METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR UPDATING A PRESENCE ATTRIBUTE

• US 20070182541A1
• Filed: 01/18/2007
• Published: 08/09/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/03/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Harris, John M., Kelley, Sean S.
• Granted Patent: US 8,254,537 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/506
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/28 the pass enabling tracking or indicating presence
• 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 receives presence information associated with a Presentity, wherein the presence information comprises one or more presence attributes and the Presentity is associated with a Presence Source and a first Watcher. The Presence Server further receives a request from a second Watcher to view a presence attribute of the one or more presence attributes. The Presence Server may further receive a message from the first Watcher specifying a desire to be notified of who is watching the Presentity, presence attributes being filtered, and/or throttling or deferring of presence attribute updates being implemented by the Presence Server. The Presence Server conveys to the first Watcher watcher notification information that informs of Watchers watching the Presentity, what is being watched, presence attributes being filtered, and/or throttling or deferring of presence attribute updates. The Presentity then determines whether to publish a presence attribute update based on the watcher notification information.

Claims

1. A method for updating presence attributes comprising:

receiving presence information associated with a Presentity, wherein the presence information comprises one or more presence attributes;

receiving a request from a second Watcher to view a presence attribute of the one or more presence attributes; and

informing a first Watcher of the presence attribute requested to be viewed by the second Watcher, wherein the first Watcher is associated with the Presentity.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising informing the first Watcher of a presence attribute that is being filtered.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein receiving comprises receiving a request from the second Watcher to filter a presence attribute of the one or more presence attributes.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising filtering the one or more presence attributes based on an operator policy.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising not informing the first Watcher of the presence attribute requested to be viewed if the first Watcher has already been informed that the presence attribute is being watched.

6. A method for updating presence attributes comprising:

conveying presence information associated with a Presentity to a Presence Server, wherein the presence information comprises one or more presence attributes;

receiving watcher notification information identifying a first presence attribute, of the one or more presence attributes, that is being filtered by the Presence Server;

updating a second presence attribute, of the one or more presence attributes, to produce an updated presence attribute, wherein the second presence attribute may or may not be the same presence attribute as the first presence attribute; and

based on the watcher notification information, determining whether to publish the updated presence attribute to the Presence Server.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the second presence attribute is not being watched by the Watcher and wherein determining comprises determining to not publish the update of the second presence attribute to the Presence Server.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein updating comprises updating the identified presence attribute and wherein determining comprises determining to publish the update of the identified presence attribute to the Presence Server.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein updating comprises updating the identified presence attribute and wherein determining comprises determining to not publish the update of the identified presence attribute.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein receiving watcher notification information identifying a first presence attribute comprises receiving watcher notification information identifying a presence attribute that is one or more of included in notifications sent to a Watcher, excluded from notifications sent to a Watcher, and that triggers a notification based on a value of the presence attribute.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein receiving watcher notification information identifying a first presence attribute comprises receiving watcher notification information identifying a presence attribute that is being filtered by the Presence Server based on one or more of a content policy of the Presentity, a request from the Watcher, and a policy of the Presence Server.

12. A method for updating presence attributes comprising:

receiving presence information associated with a Presentity, wherein the presence information comprises one or more presence attributes; and

conveying information to a Watcher informing that an update of a presence attribute of the one or more presence attributes is one or more of being deferred and being filtered.

13. A method for updating presence attributes comprising:

conveying presence information associated with a Presentity, wherein the presence information comprises one or more presence attributes; and

receiving information informing that an update of a presence attribute of the one or more presence attributes is being deferred.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

updating the presence attribute of the one or more presence attributes to produce an updated presence attribute; and

deferring publication of the updated presence attribute to a Presence Server.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein receiving information comprises receiving information informing that a conveyance of a notification of a presence attribute of the one or more presence attributes is being deferred during a deferral time period and wherein the method further comprises:

aggregating updates of the one or more presence attributes during the deferral time period; and

conveying the aggregated updates of the one or more presence attributes to a Presence Server near the end of the deferral time period.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein receiving information comprises receiving information informing that an update of a presence attribute of the one or more presence attributes is being deferred during a deferral time period and wherein the method further comprises not publishing an update of a presence element of the one or more presence attributes that occurs during the deferral time period.

17. A method for updating presence attributes comprising:

determining that no one is watching a Presentity; and

in response to determining that no one is watching the Presentity, determining one or more of to not publish, to a Presence Server, an update of a presence attribute associated with the Presentity or to publish a reduced set of presence attributes to the Presence Server.

18. A method for updating presence attributes comprising:

conveying presence information associated with a Presentity to a Presence Server, wherein the presence information comprises one or more presence attributes;

receiving watcher notification information identifying one or more Watchers watching a presence attribute of the one or more presence attributes;

updating a presence attribute of the one or more presence attributes to produce an updated presence attribute; and

determining whether to publish the updated presence attribute to the Presence Server based on one or more of a number of Watchers watching the presence attribute and a priority of a Watcher watching the presence attribute.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein determining comprises:

comparing a number of Watchers watching the presence attribute to a Watcher threshold; and

determining whether to publish the updated presence attribute to the Presence Server based on the comparison.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein determining comprises:

comparing a priority associated with each Watcher watching the presence attribute to a priority threshold; and

determining whether to publish the updated presence attribute to the Presence Server based on the comparison.