RU2721999C1 - Associative network of contacts, notes and/or events - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: computer equipment.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to computer engineering and specifically to a method of storing, accessing and searching for contacts, notes and/or events on a personal computer device. User stores contacts, notes and/or events on personal computer device by means of computer program into structured elements, which connects each other in any combination in accordance with the meaning and associations, forming an associative network, through which can find the required elements and apply the required functions to the elements.

EFFECT: technical result consists in reduction of time for preservation, search and use of information, with simultaneous increase in number of units of information, which can be effectively controlled by user of device.

4 cl, 1 dwg

Description

Technical field

The invention relates to the field of computer technology, namely, to a method for organizing storage, access and search for contacts, notes and / or events on a personal computer device. The concept of a personal computer device covers laptop computers, personal communicators, mobile phones, smartphones and any other electronic devices that may contain executable instructions (computer programs) and are used by the device user to work with different types of information (text, graphic, audio, etc. .).

State of the art

Modern personal computer devices contain executable instructions (computer programs) that allow the device user to work with different types of information presented in a computer program by structured elements of certain types. Currently, there are a large number of computer programs that, when executed by a personal computer device, help users organize the storage, search and subsequent use of contacts, notes and / or events, providing a certain set of functions for each type of information (for example, dial a contact’s phone number, save text or graphic information in a note, display the schedule of events). Such computer programs allow the user of a personal computer device, for example, to save the contact of the beauty salon with the phone number and the name of the salon in which he usually does his hair, to be able to call the salon to record a haircut session, save the event with a date reminder on the device and recording time for a haircut session in this beauty salon also allows the user to save a note on the computer device with photos of examples of hairstyles for a hairdresser and a note with recommendations for hair care.

For example, a computer program for managing information of the kind of contact, as a rule, allows you to save, modify, search for structured elements that describe the contact with various attributes, including allowing you to identify it (for example, the name or name of the contact) and establish communication with this contact (for example , phone numbers, email addresses, social networks, chats, etc.). Examples of such programs are: Contacts +, Drupe, PureContact (Top 10 best Android Contacts application. [Electronic resource]. - Access mode: URL: http://global.drfone.biz/en/contacts/best-android-contacts- app.html).

A computer program for managing information of the form of a note, as a rule, allows you to save, modify, search for structured elements that describe the note with various attributes, including those that allow it to be identified (for example, name) and that contain directly textual, graphic, audio and / or other information or links to storage locations. Examples of such programs are: Evernote, Notebook, ColorNote (11 excellent applications for taking notes on Android. [Electronic resource]. - Access mode: URL: https://lifehacker.ru/12-prilozhenij-dlya-vedeniya-zametok-na -android /).

A computer program for managing information of the form of an event, as a rule, allows you to save, modify and search for structured elements that describe an event with various attributes, including those that identify it (for example, name) and contain the date and time of the event (for example, start date and time) events, date and time of completion of the event, etc.), which allow you to automatically remind the user of the device about the upcoming event and display the schedule of events in a user-friendly form. Examples of such programs are: Google calendar, Any.do, aCalendar (9 tools for scheduling time. [Electronic resource]. - Access mode: URL https://lifehacker.ru/10-calendars/).

Currently, there are very few computer programs for personal computer devices that allow the device user to manage contacts, notes, and events simultaneously within one computer program. Examples of such computer programs are MS Outlook, Exiland Assistant (Official site ExilandSoft. [Electronic resource]. - Access mode: URL: https://exiland-soft.com/ru/).

At the same time, all modern computer programs that manage contacts, notes, and / or events support criteria-based methods for organizing access and organizing structured elements to help the user quickly find the necessary information and navigate it as the number of elements grows. Criteria for organizing access and organizing structured elements allow you to select, group and sort structured elements according to predetermined criteria. Examples of such features of an element are the sign of including a structured element in the list of selected elements, which allows the device user to mark the most frequently used information element and then quickly find it in this list (if this list of selected elements is not very long), an attribute of the element being bound to a named group ( folder, category, project, etc.), attributes of an element that are a keyword (tag, tooltip, etc.), priority, picture, flag, color, etc.

A disadvantage of the criteria-based method for organizing access and organizing structured elements is the linear increase in the time required to save and search for elements as their number grows, since the natural limitation of the human brain effectively manage 7 plus or minus 2 information elements slow down the person’s ability to process large amounts of information. And this leads to the need to increase the number of values of the criterial features by which structured elements are grouped and sorted, which in turn leads to the difficulty of working with criteria criteria and elements, making work in a computer program uncomfortable and difficult. A huge number of computer programs for managing contacts, notes and / or events are trying to solve this systemic problem with varying degrees of success, providing the user of a personal computer device with only a criteria-based way of organizing storage and access to structured information elements, differing only in user interface graphics, UX design and copyright functions of user interaction with a personal computer device.

Another disadvantage of the currently known method of organizing and managing structured information such as contact, note, and / or event on personal computer devices is the storage in independent and loosely linked lists of different in type but common in meaning structured elements. Those. the contact of the beauty salon will be stored in one list, the event-reminder of the haircut session in this beauty salon in another list, and the notes in the third, although all this information is meaningfully related to the field of personal care and the device user needs the same point in time in one place. The existing organization of storage, in case of need for personal care, leads to the need to find and work with the required information several times, first in one list, then in another list, and then in the third. And given that different computer programs have different ways of organizing and managing information, the user of a personal computer device is forced to spend several times organizing information in each of them, developing general rules for organizing information elements so that later it can be found and used faster .

Currently, there are computer programs that allow to use the method of associative (semantic) storage of information on personal computer devices (similar terms: mind maps, intelligence map, connection diagram), i.e. allow you to save common sense information together (Buzan T., Buzan B. Superthinking / Per. Samsonov E. OOO "Potpourri", 2007.). As a rule, such computer programs focus on the graphic or spatial representation of associatively stored information, without structuring its semantic content and not providing functions in accordance with the meaning of the information, but allowing to decorate information elements with various graphic designs (color, icons, line thickness, etc. .). Examples of such computer programs are: MindMeister, XMind, MindManager (Overview of 17 shareware programs for creating intelligence cards. [Electronic resource]. - Access mode: URL: https://texterra.ru/blog/obzor-15-besplatnykh -programm-dlya-sozdaniya-intellekt-kart.html). Such computer programs provide work with general information without structuring its content and storing it in elements in free text form or pictures.

Various studies in the use of Mind Maps confirm the significant convenience for humans of such a semantic (associative) way of organizing information in order to save, remember, easily search and access it, as well as analyze it (Muller X. Drawing up mental maps. Generation and structuring method ideas / Per Martynova V., Dremin M. Omega-L, 2007.) (Effective information processing - Mind mapping. [Electronic resource]. - Access mode: URL: https://www.intuit.ru/studies/courses / 647/503 / info). The disadvantage of personal computer devices with this group of computer programs is the focus on the functions of creating associative networks (or semantic maps), searching for new associations and information elements without structuring and subsequent semantic use of information elements in accordance with their type (for example, contact, note, event) .

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The essence of the invention lies in the implementation of an associative method for storing and searching within the meaning of contacts, notes and / or events on a personal computer device using one common computer program and the ability to perform functions on information in accordance with its purpose (for example, to establish communication with a contact using a phone call or send an email, automatically remind you of an upcoming event or provide a schedule of user events for the selected date, etc.).

The technical result of an associative network of contacts, notes and / or events on a personal computer device is to reduce the time for storing, searching and using information, while increasing the number of units of information that can be effectively controlled by the device user, which is achieved due to the following essential features.

1. Contacts, notes and events are stored by the user on a personal computer device using a computer program in structured elements of the corresponding type that have a set of attributes defined by the type (for example, for a contact it is an email address, for an event it is an event reminder time) and functions (for example, send an email to a contact’s email, automatically remind you of the time of an upcoming event, etc.) in accordance with the semantic purpose of the information.

2. A structured element of the contact type includes at least attributes that allow you to identify the contact (for example, name or title) and store a description of how to communicate with the contact (for example, phone number, email address, social network, chat, etc. ), but not limited to this set of attributes.

3. A structured element of a note type includes at least attributes that allow you to identify a note (for example, a name) and store directly textual, graphic, audio information or links to information storage locations, but is not limited to this set of attributes.

4. A structured event type element includes at least attributes that allow you to identify the event (for example, name) and store the date and time of the event (for example, the date and time the event started, the date and time the event ended, etc.), but not limited to this set of attributes.

5. Structured elements of different types are interconnected in any combination in accordance with the meaning that the user of a personal computer device makes, forming a common associative network, which ensures the transition from one semantic structured element to another according to the relationships established between the elements.

Thus, a user of a personal computer device with a computer program that implements the indicated method of storage and search will be able, in accordance with associations, to quickly navigate the relationships between the elements to save a new element of the required type in the place that corresponds to the meaning of the information or user associations, and quickly switch on the relationships between the elements to find the required element and perform the necessary functions with it (Yuretskaya M.N. Application of Mind Maps in working with information // St. Petersburg Educational Bulletin. - 2017. - Issue 2. - P. 66 - 68. )

The proposed method of using the associative network for quick information retrieval is similar to the search trees used in data search and sorting algorithms in database management systems (Thomas X. Cormen, Charles I. Leiserson, Ronald L. Rivest, Clifford Stein. Chapter 18. B- trees // Algorithms: construction and analysis = Introduction to Algorithms. - 2nd ed. - M .: Williams, 2006. - S. 515-536.). Organization of information storage in the form of trees (graph, network) allows you to reduce the number of steps and, accordingly, the time to search for the desired element or the right place to insert a new element compared to the linear storage of ordered information (Donald Knuth. The art of programming. Volume 3. Sorting and search = The Art of Computer Programming. - 2nd ed. - M .: Williams, 2017 .-- S. 824.).

The possible composition of the attributes of structured contact elements, notes, events and functions above them is not the subject of the invention and depends on the computer program in which the proposed method is implemented. Also, the invention does not limit the set of types of structured elements that can participate in the proposed method of storage and retrieval.

Description of drawings

FIG. contains an example of the structure of an associative network of contacts, notes and events, the list below shows an example of possible attributes for structured picture elements:

1. Note "Beauty" (used to group and name the common sense for related items):

1.1. the “name” attribute allows you to identify the note and contains the value “Beauty”;

1.2. the “text” attribute stores the text information of the note and its value is missing in this note;

2. Contact "Beauty Orange":

2.1. the attribute “name” allows you to identify the contact and contains the value “Beauty Salon Orange”;

2.2. the attribute "phone number" describes the method of communication with the contact and contains the value "+7 (495) 555-55-55";

2.3. the “Web site” attribute describes the method of communication with the contact and contains the value “http://www.orange.ru/”;

2.4. the attribute “address” is optional and contains the value “Moscow, Prospekt Stachek, d. 21”;

3. Contact "Beautician Marina":

3.1. the “name” attribute allows you to identify the contact and contains the value “Beautician Marina”;

3.2. the attribute "phone number" describes the method of communication with the contact and contains the value "+7 (999) 999-99-99";

4. Event "Haircut":

4.1. the “name” attribute allows you to identify the event and contains the value “haircut”;

4.2. the attribute "date and time of the event" stores the date and time of the event and contains the value "02/12/2019 14:00";

4.3. the “reminder time” attribute is optional and contains the value “1 hour before the start”;

5. Note "Favorite hairstyle":

5.1. the “name” attribute allows you to identify the note and contains the value “Favorite hairstyle”;

5.2. the “photo” attribute stores the graphic information of the note and contains a photo of the hairstyle option for the hairdresser;

6. Note "Recommendation for hair care":

6.1. the “name” attribute allows you to identify the note and contains the value “Recommendation for hair care”;

6.2. the “text” attribute stores the text information of the note and contains the value “Descriptive text with recommendations for hair care”;

Such an associative arrangement of information allows the user of a personal computer device with a computer program to build an associative network of contacts, notes and / or events to find the contact "Beauty Salon Orange" in one go from the "Beauty" section and immediately use the call to this salon, if necessary, the user can immediately see the date and time of recording in the salon and set a reminder for himself or recall recommendations for hair care.

Claims (4)

1. A method of organizing storage and access to contacts, notes and / or events on a personal computer device containing executable instructions (computer programs), characterized in that the device user uses the computer program of the device to save contacts, notes and / or events in structured elements that have a set of attributes defined by the type of element in accordance with their semantic purpose, searches for elements of interest for subsequent use using functions available in the computer program, characterized in that the user of a personal computer device using the computer program creates connections between structured elements of any types and in any combination, in accordance with the meaning and own associations, to determine the storage location and location of an element in the created structure, it performs a transition through the created links from one element to another for an associative about finding the required item. 2. The method according to claim 1, in which the structured element of the contact type includes at least attributes that allow you to identify the contact and store a description of the method of communication with the contact. 3. The method according to claim 1, in which the structured element of the note type includes at least attributes that allow you to identify the note and store directly textual, graphic, audio information or links to information storage locations. 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the structured event type element includes at least attributes that identify the event and store the date and time of the event.

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