System and method for leveraging end-users' preferences for efficient communications

• US 20060095560A1
• Filed: 10/16/2004
• Published: 05/04/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/16/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: WSOU Investments, LLC (WSOU Holdings, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Mohammed, Aziz, Wu, Fuming, Audu, Alexander
• Granted Patent: US 7,921,193 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/303 Terminal profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users

Abstract

A presence server is described herein that implements a method which processes and integrates a presence watcher'"'"'s communication preferences and a presentity'"'"'s communication preferences and then distributes the integrated communication preferences along with the presentity'"'"'s presence information so that the presence watcher can use this information to make a decision on how to contact the presentity. In this way, the presence watcher can achieve promoted communication satisfaction because they know now if they can contact the presentity using their preferred language/device (media type)/security mode (protocol). This enhancement of the communication satisfaction is possible because the integrated communication preferences provided to a presence watcher reflects not only the presentity'"'"'s communication preferences but also the presence watcher'"'"'s communication preferences.

Claims

1. A presence system comprising:

a presence server capable of processing and integrating communication preferences q′

(p,w,τ

_i) associated with a presentity and communication preferences associated with a presence watcher q(w,τ

_i); and

said presence server capable of distributing the integrated communication preferences q′

(p,w,τ

_i) along with presence information about the presentity to the presence watcher so the presence watcher can use the integrated communication preferences q′

(p,w,τ

_i) to make a decision on how to contact the presentity.

2. The presence system of claim 1, further comprising a preference engine capable of storing the communication preferences q(p,τ

_i) associated with the presentity and also capable of storing the communication preferences q(w,τ

_i) associated with the presence watcher.

3. The presence system of claim 1, wherein said presence server is capable of storing the communication preferences q(p,τ

_i) associated with the presentity and also capable of storing the communication preferences q(w,τ

_i) associated with the presence watcher.

4. The presence system of claim 1, wherein said presence server uses a training function to process and integrate the communication preferences q(p,τ

_i) of the presentity and the communication preferences q(w,τ

_i) of the presence watcher.

5. The presence-based interactive communications network of claim 4, wherein said training function is as follows:

6. The presence system of claim 5, wherein said q-value for the particular τ

ε

{language, device/media type, security mode} associated with the presentity is a numeric value of 0 to 1, where the numeric value of 0 indicates the presentity can not use the particular τ

ε

{language, device/media type, security mode} and the numeric value of 1 indicates that the presentity prefers to use the particular τ

ε

{language, device/media type, security mode}.

7. The presence system of claim 5, wherein said q-value for the particular τ

ε

{language, device/media type, security mode} associated with the presence watcher is a numeric value of 0 to 1, where the numeric value of 0 indicates the presence watcher can not use the particular τ

ε

{language, device/media type, security mode} and the numeric value of 1 indicates that the presence watcher prefers to use the particular τ

ε

{language, device/media type, security mode}.

8. The presence system of claim 5, wherein said preference server distributes the integrated communications preferences q′

(p,w,τ

_i) in a form of a sliding scale to the presence watcher.

9. The presence system of claim 5, wherein said training function is used in a customer service application.

10. The presence system of claim 1, wherein said at least one of said presentity and said presence watcher can modify their respective communication preferences q(p,τ

_i) and q(w,τ

_i).

11. A method for enabling communication preferences of a presence watcher to be taken into account in a presence-based interactive communications network, said method comprising the steps of:

storing communication preferences q(w,τ

_i) associated with the presence watcher;

storing communication preferences q(p,τ

_i) associated with a presentity;

storing a priority level assigned by the presentity to the presence watcher;

processing and integrating the stored communication preferences q(p,τ

_i) associated with the presentity and the stored communication preferences q(w,τ

_i) associated with the presence watcher; and

distributing the integrated communication preferences q′

(p,w,τ

_i) along with presence information about the presentity to the presence watcher so the presence watcher can use the integrated communication preferences q′

(p,w,τ

_i) to make a decision on how to contact the presentity.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein a training function is used to process and integrate the communication preferences q(p,τ

_i) of the presentity and the communication preferences q(w,τ

_i) of the presence watcher.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said training function is as follows:

14. The method of claim 13, wherein said q-value for the particular τ

ε

{language, device/media type, security mode} associated with the presentity is a numeric value of 0 to 1, where the numeric value of 0 indicates the presentity can not use the particular τ

ε

{language, device/media type, security mode} and the numeric value of 1 indicates that the presentity prefers to use the particular τ

ε

{language, device/media type, security mode}.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein said q-value for the particular τ

ε

{language, device/media type, security mode} associated with the presence watcher is a numeric value of 0 to 1, where the numeric value of 0 indicates the presence watcher can not use the particular τ

ε

{language, device/media type, security mode} and the numeric value of 1 indicates that the presence watcher prefers to use the particular τ

ε

{language, device/media type, security mode}.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the integrated communication preferences q′

(p,w,τ

_i) is distributed in a form of a sliding scale to the presence watcher.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein said training function is used in a customer service application.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein said at least one of said presentity and said presence watcher can modify their respective communication preferences q(p,τ

_i) and q(w,τ

_i).

19. A presence server capable of integrating a presence watcher'"'"'s communication preferences and a presentity'"'"'s communication preferences so as to provide improved communication preferences to the presence watcher by performing the following steps:

storing communication preferences q(w,τ

_i) associated with the presence watcher;

storing communication preferences q(p,τ

_i) associated with the presentity;

storing a priority level assigned by the presentity to the presence watcher;

processing and integrating the communication preferences q(p,τ

_i) associated with the presentity and the communication preferences q(w,τ

_i) associated with the presence watcher; and

distributing the integrated communication preferences q′

(p,w,τ

_i) along with presence information about the presentity to the presence watcher so the presence watcher can use the integrated communication preferences q′

(p,w,τ

_i) to make a decision on how to contact the presentity.

20. The presence server of claim 19, wherein a convex function is used to process and integrate the communication preferences q(p,τ

_i) of the presentity and the communication preferences q(w,τ

_i) of the presence watcher.

21. The presence server of claim 20, wherein said convex function is as follows:

22. The presence server of claim 21, wherein said q-value for the particular τ

ε

{language, device/media type, security mode} associated with the presentity is a numeric value of 0 to 1, where the numeric value of 0 indicates the presentity can not use the particular τ

ε

{language, device/media type, security mode} and the numeric value of 1 indicates that the presentity prefers to use the particular τ

ε

{language, device/media type, security mode}.

23. The presence server of claim 21, wherein said q-value for the particular τ

ε

{language, device/media type, security mode} associated with the presence watcher is a numeric value of 0 to 1, where the numeric value of 0 indicates the presence watcher can not use the particular τ

ε

{language, device/media type, security mode} and the numeric value of 1 indicates that the presence watcher prefers to use the particular τ

ε

{language, device/media type, security mode}.