System, method and computer program product for conveying presence information via voice mail
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system, method, and computer program product are provided for conveying availability information of a calling party to a called party. A PBX serving the telephones of the calling and called parties is connected to a presence server. In an embodiment of the invention, the presence server is also connected to a computer and/or other information device (such as a personal data assistant or telephone) of the calling party. After the calling party has left a voice mail message for the called party, the called party will subsequently retrieve the message. In an embodiment of the invention, the PBX then queries the presence server as to the availability of the calling party. The presence server senses whether the calling party has indicated his or her presence; if so, it is inferred that the calling party is probably present and available for a return call. If the presence server detects no such indication by the calling party, it is inferred that the calling party is likely to be absent. The presence server responds to the query of the PBX by indicating the calling party'"'"'s likely availability (or absence) to the PBX. Based on this information, the PBX modifies the voice mail message to include a statement that the calling party is either available or unavailable.
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Citations
43 Claims
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1-23. -23. (canceled)
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24. A system for providing presence information of a first party to a second party, said system comprising:
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a first device of or associated with the first party and adapted to be in communication with a communications network; a second device of or associated with the second party and adapted to be in communication with the communications network; a presence server connected to the first device, via the communications network, to detect presence of the first party; a communications path between the presence server and the second device, allowing presence information regarding the first party to be sent from the presence server to the second device; and a memory associating the presence information with a message. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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31. A messaging system, comprising:
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means for receiving presence information about a first party from a first device of or associated with the first party; means for associating the presence information with a message; and means for providing the presence information to a second device of or associated with a second party via the message. - View Dependent Claims (32)
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33. A method of providing availability information of a first party to a second party, the availability information indicating whether (i) the first party is currently present at a first device and (ii) the first device is available, the method comprising the following steps:
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(a) receiving availability information regarding the first party from a presence server; and (b) including the availability information in a message. - View Dependent Claims (34, 35, 36, 37)
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38. A method for conveying presence information, the presence information indicating that a first party is currently present at a first device of or associated with the first party, the method comprising:
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(a) receiving presence information regarding the first party from the first device; and (b) associating the presence information with a message. - View Dependent Claims (39, 40, 41)
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42. A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable program code embodied in the medium for causing an application program to execute on a computer that provides availability information of a first party to a second party through a message, the computer readable program code comprising:
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first computer readable program code adapted to cause a communications network to receive availability information from a presence server; and second computer readable program code adapted to cause the communications network to include the received availability information in the message. - View Dependent Claims (43)
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Specification