USER ACTIVITY DETECTION ON A DEVICE

• US 20080086528A1
• Filed: 10/10/2006
• Published: 04/10/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/10/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Nayak, Niranjan S., Garg, Neeraj K.
• Granted Patent: US 7,711,815 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3423 where the assessed time is active or idle time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• 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

Communication information is sent to a device that a user is using rather than a device the user is not using. For example, a backlight of a device can be monitored and if the backlight becomes inactive (turns off) for longer than a predetermined interval, it can be inferred that the user is no longer using the device and communications are no longer sent to the device. If the backlight becomes active (turns on) for longer than a predefined interval it is inferred that the user is active on the device and communications are sent to the device. If intrinsic evidence is of a high confidence level that the user is using the device, such as answering a phone call or sending a communication, the device is declared active without waiting for expiration of the confirmation timer.

Claims

1. A system for monitoring activity of a device, comprising:

a register component that registers a device with a presence agent to allow real-time communication with at least one contact;

an activity monitor component that monitors a backlight state of the device;

a status component that sets the status of the device to one of Active and Away based on the monitored backlight state; and

a declaration component that selectively declares the set status of the device to the presence agent.

2. The system of claim 1, the status component sets status of the device to Active if the backlight state is active and to Away if the backlight state is not active.

3. The system of claim 1, an activated backlight state indicates the device is in use and an inactive backlight indicates the device is not in use.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a confirmation timer that tracks a predetermined interval when the backlight state changes from a not active state to an active state.

5. The system of claim 4, the status component overrides the confirmation timer and automatically declares the status of the device as Active when intrinsic evidence is received.

6. The system of claim 1, the device state is Away when the backlight state is not active.

7. The system of claim 1, the status component sets device status of device to Active when the backlight state is on for longer than a predefined interval

8. The system of claim 1, the status component sets the status of the device to Away based on a manual instruction.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising a machine learning component that automates changing the status of the device from Away to Active and from Active to Away.

10. The system of claim 9, the machine learning component employs at least one of an artificial-intelligence based scheme and a rules-based logic scheme.

11. A method for determining whether status of a device should be set to Active or Away for real-time communication activities, comprising:

identifying if a backlight is activated;

waiting a predetermined interval;

determining if the backlight is still activated after expiration of the predetermined interval; and

inferring a status of the device is Active if the backlight is still activated.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

detecting intrinsic evidence that indicates the user is Online; and

inferring status of the device is Active without waiting for expiration of the predetermined interval.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising inferring the status of the device is Away if the backlight is no longer activated.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising communicating the inferred status of the device to a presence agent.

15. The method of claim 11, prior to identifying if a backlight is activated further comprising declaring the status of the device as Away.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising declaring to a presence agent the status of the device as Active.

18. A computer executable system that facilitates detection of device activity, comprising:

means for detecting a device status;

means for setting the device status to Active or Away; and

means for automatically communicating the device status to a presence agent.

19. The system of claim 18, further comprising:

means for monitoring if a backlight is active or inactive;

means for inferring the device status is Away if the backlight is inactive; and

means for inferring the device status is Active if the backlight is active longer than a predetermined interval.

20. The system of claim 18, further comprising:

means for evaluating intrinsic evidence; and

means for automatically changing the device status based in part on the intrinsic evidence.