LIFE MANAGEMENT SERVICES

• US 20130346511A1
• Filed: 06/20/2012
• Published: 12/26/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/20/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Comcast Cable Communications LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Comcast Cable Communications LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Inventors: Poder, James, Park, Wendy H., Kim, Julie A., Coblitz, Mark A.
• Granted Patent: US 10,453,030 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

System and methods for enhancing user productivity by integrating multiple services and providing a centralized output to a user as disclosed. A message notification server may receive various notifications, and may dynamically prioritize them for a ranked order presentation to users. The system may automatically re-rank the notifications based on changed conditions or to present messages of greatest urgency or importance. The system may also store sender-specific sets of rules, governing how notifications are to be handled for different application servers or services.

Claims

1. A notification method, comprising:

storing, in a computing device memory, prioritization scheme data identifying a plurality of notification characteristics and a priority factor value for each of the plurality of notification characteristics;

receiving a plurality of notifications;

ranking the plurality of notifications according to prioritization rules;

presenting the ranked notifications to a display; and

periodically re-ranking the displayed notifications in the absence of recipient user accessing the notifications.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the re-ranking of a first notification is performed in response to determining that a geographic location of a sender of the first notification has changed since the first notification was initially sent or received.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the ranking and re-ranking of the first notification are based on a combination of the sender'"'"'s geographic location and on a keyword in the first notification.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the prioritization scheme data identifies a first factor value for a combination of the sender'"'"'s geographic location and on a keyword in the first notification.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the ranking of a first notification is performed in response to determining that a geographic location of a targeted recipient of the first notification has changed since the first notification was initially sent or received.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the re-ranking of a first notification is performed in response to determining that a first notification has not been accessed by a recipient user for a predetermined period of time.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising changing the prioritization scheme priority factor value for a first notification characteristic based on a user response to a previous notification matching the first notification characteristic.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the first notification characteristic is a combination of two or more characteristics.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of notifications include:

at least one notification from a sender located at the same geographic location as a recipient user;

at least one notification from a sender located at a different geographic location as the recipient user; and

at least one notification generated in response to a recipient user'"'"'s request to periodically monitor a predetermined Internet site for information updates.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising registering a plurality of notification senders prior to receiving the plurality of notifications, wherein the registering includes, for each registered notification sender, defining a set of sender-specific rules to apply to notifications to or from the corresponding notification sender.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising processing the plurality of notifications according to corresponding notification-specific rules for senders of the notifications.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein a first set of notification-sender specific rules adjusts a notification priority based on time of day, and a second set of notification-sender specific rules does not.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the second set of notification-sender specific rules adjusts a notification delivery based on geographic location of a target user recipient of the notification, and the first set of notification-sender specific rules does not.

14. A method, comprising:

providing a centralized notification service configured to receive electronic notifications from a plurality of sources; and

associating each of the plurality of sources with the centralized notification service, wherein the associating further comprises storing, for each source, a set of notification rules that are specific for handling notifications involving the corresponding source.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the sets of notification rules are individually negotiated with a service provider for the corresponding notification source.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

handling a plurality of incoming notifications by checking, for each notification, to identify a sender-specific set of notification rules.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein different sender-specific sets of notification rules define different notification criteria for processing respective notifications, and wherein a criterion used in one set of rules is not used in a different set of rules.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising periodically re-applying the rules to received electronic notifications, and rearranging displayed notifications, in the absence of a recipient user accessing the notifications.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the rearrangement of displayed notifications is based on a change in geographic location of a sender of the notification.

20. A method, comprising:

maintaining a notification display for a user, the notification display providing notification messages from a plurality of sources, wherein the sources include a remote source located at a different premises from a premises of the user, and a local source located at the premises of the user;

detecting the presence of a new notification source device at the premises of the user; and

associating the new notification source device with the notification display for the user.