WO2016203378A1

WO2016203378A1 - Scheduling calendar events across different calendar applications and devices

Info

Publication number: WO2016203378A1
Application number: PCT/IB2016/053513
Authority: WO
Inventors: Alissia ADAM
Original assignee: Mykali Australia Pty Ltd
Priority date: 2015-06-15
Filing date: 2016-06-15
Publication date: 2016-12-22

Abstract

A method comprising the steps performed by a specially programmed computer of receiving a request from a request or to schedule a calendar event with a recipient without sharing access with the request or to a calendar application selectable by the recipient; pushing a notification identifying the calendar event to the recipient to accept or decline the request; if the request is accepted, syncing the calendar event to the calendar application selected by the recipient.

Description

SCHEDULING CALENDAR EVENTS ACROSS DIFFERENT CALENDAR

APPLICATIONS AND DEVICES

Field

[0001 ] The present invention relates to scheduling calendar events data across different calendar applications and devices.

Background

[0002] Some operating-system specific calendar applications, such as Google Calendar and iCal, allow individual users to share access to, and automatically sync between, their own different calendar applications and devices. Privacy and security concerns, however, typically stop individual users from allowing third parties to directly share access to their different calendar applications or devices. Third parties are therefore unable to determine the availability of individual users for calendar events, such as business appointments or social meetings.

[0003] The reluctance of individual users to sharing direct access to calendar applications with third parties prevents them from determining availability for calendar events, such as business appointments and social meetings. This a key barrier to scheduling calendar events between businesses and customers, and between friends and family members.

[0004] A need therefore exists for solutions to enable scheduling of calendar events between businesses and customers, and between friends and family members, without sharing direct access to calendar applications or devices of individual users.

Summary

[0005] According to the present invention, there is provided a method, comprising the steps performed by a specially programmed computer of: receiving a request from a requestor to schedule a calendar event with a recipient without sharing access with the requestor to a calendar application selectable by the recipient;

pushing a notification identifying the calendar event to the recipient to accept or decline the request;

if the request is accepted, syncing the calendar event to the calendar application selected by the recipient.

[0006] The method may further comprise pushing a notification to the requestor that the request has been accepted by the recipient.

[0007] The method may further comprise syncing the calendar event to a calendar application selected by the requestor.

[0008] The requestor may comprise a business, and the recipient may comprise a customer of the business, or vice versa.

[0009] Alternatively, the requestor and the recipient may comprise friends or family members of one another.

[0010] The calendar event may comprise a business appointment, a social invitation or a combination thereof.

[001 1 ] The calendar applications respectively selectable by the recipient and the requestor may comprise Outlook calendar, Google calendar, Yahoo calendar, iCal, Lotus Notes Calendar, or a combination thereof.

[0012] The method may further comprise a step of sending a reminder of the calendar event to the recipient and/or the requestor at a time selected by the requestor.

[0013] The reminder may be sent via push notification, email, SMS, instant message, or a combination thereof. [0014] The present invention also provides a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer-readable instructions, wherein execution of the computer-readable instructions by a computer specially programs the computer to: receive a request from a requestor to schedule a calendar event with a recipient without sharing access with the requestor to a calendar application selectable by the recipient;

push a notification identifying the calendar event to the recipient to accept or decline the request;

if the request is accepted, sync the calendar event to the calendar application selected by the recipient.

[0015] The computer-readable instructions may be integrated into or interfaced with an e-commerce application.

[0016] The e-commerce application may comprise an online booking application, an online ticketing application, an online appointment application, an online travel application, an online payment application, and combinations thereof. For example, the e-commerce application may comprise an online booking system for events, flights, accommodation, tours, rental vehicles, etc.

Brief Description of Drawings

[0017] Embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a block diagram of a computer system for scheduling calendar events across different calendar applications and devices according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Figure 2 is a flowchart of a method implemented by the computer system;

Figures 3 to 5 are screenshots of one example of the method for scheduling calendar events between businesses and customers; and

Figures 6 and 7 are screenshots of another example of the method for scheduling calendar events between friends or family members. Description of Embodiments

[0018] Figure 1 is a block diagram of a computer system 100 for implementing a method 200 for scheduling calendar events across different calendar applications and devices according to an embodiment of the present invention. The system 100 may generally comprise computers that are specially programmed by computer- readable instructions to perform the steps of the method 200. The specially programmed computers of the system 100 may comprise clients 1 10 connected via a network to an application server 120 associated with a database 130. The clients 1 10 may comprise a smartphone, a smartwatch, a tablet, a laptop, a desktop computer, and combinations thereof. The application server 120 and associated database 130 may comprise a cloud server, a cloud data storage, and combinations thereof.

[0019] The application server 120 may be specially programmed to implement web or mobile applications that provide web or mobile services to the clients 1 10 relating to scheduling calendar events between businesses and customers, or between friends and family members. The web or mobile applications may provide the services as software-as-a-service (SaaS) services to subscribers. The subscribers to the SaaS may comprise businesses, customers, friends, and family members. The computer-readable instructions may be integrated into, or the web or mobile applications may be interfaced by application programming interfaces with, web or mobile applications or data stores relating to proprietary calendar applications or e- commerce applications, such as online booking applications (eg for events, flights, accommodation, tours, rental vehicles, etc), online ticketing applications, online appointment applications, online travel applications, online payment applications, etc.

[0020] Figure 2 is flowchart of a method 200 implemented by the computer system 100. The method 200 starts by receiving a request from a requestor to schedule a calendar event with a recipient without sharing access with the requestor to a calendar application selectable by the recipient (210). Determining the availability of the recipient for the calendar event, and indirectly scheduling the calendar event, without directly or automatically storing, accessing, syncing or sharing any calendars or devices of the recipient with the requestor may advantageously preserve and protect the privacy of the recipient.

[0021 ] The requestor may comprise a business, and the recipient may comprise a customer of the business, or vice versa. Alternatively, the requestor and the recipient may comprise friends or family members of one another.

[0022] The calendar event may comprise a business appointment, a social invitation or a combination thereof. The calendar event may further comprise a date, a time, a requestor name, a recipient name, a location (which may be linked to a location on a map application such as Google Maps), a reminder, notes, uploaded files, links to uploaded files, payment requests, terms and conditions, and combinations thereof.

[0023] Next, a notification identifying the calendar event may be pushed to the recipient to accept or decline the request (220). If the request is accepted, the calendar event may be added, synced or pushed to a calendar application selected by the recipient (230). Optionally, the recipient may request to reschedule the calendar event. In this case, the method 200 may be repeated with the original recipient acting as the requestor to reschedule the calendar event with the original requestor acting as the recipient.

[0024] The method 200 may further comprise pushing a notification to the requestor that the request has been accepted by the recipient. The calendar event may then be synced to a calendar application selected by the requestor.

[0025] The calendar applications respectively selectable by the recipient and the requestor may comprise Outlook calendar, Google calendar, Yahoo calendar, iCal, or Lotus Notes Calendar. Other alternative or equivalent calendar applications may also be used. The calendar applications respectively selectable by the recipient and the requestor may share access between different respective calendar applications and devices of the recipient and the requestor.

[0026] The calendar event may be respectively synced to the calendar applications respectively selected by the recipient and the requestor using a unique identifier of the calendar event. The unique identifier may be allocated, retrieved or fetched using proprietary or open source calendar application frameworks or tools, for example, Event Kit framework for iCal. The calendar event and associated unique identifier may be stored in the database 130 associated with the application server 120.

[0027] In some embodiments, the method 200 further includes sending a reminder at a time selected by the requestor when creating the calendar event. The reminder may be sent to the recipient and/or the requestor at the time chosen by the requestor, via push notification, email, short message service (SMS) message, instant message, or a combination thereof. In other examples, the reminder may be pre-set to be sent at a specific time before the calendar event. The pre-set time may be chosen by the recipient and/or the requestor and applied automatically and globally to all calendar events.

[0028] The method 200 provided may further comprise ancillary services related to a business requestor, the calendar event, or a combination thereof. For example, the ancillary services may comprise allowing a customer recipient to do one or more of completing a form, viewing a document, viewing terms and conditions, adding a business to favourites, making an electronic payment, providing feedback, or providing ratings, relating to the calendar event. Other equivalent or alternative ancillary services may also be provided to customer users, such as marketing, advertising and social media services.

[0029] The invention will now be described in more detail, by way of illustration only, with respect to the following examples. The examples are intended to serve to illustrate this invention, and should not be construed as limiting the generality of the disclosure of the description throughout this specification.

Example 1 : Appointments or bookings between businesses and customers

[0030] Figures 3 to 5 are screenshots of one example of the method 200 for scheduling calendar events between business and customers. Figures 3A to 3F illustrate an example use case of a recipient customer receiving a request to schedule an appointment from a requestor education provider. If the recipient customer is available and accepts the request, the appointment is automatically synced to a calendar application selected by the recipient customer, as shown in Figure 3F. Figures 4A to 4F illustrate the example use case from the perspective of the requestor education provider sending the request to schedule the appointment to the recipient customer. If the recipient customer is available and accepts the request, the requestor education provider receives a notification confirming that the appointment has been accepted by the recipient customer. The appointment is then automatically synced to a calendar application selected by the requestor education provider, as shown in Figure 4F. Figures 5A to 5E illustrate an example use case of a requestor customer searching for, and requesting, available bookings, from a recipient hotel. If available and accepted by the recipient hotel, the booking is synced to a calendar application selected by the requestor customer. The booking time may also be synced to a calendar application selected by the recipient hotel. Figures 3A, 4A and 5A show the step of selecting the user's preferred calendar application on the user's device. This selection step may be required to be performed only once, eg during setup of the web or mobile application.

Example 2: Scheduling calendar events between friends

[0031 ] Figures 6 and 7 are example screenshots of another example of the method 200 for scheduling calendar events between friends (or family members). Figures 6A to 6E illustrate an example use case of a recipient friend receiving a request to schedule a coffee from a requestor friend. If the recipient friend is available and accepts the request, the coffee invitation is synced to a calendar application selected by the recipient friend. Figures 7A to 7E illustrate the example use case from the perspective of the requestor friend sending requests to schedule a coffee to a group of recipient friends. If individual friends are available and accept the requests, the requestor friend receives notifications confirming that the coffee invitation has been accepted by individual recipient friends. The coffee invitation is then synced to a calendar application selected by the requestor friend. Example 3: Employee scheduling

[0032] The method 200 may be used for employee scheduling. The requestor employer may send a proposed work shift as a calendar event to a recipient employee. If the employee accepts the calendar event, the method may send a notification to the requestor employer that the work shift has been accepted. The scheduled shift time is then synced with a calendar application selected by the recipient employee. The scheduled shift time may also be synced to a calendar application selected by the requestor employer.

[0033] Embodiments of the present invention are specifically useful for scheduling calendar events between businesses and customers, and between friends and family members, without sharing direct access to calendar applications or devices of individual users.

[0034] For the purpose of this specification, the word "comprising" means "including but not limited to," and the word "comprises" has a corresponding meaning.

[0035] The above embodiments have been described by way of example only and modifications are possible within the scope of the claims that follow.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1 . A method comprising the steps performed by a specially programmed computer of:

receiving a request from a requestor to schedule a calendar event with a recipient without sharing access with the requestor to a calendar application selectable by the recipient;

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of pushing a notification to the requestor that the request has been accepted.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising the step of syncing the calendar event to a calendar application selected by the requestor.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the requestor comprises a business, and the recipient comprises a customer of the business, or vice versa.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the requestor and the recipient comprise friends or family members of one another.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the calendar event comprises a business appointment, a social invitation or a combination thereof.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein the calendar applications respectively selectable by the recipient and the requestor comprise Outlook calendar, Google calendar, Yahoo calendar, iCal, Lotus Notes Calendar, or a combination thereof.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising a step of sending a reminder of the calendar event to the recipient and/or the requestor at a time selected by the requestor.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the reminder is sent via push notification, email, SMS, instant message, or a combination thereof.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer-readable instructions, wherein execution of the computer-readable instructions by a computer specially programs the computer to:

receive a request from a requestor to schedule a calendar event with a recipient without sharing access with the requestor to a calendar application selectable by the recipient;

if the request is accepted, sync the calendar event to a calendar application selected by the recipient.

1 1 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the computer-readable instructions are integrated into or interfaced with an e-commerce application.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 1 , wherein the e- commerce application comprises an online booking application, an online ticketing application, an online appointment application, an online travel application, an online payment application, and combinations thereof.