Apparatus and method for automated presence status inquiries

• US 20080065755A1
• Filed: 08/18/2006
• Published: 03/13/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/18/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Siemens Enterprise Communications, Inc. (Atos SE)
• Original Assignee: Siemens Communications Incorporated (Siemens AG)
• Inventors: Beyda, William J., Caspi, Rami
• Application Number:
  US11/506,743
• Publication Number:
  US 20080065755A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• 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

In some embodiments, presence inquiry system may include one or more of the following steps: (a) a memory comprising, (i) presence information submitted from at least two presence providers, (ii) a requestor'"'"'s presence information, and (iii) an access determination program that checks a requestor'"'"'s caller ID received from a phone call to determine whether the requestor is allowed access to an entity'"'"'s presence information, (b) a processor coupled to the memory that executes the access determination program.

Claims

1. A method for determining the availability of presence information to a requestor of the presence information, the method comprising the steps of:

calling a PIS provider that has access to at least two presence provider'"'"'s presence network;

inputting a name of an entity whose presence information is desired;

obtaining the entity'"'"'s presence information from a PIS database; and

providing the entity'"'"'s presence information to the requestor.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of authenticating the requestor'"'"'s identity by the PIS provider.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the identity is authenticated by verifying caller ID information transferred from the requestor.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the PIS database contains the combined presence data of the at least two presence providers.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of determining if the entity is located in the PIS database.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of verifying the requestor has access to the entity'"'"'s presence information.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the verification of the requestor'"'"'s access is performed by determining if a requestor'"'"'s caller ID information is located on an entity'"'"'s presence acceptance list.

8. A presence inquiry system comprising:

a memory comprising;

presence information submitted from at least two presence providers;

a requestor'"'"'s presence information; and

an access determination program that checks a requestor'"'"'s caller ID received from a phone call to determine whether the requestor is allowed access to an entity'"'"'s presence information; and

a processor coupled to the memory that executes the access determination program.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the requestor'"'"'s caller ID information is received when a requestor calls the presence inquiry system.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the memory further comprises a text to speech program that when executed by the processor provides the requestor with the entity'"'"'s presence information in audible form.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the presence information can include a text string providing additional information about an entity.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the requestor inputs an entity'"'"'s information for which presence information is desired from a phone.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the requestor can type in the entity'"'"'s information on a keypad or speak the entity'"'"'s information over the phone.

14. A machine readable medium comprising machine executable instructions, including:

access instructions that determine if a caller has access to a presence inquiry database having at least two presence provider'"'"'s presence information;

input instructions that receive entity information from the caller;

retrieve instructions that retrieve an entity'"'"'s presence information from the presence inquiry database; and

delivery instructions that deliver the entity'"'"'s presence information to the caller if the caller has access.

15. The machine readable medium of claim 14, wherein the caller calls from a telephone user interface.

16. The machine readable medium of claim 15, wherein the caller is granted access to the presence inquiry database by verifying caller ID information transferred from the caller.

17. The machine readable medium of claim 14, further comprising search instructions to determine if the entity'"'"'s presence information is located in the presence inquiry database.

18. The machine readable medium of claim 14, further comprising verification instructions to determine if the caller has access to the entity'"'"'s presence information.

19. The machine readable medium of claim 18, wherein the verification instructions determine if a caller'"'"'s caller ID information is located on an entity'"'"'s presence acceptance list.

20. The machine readable medium of claim 15, wherein the caller can type in the entity'"'"'s information on a keypad or speak the entity'"'"'s information over the phone.