System and Method for Delivering Alerts

• US 20140025758A1
• Filed: 10/05/2012
• Published: 01/23/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/17/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Glowacki, Konrad Skarbimir
• Granted Patent: US 8,819,278 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1895 for short real-time information, e.g. alarms, notifications, alerts, updates
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services

Abstract

A technique is provided for delivering an alert to a user. The technique includes identifying which single device of a user'"'"'s multiple devices should receive the alert. A server is configured to collect device statistics about the user'"'"'s devices and determine which device should receive the alert. Example device statistics include locations of the devices, last use time of the devices, statistics received from other applications that the user is accessing (e.g., email, search engine, applications, mobile apps, etc.), statistics from other users in the same location as the user, statistics from cameras, motion detectors, or proximity sensors associated with the devices, history/pattern of the user consuming previous alerts, what type of message is associated with the alert (e.g., email, SMS, picture, video, etc.), and/or whether a particular device is ON/OFF or locked/unavailable, among others.

Claims

1. A method at a server computing device for delivering an alert, comprising:

determining that an alert should be delivered, wherein the alert is associated with a message that includes message data;

receiving device data for each of two or more devices that includes one or more factors corresponding to the device, wherein at least one of the two or more devices is capable of receiving the message;

receiving type data that corresponds to one or more device types of other devices being used within the threshold distance of the two or more devices;

calculating a score for each of the two or more devices based on the one or more factors included in the device data corresponding to the device and the type data;

sending an alert to a single device having the highest calculated score; and

sending the message data to the single device having the highest calculated score.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising requesting the device data corresponding to the two or more devices from each of the two or more devices.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the message comprises an email message, an SMS (short message service) message, a picture message, a video message, a social networking update, or an application-related update.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the message data is sent to the single device having the highest calculated score before sending the alert.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the message data is sent to the single device having the highest calculated score along with the alert.

18. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least two of the one or more factors have equal weight values.

19. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more factors is assigned a different weight value than at least another factor.

6. A method for delivering an alert, comprising:

determining that an alert should be delivered, wherein the alert is associated with a message that includes message data;

receiving device data corresponding to one or more devices, at least one of the one or more devices is capable of receiving the message;

receiving type data that corresponds to one or more device types of other devices being used within the threshold distance of the one or more devices;

identifying a single device of the one or more devices to which to send the alert based on the device data corresponding to the one or more devices and the type data, wherein the identifying the single device includes;

calculating a score for each of the one or more devices based on a plurality of factors included in the device data and the type data, and

selecting the single device as the device with the highest score; and

sending a first alert to the single device.

7. The method according to claim 6, further comprising sending the message data to the single device.

8. The method according to claim 6, wherein identifying the single device is further based on a message type of the message.

9. The method according to claim 6, further comprising:

determining that the first alert was not consumed within a threshold amount of time; and

sending an alert to at least one other device of the one or more devices.

10. The method according to claim 6, wherein the device data corresponding to the one or more devices comprises at least one of a location of at least one device, a time of last use of at least one device, and a device type of at least one device.

12. The method according to claim 6, wherein identifying the single device is further based on a usage history of at least one device of the one or more devices.

13. The method according to claim 6, wherein identifying the single device is further based on data received from a proximity sensor included in at least one device of the one or more devices.

14. The method according to claim 6, wherein identifying the single device is further based on data received from other client devices that are in a location similar to a location of a first client device.

11. (canceled)

15. In a system comprising one or more client devices and a server communicatively coupled to the one or more client devices, a method comprising:

determining that an alert should be delivered, wherein the alert is associated with a message that includes message data;

receiving device data corresponding to the one or more client devices, wherein at least one of the one or more client devices is capable of receiving the message;

receiving type data that corresponds to one or more device types of other devices being used within the threshold distance of the one or more client devices;

identifying a single client device of the one or more client devices to which to send the alert based on the device data corresponding to the one or more client devices, wherein identifying the single device includes;

calculating a score for each of the one or more devices based on a plurality of factors included in the device data and the type data, and

selecting the single device as the device with the highest score; and

send a first alert to the single client device.

16. The method according to claim 15, further comprising sending the message data to the single client device.

17. (canceled)