double tap on a displayed object. The double tap, for example, comprises a first touch (touch begin) on the displayed object for a predetermined phase, a first liftoff (touch end) for a predetermined phase, a second touch (touch begin) on the displayed object for a predetermined phase, and a second liftoff (touch end) for a predetermined phase. In another example, the definition for event 2 (287-2) is a dragging on a displayed object. The dragging, for example, comprises a touch (or contact) on the displayed object for a predetermined phase, a movement of the touch across touch-sensitive display 212, and liftoff of the touch (touch end). In some embodiments, the event also includes information for one or more associated event handlers 290.

In some embodiments, event definition 287 includes a definition of an event for a respective user-interface object. In some embodiments, event comparator 284 performs a hit test to determine which user-interface object is associated with a sub-event. For example, in an application view in which three user-interface objects are displayed on touch-sensitive display 212, when a touch is detected on touch-sensitive display 212, event comparator 284 performs a hit test to determine which of the three user-interface objects is associated with the touch (sub-event). If each displayed object is associated with a respective event handler 290, the event comparator uses the result of the hit test to determine which event handler 290 should be activated. For example, event comparator 284 selects an event handler associated with the sub-event and the object triggering the hit test.

In some embodiments, the definition for a respective event (287) also includes delayed actions that delay delivery of the event information until after it has been determined whether the sequence of sub-events does or does not correspond to the event recognizer's event type.

When a respective event recognizer 280 determines that the series of sub-events do not match any of the events in event definitions 286, the respective event recognizer 280 enters an event impossible, event failed, or event ended state, after which it disregards subsequent sub-events of the touch-based gesture. In this situation, other event recognizers, if any, that remain active for the hit view continue to track and process sub-events of an ongoing touch-based gesture.

In some embodiments, a respective event recognizer 280 includes metadata 283 with configurable properties, flags, and/or lists that indicate how the event delivery system should perform sub-event delivery to actively involved event recognizers. In some embodiments, metadata 283 includes configurable properties, flags, and/or lists that indicate how event recognizers interact, or are enabled to interact, with one another. In some embodiments, metadata 283 includes configurable properties, flags, and/or lists that indicate whether sub-events are delivered to varying levels in the view or programmatic hierarchy.

In some embodiments, a respective event recognizer 280 activates event handler 290 associated with an event when one or more particular sub-events of an event are recognized. In some embodiments, a respective event recognizer 280 delivers event information associated with the event to event handler 290. Activating an event handler 290 is distinct from sending (and deferred sending) sub-events to a respective hit view. In some embodiments, event recognizer 280 throws a flag associated with the recognized event, and event handler 290 associated with the flag catches the flag and performs a predefined process.

In some embodiments, data updater 276 creates and updates data used in application 236-1. For example, data updater 276 updates the telephone number used in contacts module 237, or stores a video file used in video player module. In some embodiments, object updater 277 creates and updates objects used in application 236-1. For example, object updater 277 creates a new user-interface object or updates the position of a user-interface object. GUI updater 278 updates the GUI. For example, GUI updater 278 prepares display information and sends it to graphics module 232 for display on a touch-sensitive display.

In some embodiments, event handler(s) 290 includes or has access to data updater 276, object updater 277, and GUI updater 278. In some embodiments, data updater 276, object updater 277, and GUI updater 278 are included in a single module of a respective application 236-1 or application view 291. In other embodiments, they are included in two or more software modules.

FIG. 3 illustrates a portable multifunction device 200 having a touch screen 212 in accordance with some embodiments. The touch screen optionally displays one or more graphics within user interface (UI) 300. In this embodiment, as well as others described below, a user is enabled to select one or more of the graphics by making a gesture on the graphics, for example, with one or more fingers 302 (not drawn to scale in the figure) or one or more styluses 303 (not drawn to scale in the figure). In some embodiments, selection of one or more graphics occurs when the user breaks contact with the one or more graphics. In some embodiments, the gesture optionally includes one or more taps, one or more swipes (from left to right, right to left, upward and/or downward), and/or a rolling of a finger (from right to left, left to right, upward and/or downward) that has made contact with device 200. In some implementations or circumstances, inadvertent contact with a graphic does not select the graphic. For example, a swipe gesture that sweeps over an application icon optionally does not select the corresponding application when the gesture corresponding to selection is a tap.

Device 200 also includes one or more physical buttons, such as “home” or menu button 304. As described previously, menu button 304 is used to navigate to any application 236 in a set of applications that is executed on device 200. Alternatively, in some embodiments, the menu button is implemented as a soft key in a GUI displayed on touch screen 212.

In one embodiment, device 200 includes touch screen 212, menu button 304, push button 306 for powering the device on/off and locking the device, volume adjustment button(s) 308, subscriber identity module (SIM) card slot 310, headset jack 312, and docking/charging external port 224. Push button 306 is, optionally, used to turn the power on/off on the device by depressing the button and holding the button in the depressed state for a predefined time interval; to lock the device by depressing the button and releasing the button before the predefined time interval has elapsed; and/or to unlock the device or initiate an unlock process. In an alternative embodiment, device 200 also accepts verbal input for activation or deactivation of some functions through microphone 213. Device 200 also, optionally, includes one or more contact intensity sensors 265 for detecting intensity of contacts on touch screen 212 and/or one or more tactile output generators 267 for generating tactile outputs for a user of device 200.

FIG. 4A is a block diagram of an exemplary multifunction device with a display and a touch-sensitive surface in accordance with some embodiments. Device 400 need not be portable. In some embodiments, device 400 is a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a tablet computer, a multimedia player device, a navigation device, an educational device (such as a child's learning toy), a gaming system, or a control device (e.g., a home or industrial controller). Device 400 typically includes one or more processing units (CPUs) 410, one or more network or other communications interfaces 460, memory 470, and one or more communication buses 420 for interconnecting these components. Communication buses 420 optionally include circuitry (sometimes called a chipset) that interconnects and controls communications between system components. Device 400 includes input/output (I/O) interface 430 comprising display 440, which is typically a touch screen display. I/O interface 430 also optionally includes a keyboard and/or mouse (or other pointing device) 450 and touchpad 455, tactile output generator 457 for generating tactile outputs on device 400 (e.g., similar to tactile output generator(s) 267 described above with reference to FIG. 2A), sensors 459 (e.g., optical, acceleration, proximity, touch-sensitive, and/or contact intensity sensors similar to contact intensity sensor(s) 265 described above with reference to FIG. 2A). Memory 470 includes high-speed random access memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, DDR RAM, or other random access solid state memory devices; and optionally includes non-volatile memory, such as one or more magnetic disk storage devices, optical disk storage devices, flash memory devices, or other non-volatile solid state storage devices. Memory 470 optionally includes one or more storage devices remotely located from CPU(s) 410. In some embodiments, memory 470 stores programs, modules, and data structures analogous to the programs, modules, and data structures stored in memory 202 of portable multifunction device 200 (FIG. 2A), or a subset thereof. Furthermore, memory 470 optionally stores additional programs, modules, and data structures not present in memory 202 of portable multifunction device 200. For example, memory 470 of device 400 optionally stores drawing module 480, presentation module 482, word processing module 484, website creation module 486, disk authoring module 488, and/or spreadsheet module 490, while memory 202 of portable multifunction device 200 (FIG. 2A) optionally does not store these modules.

Each of the above-identified elements in FIG. 4A is, in some examples, stored in one or more of the previously mentioned memory devices. Each of the above-identified modules corresponds to a set of instructions for performing a function described above. The above-identified modules or programs (e.g., sets of instructions) need not be implemented as separate software programs, procedures, or modules, and thus various subsets of these modules are combined or otherwise rearranged in various embodiments. In some embodiments, memory 470 stores a subset of the modules and data structures identified above. Furthermore, memory 470 stores additional modules and data structures not described above.

Implementations within the scope of the present disclosure can be partially or entirely realized using a tangible computer-readable storage medium (or multiple tangible computer-readable storage media of one or more types) encoding one or more computer-readable instructions. It should be recognized that computer-readable instructions can be organized in any format, including applications, widgets, processes, software, and/or components.

Implementations within the scope of the present disclosure include a computer-readable storage medium that encodes instructions organized as an application (e.g., application 3160) that, when executed by one or more processing units, control an electronic device (e.g., device 3150) to perform the method of FIG. 4B, the method of FIG. 4C, and/or one or more other processes and/or methods described herein.

It should be recognized that application 3160 (shown in FIG. 4D) can be any suitable type of application, including, for example, one or more of: a browser application, an application that functions as an execution environment for plug-ins, widgets or other applications, a fitness application, a health application, a digital payments application, a media application, a social network application, a messaging application, and/or a maps application. In some embodiments, application 3160 is an application that is pre-installed on device 3150 at purchase (e.g., a first-party application). In some embodiments, application 3160 is an application that is provided to device 3150 via an operating system update file (e.g., a first-party application or a second-party application). In some embodiments, application 3160 is an application that is provided via an application store. In some embodiments, the application store can be an application store that is pre-installed on device 3150 at purchase (e.g., a first-party application store). In some embodiments, the application store is a third-party application store (e.g., an application store that is provided by another application store, downloaded via a network, and/or read from a storage device).

Referring to FIG. 4B and FIG. 4F, application 3160 obtains information (e.g., 3010). In some embodiments, at 3010, information is obtained from at least one hardware component of device 3150. In some embodiments, at 3010, information is obtained from at least one software module of device 3150. In some embodiments, at 3010, information is obtained from at least one hardware component external to device 3150 (e.g., a peripheral device, an accessory device, and/or a server). In some embodiments, the information obtained at 3010 includes positional information, time information, notification information, user information, environment information, electronic device state information, weather information, media information, historical information, event information, hardware information, and/or motion information. In some embodiments, in response to and/or after obtaining the information at 3010, application 3160 provides the information to a system (e.g., 3020).

In some embodiments, the system (e.g., 3110 shown in FIG. 4E) is an operating system hosted on device 3150. In some embodiments, the system (e.g., 3110 shown in FIG. 4E) is an external device (e.g., a server, a peripheral device, an accessory, and/or a personal computing device) that includes an operating system.

Referring to FIG. 4C and FIG. 4G, application 3160 obtains information (e.g., 3030). In some embodiments, the information obtained at 3030 includes positional information, time information, notification information, user information, environment information electronic device state information, weather information, media information, historical information, event information, hardware information, and/or motion information. In response to and/or after obtaining the information at 3030, application 3160 performs an operation with the information (e.g., 3040). In some embodiments, the operation performed at 3040 includes: providing a notification based on the information, sending a message based on the information, displaying the information, controlling a user interface of a fitness application based on the information, controlling a user interface of a health application based on the information, controlling a focus mode based on the information, setting a reminder based on the information, adding a calendar entry based on the information, and/or calling an API of system 3110 based on the information.

In some embodiments, one or more steps of the method of FIG. 4B and/or the method of FIG. 4C is performed in response to a trigger. In some embodiments, the trigger includes detection of an event, a notification received from system 3110, a user input, and/or a response to a call to an API provided by system 3110.

In some embodiments, the instructions of application 3160, when executed, control device 3150 to perform the method of FIG. 4B and/or the method of FIG. 4C by calling an application programming interface (API) (e.g., API 3190) provided by system 3110. In some embodiments, application 3160 performs at least a portion of the method of FIG. 4B and/or the method of FIG. 4C without calling API 3190.

In some embodiments, one or more steps of the method of FIG. 4B and/or the method of FIG. 4C includes calling an API (e.g., API 3190) using one or more parameters defined by the API. In some embodiments, the one or more parameters include a constant, a key, a data structure, an object, an object class, a variable, a data type, a pointer, an array, a list or a pointer to a function or method, and/or another way to reference a data or other item to be passed via the API.

Referring to FIG. 4D, device 3150 is illustrated. In some embodiments, device 3150 is a personal computing device, a smart phone, a smart watch, a fitness tracker, a head mounted display (HMD) device, a media device, a communal device, a speaker, a television, and/or a tablet. As illustrated in FIG. 4D, device 3150 includes application 3160 and an operating system (e.g., system 3110 shown in FIG. 4E). Application 3160 includes application implementation module 3170 and API-calling module 3180. System 3110 includes API 3190 and implementation module 3100. It should be recognized that device 3150, application 3160, and/or system 3110 can include more, fewer, and/or different components than illustrated in FIGS. 4D and 4E.

In some embodiments, application implementation module 3170 includes a set of one or more instructions corresponding to one or more operations performed by application 3160. For example, when application 3160 is a messaging application, application implementation module 3170 can include operations to receive and send messages. In some embodiments, application implementation module 3170 communicates with API-calling module 3180 to communicate with system 3110 via API 3190 (shown in FIG. 4E).

In some embodiments, API 3190 is a software module (e.g., a collection of computer-readable instructions) that provides an interface that allows a different module (e.g., API-calling module 3180) to access and/or use one or more functions, methods, procedures, data structures, classes, and/or other services provided by implementation module 3100 of system 3110. For example, API-calling module 3180 can access a feature of implementation module 3100 through one or more API calls or invocations (e.g., embodied by a function or a method call) exposed by API 3190 (e.g., a software and/or hardware module that can receive API calls, respond to API calls, and/or send API calls) and can pass data and/or control information using one or more parameters via the API calls or invocations. In some embodiments, API 3190 allows application 3160 to use a service provided by a Software Development Kit (SDK) library. In some embodiments, application 3160 incorporates a call to a function or method provided by the SDK library and provided by API 3190 or uses data types or objects defined in the SDK library and provided by API 3190. In some embodiments, API-calling module 3180 makes an API call via API 3190 to access and use a feature of implementation module 3100 that is specified by API 3190. In such embodiments, implementation module 3100 can return a value via API 3190 to API-calling module 3180 in response to the API call. The value can report to application 3160 the capabilities or state of a hardware component of device 3150, including those related to aspects such as input capabilities and state, output capabilities and state, processing capability, power state, storage capacity and state, and/or communications capability. In some embodiments, API 3190 is implemented in part by firmware, microcode, or other low level logic that executes in part on the hardware component.

In some embodiments, API 3190 allows a developer of API-calling module 3180 (which can be a third-party developer) to leverage a feature provided by implementation module 3100. In such embodiments, there can be one or more API-calling modules (e.g., including API-calling module 3180) that communicate with implementation module 3100. In some embodiments, API 3190 allows multiple API-calling modules written in different programming languages to communicate with implementation module 3100 (e.g., API 3190 can include features for translating calls and returns between implementation module 3100 and API-calling module 3180) while API 3190 is implemented in terms of a specific programming language. In some embodiments, API-calling module 3180 calls APIs from different providers such as a set of APIs from an OS provider, another set of APIs from a plug-in provider, and/or another set of APIs from another provider (e.g., the provider of a software library) or creator of the another set of APIs.

Examples of API 3190 can include one or more of: a pairing API (e.g., for establishing secure connection, e.g., with an accessory), a device detection API (e.g., for locating nearby devices, e.g., media devices and/or smartphone), a payment API, a UIKit API (e.g., for generating user interfaces), a location detection API, a locator API, a maps API, a health sensor API, a sensor API, a messaging API, a push notification API, a streaming API, a collaboration API, a video conferencing API, an application store API, an advertising services API, a web browser API (e.g., WebKit API), a vehicle API, a networking API, a WiFi API, a Bluetooth API, an NFC API, a UWB API, a fitness API, a smart home API, contact transfer API, photos API, camera API, and/or image processing API. In some embodiments, the sensor API is an API for accessing data associated with a sensor of device 3150. For example, the sensor API can provide access to raw sensor data. For another example, the sensor API can provide data derived (and/or generated) from the raw sensor data. In some embodiments, the sensor data includes temperature data, image data, video data, audio data, heart rate data, IMU (inertial measurement unit) data, lidar data, location data, GPS data, and/or camera data. In some embodiments, the sensor includes one or more of an accelerometer, temperature sensor, infrared sensor, optical sensor, heartrate sensor, barometer, gyroscope, proximity sensor, temperature sensor, and/or biometric sensor.

In some embodiments, implementation module 3100 is a system (e.g., operating system and/or server system) software module (e.g., a collection of computer-readable instructions) that is constructed to perform an operation in response to receiving an API call via API 3190. In some embodiments, implementation module 3100 is constructed to provide an API response (via API 3190) as a result of processing an API call. By way of example, implementation module 3100 and API-calling module 3180 can each be any one of an operating system, a library, a device driver, an API, an application program, or other module. It should be understood that implementation module 3100 and API-calling module 3180 can be the same or different type of module from each other. In some embodiments, implementation module 3100 is embodied at least in part in firmware, microcode, or hardware logic.

In some embodiments, implementation module 3100 returns a value through API 3190 in response to an API call from API-calling module 3180. While API 3190 defines the syntax and result of an API call (e.g., how to invoke the API call and what the API call does), API 3190 might not reveal how implementation module 3100 accomplishes the function specified by the API call. Various API calls are transferred via the one or more application programming interfaces between API-calling module 3180 and implementation module 3100. Transferring the API calls can include issuing, initiating, invoking, calling, receiving, returning, and/or responding to the function calls or messages. In other words, transferring can describe actions by either of API-calling module 3180 or implementation module 3100. In some embodiments, a function call or other invocation of API 3190 sends and/or receives one or more parameters through a parameter list or other structure.

In some embodiments, implementation module 3100 provides more than one API, each providing a different view of or with different aspects of functionality implemented by implementation module 3100. For example, one API of implementation module 3100 can provide a first set of functions and can be exposed to third-party developers, and another API of implementation module 3100 can be hidden (e.g., not exposed) and provide a subset of the first set of functions and also provide another set of functions, such as testing or debugging functions which are not in the first set of functions. In some embodiments, implementation module 3100 calls one or more other components via an underlying API and thus is both an API-calling module and an implementation module. It should be recognized that implementation module 3100 can include additional functions, methods, classes, data structures, and/or other features that are not specified through API 3190 and are not available to API-calling module 3180. It should also be recognized that API-calling module 3180 can be on the same system as implementation module 3100 or can be located remotely and access implementation module 3100 using API 3190 over a network. In some embodiments, implementation module 3100, API 3190, and/or API-calling module 3180 is stored in a machine-readable medium, which includes any mechanism for storing information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., a computer or other data processing system). For example, a machine-readable medium can include magnetic disks, optical disks, random access memory; read only memory, and/or flash memory devices.

An application programming interface (API) is an interface between a first software process and a second software process that specifies a format for communication between the first software process and the second software process. Limited APIs (e.g., private APIs or partner APIs) are APIs that are accessible to a limited set of software processes (e.g., only software processes within an operating system or only software processes that are approved to access the limited APIs). Public APIs that are accessible to a wider set of software processes. Some APIs enable software processes to communicate about or set a state of one or more input devices (e.g., one or more touch sensors, proximity sensors, visual sensors, motion/orientation sensors, pressure sensors, intensity sensors, sound sensors, wireless proximity sensors, biometric sensors, buttons, switches, rotatable elements, and/or external controllers). Some APIs enable software processes to communicate about and/or set a state of one or more output generation components (e.g., one or more audio output generation components, one or more display generation components, and/or one or more tactile output generation components). Some APIs enable particular capabilities (e.g., scrolling, handwriting, text entry, image editing, and/or image creation) to be accessed, performed, and/or used by a software process (e.g., generating outputs for use by a software process based on input from the software process). Some APIs enable content from a software process to be inserted into a template and displayed in a user interface that has a layout and/or behaviors that are specified by the template.

Many software platforms include a set of frameworks that provides the core objects and core behaviors that a software developer needs to build software applications that can be used on the software platform. Software developers use these objects to display content onscreen, to interact with that content, and to manage interactions with the software platform. Software applications rely on the set of frameworks for their basic behavior, and the set of frameworks provides many ways for the software developer to customize the behavior of the application to match the specific needs of the software application. Many of these core objects and core behaviors are accessed via an API. An API will typically specify a format for communication between software processes, including specifying and grouping available variables, functions, and protocols. An API call (sometimes referred to as an API request) will typically be sent from a sending software process to a receiving software process as a way to accomplish one or more of the following: the sending software process requesting information from the receiving software process (e.g., for the sending software process to take action on), the sending software process providing information to the receiving software process (e.g., for the receiving software process to take action on), the sending software process requesting action by the receiving software process, or the sending software process providing information to the receiving software process about action taken by the sending software process. Interaction with a device (e.g., using a user interface) will in some circumstances include the transfer and/or receipt of one or more API calls (e.g., multiple API calls) between multiple different software processes (e.g., different portions of an operating system, an application and an operating system, or different applications) via one or more APIs (e.g., via multiple different APIs). For example, when an input is detected the direct sensor data is frequently processed into one or more input events that are provided (e.g., via an API) to a receiving software process that makes some determination based on the input events, and then sends (e.g., via an API) information to a software process to perform an operation (e.g., change a device state and/or user interface) based on the determination. While a determination and an operation performed in response could be made by the same software process, alternatively the determination could be made in a first software process and relayed (e.g., via an API) to a second software process, that is different from the first software process, that causes the operation to be performed by the second software process. Alternatively, the second software process could relay instructions (e.g., via an API) to a third software process that is different from the first software process and/or the second software process to perform the operation. It should be understood that some or all user interactions with a computer system could involve one or more API calls within a step of interacting with the computer system (e.g., between different software components of the computer system or between a software component of the computer system and a software component of one or more remote computer systems). It should be understood that some or all user interactions with a computer system could involve one or more API calls between steps of interacting with the computer system (e.g., between different software components of the computer system or between a software component of the computer system and a software component of one or more remote computer systems).

In some embodiments, the application can be any suitable type of application, including, for example, one or more of: a browser application, an application that functions as an execution environment for plug-ins, widgets or other applications, a fitness application, a health application, a digital payments application, a media application, a social network application, a messaging application, and/or a maps application.

In some embodiments, the application is an application that is pre-installed on the first computer system at purchase (e.g., a first-party application). In some embodiments, the application is an application that is provided to the first computer system via an operating system update file (e.g., a first-party application). In some embodiments, the application is an application that is provided via an application store. In some embodiments, the application store is pre-installed on the first computer system at purchase (e.g., a first-party application store) and allows download of one or more applications. In some embodiments, the application store is a third-party application store (e.g., an application store that is provided by another device, downloaded via a network, and/or read from a storage device). In some embodiments, the application is a third-party application (e.g., an app that is provided by an application store, downloaded via a network, and/or read from a storage device). In some embodiments, the application controls the first computer system to perform processes 900, and/or 1000 (FIGS. 9 and/or 10) by calling an application programming interface (API) provided by the system process using one or more parameters.

In some embodiments, exemplary APIs provided by the system process include one or more of: a pairing API (e.g., for establishing secure connection, e.g., with an accessory), a device detection API (e.g., for locating nearby devices, e.g., media devices and/or smartphone), a payment API, a UIKit API (e.g., for generating user interfaces), a location detection API, a locator API, a maps API, a health sensor API, a sensor API, a messaging API, a push notification API, a streaming API, a collaboration API, a video conferencing API, an application store API, an advertising services API, a web browser API (e.g., WebKit API), a vehicle API, a networking API, a WiFi API, a Bluetooth API, an NFC API, a UWB API, a fitness API, a smart home API, contact transfer API, a photos API, a camera API, and/or an image processing API.

In some embodiments, at least one API is a software module (e.g., a collection of computer-readable instructions) that provides an interface that allows a different module (e.g., API-calling module) to access and use one or more functions, methods, procedures, data structures, classes, and/or other services provided by an implementation module of the system process. The API can define one or more parameters that are passed between the API-calling module and the implementation module. In some embodiments, API 3190 defines a first API call that can be provided by API-calling module 3180. The implementation module is a system software module (e.g., a collection of computer-readable instructions) that is constructed to perform an operation in response to receiving an API call via the API. In some embodiments, the implementation module is constructed to provide an API response (via the API) as a result of processing an API call. In some embodiments, the implementation module is included in the device (e.g., 3150) that runs the application. In some embodiments, the implementation module is included in an electronic device that is separate from the device that runs the application.

Attention is now directed towards embodiments of user interfaces that can be implemented on, for example, portable multifunction device 200.

FIG. 5A illustrates an exemplary user interface for a menu of applications on portable multifunction device 200 in accordance with some embodiments. Similar user interfaces are implemented on device 400. In some embodiments, user interface 500 includes the following elements, or a subset or superset thereof:

Signal strength indicator(s) 502 for wireless communication(s), such as cellular and Wi-Fi signals;

It should be noted that the icon labels illustrated in FIG. 5A are merely exemplary. For example, icon 522 for video and music player module 252 is optionally labeled “Music” or “Music Player.” Other labels are, optionally, used for various application icons. In some embodiments, a label for a respective application icon includes a name of an application corresponding to the respective application icon. In some embodiments, a label for a particular application icon is distinct from a name of an application corresponding to the particular application icon.

FIG. 5B illustrates an exemplary user interface on a device (e.g., device 400, FIG. 4A) with a touch-sensitive surface 551 (e.g., a tablet or touchpad 455, FIG. 4A) that is separate from the display 550 (e.g., touch screen display 212). Device 400 also, optionally, includes one or more contact intensity sensors (e.g., one or more of sensors 459) for detecting intensity of contacts on touch-sensitive surface 551 and/or one or more tactile output generators 457 for generating tactile outputs for a user of device 400.

Although some of the examples which follow will be given with reference to inputs on touch screen display 212 (where the touch-sensitive surface and the display are combined), in some embodiments, the device detects inputs on a touch-sensitive surface that is separate from the display, as shown in FIG. 5B. In some embodiments, the touch-sensitive surface (e.g., 551 in FIG. 5B) has a primary axis (e.g., 552 in FIG. 5B) that corresponds to a primary axis (e.g., 553 in FIG. 5B) on the display (e.g., 550). In accordance with these embodiments, the device detects contacts (e.g., 560 and 562 in FIG. 5B) with the touch-sensitive surface 551 at locations that correspond to respective locations on the display (e.g., in FIG. 5B, contact 560 corresponds to 568 and contact 562 corresponds to 570). In this way, user inputs (e.g., contacts 560 and 562, and movements thereof) detected by the device on the touch-sensitive surface (e.g., 551 in FIG. 5B) are used by the device to manipulate the user interface on the display (e.g., 550 in FIG. 5B) of the multifunction device when the touch-sensitive surface is separate from the display. It should be understood that similar methods are, optionally, used for other user interfaces described herein.

FIG. 6A illustrates exemplary personal electronic device 600. Device 600 includes body 602. In some embodiments, device 600 includes some or all of the features described with respect to devices 200 and 400 (e.g., FIGS. 2A-4A). In some embodiments, device 600 has touch-sensitive display screen 604, hereafter touch screen 604. Alternatively, or in addition to touch screen 604, device 600 has a display and a touch-sensitive surface. As with devices 200 and 400, in some embodiments, touch screen 604 (or the touch-sensitive surface) has one or more intensity sensors for detecting intensity of contacts (e.g., touches) being applied. The one or more intensity sensors of touch screen 604 (or the touch-sensitive surface) provide output data that represents the intensity of touches. The user interface of device 600 responds to touches based on their intensity, meaning that touches of different intensities can invoke different user interface operations on device 600.

Techniques for detecting and processing touch intensity are found, for example, in related applications: International Patent Application Serial No. PCT/US2013/040061, titled “Device, Method, and Graphical User Interface for Displaying User Interface Objects Corresponding to an Application,” filed May 8, 2013, and International Patent Application Serial No. PCT/US2013/069483, titled “Device, Method, and Graphical User Interface for Transitioning Between Touch Input to Display Output Relationships,” filed Nov. 11, 2013, each of which is hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

In some embodiments, device 600 has one or more input mechanisms 606 and 608. Input mechanisms 606 and 608, if included, are physical. Examples of physical input mechanisms include push buttons and rotatable mechanisms. In some embodiments, device 600 has one or more attachment mechanisms. Such attachment mechanisms, if included, can permit attachment of device 600 with, for example, hats, eyewear, earrings, necklaces, shirts, jackets, bracelets, watch straps, chains, trousers, belts, shoes, purses, backpacks, and so forth. These attachment mechanisms permit device 600 to be worn by a user.

FIG. 6B depicts exemplary personal electronic device 600. In some embodiments, device 600 includes some or all of the components described with respect to FIGS. 2A, 2B, and 4A. Device 600 has bus 612 that operatively couples I/O section 614 with one or more computer processors 616 and memory 618. I/O section 614 is connected to display 604, which can have touch-sensitive component 622 and, optionally, touch-intensity sensitive component 624. In addition, I/O section 614 is connected with communication unit 630 for receiving application and operating system data, using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, near field communication (NFC), cellular, and/or other wireless communication techniques. Device 600 includes input mechanisms 606 and/or 608. Input mechanism 606 is a rotatable input device or a depressible and rotatable input device, for example. Input mechanism 608 is a button, in some examples.

Input mechanism 608 is a microphone, in some examples. Personal electronic device 600 includes, for example, various sensors, such as GPS sensor 632, accelerometer 634, directional sensor 640 (e.g., compass), gyroscope 636, motion sensor 638, and/or a combination thereof, all of which are operatively connected to I/O section 614.

Memory 618 of personal electronic device 600 is a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, for storing computer-executable instructions, which, when executed by one or more computer processors 616, for example, cause the computer processors to perform the techniques and processes described below. The computer-executable instructions, for example, are also stored and/or transported within any non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device, such as a computer-based system, processor-containing system, or other system that can fetch the instructions from the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device and execute the instructions. Personal electronic device 600 is not limited to the components and configuration of FIG. 6B, but can include other or additional components in multiple configurations.

As used here, the term “affordance” refers to a user-interactive graphical user interface object that is, for example, displayed on the display screen of devices 200, 400, 600, and/or 800 (FIGS. 2A, 4A, 6A-6B, and 8A-8Y). For example, an image (e.g., icon), a button, and text (e.g., hyperlink) each constitutes an affordance.

3. Digital Assistant System

FIG. 7A illustrates a block diagram of digital assistant system 700 in accordance with various examples. In some examples, digital assistant system 700 is implemented on a standalone computer system. In some examples, digital assistant system 700 is distributed across multiple computers. In some examples, some of the modules and functions of the digital assistant are divided into a server portion and a client portion, where the client portion resides on one or more user devices (e.g., devices 104, 122, 200, 400, 600, and/or 800) and communicates with the server portion (e.g., server system 108) through one or more networks, e.g., as shown in FIG. 1. In some examples, digital assistant system 700 is an implementation of server system 108 (and/or DA server 106) shown in FIG. 1. It should be noted that digital assistant system 700 is only one example of a digital assistant system, and that digital assistant system 700 can have more or fewer components than shown, can combine two or more components, or can have a different configuration or arrangement of the components. The various components shown in FIG. 7A are implemented in hardware, software instructions for execution by one or more processors, firmware, including one or more signal processing and/or application specific integrated circuits, or a combination thereof.

Digital assistant system 700 includes memory 702, one or more processors 704, input/output (I/O) interface 706, and network communications interface 708. These components can communicate with one another over one or more communication buses or signal lines 710.

In some examples, memory 702 includes a non-transitory computer-readable medium, such as high-speed random access memory and/or a non-volatile computer-readable storage medium (e.g., one or more magnetic disk storage devices, flash memory devices, or other non-volatile solid-state memory devices).

In some examples, I/O interface 706 couples input/output devices 716 of digital assistant system 700, such as displays, keyboards, touch screens, and microphones, to user interface module 722. I/O interface 706, in conjunction with user interface module 722, receives user inputs (e.g., voice input, keyboard inputs, touch inputs, etc.) and processes them accordingly. In some examples, e.g., when the digital assistant is implemented on a standalone user device, digital assistant system 700 includes any of the components and I/O communication interfaces described with respect to devices 200, 400, 600, and/or 800 in FIGS. 2A, 4A, 6A-6B, and 8A-8Y respectively. In some examples, digital assistant system 700 represents the server portion of a digital assistant implementation, and can interact with the user through a client-side portion residing on a user device (e.g., devices 104, 200, 400, 600, and/or 800).

In some examples, the network communications interface 708 includes wired communication port(s) 712 and/or wireless transmission and reception circuitry 714. The wired communication port(s) receives and send communication signals via one or more wired interfaces, e.g., Ethernet, Universal Serial Bus (USB), FIREWIRE, etc. The wireless circuitry 714 receives and sends RF signals and/or optical signals from/to communications networks and other communications devices. The wireless communications use any of a plurality of communications standards, protocols, and technologies, such as GSM, EDGE, CDMA, TDMA, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, VOIP, Wi-MAX, or any other suitable communication protocol. Network communications interface 708 enables communication between digital assistant system 700 with networks, such as the Internet, an intranet, and/or a wireless network, such as a cellular telephone network, a wireless local area network (LAN), and/or a metropolitan area network (MAN), and other devices.

In some examples, memory 702, or the computer-readable storage media of memory 702, stores programs, modules, instructions, and data structures including all or a subset of: operating system 718, communications module 720, user interface module 722, one or more applications 724, and digital assistant module 726. In particular, memory 702, or the computer-readable storage media of memory 702, stores instructions for performing the processes described below. One or more processors 704 execute these programs, modules, and instructions, and reads/writes from/to the data structures.

Operating system 718 (e.g., Darwin, RTXC, LINUX, UNIX, iOS, OS X, WINDOWS, or an embedded operating system such as VxWorks) includes various software components and/or drivers for controlling and managing general system tasks (e.g., memory management, storage device control, power management, etc.) and facilitates communications between various hardware, firmware, and software components.

Communications module 720 facilitates communications between digital assistant system 700 with other devices over network communications interface 708. For example, communications module 720 communicates with RF circuitry 208 of electronic devices such as devices 200, 400, and 600 shown in FIGS. 2A, 4A, 6A-6B, respectively. Communications module 720 also includes various components for handling data received by wireless circuitry 714 and/or wired communications port 712.

User interface module 722 receives commands and/or inputs from a user via I/O interface 706 (e.g., from a keyboard, touch screen, pointing device, controller, and/or microphone), and generate user interface objects on a display. User interface module 722 also prepares and delivers outputs (e.g., speech, sound, animation, text, icons, vibrations, haptic feedback, light, etc.) to the user via the I/O interface 706 (e.g., through displays, audio channels, speakers, touch-pads, etc.).

Applications 724 include programs and/or modules that are configured to be executed by one or more processors 704. For example, if the digital assistant system is implemented on a standalone user device, applications 724 include user applications, such as games, a calendar application, a navigation application, or an email application. If digital assistant system 700 is implemented on a server, applications 724 include resource management applications, diagnostic applications, or scheduling applications, for example.

Memory 702 also stores digital assistant module 726 (or the server portion of a digital assistant). In some examples, digital assistant module 726 includes the following sub-modules, or a subset or superset thereof: input/output processing module 728, speech-to-text (STT) processing module 730, natural language processing module 732, dialogue flow processing module 734, task flow processing module 736, service processing module 738, and speech synthesis processing module 740. Each of these modules has access to one or more of the following systems or data and models of the digital assistant module 726, or a subset or superset thereof: ontology 760, vocabulary index 744, user data 748, task flow models 754, service models 756, and ASR systems 758.

In some examples, using the processing modules, data, and models implemented in digital assistant module 726, the digital assistant can perform at least some of the following: converting speech input into text; identifying a user's intent expressed in a natural language input received from the user; actively eliciting and obtaining information needed to fully infer the user's intent (e.g., by disambiguating words, games, intentions, etc.); determining the task flow for fulfilling the inferred intent; and executing the task flow to fulfill the inferred intent.

In some examples, as shown in FIG. 7B, I/O processing module 728 interacts with the user through I/O devices 716 in FIG. 7A or with a user device (e.g., devices 104, 200, 400, or 600) through network communications interface 708 in FIG. 7A to obtain user input (e.g., a speech input) and to provide responses (e.g., as speech outputs) to the user input. I/O processing module 728 optionally obtains contextual information associated with the user input from the user device, along with or shortly after the receipt of the user input. The contextual information includes user-specific data, vocabulary, and/or preferences relevant to the user input. In some examples, the contextual information also includes software and hardware states of the user device at the time the user request is received, and/or information related to the surrounding environment of the user at the time that the user request was received. In some examples, I/O processing module 728 also sends follow-up questions to, and receive answers from, the user regarding the user request. When a user request is received by I/O processing module 728 and the user request includes speech input, I/O processing module 728 forwards the speech input to STT processing module 730 (or speech recognizer) for speech-to-text conversions.

STT processing module 730 includes one or more ASR systems 758. The one or more ASR systems 758 can process the speech input that is received through I/O processing module 728 to produce a recognition result. Each ASR system 758 includes a front-end speech pre-processor. The front-end speech pre-processor extracts representative features from the speech input. For example, the front-end speech pre-processor performs a Fourier transform on the speech input to extract spectral features that characterize the speech input as a sequence of representative multi-dimensional vectors. Further, each ASR system 758 includes one or more speech recognition models (e.g., acoustic models and/or language models) and implements one or more speech recognition engines. Examples of speech recognition models include Hidden Markov Models, Gaussian-Mixture Models, Deep Neural Network Models, n-gram language models, and other statistical models. Examples of speech recognition engines include the dynamic time warping based engines and weighted finite-state transducers (WFST) based engines. The one or more speech recognition models and the one or more speech recognition engines are used to process the extracted representative features of the front-end speech pre-processor to produce intermediate recognitions results (e.g., phonemes, phonemic strings, and sub-words), and ultimately, text recognition results (e.g., words, word strings, or sequence of tokens). In some examples, the speech input is processed at least partially by a third-party service or on the user's device (e.g., device 104, 200, 400, or 600) to produce the recognition result. Once STT processing module 730 produces recognition results containing a text string (e.g., words, or sequence of words, or sequence of tokens), the recognition result is passed to natural language processing module 732 for intent deduction. In some examples, STT processing module 730 produces multiple candidate text representations of the speech input. Each candidate text representation is a sequence of words or tokens corresponding to the speech input. In some examples, each candidate text representation is associated with a speech recognition confidence score. Based on the speech recognition confidence scores, STT processing module 730 ranks the candidate text representations and provides the n-best (e.g., n highest ranked) candidate text representation(s) to natural language processing module 732 for intent deduction, where n is a predetermined integer greater than zero. For example, in one example, only the highest ranked (n=1) candidate text representation is passed to natural language processing module 732 for intent deduction. In another example, the five highest ranked (n=5) candidate text representations are passed to natural language processing module 732 for intent deduction.

More details on the speech-to-text processing are described in U.S. Utility application Ser. No. 13/236,942 for “Consolidating Speech Recognition Results,” filed on Sep. 20, 2011, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

In some examples, STT processing module 730 includes and/or accesses a vocabulary of recognizable words via phonetic alphabet conversion module 731. Each vocabulary word is associated with one or more candidate pronunciations of the word represented in a speech recognition phonetic alphabet. In particular, the vocabulary of recognizable words includes a word that is associated with a plurality of candidate pronunciations. For example, the vocabulary includes the word “tomato” that is associated with the candidate pronunciations of // and //. Further, vocabulary words are associated with custom candidate pronunciations that are based on previous speech inputs from the user. Such custom candidate pronunciations are stored in STT processing module 730 and are associated with a particular user via the user's profile on the device. In some examples, the candidate pronunciations for words are determined based on the spelling of the word and one or more linguistic and/or phonetic rules. In some examples, the candidate pronunciations are manually generated, e.g., based on known canonical pronunciations.

In some examples, the candidate pronunciations are ranked based on the commonness of the candidate pronunciation. For example, the candidate pronunciation /z,21 / is ranked higher than /t/, because the former is a more commonly used pronunciation (e.g., among all users, for users in a particular geographical region, or for any other appropriate subset of users). In some examples, candidate pronunciations are ranked based on whether the candidate pronunciation is a custom candidate pronunciation associated with the user. For example, custom candidate pronunciations are ranked higher than canonical candidate pronunciations. This can be useful for recognizing proper nouns having a unique pronunciation that deviates from canonical pronunciation. In some examples, candidate pronunciations are associated with one or more speech characteristics, such as geographic origin, nationality, or ethnicity. For example, the candidate pronunciation /t/ is associated with the United States, whereas the candidate pronunciation // is associated with Great Britain. Further, the rank of the candidate pronunciation is based on one or more characteristics (e.g., geographic origin, nationality, ethnicity, etc.) of the user stored in the user's profile on the device. For example, it can be determined from the user's profile that the user is associated with the United States. Based on the user being associated with the United States, the candidate pronunciation // (associated with the United States) is ranked higher than the candidate pronunciation // (associated with Great Britain). In some examples, one of the ranked candidate pronunciations is selected as a predicted pronunciation (e.g., the most likely pronunciation).

When a speech input is received, STT processing module 730 is used to determine the phonemes corresponding to the speech input (e.g., using an acoustic model), and then attempt to determine words that match the phonemes (e.g., using a language model). For example, if STT processing module 730 first identifies the sequence of phonemes // corresponding to a portion of the speech input, it can then determine, based on vocabulary index 744, that this sequence corresponds to the word “tomato.”

In some examples, STT processing module 730 uses approximate matching techniques to determine words in an utterance. Thus, for example, the STT processing module 730 determines that the sequence of phonemes // corresponds to the word “tomato,” even if that particular sequence of phonemes is not one of the candidate sequence of phonemes for that word.

Natural language processing module 732 (“natural language processor”) of the digital assistant takes the n-best candidate text representation(s) (“word sequence(s)” or “token sequence(s)”) generated by STT processing module 730, and attempts to associate each of the candidate text representations with one or more “actionable intents” recognized by the digital assistant. An “actionable intent” (or “user intent”) represents a task that can be performed by the digital assistant, and can have an associated task flow implemented in task flow models 754. The associated task flow is a series of programmed actions and steps that the digital assistant takes in order to perform the task. The scope of a digital assistant's capabilities is dependent on the number and variety of task flows that have been implemented and stored in task flow models 754, or in other words, on the number and variety of “actionable intents” that the digital assistant recognizes. The effectiveness of the digital assistant, however, also dependents on the assistant's ability to infer the correct “actionable intent(s)” from the user request expressed in natural language.

In some examples, in addition to the sequence of words or tokens obtained from STT processing module 730, natural language processing module 732 also receives contextual information associated with the user request, e.g., from I/O processing module 728. The natural language processing module 732 optionally uses the contextual information to clarify, supplement, and/or further define the information contained in the candidate text representations received from STT processing module 730. The contextual information includes, for example, user preferences, hardware, and/or software states of the user device, sensor information collected before, during, or shortly after the user request, prior interactions (e.g., dialogue) between the digital assistant and the user, and the like. As described herein, contextual information is, in some examples, dynamic, and changes with time, location, content of the dialogue, and other factors.

In some examples, the natural language processing is based on, e.g., ontology 760. Ontology 760 is a hierarchical structure containing many nodes, each node representing either an “actionable intent” or a “property” relevant to one or more of the “actionable intents” or other “properties.” As noted above, an “actionable intent” represents a task that the digital assistant is capable of performing, i.e., it is “actionable” or can be acted on. A “property” represents a parameter associated with an actionable intent or a sub-aspect of another property. A linkage between an actionable intent node and a property node in ontology 760 defines how a parameter represented by the property node pertains to the task represented by the actionable intent node.

In some examples, ontology 760 is made up of actionable intent nodes and property nodes. Within ontology 760, each actionable intent node is linked to one or more property nodes either directly or through one or more intermediate property nodes. Similarly, each property node is linked to one or more actionable intent nodes either directly or through one or more intermediate property nodes. For example, as shown in FIG. 7C, ontology 760 includes a “restaurant reservation” node (i.e., an actionable intent node). Property nodes “restaurant,” “date/time” (for the reservation), and “party size” are each directly linked to the actionable intent node (i.e., the “restaurant reservation” node).

In addition, property nodes “cuisine,” “price range,” “phone number,” and “location” are sub-nodes of the property node “restaurant,” and are each linked to the “restaurant reservation” node (i.e., the actionable intent node) through the intermediate property node “restaurant.” For another example, as shown in FIG. 7C, ontology 760 also includes a “set reminder” node (i.e., another actionable intent node). Property nodes “date/time” (for setting the reminder) and “subject” (for the reminder) are each linked to the “set reminder” node. Since the property “date/time” is relevant to both the task of making a restaurant reservation and the task of setting a reminder, the property node “date/time” is linked to both the “restaurant reservation” node and the “set reminder” node in ontology 760.

An actionable intent node, along with its linked property nodes, is described as a “domain.” In the present discussion, each domain is associated with a respective actionable intent, and refers to the group of nodes (and the relationships there between) associated with the particular actionable intent. For example, ontology 760 shown in FIG. 7C includes an example of restaurant reservation domain 762 and an example of reminder domain 764 within ontology 760. The restaurant reservation domain includes the actionable intent node “restaurant reservation,” property nodes “restaurant,” “date/time,” and “party size,” and sub-property nodes “cuisine,” “price range,” “phone number,” and “location.” Reminder domain 764 includes the actionable intent node “set reminder,” and property nodes “subject” and “date/time.” In some examples, ontology 760 is made up of many domains. Each domain shares one or more property nodes with one or more other domains. For example, the “date/time” property node is associated with many different domains (e.g., a scheduling domain, a travel reservation domain, a movie ticket domain, etc.), in addition to restaurant reservation domain 762 and reminder domain 764.

While FIG. 7C illustrates two example domains within ontology 760, other domains include, for example, “find a movie,” “initiate a phone call,” “find directions,” “schedule a meeting,” “send a message,” and “provide an answer to a question,” “read a list,” “providing navigation instructions,” “provide instructions for a task” and so on. A “send a message” domain is associated with a “send a message” actionable intent node, and further includes property nodes such as “recipient(s),” “message type,” and “message body.” The property node “recipient” is further defined, for example, by the sub-property nodes such as “recipient name” and “message address.”

In some examples, ontology 760 includes all the domains (and hence actionable intents) that the digital assistant is capable of understanding and acting upon. In some examples, ontology 760 is modified, such as by adding or removing entire domains or nodes, or by modifying relationships between the nodes within the ontology 760.

In some examples, nodes associated with multiple related actionable intents are clustered under a “super domain” in ontology 760. For example, a “travel” super-domain includes a cluster of property nodes and actionable intent nodes related to travel. The actionable intent nodes related to travel includes “airline reservation,” “hotel reservation,” “car rental,” “get directions,” “find points of interest,” and so on. The actionable intent nodes under the same super domain (e.g., the “travel” super domain) have many property nodes in common. For example, the actionable intent nodes for “airline reservation,” “hotel reservation,” “car rental,” “get directions,” and “find points of interest” share one or more of the property nodes “start location,” “destination,” “departure date/time,” “arrival date/time,” and “party size.”

In some examples, each node in ontology 760 is associated with a set of words and/or phrases that are relevant to the property or actionable intent represented by the node. The respective set of words and/or phrases associated with each node are the so-called “vocabulary” associated with the node. The respective set of words and/or phrases associated with each node are stored in vocabulary index 744 in association with the property or actionable intent represented by the node. For example, returning to FIG. 7B, the vocabulary associated with the node for the property of “restaurant” includes words such as “food,” “drinks,” “cuisine,” “hungry,” “eat,” “pizza,” “fast food,” “meal,” and so on. For another example, the vocabulary associated with the node for the actionable intent of “initiate a phone call” includes words and phrases such as “call,” “phone,” “dial,” “ring,” “call this number,” “make a call to,” and so on. The vocabulary index 744 optionally includes words and phrases in different languages.

Natural language processing module 732 receives the candidate text representations (e.g., text string(s) or token sequence(s)) from STT processing module 730, and for each candidate representation, determines what nodes are implicated by the words in the candidate text representation. In some examples, if a word or phrase in the candidate text representation is found to be associated with one or more nodes in ontology 760 (via vocabulary index 744), the word or phrase “triggers” or “activates” those nodes. Based on the quantity and/or relative importance of the activated nodes, natural language processing module 732 selects one of the actionable intents as the task that the user intended the digital assistant to perform. In some examples, the domain that has the most “triggered” nodes is selected. In some examples, the domain having the highest confidence value (e.g., based on the relative importance of its various triggered nodes) is selected. In some examples, the domain is selected based on a combination of the number and the importance of the triggered nodes. In some examples, additional factors are considered in selecting the node as well, such as whether the digital assistant has previously correctly interpreted a similar request from a user.

User data 748 includes user-specific information, such as user-specific vocabulary, user preferences, user address, user's default and secondary languages, user's contact list, and other short-term or long-term information for each user. In some examples, natural language processing module 732 uses the user-specific information to supplement the information contained in the user input to further define the user intent. For example, for a user request “invite my friends to my birthday party,” natural language processing module 732 is able to access user data 748 to determine who the “friends” are and when and where the “birthday party” would be held, rather than requiring the user to provide such information explicitly in his/her request.

It should be recognized that in some examples, natural language processing module 732 is implemented using one or more machine learning mechanisms (e.g., neural networks). In particular, the one or more machine learning mechanisms are configured to receive a candidate text representation and contextual information associated with the candidate text representation. Based on the candidate text representation and the associated contextual information, the one or more machine learning mechanisms are configured to determine intent confidence scores over a set of candidate actionable intents. Natural language processing module 732 can select one or more candidate actionable intents from the set of candidate actionable intents based on the determined intent confidence scores. In some examples, an ontology (e.g., ontology 760) is also used to select the one or more candidate actionable intents from the set of candidate actionable intents.

Other details of searching an ontology based on a token string are described in U.S. Utility application Ser. No. 12/341,743 for “Method and Apparatus for Searching Using An Active Ontology,” filed Dec. 22, 2008, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

In some examples, once natural language processing module 732 identifies an actionable intent (or domain) based on the user request, natural language processing module 732 generates a structured query to represent the identified actionable intent. In some examples, the structured query includes parameters for one or more nodes within the domain for the actionable intent, and at least some of the parameters are populated with the specific information and requirements specified in the user request. For example, the user says “Make me a dinner reservation at a sushi place at 7.” In this case, natural language processing module 732 is able to correctly identify the actionable intent to be “restaurant reservation” based on the user input. According to the ontology, a structured query for a “restaurant reservation” domain includes parameters such as {Cuisine}, {Time}, {Date}, {Party Size}, and the like. In some examples, based on the speech input and the text derived from the speech input using STT processing module 730, natural language processing module 732 generates a partial structured query for the restaurant reservation domain, where the partial structured query includes the parameters {Cuisine=“Sushi”} and {Time=“7 pm”}. However, in this example, the user's utterance contains insufficient information to complete the structured query associated with the domain. Therefore, other necessary parameters such as {Party Size} and {Date} are not specified in the structured query based on the information currently available. In some examples, natural language processing module 732 populates some parameters of the structured query with received contextual information. For example, in some examples, if the user requested a sushi restaurant “near me,” natural language processing module 732 populates a {location} parameter in the structured query with GPS coordinates from the user device.

In some examples, natural language processing module 732 identifies multiple candidate actionable intents for each candidate text representation received from STT processing module 730. Further, in some examples, a respective structured query (partial or complete) is generated for each identified candidate actionable intent. Natural language processing module 732 determines an intent confidence score for each candidate actionable intent and ranks the candidate actionable intents based on the intent confidence scores. In some examples, natural language processing module 732 passes the generated structured query (or queries), including any completed parameters, to task flow processing module 736 (“task flow processor”). In some examples, the structured query (or queries) for the m-best (e.g., m highest ranked) candidate actionable intents are provided to task flow processing module 736, where m is a predetermined integer greater than zero. In some examples, the structured query (or queries) for the m-best candidate actionable intents are provided to task flow processing module 736 with the corresponding candidate text representation(s).

Other details of inferring a user intent based on multiple candidate actionable intents determined from multiple candidate text representations of a speech input are described in U.S. Utility application Ser. No. 14/298,725 for “System and Method for Inferring User Intent From Speech Inputs,” filed Jun. 6, 2014, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

Task flow processing module 736 is configured to receive the structured query (or queries) from natural language processing module 732, complete the structured query, if necessary, and perform the actions required to “complete” the user's ultimate request. In some examples, the various procedures necessary to complete these tasks are provided in task flow models 754. In some examples, task flow models 754 include procedures for obtaining additional information from the user and task flows for performing actions associated with the actionable intent.

As described above, in order to complete a structured query, task flow processing module 736 needs to initiate additional dialogue with the user in order to obtain additional information, and/or disambiguate potentially ambiguous utterances. When such interactions are necessary, task flow processing module 736 invokes dialogue flow processing module 734 to engage in a dialogue with the user. In some examples, dialogue flow processing module 734 determines how (and/or when) to ask the user for the additional information and receives and processes the user responses. The questions are provided to and answers are received from the users through I/O processing module 728. In some examples, dialogue flow processing module 734 presents dialogue output to the user via audio and/or visual output, and receives input from the user via spoken or physical (e.g., clicking) responses. Continuing with the example above, when task flow processing module 736 invokes dialogue flow processing module 734 to determine the “party size” and “date” information for the structured query associated with the domain “restaurant reservation,” dialogue flow processing module 734 generates questions such as “For how many people?” and “On which day?” to pass to the user. Once answers are received from the user, dialogue flow processing module 734 then populates the structured query with the missing information, or pass the information to task flow processing module 736 to complete the missing information from the structured query.

Once task flow processing module 736 has completed the structured query for an actionable intent, task flow processing module 736 proceeds to perform the ultimate task associated with the actionable intent. Accordingly, task flow processing module 736 executes the steps and instructions in the task flow model according to the specific parameters contained in the structured query. For example, the task flow model for the actionable intent of “restaurant reservation” includes steps and instructions for contacting a restaurant and actually requesting a reservation for a particular party size at a particular time. For example, using a structured query such as: {restaurant reservation, restaurant=ABC Café, date=Mar. 12, 2012, time=7 pm, party size=5}, task flow processing module 736 performs the steps of: (1) logging onto a server of the ABC Café or a restaurant reservation system such as OPENTABLE®, (2) entering the date, time, and party size information in a form on the website, (3) submitting the form, and (4) making a calendar entry for the reservation in the user's calendar.

In some examples, task flow processing module 736 employs the assistance of service processing module 738 (“service processing module”) to complete a task requested in the user input or to provide an informational answer requested in the user input. For example, service processing module 738 acts on behalf of task flow processing module 736 to make a phone call, set a calendar entry, invoke a map search, invoke or interact with other user applications installed on the user device, and invoke or interact with third-party services (e.g., a restaurant reservation portal, a social networking website, a banking portal, etc.). In some examples, the protocols and application programming interfaces (API) required by each service are specified by a respective service model among service models 756. Service processing module 738 accesses the appropriate service model for a service and generates requests for the service in accordance with the protocols and APIs required by the service according to the service model.

For example, if a restaurant has enabled an online reservation service, the restaurant submits a service model specifying the necessary parameters for making a reservation and the APIs for communicating the values of the necessary parameter to the online reservation service. When requested by task flow processing module 736, service processing module 738 establishes a network connection with the online reservation service using the web address stored in the service model, and sends the necessary parameters of the reservation (e.g., time, date, party size) to the online reservation interface in a format according to the API of the online reservation service.

In some examples, natural language processing module 732, dialogue flow processing module 734, and task flow processing module 736 are used collectively and iteratively to infer and define the user's intent, obtain information to further clarify and refine the user intent, and finally generate a response (i.e., an output to the user, or the completion of a task) to fulfill the user's intent. The generated response is a dialogue response to the speech input that at least partially fulfills the user's intent. Further, in some examples, the generated response is output as a speech output. In these examples, the generated response is sent to speech synthesis processing module 740 (e.g., speech synthesizer) where it can be processed to synthesize the dialogue response in speech form. In yet other examples, the generated response is data content relevant to satisfying a user request in the speech input.

In examples where task flow processing module 736 receives multiple structured queries from natural language processing module 732, task flow processing module 736 initially processes the first structured query of the received structured queries to attempt to complete the first structured query and/or execute one or more tasks or actions represented by the first structured query. In some examples, the first structured query corresponds to the highest ranked actionable intent. In other examples, the first structured query is selected from the received structured queries based on a combination of the corresponding speech recognition confidence scores and the corresponding intent confidence scores. In some examples, if task flow processing module 736 encounters an error during processing of the first structured query (e.g., due to an inability to determine a necessary parameter), the task flow processing module 736 can proceed to select and process a second structured query of the received structured queries that corresponds to a lower ranked actionable intent. The second structured query is selected, for example, based on the speech recognition confidence score of the corresponding candidate text representation, the intent confidence score of the corresponding candidate actionable intent, a missing necessary parameter in the first structured query, or any combination thereof.

Speech synthesis processing module 740 is configured to synthesize speech outputs for presentation to the user. Speech synthesis processing module 740 synthesizes speech outputs based on text provided by the digital assistant. For example, the generated dialogue response is in the form of a text string. Speech synthesis processing module 740 converts the text string to an audible speech output. Speech synthesis processing module 740 uses any appropriate speech synthesis technique in order to generate speech outputs from text, including, but not limited, to concatenative synthesis, unit selection synthesis, diphone synthesis, domain-specific synthesis, formant synthesis, articulatory synthesis, hidden Markov model (HMM) based synthesis, and sinewave synthesis. In some examples, speech synthesis processing module 740 is configured to synthesize individual words based on phonemic strings corresponding to the words. For example, a phonemic string is associated with a word in the generated dialogue response. The phonemic string is stored in metadata associated with the word. Speech synthesis processing module 740 is configured to directly process the phonemic string in the metadata to synthesize the word in speech form.

In some examples, instead of (or in addition to) using speech synthesis processing module 740, speech synthesis is performed on a remote device (e.g., the server system 108), and the synthesized speech is sent to the user device for output to the user. For example, this can occur in some implementations where outputs for a digital assistant are generated at a server system. And because server systems generally have more processing power or resources than a user device, it is possible to obtain higher quality speech outputs than would be practical with client-side synthesis.

Additional details on digital assistants can be found in the U.S. Utility application Ser. No. 12/987,982, entitled “Intelligent Automated Assistant,” filed Jan. 10, 2011, and U.S. Utility application Ser. No. 13/251,088, entitled “Generating and Processing Task Items That Represent Tasks to Perform,” filed Sep. 30, 2011, the entire disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.

4. Processes and Interactions for Reversing Performance of Tasks

FIGS. 8A-8Y illustrate interactions between a user and a digital assistant of computer system 800 to reverse performance of tasks, according to various examples. At FIG. 8A, computer system 800 displays email application user interface 804 on display 802. In some examples, computer system 800 displays email application user interface 804 in response to detecting an input requesting the display of email application user interface 804, such as a tap on a user interface object associated with the email application or a user speech input requesting the email application.

At FIG. 8A, computer system 800 detects (e.g., receives) user speech input 810a of “compose an email with the subject ‘Dinner next week?’” at a microphone of computer system 800. In response to detecting user speech input 810a, computer system 800 displays email 806 including subject 806a of “Dinner next week?” as shown in FIG. 8B.

After the creation of email 806, computer system 800 and/or a digital assistant of computer system 800 tracks (e.g., records and/or saves the last n number of actions in a stack or list) the performance of the creation of email 806. In particular, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 keeps a record of all tasks that are performed with the email application including the creation and display of email 806. Computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 also keeps a record of all tasks that are performed during an active (e.g., current) session of the digital assistant including the task of creating email 806. Computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 also tracks tasks that are performed with other applications or tasks that are performed that are associated with a home screen user interface, as discussed further below. This allows computer system 800 and/or a digital assistant of computer system 800 to have a list or stack of past actions within a digital assistant session(s) as well as across applications (e.g., where actions were taken directly without the use of the digital assistant).

After displaying email user interface 806, computer system 800 detects user input 820a and/or user speech input 810b which request reversal of the most recently performed task. In particular, user input 820a is a tap, touch, press, or other input on user interface object 806b associated with an undo function. Thus, user input 820a indicates to computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 that performance of the most recent task (e.g., creation of email 806) should be reversed. Similarly, user speech input 810b of “never mind” indicates that performance of the most recent task (e.g., creation of email 806) should be reversed. In some examples, an intent of a received user speech input, such as user speech input 810b, is determined by the digital assistant of computer system 800 using automatic speech recognition and/or natural language understanding techniques described above with respect to FIGS. 7A-7C.

In response to detecting the input including the request to reverse performance of the most recent task (e.g., user input 820a and/or user speech input 810b), computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 reverses performance the previous task of creating email 806. In some examples, reversing performance of the previous task includes returning computer system 800 to a state prior to the execution of the task. For example, after reversing creation of email 806, computer system 800 displays email user interface 804 as shown in FIG. 8A.

At FIG. 8C, computer system 800 detects user input 820b typing text 806c of “Hey Sammy, it was great seeing you the other day” into the body of email 806. In response to detecting user input 820b, computer system 800 performs the requested task of inputting text 806c into the body of email 806, as shown in FIG. 8D.

As discussed above, after performance of the requested task (e.g., inserting text 806c), computer system 800 and/or a digital assistant of computer system 800 tracks (e.g., records and/or saves) the performance of the task. In particular, as the requested task is completed, computer system 800 and/or digital assistant of computer system 800 adds the completed task to a record (e.g. a stack) of completed tasks along with information related to the completion, such as the application used to complete the task, the time the task was completed, and/or other tasks that are related to the completed task. This allows computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 to reference the completed task when other inputs are received from the user, as discussed further below. Thus, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 adds the insertion of text 806c to the list of recently performed tasks which also includes creation of email 806, reversal of creation of email 806, etc. as the most recently performed task.

After performing the task of inputting text 806c into the body of email 806, computer system 800 detects user input 820c and/or user speech input 810c which request reversal of the most recently performed task. In particular, user input 820c is a tap, touch, press, or other input on user interface object 806b associated with an undo function. Thus, user input 820c indicates to computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 that performance of the most recent task (e.g., insertion of text 806c) should be reversed. Similarly, user speech input 810c of “undo” indicates that performance of the most recent task (e.g., insertion of text 806c) should be reversed.

In response to detecting the input including the request to reverse performance of the most recent task (e.g., user input 820c and/or user speech input 810c), computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 reverses performance the previous task of inserting text 806c. Thus, after reversing the insertion of text 806c, computer system 800 displays email 806 without any text in the body as shown in FIG. 8E. In some examples, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 utilizes a heuristic to determine whether to remove all of the inserted text or a portion of the inserted text. In some examples, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 removes all of the inserted text when the input to insert the text is a speech input. In some examples, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 removes a portion of the inserted text when the input to insert the text is a touch, swipe, tap, and/or another type of input on a touch sensitive surface of computer system 800 or a keyboard of computer system 800. In some examples, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 determines whether to remove all of the inserted text or a portion of the inserted text based on the input including the request to reverse performance of the most recent task (e.g., when the input requests reversal of a portion of the completed task or all of the completed task). In some examples, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 determines whether to remove all of the inserted text or a portion of the inserted text based on when the input and/or inputs to insert the text are received (e.g., whether the typing of the inserted text occurs near in time or is separated by 30 seconds, a minute, two minutes, etc.).

Computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 reverse performance of the most recent task regardless of the type of input received requesting performance of the task and the type of input received to request reversal of performance of the task. Thus, when the input requesting the task is a voice input, such as user speech input 810a, computer system 800 will reverse performance of the task of creating email 806 regardless of whether another user speech input, such as user speech input 810b, or another type of input, such as user input 820a, is detected. Accordingly, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 determine the user intent and reverse performance of the task regardless of the types of inputs that are used to request performance of the task and/or reversal of performance of the task.

At FIG. 8F, after computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 has performed the task of inserting text 806c, computer system 800 detects user speech input 810d of “Add an alarm for tomorrow morning.” In response to detecting user speech input 810d, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 determine that the task being requested in user speech input 810d is a task of creating an alarm tomorrow morning and is unrelated to the currently displayed application (e.g., an email application). Computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 determine that performance of the task of creating the alarm can be done without displaying an alarm application and thus create the alarm without changing what is displayed on display 802. After performance of the task, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 provide audio output 830a of “alarm created” to inform the user that the task has been performed as requested.

After performing the task of creating the alarm, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 tracks (e.g., records and/or saves performed actions in a stack or list of the last n number of actions performed) the performance of the task. Thus, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 adds the creation of the alarm to the list of tasks recently performed by the digital assistant. The list of tasks recently performed by the digital assistant is different from the list of tasks recently performed with a specific application. Thus, while the list of tasks recently performed by the digital assistant includes the creation of the alarm, the list does not include the insertion of text 806c, as the user provided input without the request of the digital assistant to insert text 806c into email 806. Conversely, while the list of tasks recently performed with the email application includes insertion of text 806c, the list does not include the creation of the alarm as the alarm was created with a different application.

In some examples, the tasks that are recently performed an application and the tasks that are recently performed by the digital assistant are the same or overlap. For example, the task of creating email 806 as requested by the user with user speech input 810a is included in both the list of tasks recently performed with the email application and the list of tasks recently performed by the digital assistant because the task of creating email 806 was performed with the email application and with the help of the digital assistant of computer system 800.

When an input requesting to reverse performance of a most recently performed task is received, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 determine which task should be performed based on the lists of recently performed tasks described above and other factors such as a currently displayed application, an active session of the digital assistant, etc., as described in examples below.

At FIG. 8G, after performing the task of creating the alarm, computer system 800 detects user input 820d requesting reversal of the most recently performed task with the currently displayed application (e.g., the email application). In particular, user input 820d is a tap, touch, press, or other input on user interface object 806b associated with an undo function. Thus, user input 820d indicates to computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 that performance of the most recently performed task in the email application should be reversed.

In response to detecting user input 820d, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 reverses performance of the most recently performed task with the email application because the email application is currently displayed. Computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 consults (e.g., references and/or reviews) the list of recently performed tasks with the email application and determines that the most recently performed task with the email application is the insertion of text 806c. Accordingly, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 reverses the insertion of text 806c and displays blank email 806, as shown in FIG. 8E.

Returning to FIG. 8G, after performing the task of creating the alarm, computer system 800 detects user speech input 810e of “undo” requesting reversal of the most recently performed task. Computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 then determines whether user speech input 810e is received during the same digital assistant session (e.g., an active and/or current digital assistant session) as previously performed tasks.

When user speech input 810e is received during a new digital assistant session (e.g., a digital assistant session in which no other user speech inputs have been received and/or tasks based on received user speech inputs have not been performed) computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 determine that there are no tasks performed by the digital assistant that can be reversed. Thus, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 consults the list of recently performed tasks with the email application to determine that the most recently performed task is the insertion of text 806c. Accordingly, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 reverses the insertion of text 806c and displays blank email 806, as shown in FIG. 8E.

When user speech input 810 is received during the same (e.g., active and/or current digital assistant session) in which previous tasks have been requested with user speech inputs and executed by the digital assistant, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 consults the list of recently performed tasks with the digital assistant to determine the most recently performed task to reverse. Thus, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 consults the list of recently performed tasks with the digital assistant to determine that the most recently performed task is the creation of the alarm tomorrow morning. Computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 then reverses performance of the task of creating the alarm by deleting the created alarm. Computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 then provides audio output 830b of “Alarm deleted” to inform the user that the reversal of the creation of the alarm has been completed, as shown in FIG. 8H. In some examples, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 provides a visual output on display 802 including the message “Alarm deleted” to inform the user that the reversal of the creation of the alarm has been completed.

At FIG. 8I, after performing the task inserting text 806c and performing the task of creating the alarm, computer system 800 detects user speech input 810f of “add-can't wait to get together this weekend.” In response to detecting user speech input 810f, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 determines that user speech input 810f is requesting the task of adding text 806d to the body of email 806. Accordingly, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 adds text 806d to the body of email 806, as show in FIG. 8J. After inserting text 806d, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 tracks performance of adding text 806d as a task that was performed while displaying the email application and while in a current session of the digital assistant.

After inserting text 806d, computer system 800 detects user input 820e of a tap, press, and/or similar input on user interface object 806b associated with an undo function. In response to detecting user input 820e, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 determines the most recently performed task while the email application was displayed. Accordingly, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 determines that the addition of text 806d to email 806 is the most recently performed task and reverses the performance of the task by deleted text 806d, as shown in FIG. 8I.

After inserting text 806d, computer system 800 also detects user speech input 810g of “undo” and in response to detecting user speech input 810 computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 determines the most recently performed task in the current digital assistant session. When user speech input 810g is received as part of the same digital assistant session as user speech input 810f, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 determines that the addition of text 806d to email 806 is the most recently performed task and reverses the performance of the task by deleted text 806d, as shown in FIG. 8I. When user speech input 810g is received as part of a different digital assistant session as user speech input 810f, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 determines that there is no recently performed task and does not reverse performance of a task.

At FIG. 8K, computer system 800 detects user input 820f and/or user speech input 810h of “send email.” Both user input user input 820f and user speech input 810h include a request for computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 to send email 806. In response to detecting user input 820f and/or user speech input 810h computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 sends email 806 and adds sending email 806 to the list of recently performed tasks while displaying the email application and/or the list of recently performed tasks with the digital assistant, as described above.

After sending email 806, computer system 800 detects user speech input 810i of “cancel that.” Computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 determines that the most recently performed task while displaying the email application and in the current digital assistant session is sending email 806. Rather than reversing performance of sending email 806, the digital assistant of computer system 800 determines that the sending of email 806 cannot be reversed. In particular, the digital assistant of computer system 800 determines that some tasks are unable to be reversed because they involve sending content to and/or communicating with another device such as a server and/or a computer system of another user. Accordingly, once email 806 has been sent, the digital assistant of computer system 800 determines that email 806 cannot be recalled and the performance of sending email 806 cannot be reversed (e.g., undone).

When the digital assistant of computer system 800 determines that a task cannot be reversed that the user has requested be reversed, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 provides an output indicating that performance of the task cannot be reversed, such as audio output 830c of “sent emails cannot be cancelled,” as shown in FIG. 8L. In some examples, the output indicating that the performance of the task cannot be reversed includes a haptic output from the computer system or a related computer system (e.g., a wearable computer system also associated with the user). In some examples, the output indicating that performance of the task cannot be reversed is provided on display 802 of computer system 800. In some examples, the output indicating the that the performance of the task cannot be reversed includes multiple outputs such as audio output 830c, a haptic output, and/or a displayed output. In some examples, the output indicating that performance of the task cannot be reversed includes a reason that performance of the task cannot be reversed. In some examples, the output indicating that performance of the task cannot be reversed mirrors and/or mimics the user request to reverse performance of the task (e.g., using “cancel” in the output when “cancel” is used by the user in the input).

At FIG. 8M, computer system 800 displays alarm user interface 808 at a time after the alarm requested in user speech input 810d has been created (e.g., the task requested by user speech input 810d has been performed). In some examples, computer system 800 displays alarm user interface 808 in response to (e.g., after) detecting a user input requesting display of alarm user interface 808 such as a tap input on a user interface object associated with the alarm application or a user speech input requesting display of the alarm application. In some examples, computer system 800 displays alarm user interface 808 in response to (e.g., after) performing the task of creating the alarm requested in user speech input 810d. In some examples, computer system 800 displays alarm user interface 808 after performing one or more other tasks while displaying the email application and/or a user interface of another application.

While displaying alarm user interface 808, computer system 800 detects user input 820g of a tap, press, and/or other touch input on user interface object 808b associated with the undo function. In response to detecting user input 820g, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 determines a most recently performed task with the displayed alarms application. Computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 determines that the most recently performed task with the displayed alarms application is the creation of alarm 808a, which was created in response to detecting user speech input 810d, and reverses performance of the creation of alarm 808a. Thus, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 deletes alarm 808a, as shown in FIG. 8O.

Computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 determines that the creation of alarm 808a is the last task performed with the alarms application regardless if any tasks were performed with other applications, such as the email application that was previously displayed. In particular, as discussed above, the digital assistant of computer system 800 tracks the performance of tasks with each application as well as those that are performed within the current session of the digital assistant for reference. Thus, once the focus of computer system 800 has been shifted to the alarms application (e.g., by displaying alarm user interface 808), the digital assistant of computer system 800 can reference the list of tasks performed with the alarms application to determine which task should be reversed.

In some examples, in response to detecting user input 820g, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 displays prompt 808c requesting confirmation that alarm 808a should be deleted, as shown in FIG. 8N. Computer system 800 then detects a user input confirming that alarm 808a should be deleted, such as user input 820h on the “yes” button and/or user speech input 810k of “yes,” and determines that performance of the task creating alarm 808a is to be reversed and alarm 808a is to be deleted. Computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 then deletes alarm 808a, as shown in FIG. 8O.

Returning to FIG. 8M, computer system 800 detects user speech input 810j of “undo.” In response to detecting user speech input 810j, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 determines whether user speech input 810j is received in the same digital assistant session as previous user speech inputs that request performance of a task. When user speech input 810j is received in the same digital assistant session as previous user speech inputs that request performance of a task, the digital assistant of computer system 800 determines the most recently performed task in that digital assistant session and reverses performance of the most recently performed task. Thus, when user speech input 810j is received in the same digital assistant session as user speech input 810d requesting creation of the alarm and the digital assistant determines that creating alarm 808a was the most recently performed task within that session, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 reverses performance of the task by deleting alarm 808a, as shown in FIG. 8O.

When user speech input 810j is received in the same digital assistant session as user speech input 810d requesting creation of the alarm and the digital assistant determines that a different task is the most recently performed task, such as adding text 806d as discussed above, then computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 reverses performance of the other task by deleting text 806d, even if the email application is no longer being displayed by computer system 800.

When user speech input 810j is received in a new digital assistant session and no tasks have been performed in the same digital assistant session, then computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 determines the most recent task that was performed with the displayed application. Thus, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 determines that the creation of alarm 808a is the most recently performed task with the displayed alarm application and reverses performance of that task by deleting alarm 808a, as shown in FIG. 8O.

As discussed above, in some examples, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 displays prompt 808c requesting confirmation that alarm 808a should be deleted, as shown in FIG. 8N in response to detecting user speech input 810j. Computer system 800 then detects a user input confirming that alarm 808a should be deleted, such as user input 820h on the “yes” button and/or user speech input 810k of “yes,” and determines that performance of the task creating alarm 808a is to be reversed and alarm 808a is to be deleted. Computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 then deletes alarm 808a, as shown in FIG. 8O.

At FIG. 8P, after creation of alarm 808a and display of alarm user interface 808, computer system 800 detects user speech input 810l of “oh no I mean the afternoon.” Computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 determines that user speech input 810l indicates that the user intends to reverse performance of creation of alarm 808a for 7:00 AM and instead make an alarm for the afternoon. Computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 determines that the creation of alarm 808a should be reversed by using the techniques discussed above with reference to FIGS. 8M-8O, such as determining which task was most recently performed with the displayed alarm application and/or the most recently performed task in the digital assistant session.

In some examples, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 determine that the creation of alarm 808a should be reversed without determining which tasks were most recently performed. In particular, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 determine that user speech input 810l relates to the creation of alarm 808a based on the content of user speech input 810l (e.g., the use of “afternoon” in user speech input 810l and the use of “morning” in a previous input) regardless of whether other tasks have been performed in between the creation of alarm 808a and the detection of user speech input 810l.

In response to detecting user speech input 810l, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 reverse performance of the creation of alarm 808a and create alarm 808d, as shown in FIG. 8Q. In some examples, rather than deleting alarm 808a and creating a new alarm 808d, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 edit alarm 808a to be at the newly requested time. Thus, in some examples, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 change a property of a completed task in order to perform the requested reversal of a task.

At FIG. 8Q, computer system 800 detects user speech input 810m of “just cancel that” after creation of alarm 808d at 1:00 PM (or optionally editing of alarm 808a to 1:00 PM), as discussed above. In response to detecting user speech input 810m, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 determines the most recently performed task in the same or similar manner as discussed above with reference to FIGS. 8M-8O. After determining that the creation of alarm 808d is the most recently performed task, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 provides prompt 808e on display 802 of computer system 800 and/or as audio output 830c, as shown in FIG. 8R. In particular, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 determines that the creation of alarm 808c was a task that modified the previously performed task of the creation of alarm 808a and thus, the user may intend to delete alarm 808c entirely or may intend to restore alarm 808a that was previously created.

After providing prompt 808e, computer system detects an input confirming that alarm 808c should be deleted, such as input 820i on the delete button of 808e. In response to detecting the input confirming that alarm 808c should be deleted, rather than an input that alarm 808a should be restored, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 reverses performance of the task by deleting alarm 808c.

At FIG. 8S, computer system 800 displays home screen user interface 812 on display 802 of computer system 800 after creation of alarm 808a. While displaying home screen user interface 812, computer system 800 detects user speech input 810m of “undo.” Computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 determines that computer system 800 is not currently displaying an application and thus determines that user speech input 810m is referencing a previously requested task of the digital assistant session, if one exists. Thus, when user speech input 810m is received during the same digital assistant session as user speech input 810d requesting creation of an alarm and the digital assistant determines that creation of the alarm is the most recently performed task of the digital assistant session, then computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 reverses performance of the ask by deleting the alarm and provides audio output 830f indicating to the user that the alarm was deleted. However, when user speech input 810m is received during a new digital assistant session then computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 does not reverse the performance of any task, as there is no currently displayed application for computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 to reference. However, if an task was recently performed while home screen user interface 812 was displayed, such as the movement of a user interface object associated with an application from one spot on home screen user interface 812 to another, then computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 will reverse performance of this movement.

At FIG. 8T, computer system 800 detects user speech input 810o of “turn on the porch light and unlock the front door.” In response to detecting user speech input 810o, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 perform the requested tasks of turning on the porch light and unlocking the front door and change the states of user interface object 814a and 814b of home application user interface 814 respectively. Additionally, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 provides audio output 830g of “okay, I've done that” to indicate to the user that the tasks have been performed successfully.

At FIG. 8U, computer system 800 detects user speech input 810p of “never mind.” As discussed above with reference to FIGS. 8A-8O, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 determines the most recently performed task that should be reversed in response to detecting user speech input 810p is the tasks requests in user speech input 810o of turning on the porch light and unlocking the front door. Because computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 determines that multiple (e.g., two) tasks qualify as the most recently performed task that should be reversed, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 provide prompt 814c requesting confirmation of which task should be reversed, turning on the porch light, unlocking the front door, or both. Further, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 provides audio output 830h including the same content as prompt 814c requesting confirmation of which task should be reversed.

Computer system 800 then detects user input 820j on a portion of prompt 814c associated with the task of unlocking the front door. In response to detecting user input 820j, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 reverses performance of the task of unlocking the front door by locking the front door, without reversing performance of turning on the porch light. Thus, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 reverses performance of the ask indicated by the user's input.

At FIG. 8V, computer system 800 detects user speech input 810q of “the lock.” In response to detecting user speech input 810q, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 reverses performance of the task of unlocking the front door by locking the front door, without reversing performance of turning on the porch light. Thus, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 reverses performance of the ask indicated by the user's input.

At FIG. 8W, computer system 800 detects user speech input 810r of “turn on the porch light and the entryway light.” In response to detecting user speech input 810r, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 perform the requested tasks of turning on the porch light and the entry way light and change the states of user interface object 814a and 814d of home application user interface 814 respectively.

At FIG. 8X, computer system 800 detects user speech input 810s of “cancel.” As discussed above with reference to FIGS. 8A-8O, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 determines the most recently performed task that should be reversed in response to detecting user speech input 810s is the tasks requests in user speech input 810r of turning on the porch light and turning on the entry way light. Because computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 determines that multiple (e.g., two) tasks from the same related domain (e.g., lighting) qualify as the most recently performed task that should be reversed, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 reverses performance of both tasks by turning off both the porch light and the entry way light without requesting confirmation. Thus, when two tasks from the same (e.g., a related) domain qualify as the tasks to be reversed, computer system and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 reverses performance of the tasks without requesting and/or requiring confirmation from the user.

Computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 further provides audio output 830i of “I've turned off both lights” to indicate to the user that performance of the task has been reversed successfully.

At FIG. 8Y, computer system 800 detects user speech input 810t of “cancel.” As discussed above with reference to FIGS. 8A-8O, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 attempts to the most recently performed task that should be reversed in response to detecting user speech input 810t. However, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 determines that multiple tasks qualify as recently performed tasks and is not able to provide a prompt requesting confirmation of which task should be reversed. Accordingly, computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800 provides audio output 830j of “previous tasks cannot be reversed” to indicate to the user that the tasks cannot be reversed. In some examples, the audio output indicating to the user that the tasks cannot be reversed includes a reason that the tasks cannot be reversed.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram illustrating process 900 for reversing performance of tasks, according to various examples. Process 900 is performed, for example, using one or more electronic devices implementing a digital assistant. In some examples, process 900 is performed using a client-server system (e.g., system 100), and the blocks of process 900 are divided up in any manner between the server (e.g., DA server 106) and a client device. In other examples, the blocks of process 900 are divided up between the server and multiple client devices (e.g., a mobile phone and a smart watch). Thus, while portions of process 900 are described herein as being performed by particular devices of a client-server system, it will be appreciated that process 900 is not so limited. In other examples, process 900 is performed using only a client device (e.g., user device 104) or only multiple client devices. In process 900, some blocks are, optionally, combined, the order of some blocks is, optionally, changed, and some blocks are, optionally, omitted. In some examples, additional steps may be performed in combination with the process 900.

Process 900 is performed, for example, using one or more computer systems (e.g., 100, 300, 500, and/or 800) (e.g., a smartphone, a desktop computer, a laptop, a tablet, and/or a wearable electronic device) that is in communication with a display generation component (e.g., a display controller and/or a touch-sensitive display system) and an input device (e.g., a button, a motion detector (e.g., an accelerometer and/or gyroscope), a location sensor (e.g., GPS, Wi-Fi, and/or a radio that indicates a location of the computer system), a microphone, and/or a touch sensitive surface).

The computer system (e.g., 800) detects (902) an input (e.g., a touch input or a voice input) (e.g., 810a, 820b, 810d, 810f, 820f, 810h, 810l, 810m, 810o, and/or 810r) including a request to perform a first task (e.g., adding text to an email) associated with a first application (e.g., a note taking application, a word processing application, an email application) and in response (904) to detecting the input including the request to perform the first task associated with the first application, the computer system performs the first task associated with the first application. The computer system detects (906) a first user speech input (e.g., 810a, 810d, 810f, 810o, and/or 810r) (e.g., “Hey Siri, set my alarm for 7 AM tomorrow) including a request to perform a second task (setting an alarm form 7 AM) associated with a second application (e.g., an alarm application, a clock application) different from the first application and in response (908) detecting the first user speech input including the request to perform the second task associated with the second application different from the first application, the computer system performs the second task associated with the second application different from the first application. The computer system detects (910) a second user speech input (e.g., 810b, 810c, 810c, 810g, 810i, 810j, 810l, 810m, 810n, 810p, 810s, and/or 810t) including a request to reverse performance of a most recently performed task (e.g., “undo that,” “nevermind,” “oh no I meant,” etc.) and in response (912) to detecting the second user speech input including the request to reverse performance of the most recently performed task: in accordance with a determination that a user interface corresponding to the first application is being displayed via the display generation component (e.g., the email application is open and being displayed) and the first task associated with the first application is the most recently performed task (e.g., the text was added after the alarm was set at 7 AM), the computer system reverses (914) performance of the first task associated with the first application and in accordance with a determination that a digital assistant session in which the first user speech input was received is ongoing (e.g., the digital assistant session was not ended and/or dismissed between the first and second user speech input) and the second task associated with the second application different from the first application is the most recently performed task (e.g., the alarm was set to 7 AM after the text was added), the computer system reverses (916) performance of the second task associated with the second application different from the first application.

In some examples, the second user speech input (e.g., 810b, 810c, 810e, 810g, 810i, 810j, 810l, 810m, 810n, 810p, 810s, and/or 810t) including a request to reverse performance of a most recently performed task is detected while displaying a user interface associated with the first application. In some examples, the second user speech input including a request to reverse performance of a most recently performed task is detected while displaying a user interface associated with the second application. In some examples, the second user speech input including a request to reverse performance of a most recently performed task is detected while displaying a home screen user interface. In some examples, the second user speech input including the request to reverse performance of a most recently performed task is detected while displaying a user interface associated with an application other than the first application and the second application.

In some examples, in response to detecting the second user speech input (e.g., 810b, 810c, 810c, 810g, 810i, 810j, 810l, 810m, 810n, 810p, 810s, and/or 810t) including the request to reverse performance of the most recently performed task: in accordance with a determination that the user interface corresponding to the first application is being displayed via the display generation component (e.g., 802) (e.g., the email application is open and being displayed) and the second task associated with the second application different from the first application is the most recently performed task (e.g., the text was added after the alarm was set at 7 AM), the computer system (e.g., 800) forgoes reversing performance of the first task associated with the first application. In some examples, when a task performed with an application different from the displayed application is the most recently performed task, a previously performed task with the displayed application is not reversed.

In some examples, in response to detecting the second user speech input (e.g., 810b, 810c, 810c, 810g, 810i, 810j, 810l, 810m, 810n, 810p, 810s, and/or 810t) including the request to reverse performance of the most recently performed task: in accordance with a determination that the digital assistant session in which the first user speech input (e.g., 810a, 810d, 810f, 810o, and/or 810r) was received is ongoing (e.g., the digital assistant session was not ended and/or dismissed between the first and second user speech input) and the first task associated with the first application is the most recently performed task (e.g., the text was added after the alarm was set at 7 AM), the computer system (e.g., 800) forgoes reversing performance of the second task associated with the second application different from the first application. In some examples, when a task with the displayed application is the most recently performed task, the task with the displayed application is reversed, regardless of the status of the digital assistant session or whether another task with an application other than the displayed application was previously performed.

In some examples, in response to detecting the second user speech input (e.g., 810b, 810c, 810c, 810g, 810i, 810j, 810l, 810m, 810n, 810p, 810s, and/or 810t) including the request to reverse performance of the most recently performed task: in accordance with a determination that the digital assistant session in which the first user speech input (e.g., 810a, 810d, 810f, 810o, and/or 810r) was received is ongoing (e.g., the digital assistant session was not ended and/or dismissed between the first and second user speech input) and the user interface corresponding to the first application is not being displayed via the display generation component (e.g., the email application is not being displayed), the computer system (e.g., 800) reverses performance of the second task associated with the second application different from the first application (e.g., the second task is reversed regardless of which other user interface is being displayed as long as it is not the user interface for the first application the digital assistant session is ongoing). In some examples, the second task is reversed regardless of which other user interface is being displayed as long as it is not the user interface for the first application, the digital assistant session is ongoing, and no other task with an application other than the first application has been performed. In some examples, the second task will be reversed if another task has been performed with the first application after the second task has been performed but the first application is no longer being displayed. In some examples, a home screen user interface is currently being displayed. In some examples, a user interface for the second application is currently being displayed. In some examples, a user interface for an application other than the first application or the second application is currently being displayed.

In some examples, in response to detecting the second user speech input (e.g., 810b, 810c, 810c, 810g, 810i, 810j, 810l, 810m, 810n, 810p, 810s, and/or 810t) including the request to reverse performance of the most recently performed task: in accordance with a determination that a user interface corresponding to the second application is being displayed via the display generation component (e.g., the an alarm application is being displayed), the computer system (e.g., 800) reverses performance of the second task associated with the second application different from the first application (e.g., the second task is reversed even if another task was performed with the first application, as long as the second task is the most recently performed task with the second application and the user interface for the second application is displayed). In some examples, the second task is reversed when the user interface for the second application is displayed even if another task with another application has been performed between performance of the second task and receipt of the second user speech input. In some examples, the second task will be reversed if another task has been performed with the first application after the second task has been performed but the first application is no longer being displayed.

In some examples, in response to detecting the second user speech input (e.g., 810b, 810c, 810c, 810g, 810i, 810j, 810l, 810m, 810n, 810p, 810s, and/or 810t) including the request to reverse performance of the most recently performed task: in accordance with a determination that the user interface corresponding to the first application is being displayed via the display generation component (e.g., 802) (e.g., the email application is open and being displayed) and the digital assistant session in which the first user speech input (e.g., 810a, 810d, 810f, 810o, and/or 810r) was received has ended (e.g., the digital assistant session was dismissed between the first and second user speech input), the computer system (e.g., 800) reverses performance of the first task associated with the first application (e.g., even if the first task is not the most recently performed task and/or the second task was performed after the first task). In some examples, the first task is reversed when the digital assistant session in which the first user speech input was received is ended before the second user speech input is received. In some examples, the first task is reversed when the second user speech input is received in a different digital assistant session from the first user speech input. In some examples, the first task is reversed when it is the most recently performed task with the displayed application, even when another task has been performed more recently with an application that is not being displayed.

In some examples, a record of recent tasks performed with the first application includes a record of the performance of the first task associated with the first application. In some examples, regardless of whether the user interface associated with the first application is displayed during performance of the first task associated with the first application.

In some examples, a record of recent tasks performed with the second application includes a record of the performance of the second task associated with the second application different from the first application. In some examples, regardless of whether a user interface associated with the second application is displayed during performance of the second task associated with the second application.

In some examples, a record of recent tasks performed by a digital assistant includes: a record of the performance of the second task associated with the second application different from the first application; in accordance with a determination that the first task associated with the first application was reversed, a record of the reversal of the performance of the first task associated with the first application; and in accordance with a determination that the second task associated with the second application was reversed, a record of the reversal of the performance of the second task associated with the second application different from the first application. In some examples, tasks performed by the digital assistant are tracked in a record, regardless of which application performs the task and regardless of which application is displayed while performing the task. In some examples, tasks requested by an audio input are tasks performed by a digital assistant. In some examples, tasks requested while a digital assistant session is active are tasks performed by a digital assistant.

In some examples, a record of recent tasks performed while displaying, via the display generation component (e.g., 802), a home screen user interface (e.g., 812) includes a task performed while displaying the home screen user interface. In some examples, regardless of which application performs the task that is performed while displaying the home screen user interface.

In some examples, the computer system (e.g., 800) selects a task that was most recently performed based on the record of recent tasks performed with the first application, the record of recent tasks performed with the second application, the record of recent tasks performed by a digital assistant, and the record of recent tasks performed while displaying the home screen user interface. In some examples, the task that was most recently performed is determined from the records of recent tasks that are stored in association with applications, the digital assistant, and/or the home screen user interface. In some examples, the task that was most recently performed is selected from the records of recent tasks that are stored in association with applications, the digital assistant, and/or the home screen user interface based on a set of criteria including which application is displayed when receiving the second user speech input, whether a digital assistant session is active, and/or a time when a task was performed.

In some examples, in accordance with a determination that a user interface corresponding to the first application is being displayed via the display generation component (e.g., 802) (e.g., the email application is open and being displayed) and the first task associated with the first application is the most recently performed task (e.g., the text was added after the alarm was set at 7 AM): prior to reversing performance of the first task associated with the first application: the computer system (e.g., 800) provides a prompt (e.g., 808c and/or 808d) requesting confirmation of reversal of performance of the first task associated with the first application (e.g., should I delete the alarm set for 7 AM?). In some examples, the prompt requests confirmation of whether a first task or a second task should be reversed. In some examples, the prompt is provided when the digital assistant is unable to determine which task was most recently performed. In some examples, the prompt is provided multiple tasks were performed in recent succession. In some examples, the prompt is provided when the second user speech input is unclear (e.g., uses a term that may indicate reversal of a task but is not a term typically used). In some examples, the prompt is provided as an audio output. In some examples, providing the prompt includes displaying, via the display generation component, the prompt in a user interface object. In some examples, the prompt is provided in accordance with a determination that the second task is the most recently performed task and the prompt requests confirmation of reversal of performance of the second task.

In some examples, reversing performance of the first task associated with the first application is performed in response to detecting an input (e.g., 820h) confirming reversal of performance of the first task associated with the first application. In some examples, when no input confirming the reversal of performance of the first task is detected the computer system forgoes reversing performance of the first task. In some examples, reversing performance of the second task is performed in response to detecting an input confirming reversal of performance of the second task.

In some examples, the prompt (e.g., 808c and/or 808d) includes a high-level description of the first task (e.g., undo alarm, undo typing, etc.). In some examples, the high-level description is based on the user input provided to perform the task. In some examples, the high-level description is based on a description of the task available to the digital assistant. In some examples, the high-level description is based on a name of a function that is called by the digital assistant to perform the task. In some examples, the prompt includes a high-level description of the second task.

In some examples, the prompt (e.g., 808c and/or 808d) includes a detailed description of the first task (e.g., undo the creation of the alarm at 7 AM, undo typing “it was good seeing you for lunch yesterday”). In some examples, the detailed description is based on the user input provided to perform the task. In some examples, the detailed description is based on a description of the task available to the digital assistant. In some examples, the detailed description is based on a name of a function that is called by the digital assistant to perform the task. In some examples, the prompt includes a detailed description of the second task. In some examples, the detailed description includes a parameter used to perform the task. In some examples, the detailed description includes an application used to perform the task.

In some examples, in accordance with a determination that the second user speech input (e.g., 810b, 810c, 810c, 810g, 810i, 810j, 810l, 810m, 810n, 810p, 810s, and/or 810t) including the request to reverse performance of the most recently performed task includes a request to perform another task (e.g., no I meant this afternoon): after reversing performance of the most recently performed task, the computer system (e.g., 800) performs a third task (e.g., deleting the alarm and creating a new alarm at the correct time). In some examples, the third task is related to the most recently performed task. In some examples, the third task includes a modification to the most recently performed task. In some examples, the third task is determined from the second user speech input including the request to reverse performance of the most recently performed task.

In some examples, the third task includes a modification to the most recently performed task (e.g., changing the time of an alarm that was created).

In some examples, in accordance with a determination that performance of the most recently performed task is unable to be reversed, the computer system (e.g., 800) provides an output (e.g., 830c) including an indication of a reason that the most recently performed task is unable to be reversed (e.g., sending an email cannot be reversed). In some examples, the output includes an audio output. In some examples, the output includes a visual output displayed via the display generation component of the computer system. In some examples, providing the output includes providing the audio output and the visual output.

The operations described above with reference to FIG. 9 are optionally implemented by components depicted in FIGS. 1-4A, 6A-6B, 7A-7C, and 8A-8Y. For example, the operations of process 900 may be implemented by computer system 800 and/or the digital assistant of computer system 800. It would be clear to a person having ordinary skill in the art how other processes are implemented based on the components depicted in FIGS. 1-4A, 6A-6B, 7A-7C, and 8A-8Y.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating process 1000 for reversing performance of tasks, according to various examples. Process 1000 is performed, for example, using one or more electronic devices implementing a digital assistant. In some examples, process 1000 is performed using a client-server system (e.g., system 100), and the blocks of process 1000 are divided up in any manner between the server (e.g., DA server 106) and a client device. In other examples, the blocks of process 1000 are divided up between the server and multiple client devices (e.g., a mobile phone and a smart watch). Thus, while portions of process 1000 are described herein as being performed by particular devices of a client-server system, it will be appreciated that process 1000 is not so limited. In other examples, process 1000 is performed using only a client device (e.g., user device 104) or only multiple client devices. In process 1000, some blocks are, optionally, combined, the order of some blocks is, optionally, changed, and some blocks are, optionally, omitted. In some examples, additional steps may be performed in combination with the process 1000.

Process 1000 is performed, for example, using one or more computer systems (e.g., 100, 300, 500, and/or 800) (e.g., a smartphone, a desktop computer, a laptop, a tablet, and/or a wearable electronic device) that is in communication with a display generation component (e.g., a display controller and/or a touch-sensitive display system) and an input device (e.g., a button, a motion detector (e.g., an accelerometer and/or gyroscope), a location sensor (e.g., GPS, Wi-Fi, and/or a radio that indicates a location of the computer system), a microphone, and/or a touch sensitive surface).

The computer system (e.g., 800) detects (1002), via a first type of input, (e.g., 810a, 820b, 810d, 810f, 820f, 810h, 810l, 810m, 810o, and/or 810r) (e.g., gesture, audio, touch on a touch sensitive screen) an input including a request to perform a first task (e.g., a touch input to add text or a voice input requesting text be added); in response to detecting, via the first type of input, the input including the request to perform the first task, the computer system performs (1004) the first task; the computer system detects (1006), via a second type of input different from the first type of input (e.g., 820a, 810b, 820c, 810c, 820d, 810c, 820c, 810g, 810i, 820g, 810j, 810l, 810m, 810n, 810p, 810s, and/or 810t) (e.g., gesture, audio, touch on a touch sensitive screen), an input including a request to reverse performance of the first task (e.g., a tap on an undo button and/or a voice input requesting the task be reversed); and in response to detecting, via the second type of input different from the first type of input, the input including the request to reverse performance of the first task, the computer system reverses (1008) performance of the first task.

In some examples, the computer system (e.g., 800) detects, via the second type of input different from the first type of input, (e.g., 810a, 820b, 810d, 810f, 820f, 810h, 810l, 810m, 810o, and/or 810r) (e.g., gesture, audio, touch on a touch sensitive screen) an input including a request to perform a second task (e.g., a touch input to add text or a voice input requesting text be added); in response to detecting, via the second type of input different from the first type of input, the input including the request to perform the second task, the computer system performs the second task; the computer system detects, via the first type of input (e.g., 820a, 810b, 820c, 810c, 820d, 810c, 820c, 810g, 810i, 820g, 810j, 810l, 810m, 810n, 810p, 810s, and/or 810t) (e.g., gesture, audio, touch on a touch sensitive screen), an input including a request to reverse performance of the second task (e.g., a tap on an undo button and/or a voice input requesting the task be reversed); and in response to detecting, via the first type of input, the input including the request to reverse performance of the second task, the computer system reverses performance of the second task.

In some examples, the first type of input includes an input (820a, 820b, 820c, 820d, 820c, 820f, 820g, 820h, 820i, and/or 820j) on a touch sensitive surface (e.g., 802). In some examples, the touch sensitive surface is the display generation component of the computer system. In some examples, the first type of input includes an input with a button. In some examples, the first type of input includes a drag, tap, and/or press input.

In some examples, the second type of input different from the first type of input is a user speech input (e.g., 810a, 810b, 810c, 810d, 810c, 810f, 810g, 810h, 810i, 810j, 810k, 810l, 810m, 810n, 810o, 810p, 810q, 810r, 810s, and/or 810t). In some examples, the user speech input is detected at a microphone of the computer system. In some examples, the user speech input is detected at multiple microphones of the computer system.

In some examples, the second type of input different from the first type of input is a gesture input indicative of a request to reverse performance of a previously performed task. In some examples, the gesture input indicative of the request to reverse performance of a previously performed task is detected by a camera of the computer system. In some examples, the gesture input indicative of the request to reverse performance of a previously performed task is detected by multiple cameras of the computer system. In some examples, at least one of the cameras of the computer system records a user of the computer system. In some examples, a component of a digital assistant (e.g., a machine learning model trained to evaluate possible gestures) determines that a detected gesture indicates the request to reverse performance of the previously performed task.

In some examples, the input including the request to perform the first task and the input including the request to reverse performance of the first task are received while displaying a user interface corresponding to an application for performing the first task.

In some examples, after performing the first task, the computer system (e.g., 800) adds the first task to a list of performed tasks associated with the application. In some examples, a digital assistant of the computer system maintains a list of performed tasks for each application active (e.g., running) on the computer system. In some examples, the digital assistant of the computer system maintains a list of all tasks performed by the computer system.

In some examples, the computer system (e.g., 800) detects, via a second type of input different from the first type of input (e.g., gesture, audio, touch on a touch sensitive screen), an input (e.g., 820a, 810b, 820c, 810c, 820d, 810c, 820c, 810g, 810i, 820g, 810j, 810l, 810m, 810n, 810p, 810s, and/or 810t) including a request to reverse performance of a recently performed task (e.g., a tap on an undo button and/or a voice input requesting the task be reversed); and in response to detecting, via the second type of input different from the first type of input, the input including the request to reverse performance of the recently performed task: the computer system selects from the list of performed tasks a most recently performed task; and the computer system reverses performance of the most recently performed task.

In some examples, the list of performed tasks includes a plurality of tasks performed with the application regardless of the type of input used to request the plurality of tasks.

In some examples, the computer system (e.g., 800) detects, via the first type of input, (e.g., gesture, audio, touch on a touch sensitive screen) an input including a request to perform a third task and a fourth task (e.g., 810o and/or 810r) (e.g., a touch input to add text or a voice input requesting text be added); in response to detecting, via the first type of input, the input including the request to perform the third task and the fourth task: the computer system performs the third task; and the computer system performs the fourth task. In some examples, the third task and the fourth task are performed simultaneously. In some examples, the third task and the fourth task are added to the list of performed tasks with no distinction in order. In some examples, the third task and the fourth task are considered to be performed at the same time, regardless of the actual order of performance of the third task and the fourth task.

In some examples, the computer system (e.g., 800) detects, via the second type of input different from the first type of input (e.g., gesture, audio, touch on a touch sensitive screen), an input including a request to reverse performance of a recently performed task (e.g., a tap on an undo button and/or a voice input requesting the task be reversed); and in response to detecting, via the second type of input different from the first type of input, the input including the request to reverse performance of the recently performed task, the computer system provides a prompt (e.g., 814c and/or 830h) requesting confirmation of reversal. In some examples, the prompt is provided in accordance with a determination that multiple tasks (e.g., the third task and the fourth task) qualify as recently performed tasks. In some examples, the prompt is provided in an audio output. In some examples, the prompt is provided as a visual output via the display generation component of the computer system. In some examples, the prompt is provided by a digital assistant of the computer system. In some examples, the prompt is provided in an ongoing digital assistant session and/or conversation. In some examples, the prompt includes selectable user interface objects associated with the third task and the fourth task.

In some examples, the prompt (e.g., 814c and/or 830h) requesting confirmation of reversal includes: in accordance with a determination that the third task and the fourth task were performed simultaneously (e.g., at or near the same time), a request of whether to reverse performance of the third task and/or the fourth task. In some examples, the prompt includes the request, a first selectable user interface object associated with the third task, and a second selectable user interface object associated with the fourth task.

In some examples, the prompt (e.g., 814c and/or 830h) requesting confirmation of reversal includes: in accordance with a determination that the third task and the fourth task were requested in the same input (e.g., in the same audio input), a request of whether to reverse performance of the third task and/or the fourth task. In some examples, the prompt includes the request, a first selectable user interface object associated with the third task, and a second selectable user interface object associated with the fourth task.

In some examples, in response to detecting, via the second type of input different from the first type of input, the input including the request to reverse performance of the recently performed task and in accordance with a determination that at least two tasks qualify as the recently performed task, the computer system provides an output (e.g., 830j) indicating that the recently performed task cannot be reversed. In some examples, the tasks cannot be reversed because at least two tasks qualify as the recently performed task. In some examples, at least two tasks qualify as the recently performed task when the two tasks are performed within a predetermined period of time (e.g., 0.5 seconds, 1 second, 2 seconds, and/or 5 seconds). In some examples, at least two tasks qualify as the recently performed task when the two tasks are requested near together in time (e.g., 0.5 seconds, 1 second, 2 seconds, and/or 5 seconds). In some examples, at least two tasks qualify as the recently performed task when the two tasks do not share a domain.

In some examples, in response to detecting, via the second type of input different from the first type of input, the input including the request to reverse performance of the recently performed task and in accordance with a determination that at least two tasks qualify as the recently performed task and that the at least two tasks belong to the same domain, the computer system reverses performance of the at least two tasks. In some examples, performance of the at least two tasks is reversed without providing a prompt to the user (e.g., requesting confirmation and/or providing information about two tasks being identified). In some examples, at least two tasks qualify as the recently performed task when the two tasks are performed within a predetermined period of time (e.g., 0.5 seconds, 1 second, 2 seconds, and/or 5 seconds). In some examples, at least two tasks qualify as the recently performed task when the two tasks are requested near together in time (e.g., 0.5 seconds, 1 second, 2 seconds, and/or 5 seconds).

In some examples, prior to detecting, via a second type of input different from the first type of input (e.g., gesture, audio, touch on a touch sensitive screen), an input including a request to reverse performance of the first task (e.g., a tap on an undo button and/or a voice input requesting the task be reversed): the computer system (e.g., 800) detects; via the first type of input, an input including a request (810l) including a modification of the first task.

In some examples, in response to detecting, via the second type of input different from the first type of input, the input including the request to reverse performance of the first task, the computer system (e.g., 800) provides a prompt (e.g., 808d and/or 830c) requesting whether to reverse the first task or the modification of the first task.

In some examples, in response to detecting an input indicating to reverse performance of the first task, the computer system (e.g., 800) reverses performance of the first task; and in response to detecting an input indicating to reverse performance of the modification of the first task, the computer system reverses the modification of the first task.

The operations described above with reference to FIG. 10 are optionally implemented by components depicted in FIGS. 1-4A, 6A-6B, 7A-7C, and 8A-8Y. For example, the operations of process 1000 may be implemented by computer system 800 and/or a digital assistant of computer system 800. It would be clear to a person having ordinary skill in the art how other processes are implemented based on the components depicted in FIGS. 1-4A, 6A-6B, 7A-7C, and 8A-8Y.

In accordance with some implementations, a computer-readable storage medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer readable storage medium) is provided, the computer-readable storage medium storing one or more programs for execution by one or more processors of an electronic device, the one or more programs including instructions for performing any of the methods or processes described herein.

In accordance with some implementations, an electronic device (e.g., a portable electronic device) is provided that comprises means for performing any of the methods or processes described herein.

In accordance with some implementations, an electronic device (e.g., a portable electronic device) is provided that comprises a processing unit configured to perform any of the methods or processes described herein.

In accordance with some implementations, an electronic device (e.g., a portable electronic device) is provided that comprises one or more processors and memory storing one or more programs for execution by the one or more processors, the one or more programs including instructions for performing any of the methods or processes described herein.