RESPONSIVE ENVIRONMENT SENSOR SYSTEMS WITH DELAYED ACTIVATION

• US 20050273715A1
• Filed: 06/30/2004
• Published: 12/08/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/06/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pitney Bowes Incorporated (Böwe Systec AG)
• Original Assignee: Pitney Bowes Incorporated (Böwe Systec AG)
• Inventors: Rojas, John W., Deshpande, Shivani, Zukowski, Deborra J., Norris, James R. Jr.
• Granted Patent: US 7,673,244 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/708
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

Systems and methods for delayed function activation in a responsive environment are described. A responsive environment includes an intermediary system and notification manager to determine when a responsive environment will launch an application triggered by a sensed event. The environment includes sensor components and transparent software components that reside wholly within the environment for providing responsiveness. The environment also includes interactive software components that give users the means to provide input and/or experience output. Since changes to the interaction components may disrupt the user by requiring the user”s attention when it is not convenient, the system helps the user manage the responsive environment by using an application/function delay technique. The environment uses intelligence and notification mechanism to determine what might be useful and primes the apparatus to provide that functionality. However, the user actually initiates the execution of that function.

Claims

1. A method for processing a change of state in a responsive environment comprising:

determining a type of response that the environment should provide in response to the change of state;

defining response descriptions for the needed response instance in an application model;

storing the needed inputs in the response description;

creating a new notification;

defining a new notification description in a notification model;

associating the response descriptions within the new notification description; and

providing the new notification to a notification manager.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the response comprises launching an application.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the response comprises effecting a further change of state.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the response comprises launching an application and effecting a further change of state.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining if the response includes an immediate response event; and

if the response includes an immediate response event, initiating the immediate response event before providing the new notification to a notification manager.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein:

the response comprises launching an application and the immediate response event comprises effecting a further change of state.

7. A method for processing a response notification selection from a user in a responsive environment comprising:

reporting to the responsive environment that the user has selected the response notification;

accessing the description for a notification object corresponding to the selection from a notification model retrieving the URI for a corresponding application;

retrieving the description of the application;

displaying information about the notification and application parameters to the user; and

querying the user to allow the user the opportunity to accept or reject the notification.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

changing the environment context in response to the selection.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein:

changing the environment context in response to the selection comprises notifying the initiator of the initial message.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

terminating processing of the response notification if the user rejects the response notification.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein:

terminating processing comprises terminating an application.

12. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

querying the user to allow the user the opportunity to explicitly accept the notification.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

if the notification is accepted, launching the application using the application parameters.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

querying the user to allow the user the opportunity to accept the notification and to provide input to change the application parameters.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

if the user provides input to change the application parameters, creating new application parameters based upon user input.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

launching the application using the new application parameters.

17. A system for providing delayed function activation in a responsive environment comprising:

means for determining the type of response that the environment should provide in response to the change of state;

means for defining response descriptions for the needed response instance in an application model;

means for storing the needed inputs in the response description;

means for creating a new notification;

means for defining a new notification description in a notification model;

means for associating the response descriptions within the new notification description; and

means for providing the new notification to a notification manager.