Patent Publication Number: US-2007112929-A1

Title: Method, device and software for automatic notification about delayed meeting participation

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
      This invention relates to communication devices that are used for calendaring.  
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
      A mobile device or personal computer (PC) can be equipped to send an alarm to a user when an appointment or meeting is set to begin. Likewise, an alarm can also be sent to the user earlier, in order to notify the user that the meeting is scheduled to begin within a certain time.  
      However, the user may not be able to attend the meeting on time, because of a delay. Typically, in this type of situation, the user is in a hurry, and therefore will not want to take time to contact other meeting participants in order to tell them of the delay. Contacting those participants would probably make the user more late. Thus, there is a need for an efficient way to notify other meeting participants of lateness, without increasing the lateness.  
      Of course, it is known for an alarm clock to awaken a user, and it is also known for a user to postpone the awakening time by hitting a “snooze” button. It is also known to employ this type of postponement functionality with regard to meetings instead of for awakening. This postponement functionality is often called a “snooze” function, even if sleeping is not involved. For example, the COMPUCALENDAR 1.0.1 from COMPUNAC provides appointment reminders adjustable from zero to sixty minutes prior to an appointment, with a snooze alarm. See http://www.downlinx.com/proghtml/262/26257.htm (downloaded Nov. 1, 2005).  
      There is a need to relieve the user of contacting other meeting participants, so that the user will not be even more late. If a second person is told that a first person is going to be late, then the second person&#39;s plans can be altered accordingly, or the second person may seek to reschedule the meeting rather than wait. In either event, it would help the second person to hear from the first person, without exacerbating the first person&#39;s lateness.  
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
      The present invention combines the snooze-type function of an alarm, together with a “sorry I&#39;m late” message. In other words, the invention enables automatic notification of delayed participation in a meeting, the notification being triggered by a postponement action using a calendar alarm.  
      For example, suppose that a meeting is set to begin at 1 PM, and thus at 1 PM a user&#39;s mobile device provides an alarm to the user. During the alarm, the user can press a postponement button that has the snooze-type functionality. Thus, if the user hits the postponement button, then the user will be reminded again a certain time later. Additionally, according to the present invention, a message will automatically be sent to other meeting participants (or only to a single meeting organizer) saying that the user is running late. This lateness message is automatically sent by accessing contact information via the calendar which lists the appointment.  
      Likewise, the alarm may be programmed to remind the user a certain time before the appointment is set to begin. Again, if the user hits the postponement button, then the alarm will be postponed to a certain time later, and also a message will be automatically sent to at least one other meeting participant to indicate that the user is running late.  
      It is possible for the user to select whether the automatic lateness message is sent or not. For example, the user device can be programmed so that the lateness message will only be sent if the user hits the postponement button twice, when the alarm goes off. Thus, hitting the postponement button only once would cause the alarm to send a reminder a certain time later, but hitting would not cause any other meeting participants to be notified. However, if the postponement button is hit twice, then the device can send the lateness message, after possibly giving the user an opportunity to attach an oral statement to the lateness message, or giving the user an opportunity to indicate an estimated time of arrival.  
      When another meeting participant receives an automatic lateness message, that other participant&#39;s own calendar can be automatically annotated accordingly. The lateness message would preferably indicate who the lateness message has been sent to, and therefore the other meeting participant&#39;s wireless device can automatically forward the lateness message to any further meeting participants. Throughout this application, the words “meeting” and “appointment” are used interchangeably in a broad sense, to indicate any type of situation involving more than one person. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       FIG. 1  is a method according to an embodiment of the present invention.  
       FIG. 2  is a block diagram of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
      According to an embodiment of the present invention, when the calendar alarm is shown to a person by a mobile device or personal computer (PC), then the person is given an option to “delay and inform the organizer about the delay.” The alarm can be in various forms, including a sound, a vibration, and/or an item on a display, and the option can also be in these various forms. If the person selects the option, then the system checks who the organizer of the meeting is, and sends a message (e.g. short message, email, or instant message) with predefined content, such as “I&#39;ll be late for the meeting X minutes,” where X is a pre-selected or currently selected delay time. The main advantage of this invention is that the user&#39;s time is saved in a situation where he or she is already late, because the user will not have to personally contact and speak with the meeting organizer.  
      A method  100  according to an embodiment of the invention is shown in  FIG. 1 . A first appointment reminder is provided  105  by the user&#39;s device. This occurs when a calendar within the device indicates an appointment is scheduled to occur. The user is then presented with a choice whether to automatically notify  107  others of lateness. The device then receives  110  a request from the user to send a later second reminder and to go ahead and notify others of the lateness, instead of sending the later second reminder without notifying others. Subsequently, the user device automatically checks the user&#39;s calendar information to identify  115  other appointment participants (i.e. other people who are scheduled to attend the appointment). Then the device can obtain  117  contact information for those other appointment participants, from an address database. The notification of lateness can include a recorded  120  oral statement. In any event, the notification is then transmitted  123  to the other appointment participants. Upon receipt of the notification, the other appointment participants can automatically forward  125  the notification to additional appointment participants who were not listed as recipients of the initial notification. Also, the notification message and/or the attached recording can be linked  130  in the calendar of at least one of the other appointment participants.  
      An electronic device  200  according to an embodiment of the invention is shown in  FIG. 2 . This can either be a mobile device, or a personal computer (PC) or the like. An alarm  210  receives a first clock signal from a central processing unit  230  indicating that an appointment is scheduled to begin now or within a certain time, and so the alarm provides a first reminder signal to the user. A user interface  220  also receives the first clock signal, and thus the user interface  220  can enable the user to send a request signal to the central processing unit  230  requesting a later second appointment reminder and also requesting automatic notification of other participants so that they are aware the user is going to be late. The CPU  230  checks the calendar  270  for information about the other meeting participants, and then sends that identification information to the transceiver  240  which transmits the notification signal via the antenna  250 . Later, the CPU sends the second clock signal to the alarm  210 , and so the alarm provides the second appointment reminder to the user. It is possible for the electronic device to also be equipped with a recorder  260  for recording a message that the transceiver  240  attaches to the outgoing notification signal.  
      According to this embodiment of the invention, the first clock signal is sent from the CPU  230  at an adjustable interval from zero to sixty minutes prior to the appointment that is entered in the calendar. Likewise, the second clock signal is also sent from the CPU  230  to the alarm  210  at another adjustable interval less than sixty minutes.  
      The electronic device  200  is also equipped to receive an incoming notification of lateness. In that case, the calendar  270  can be automatically annotated to indicate lateness, and/or a link can be inserted into the calendar  270  linking to information about the incoming notification of lateness (e.g. linking to an attached voice recording from another meeting participant).  
      It is to be understood that all of the present figures, and the accompanying narrative discussions of best mode embodiments, do not purport to be completely rigorous treatments of the method, system, mobile device, and software product under consideration. A person skilled in the art will understand that the steps and signals of the present application represent general cause-and-effect relationships that do not exclude intermediate interactions of various types, and will further understand that the various steps and structures described in this application can be implemented by a variety of different sequences and configurations, using various different combinations of hardware and software which need not be further detailed herein.