UNIVERSAL STATE-AWARE COMMUNICATIONS

• US 20150046598A1
• Filed: 10/22/2014
• Published: 02/12/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/12/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Jerry Gechter, Wayne Andrews
• Original Assignee: Jerry Gechter, Wayne Andrews
• Inventors: Andrews, Wayne, Gechter, Jerry
• Granted Patent: US 9,774,638 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/228
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0805 by checking availability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• 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: H04M 3/42059 Making use of the calling party identifier
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42093 Notifying the calling party of information on the called or connected party
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42365 Presence services providing information on the willingness to communicate or the ability to communicate in terms of media capability or network connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5232 Call distribution algorithms

Abstract

A communications system for general business environments that exploits knowledge of user state to provide advantages of efficiency and control for individual users and for the business. The communications system also provides particular advantages in environments where users have multiple communication devices and for communications of a business with external parties. In other aspects, the communication system provides features of application flexibility and system fault-tolerance with broad applicability to communication systems. The communication system includes a controller that receives requests for establishing communications when a user is in an appropriate state to receive communications and communicates state of the user to other users. The controller receives a user request for establishing a communication when the user is not in the appropriate state for communication, receives a user request for a state change to the appropriate state to receive the communication, and initiates the communication without changing state of the user.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for establishing communications among users, the method comprising:

maintaining in a database by a controller of a server, a user state for each user device associated with a plurality of users, each user being associated with one or more user devices, wherein the database is stored in a persistent storage device associated with the server;

receiving, from a first user device of a first of the plurality of users, a request for establishing a communication session with a second of the plurality of users;

determining one or more second user devices associated with the second user based on a first user identifier (ID) identifying the first user;

accessing the database to determine a user state for each of the second user devices;

placing the request for establishing a communication session in a queue as a pending request if none of the second devices has a user state satisfying a predetermined user state;

subsequently receiving a request for changing a user state on a target user device of the second user, the request for changing a user state including a second user identifier (ID) identifying the second user, a device ID identifying a user device to be changed, and a requested state specifying a target user state;

accessing the database to identifying a device entry corresponding to the target user device based on the user ID and device ID;

updating a user state of the device entry of the database based on the requested state extracted from the request for changing a user state;

in response to a signal indicating that the device entry has been updated, examining the user state for each of the second user devices of the second user to identifying one or more of the second devices that have a user state satisfying the predetermined user state; and

establishing a communication session with the first device of the first user and one of the identified second user devices of the second user that have the predetermined user state.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein establishing a communication session with the first device of the first user and one of the identified second user devices of the second user comprises:

sending an invite message to each of the identified second user devices that have the predetermined user state;

receiving an accept message from a third user device of the identified second user devices; and

establishing the communication session between the first device of the first user and the third device of the second user.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising, in response to the accept message received from the third user device, transmitting a disconnect message to a remainder of the identified second user devices of the second user that have the predetermined user state to withdraw an invitation specified in the invite message.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

accessing the database to identify a third device entry corresponding to the third user device of the second user based on a third device ID of the third user device; and

updating a user state of the second user of the third device entry of the database corresponding to the third user device to reflect a current status of the second user and the third user device with respect to the communication session that has been established between the first user and the second user.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to the signal indicating that the device entry has been updated, identifying all pending requests in the queue that are associated with the second user based on the second user ID of the second user; and

for each of the identified pending requests for the second user, examining the user state of each of a plurality of user devices associated with the second user to determine whether there is any of the user devices of the second user that can be used to handle any of the identified pending requests.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to the signal indicating that the device entry has been updated, accessing user configuration data of the first user to determine a notification subscription of the first user; and

transmitting a notification message to the first user device of the first user indicating that the user state of the second user has been updated, in response to determining that the first user has subscribed notification associated with the second user.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising accessing user configuration data of the second user to determine the second user devices that have been configured by the second user to specifically handle communications with the first user.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication session is established via a communication media including at least one of voice, video, email, instant messaging (IM), text, and a public telephony network (PSTN).

9. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having instructions stored therein, which when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations for establishing communications among users, the operations comprising:

maintaining in a database by a controller of a server, a user state for each user device associated with a plurality of users, each user being associated with one or more user devices, wherein the database is stored in a persistent storage device associated with the server;

receiving, from a first user device of a first of the plurality of users, a request for establishing a communication session with a second of the plurality of users;

determining one or more second user devices associated with the second user based on a first user identifier (ID) identifying the first user;

accessing the database to determine a user state for each of the second user devices;

placing the request for establishing a communication session in a queue as a pending request if none of the second devices has a user state satisfying a predetermined user state;

subsequently receiving a request for changing a user state on a target user device of the second user, the request for changing a user state including a second user identifier (ID) identifying the second user, a device ID identifying a user device to be changed, and a requested state specifying a target user state;

accessing the database to identifying a device entry corresponding to the target user device based on the user ID and device ID;

updating a user state of the device entry of the database based on the requested state extracted from the request for changing a user state;

in response to a signal indicating that the device entry has been updated, examining the user state for each of the second user devices of the second user to identifying one or more of the second devices that have a user state satisfying the predetermined user state; and

establishing a communication session with the first device of the first user and one of the identified second user devices of the second user that have the predetermined user state.

10. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein establishing a communication session with the first device of the first user and one of the identified second user devices of the second user comprises:

sending an invite message to each of the identified second user devices that have the predetermined user state;

receiving an accept message from a third user device of the identified second user devices; and

establishing the communication session between the first device of the first user and the third device of the second user.

11. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise, in response to the accept message received from the third user device, transmitting a disconnect message to a remainder of the identified second user devices of the second user that have the predetermined user state to withdraw an invitation specified in the invite message.

12. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise:

accessing the database to identify a third device entry corresponding to the third user device of the second user based on a third device ID of the third user device; and

updating a user state of the second user of the third device entry of the database corresponding to the third user device to reflect a current status of the second user and the third user device with respect to the communication session that has been established between the first user and the second user.

13. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the operations further comprise:

in response to the signal indicating that the device entry has been updated, identifying all pending requests in the queue that are associated with the second user based on the second user ID of the second user; and

for each of the identified pending requests for the second user, examining the user state of each of a plurality of user devices associated with the second user to determine whether there is any of the user devices of the second user that can be used to handle any of the identified pending requests.

14. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the operations further comprise:

in response to the signal indicating that the device entry has been updated, accessing user configuration data of the first user to determine a notification subscription of the first user; and

transmitting a notification message to the first user device of the first user indicating that the user state of the second user has been updated, in response to determining that the first user has subscribed notification associated with the second user.

15. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the operations further comprise accessing user configuration data of the second user to determine the second user devices that have been configured by the second user to specifically handle communications with the first user.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the communication session is established via a communication media including at least one of voice, video, email, instant messaging (IM), text, and a public telephone network (PSTN).

17. A data processing system for establishing communications among users, the system comprising:

a processor;

a memory;

a database maintained in the memory; and

a controller executed from the memory by the processor, cause the controller to perform operations for establishing communications among users, the operations including

maintaining in the database a user state for each user device associated with a plurality of users, each user being associated with one or more user devices, wherein the database is stored in a persistent storage device associated with the server,

receiving, from a first user device of a first of the plurality of users, a request for establishing a communication session with a second of the plurality of users,

determining one or more second user devices associated with the second user based on a first user identifier (ID) identifying the first user,

accessing the database to determine a user state for each of the second user devices,

placing the request for establishing a communication session in a queue as a pending request if none of the second devices has a user state satisfying a predetermined user state,

subsequently receiving a request for changing a user state on a target user device of the second user, the request for changing a user state including a second user identifier (ID) identifying the second user, a device ID identifying a user device to be changed, and a requested state specifying a target user state,

accessing the database to identifying a device entry corresponding to the target user device based on the user ID and device ID,

updating a user state of the device entry of the database based on the requested state extracted from the request for changing a user state,

in response to a signal indicating that the device entry has been updated, examining the user state for each of the second user devices of the second user to identifying one or more of the second devices that have a user state satisfying the predetermined user state, and

establishing a communication session with the first device of the first user and one of the identified second user devices of the second user that have the predetermined user state.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein establishing a communication session with the first device of the first user and one of the identified second user devices of the second user comprises:

sending an invite message to each of the identified second user devices that have the predetermined user state;

receiving an accept message from a third user device of the identified second user devices; and

establishing the communication session between the first device of the first user and the third device of the second user.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the operations further comprise, in response to the accept message received from the third user device, transmitting a disconnect message to a remainder of the identified second user devices of the second user that have the predetermined user state to withdraw an invitation specified in the invite message.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the operations further comprise:

accessing the database to identify a third device entry corresponding to the third user device of the second user based on a third device ID of the third user device; and

updating a user state of the second user of the third device entry of the database corresponding to the third user device to reflect a current status of the second user and the third user device with respect to the communication session that has been established between the first user and the second user.

21. The system of claim 17, wherein the operations further comprise:

in response to the signal indicating that the device entry has been updated, identifying all pending requests in the queue that are associated with the second user based on the second user ID of the second user; and

for each of the identified pending requests for the second user, examining the user state of each of a plurality of user devices associated with the second user to determine whether there is any of the user devices of the second user that can be used to handle any of the identified pending requests.

22. The system of claim 17, wherein the operations further comprise:

in response to the signal indicating that the device entry has been updated, accessing user configuration data of the first user to determine a notification subscription of the first user; and

transmitting a notification message to the first user device of the first user indicating that the user state of the second user has been updated, in response to determining that the first user has subscribed notification associated with the second user.

23. The system of claim 17, wherein the operations further comprise accessing user configuration data of the second user to determine the second user devices that have been configured by the second user to specifically handle communications with the first user.

24. The system of claim 17, wherein the communication session is established via a communication media including at least one of voice, video, email, instant messaging (IM), text, and a public telephony network (PSTN).