Abstract: One embodiment provides a system for facilitating integration of recommended exercise with transportation directions. During operation, the system generates, by a mobile computing device associated with a user, a request for a route from a start location to a destination location. The system determines one or more of the user's transportation-related preferences, which include the user's activity level goal. The system monitors the user's activity requirement. The system receives the route, which includes one or more segments, wherein a segment indicates a transportation type and a corresponding activity value, wherein the route is calculated based on the transportation-related preferences and the monitored activity requirement, thereby facilitating integration of recommended exercise with transportation directions.

Abstract: One embodiment provides a system that facilitates access control. During operation, the system generates, by a first mobile computing device associated with a first user, a request to record information of a second user associated with a second mobile computing device. In response to receiving, from the second mobile computing device, an acceptance of the request, the system records, by the first mobile computing device, the information of the second user based on recording-related preferences of the second user. In response to receiving, from the second mobile computing device, a rejection of the request, the system precludes the first mobile computing device from recording the information of the second user, thereby facilitating intuitive and socially aligned access control.

Abstract: One embodiment provides a system that facilitates optimization of passenger pick-up. During operation, the system generates, by a first mobile computing device associated with a passenger at a first location, a request for a target location at which to meet with a vehicle. The system receives the target location and a planned passenger route for the passenger to the target location, which are calculated based on a location, facing direction, and direction of movement, if any, of the vehicle, and wherein the target location is different from the first location, thereby facilitating optimization of a time duration and route the passenger takes to meet the vehicle.

Abstract: One embodiment provides a system that facilitates access control. During operation, the system generates, by a first mobile computing device associated with a first user, a request to record information of a second user associated with a second mobile computing device. In response to receiving, from the second mobile computing device, an acceptance of the request, the system records, by the first mobile computing device, the information of the second user based on recording-related preferences of the second user. In response to receiving, from the second mobile computing device, a rejection of the request, the system precludes the first mobile computing device from recording the information of the second user, thereby facilitating intuitive and socially aligned access control.

Abstract: One embodiment provides a system that facilitates optimization of passenger pick-up. During operation, the system generates, by a first mobile computing device associated with a passenger at a first location, a request for a target location at which to meet with a vehicle. The system receives the target location and a planned passenger route for the passenger to the target location, which are calculated based on a location, facing direction, and direction of movement, if any, of the vehicle, and wherein the target location is different from the first location, thereby facilitating optimization of a time duration and route the passenger takes to meet the vehicle.

Abstract: One embodiment provides a system for facilitating integration of recommended exercise with transportation directions. During operation, the system generates, by a mobile computing device associated with a user, a request for a route from a start location to a destination location. The system determines one or more of the user's transportation-related preferences, which include the user's activity level goal. The system monitors the user's activity requirement. The system receives the route, which includes one or more segments, wherein a segment indicates a transportation type and a corresponding activity value, wherein the route is calculated based on the transportation-related preferences and the monitored activity requirement, thereby facilitating integration of recommended exercise with transportation directions.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a system for generating a message. During operation, the system receives user interaction event data. The user interaction event data describes explicit or implicit interactions of a user with a web application and/or mobile application. Next, the system modifies a graph describing the user's current context associated with the user based on an analysis of the user interaction event data, as interpreted by the system learning from previous processing of user interaction event data. The context graph includes information about the user's state, behavior, and interests, and some or all portions of the context graph may be shared between users. The system determines a set of rules associated with a group of users that includes the user, and then applies the determined set of rules to any context graph associated with the user to generate the message.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a system for generating a message. During operation, the system receives user interaction event data. The user interaction event data describes explicit or implicit interactions of a user with a web application and/or mobile application. Next, the system modifies a graph describing the user's current context associated with the user based on an analysis of the user interaction event data, as interpreted by the system learning from previous processing of user interaction event data. The context graph includes information about the user's state, behavior, and interests, and some or all portions of the context graph may be shared between users. The system determines a set of rules associated with a group of users that includes the user, and then applies the determined set of rules to any context graph associated with the user to generate the message.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a system for navigating through information associated with physical objects or locations. During operation, the system detects a multi-resolution visual code placed on or in the vicinity of a physical object or location. The system then determines a level of resolution for the detected code, and decodes the code at the determined level of resolution to obtain the information. Subsequently, the system presents the information to a user, thereby allowing the user to navigate through information associated with the physical object or location.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a system for recruiting individuals with a desired socio-demographic distribution. During operation, the system receives the desired socio-demographic distribution, obtains a seed sample comprising a plurality of participants, calculates a socio-demographic distribution associated with the seed sample, calculates an incentive provided to a user for recruiting an individual with a desired socio-demographic attribute, and presents the incentive to the user, thereby motivating the user to recruit the individual with the desired socio-demographic attribute.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a system for optimizing the performance of a recommendation engine by generating an optimal recommendation time window. During operation, the system receives user click-through behavior on past recommendations and current user information, such as demographics and location. The system also receives information on one or more offers. The system determines the appropriate user-group for each user, and appropriate offer-group for each offer. The system then generates an optimal time period for a given recommendation for a given user and offer, wherein the optimal recommendation time window is the period when the offer is most likely to be accepted.

Abstract: An automatic calendar-managing system automatically updates a user's schedule in response to schedule-modifying events. During operation, the system can detect a schedule-modifying event, which can include an event that is likely to require the user to modify a set of scheduled activities. The system then generates a schedule modification, which includes at least one change to the user's set of scheduled activities, to account for the schedule-modifying event. The system can reschedule the user's set of scheduled activities to accommodate the schedule modification.

Abstract: In a user-activity identification technique, a user's actions are monitored while the user is using a computer. While these user actions are associated with user activities, the user activities are initially unspecified, so the tracked user actions constitute unsupervised data. Then, the tracked user actions are aggregated into subsets (for example, using clustering analysis), and user-activity classifications for the subsets (such as activity labels) are provided by the user, so the subsets constitute supervised data. Subsequently, when additional user actions (which are associated with one or more initially unspecified current user activities) are tracked, they can be associated with one or more of the classified subsets. For example, information about the additional user actions can be mapped in real time (or near real time) to one or more of the subsets using a supervised learning technique. In this way, the one or more current user activities can be identified.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a computing device that delivers personally-defined context-based content to a user. This computing device receives a set of contextual information with respect to the user, and processes the contextual information to determine a context which is associated with an activity being performed by the user. The computing device then determines whether either or both the context and a current activity of the user satisfy a trigger condition which has been previously defined by the user. If so, the computing device selects content from a content database, based on the context, to present to the user, and presents the selected content.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates location-aware, mixed-reality gaming platform. During operation, the system determines a layout of a user's surrounding. The system further detects the user's location and/or nearby objects. Next, the system associates virtual content to the determined layout and associates a set of game rules with the virtual content. Subsequently, the system produces a visual and/or audio representation of a game based on the game rules and virtual content to the user, thereby allowing the user to play a game that corresponds to his surrounding and location.

Abstract: A system facilitates traversing digital records with dimensional attributes. The system stores a number of digital records. The system further associates a respective digital record with a number of attributes, wherein a respective attribute can be specified in a number of levels of abstraction. The system allows a user to control a presentation of the stored digital records based on their attributes. The user can set one or more criteria for the attributes of the digital records to be presented by: specifying the value of at least one fixed attribute of the digital records to be presented, changing at least one non-fixed attribute of the digital records to be presented, and/or specifying a level of abstraction for the fixed and/or non-fixed attribute of the digital records to be presented. The system then presents a set of digital records to the user based on the attribute criteria set by the user.

Abstract: In a user-activity identification technique, a user's actions are monitored while the user is using a computer. While these user actions are associated with user activities, the user activities are initially unspecified, so the tracked user actions constitute unsupervised data. Then, the tracked user actions are aggregated into subsets (for example, using clustering analysis), and user-activity classifications for the subsets (such as activity labels) are provided by the user, so the subsets constitute supervised data. Subsequently, when additional user actions (which are associated with one or more initially unspecified current user activities) are tracked, they can be associated with one or more of the classified subsets. For example, information about the additional user actions can be mapped in real time (or near real time) to one or more of the subsets using a supervised learning technique. In this way, the one or more current user activities can be identified.

Abstract: Electronic messages with system-generated network addresses are transmitted to recipients to enable access to specific locations in the workflow system. The network addresses may be used only once, are generated using secure identifications and/or can be generated randomly. These secure identifications can be created by encoding a large number into the network address. The recipient of this network address may be required to himself to the workflow system, for example, as a means for minimizing security risks to the workflow system. The network addresses generated to specific locations within a workflow system are intended for specific recipients but may be shared by the recipients as circumstances require. Electronic mail can be transmitted with specific electronic mail addresses encoded in the electronic mail message. The specific email address can be encoded into a “Reply-to” function. Alternatively, specific email addresses can be embedded into the message portion of the email message.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a method for recommending activities to a user. During operation, the system determines an activity-type distribution based on the user's personal profile and/or population prior information, thereby facilitating prediction of future activities for the user. The system further searches for and receives one or more activities based on the activity-type distribution. The system then scores each received activity and recommends a number of activities to be performed by the user in the future and a number of corresponding venues, based on the activity-type distribution and the weight distribution.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a computing device that delivers personally-defined context-based content to a user. This computing device receives a set of contextual information with respect to the user, and processes the contextual information to determine a context which is associated with an activity being performed by the user. The computing device then determines whether either or both the context and a current activity of the user satisfy a trigger condition which has been previously defined by the user. If so, the computing device selects content from a content database, based on the context, to present to the user, and presents the selected content.