Patent ID: 8578439

Claim:
An apparatus for use in controlling the presentation of information to a user of a system, the apparatus comprising: a processor-based device operative to automatically determine at least one preference of the user with regard to one or more system actions based on (i) previous user actions in an event chain of context-sensitive user behavior that takes place within the system and (ii) corresponding system-detectable state information in the event chain of context-sensitive user behavior that takes place within the system, and to initiate subsequent execution of at least a subset of the system actions based on the determined preference, wherein the one or more system actions comprises presentation to the user via a remote control device of alarms and icons representing a particular type of information available from a particular information source that intelligently and adaptively reflect the previous user actions in the event chain of context-sensitive user behavior within the system, and further wherein the processor-based device performs: (I) detecting via an adaptive engine when (i) an event chain of context-sensitive user behavior in connection with a current system action conflicts with (ii) another event chain of context-sensitive user behavior in connection with a previous system action, and to query the user upon such detection to determine what additional system-detectable state information available to the system can be specified to delineate the two conflicting event chains from one another, resulting in specialized rules in connection with rule chain trigger event resolution of conflicts that arise in response to (a) a rule being entered into a filter/rules database of the system and (b) a trigger event chain being overridden by the user via context-sensitive user behavior within the system and (II) resolving, via a rule chain trigger event resolution element of the adaptive engine, (a) similar or conflicting rules in the filter/rules database such that the specialized rules that delineate two conflicting event chains from one another, are differentiated from general rules, and (b) conflicting rules, if any, are differentiated from each other using the determined additional system-detectable state information; wherein a particular set of one or more system actions are repeated under the control of the processor-based device when a corresponding set of one or more conditions are met.