Abstract: A general event composing and monitoring system that allows high-level events to be created from combinations of low-level events. An event specification tool allows for rapid development of a general event processor that creates high-level events from combinations of user actions. The event system, in combination with a reasoning system, is able to monitor and perform inference about several classes of events for a variety of purposes. The various classes of events include the current context, the state of key data structures in a program, general sequences of user inputs, including actions with a mouse-controlled cursor while interacting with a graphical user interface, words typed in free-text queries for assistance, visual information about users, such as gaze and gesture information, and speech information.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
November 20, 1998
Date of Patent:
July 10, 2001
Assignee:
Microsoft Corporation
Inventors:
Eric Horvitz, John S. Breese, David E. Heckerman, Samuel D. Hobson, David O. Hovel, Adrian C. Klein, Jacobus A. Rommelse, Gregory L. Shaw