Reserving a time block in a calendar application to account for a travel time between geographic locations of appointments

A computer-implemented method for identifying a travel time between appointments and reserving a time block on a calendar application to account for such travel time, the method comprising:

• identifying a first appointment in a calendar application;
• identifying a geographic location of the first appointment;
• identifying a time of the first appointment;
• receiving, from a user, a request to schedule a second appointment at a requested time;
• identifying a geographic location of the second appointment;
• identifying a route extending between the geographic location of the first appointment and the geographic location of the second appointment;
• identifying a travel time associated with the route;
• determining an amount of unscheduled time between the first appointment and the second appointment;
• determining whether the amount of unscheduled time exceeds the travel time;
• and
• if it is determined that the amount of unscheduled time exceeds the travel time:
• scheduling the second appointment at the requested time;
• and
• reserving a time block on the calendar application to account for the travel time.

A computer-implemented method for monitoring travel conditions and alerting a user when changes to travel conditions impact a travel time entry scheduled in a calendar application associated with the user, the method comprising:

• monitoring travel conditions for a route of travel associated with a travel time entry scheduled in a calendar application associated with a user, the travel time entry corresponding to an estimated travel time needed for the user to, using the route of travel, arrive at a geographic location of an appointment scheduled in the calendar application associated with the user;
• detecting a change in travel conditions for the route of travel associated with the travel time block;
• in response to detecting the change in travel conditions, determining an updated travel time needed for the user to, using the route of travel, arrive at the geographic location of the appointment scheduled in the calendar application associated with the user;
• comparing the updated travel time with time required by the travel time entry;
• based on comparison results, determining whether the updated travel time is greater than the time required by the travel time entry by more than a threshold;
• conditioned on determining that the updated travel time is more than the threshold greater than the time required by the travel time entry, alerting the user about the updated travel time;
• and
• conditioned on determining that the updated travel time is not more than the threshold greater than the time required by the travel time entry, maintaining the travel time entry.

A computer-implemented method for automatically modifying a travel time entry in a calendar associated with a user in response to cancellation of a corresponding appointment entry in the calendar associated with the user, the method comprising:

• detecting cancellation of an appointment entry in a calendar associated with a user;
• in response to detecting cancellation of the appointment entry in the calendar associated with the user, determining whether the appointment entry is related to a travel time entry in the calendar associated with the user;
• conditioned on determining that the appointment entry is related to a travel time entry in the calendar associated with the user:
• identifying the travel time entry related to the appointment entry;
• modifying the travel time entry to account for cancellation of the appointment entry.

A computer-implemented method for accounting for telephone or video conference calls in scheduling travel time corresponding to appointments in a calendar associated with a user, the method comprising:

• receiving a request to schedule, in a calendar associated with a user, a first appointment at a first time, the first appointment corresponding to a first geographic location;
• identifying, in the calendar associated with the user, a second appointment that follows the first appointment;
• determining whether the second appointment is an appointment for a telephone or video conference call;
• conditioned on determining that the second appointment is an appointment for a telephone or video conference call:
• accounting for travel time associated with the first appointment without regard for the second appointment by:
• identifying, in the calendar associated with the user, a third appointment that follows the second appointment;
• determining that the third appointment corresponds to a third geographic location;
• in response to determining that the third appointment corresponds to the third geographic location:
• identifying the third geographic location corresponding to the third appointment;
• determining a first travel time associated with traveling from the first geographic location to the third geographic location;
• determining a time between an ending time of the first appointment and a starting time of the third appointment;
• comparing the first travel time with the time between the ending time of the first appointment and the starting time of the third appointment;
• based on comparison results, determining whether the first travel time is greater than the time between the ending time of the first appointment and the starting time of the third appointment;
• conditioned on determining that the first travel time is not greater than the time between the ending time of the first appointment and the starting time of the third appointment:
• granting the request to schedule the first appointment;
• and
• adding, in the calendar associated with the user, a travel time entry corresponding to the first travel time associated with traveling from the first geographic location to the third geographic location;
• conditioned on determining that the first travel time is greater than the time between the ending time of the first appointment and the starting time of the third appointment, alerting the user that insufficient travel time exists for scheduling the first appointment at the first time;
• conditioned on determining that the second appointment is not an appointment for a telephone or video conference call:
• identifying a second geographic location associated with the second appointment;
• determining a second travel time associated with traveling from the first geographic location to the second geographic location;
• determining a time between an ending time of the first appointment and a starting time of the second appointment;
• comparing the second travel time with the time between the ending time of the first appointment and the starting time of the second appointment;
• based on comparison results, determining whether the second travel time is greater than the time between the ending time of the first appointment and the starting time of the second appointment;
• conditioned on determining that the second travel time is not greater than the time between the ending time of the first appointment and the starting time of the second appointment:
• granting the request to schedule the first appointment;
• and
• adding, in the calendar associated with the user, a travel time entry corresponding to the second travel time associated with traveling from the first geographic location to the second geographic location;
• and
• conditioned on determining that the second travel time is greater than the time between the ending time of the first appointment and the starting time of the second appointment, alerting the user that insufficient travel time exists for scheduling the first appointment at the first time.

A computer-implemented method for identifying unscheduled time between two appointment entries in a calendar other than travel time and presenting options to a user for using the unscheduled time, the method comprising:

• identifying at least one of a first appointment entry in a calendar associated with a user and a second appointment entry in the calendar associated with the user, the first appointment entry being associated with a first geographic location, the second appointment entry being associated with a second geographic location that is different than the first geographic location, and a starting time of the second appointment entry being subsequent to an ending time of the first appointment entry;
• identifying a travel time entry corresponding to a travel time between the first geographic location associated with the first appointment entry and the second geographic location associated with the second appointment entry;
• determining whether a time between the ending time of the first appointment entry and the starting time of the second appointment entry is more than a threshold greater than time required by the travel time entry;
• and
• conditioned on determining that the time between the ending time of the first appointment entry and the starting time of the second appointment entry is more than a threshold greater than the time required by the travel time entry:
• identifying unscheduled time, other than travel time, between the first appointment entry and the second appointment entry;
• identifying one or more options for using the identified unscheduled time;
• and
• presenting the identified one or more options to the user.

A computer-implemented method for including time associated with modality-specific incidentals to travel in determining a travel time for scheduling calendar appointments, the method comprising:

• identifying a first appointment associated with a calendar of a user, the first appointment corresponding to a first geographic location;
• identifying a second appointment associated with the calendar of the user, the second appointment corresponding to a second geographic location that is different than the first geographic location;
• identifying a route between the first geographic location and the second geographic location;
• determining a modality of travel for traveling the route between the first geographic location and the second geographic location;
• determining a modality-based travel time associated with traveling the route between the first geographic location and the second geographic location using the determined modality of travel;
• determining at least one incidental travel time associated with traveling the route between the first geographic location and the second geographic location using the determined modality of travel;
• determining a total travel time for traveling the route between the first geographic location and the second geographic location based on the determined modality-based travel time and the determined at least one incidental travel time;
• and
• handling scheduling of the first appointment and the second appointment based on the determined total travel time.