NEARBY CONTACT ALERT BASED ON LOCATION AND CONTEXT

• US 20100311395A1
• Filed: 06/08/2009
• Published: 12/09/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/08/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Hehmeyer, Alex, Zheng, Yu, Agarwal, Sharad
• Granted Patent: US 8,526,969 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/414.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• 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: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/15 Information service where the information is dependent on the location of the subscriber
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4931 Directory assistance systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

Attributes including presence and organization information for contacts of a subscriber are used in determining a subset of contacts matching a predefined criterion. Determined subset of contacts is sent as an alert to notify the subscriber to the subsets'"'"' nearby proximity.

Claims

1. A method to be executed at least in part in a computing device for providing a nearby contact alert, the method comprising:

determining a location of a subscriber;

determining a subset of nearby contacts belonging to a same organization as the subscriber based on the location of the subscriber and a predefined criterion, wherein the criterion is based on an attribute of the subscriber and attributes of the nearby contacts defined by at least one of a default rule and a subscriber preference; and

providing an alert to the subscriber associated with the subset of nearby contacts.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the predefined criterion is determined based on at least one from a set of:

a group of contacts within an enterprise directory and a context of prior conversations with the contacts.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the attribute of the subscriber and the attributes of the nearby contacts are determined based on at least one from a set of:

an enterprise directory, a subscriber directory, and a third party directory.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the attribute of the subscriber and the attributes of the nearby contacts include a frequency of interaction within a predefined period.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the attribute of the subscriber and the attributes of the nearby contacts include a staleness of interaction within a predefined period.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the location of subscriber and location of the nearby contacts is determined based on at least one from a set of:

Global Positioning Service (GPS) information, cellular network information, information obtained from an active connection a non-cellular network, and presence information.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the alert is a visual alert.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the alert is an audio alert.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the alert includes additional information including at least one from a set of:

an address, a contact number, an email address, an organizational structure, an expertise, an availability status, a schedule, a location, and a membership group.

10. A system for utilizing location and presence attributes for providing a nearby contact alert, the system comprising:

a server and a communication management framework, the server configured to execute the communication management framework and further configured to;

determine a location of a subscriber based on at least one from a set of;

Global Positioning Service (GPS) information, cellular network information, and information obtained from an active connection of the subscriber to a non-cellular network;

determine a subset of nearby contacts based on a predefined criterion, wherein the criterion is based on an attribute of the subscriber, attributes of the nearby contacts defined by at least one of a default rule and a subscriber preference, and a context of prior conversations with the nearby contacts; and

provide one of an audio alert and a visual alert to the subscriber associated with the subset of nearby contacts, wherein the predefined criterion is determined based on at least one from a set of;

a group of contacts within an organization, a social group, and a subscriber defined group.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the predefined criterion is defined by explicit subscriber preferences and automatically inferred rules associated with the attributes of the nearby contacts.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the determination of the subset of nearby contacts employs at least one from a set of:

a branch-and-bound algorithm, a progressive improvement algorithm, and a heuristic algorithm.

13. The system of claim 10, further comprising at least from a set of:

a smart phone, a laptop, a desktop computer, a handheld computer, and a smart automobile console executing a communication application within the communication management framework for providing the alert to the subscriber and facilitating communications.

14. The system claim 10, wherein the subscriber is enabled to select one of accepting and rejecting a communication session invitation from one of the subset of the nearby contacts.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the subset of nearby contacts is updated in response to one of:

a request by the subscriber, expiration of a predefined period, and receiving a presence status change for one of the contacts.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein the location of the subscriber is published to make nearby contacts aware.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein the server is further configured to alert the subscriber regarding the subset of nearby contacts based on a future itinerary of the subscriber.

18. A computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon for providing a nearby contact alert, the instructions comprising:

determining a location of a subscriber based on at least one from a set of;

Global Positioning Service (GPS) information, cellular network information, and information obtained from an active connection of the subscriber to a non-cellular network;

determining a subset of nearby contacts based on a predefined criterion, wherein the criterion is based on an attribute of the subscriber and attributes of the nearby contacts defined by at least one of a default rule and a subscriber preference, and wherein the attribute of the subscriber and the attributes of the nearby contacts is based on one of a staleness and a frequency of interaction within a predefined period; and

providing an alert to the subscriber associated with the subset of nearby contacts, wherein the predefined criterion is determined based on explicit subscriber preferences and automatically inferred rules associated with the attributes of the nearby contacts.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the instructions further comprise:

presenting the alert through a user interface displaying the nearby contacts matching the predefined criterion and associated actionable items employing at least one from a set of;

a graphical shape based scheme, an icon scheme, and a text formatting scheme.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the displayed actionable items include a location of selected nearby contacts, time information, and a message topic associated with selected nearby contacts.