MeetMe assistant

• US 20080080699A1
• Filed: 09/29/2006
• Published: 04/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RingCentral Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Siemens Enterprise Communications, Inc. (Atos SE)
• Inventors: Skubnik, Bianka, Tiruthani, Saravanakumar
• Granted Patent: US 8,054,961 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/356.01
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/2072 Schedules, e.g. personal calendars
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42093 Notifying the calling party of information on the called or connected party
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42365 Presence services providing information on the willingness to communicate or the ability to communicate in terms of media capability or network connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/436 Arrangements for screening incoming calls , i.e. evaluating the characteristics of a call before deciding whether to answer it based on the calling party profile H04M3/42059; based on location H04M3/42348; based on presence H04M3/42365; diversion H04M3/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/527 Centralised call answering arrangements not requiring operator intervention

Abstract

In some embodiments, a future availability system may include one or more of the following features: (a) a memory having, (i) a future availability program that allows a caller to obtain future availability information about a call recipient if the caller has been designated by the recipient to have access to the future availability data, (ii) program that notifies the caller through a method chosen by the caller when the call recipient'"'"'s availability changes (b) a processor coupled to the memory that executes the future availability program, (c) an inference engine located on the memory that stores information about the call recipient.

Claims

1. A future availability system comprising:

a memory comprising;

a future availability program that allows a caller to obtain future availability information about a call recipient if the caller has been designated by the recipient to have access to the future availability data; and

a processor coupled to the memory that executes the future availability program.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising an inference engine located on the memory that stores information about the call recipient.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the call recipient enters information into the inference engine.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein an incoming call is detected by the future availability program.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the future availability program determines if the caller has access to the call recipient'"'"'s future availability information based upon rules information entered by the call recipient into the inference engine.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the future availability program transfers the caller to a future assistant if the caller has access to the call recipient'"'"'s future availability information.

7. The system of claim 6. wherein the future availability program allows the caller to select whether to access the call recipient'"'"'s future availability or set a Tell-Me-When action on the call recipient.

8. A method for future availability screening, the method comprising the steps of:

detecting a call from a caller;

determining if the caller qualifies to obtain a recipient'"'"'s future availability data;

determining if the caller would like to obtain the recipient'"'"'s future availability data.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of inputting inference engine rule data.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of transferring the caller to voicemail if they do not qualify to obtain the recipient'"'"'s future availability data.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of transferring the call to a future availability assistant if the caller qualifies to obtain the recipient'"'"'s future data.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of informing the caller of the recipient'"'"'s future availability if the caller qualifies to have the recipient'"'"'s future availability data and desires to have the recipient'"'"'s future availability data.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of determining if the caller would like to initiate a Tell-Me-When action on the recipient to be notified when the recipient is available for conversation.

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

detection instructions that determine an arrival of an incoming call;

qualification instructions that determine if a caller has authority to access a call recipient'"'"'s future availability; and

access instructions that provide the caller with the call recipient'"'"'s future availability if the caller has authority to access the call recipient'"'"'s future availability.

15. The medium of claim 14, further comprising rule instructions that allow the call recipient to input call handling rules including all callers that can have access to the call recipient'"'"'s future availability.

16. The medium of claim 14, wherein the qualification instructions transfer the caller to a future availability assistant if the caller qualifies to access the call recipient'"'"'s future availability.

17. The medium of claim 16, wherein the qualification instructions transfer the caller to voicemail if the caller does not qualify to access the call recipient'"'"'s future availability.

18. The medium of claim 14, wherein the access instructions ask the caller if they would like access to the call recipient'"'"'s future availability instructions.

19. The medium of claim 14, wherein the access instructions ask the caller if they would like to set a Tell-Me-When action to be notified when the call recipient is available for conversation.

20. The medium of claim 19, wherein the access instructions can allow the caller to access the call recipient'"'"'s further availability if they are qualified to do so and or set a Tell-Me-When action.