System and method for identifying and establishing preferred modalities or channels for communications based on participants' preferences and contexts

• US 6,988,132 B2
• Filed: 10/17/2001
• Issued: 01/17/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Horvitz, Eric
• Primary Examiner(s): Huynh, Kim
• Assistant Examiner(s): Farooq, Mohammad O.
• Application Number:
  US09/982,306
• Publication Number:
  US 20020174199A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,553 Days
• Field of Search: 709/220, 709/225, 709/227, 709/228, 709/229, 709/240
• US Class Current: 709/220
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/564 Enhancement of application control based on intercepted application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/59 Providing operational support to end devices by off-loading in the network or by emulation, e.g. when they are unavailable
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/24 Negotiation of communication capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/2066 Call type detection of indication, e.g. voice or fax, mobile of fixed, PSTN or IP
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42229 Personal communication services, i.e. services related to one subscriber independent of his terminal and/or location diverting calls from one subscriber to another subscriber, i.e. two different subscriptions H04M3/54; selecting arrangements in intelligent networks H04Q3/005
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42374 where the information is provided to a monitoring entity such as a potential calling party or a call processing server
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/436 Arrangements for screening incoming calls , i.e. evaluating the characteristics of a call before deciding whether to answer it based on the calling party profile H04M3/42059; based on location H04M3/42348; based on presence H04M3/42365; diversion H04M3/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/12 for working between exchanges having different types of switching equipment, e.g. power-driven and step by step or decimal and non-decimal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/252 Processing of multiple end-users' preferences to derive collaborative data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104

Abstract

A system and method for identifying and establishing preferred modalities or channels for communications based on participants'"'"' preferences and capabilities is provided. In one approach, the system attempts to optimize the inferred or directly accessed preferences of a contactee given the accessed or inferred preferences, capabilities and goals of the contactor while keeping the rationale and context of the contactee private. Such optimization can be achieved using preferences and policies concerning handling the attempted contact based on a deterministic specification or through inferring context, content and task under uncertainty by employing decision-theoretic inferences to attempt to maximize the expected utility of the communication to the contactee. The methods may include a consideration of metadata within a standard schema that is transmitted along with a communication attempt, representing information about such attributes as the identity of the contactor, the task at hand, the overall context of the contactor, and the communication capabilities available to the contactor. The invocation of the communication service may be performed in a variety of ways, including single button invocations, and via a communication service that is more deeply integrated with other applications and functionalities. The service can also include automated rescheduling of communications based on a consideration of forecasts of availability of both the contactor and contactee.

Claims

1. A system to facilitate communications between parties, comprising:

a first component associated with a request for attentional resources of a contactee, the first component is a contactor data store that includes preferences of a contactor relating to the request;

a second component that facilitates a response to the request based in part on the utility of the request to the contactee, the second component is a contactee data store that includes preferences of the contactee relating to at least one of the request and the response; and

a contact manager to facilitate communications between the contactor and the contactee based in part on the preferences of the parties, the request and the response, the contact manager including decision-theoretic formulae to facilitate communications between the parties, the decision-theoretic formulae including the following equation;

$A^{*}=a<br><br><br><br>r<br><br><br><br>g<br><br><br><br>\underset{j}{\max }<br><br>\underset{i}{\sum <br><br>}<br><br>p<br><br>\left({\mathrm{context}}^R<br><br>i|E\right)\times <br><br>u<br><br>\left(A_j,A_k^C,C,{\mathrm{context}}^R<br><br>i,{\mathrm{context}}^C\right)$

A_j is a communication modality being considered;

A^C_k is a communication modality employed by the contactor;

context^R_i is a context of the contactee;

context^C is a context of the contactor;

C is an identity of the contactor; and

p(context^R_i|E) is a conditional probability that the contactee has a certain context given the evidence E and is employed with a utility function u to determine ideal communication actions that maximize the utility of communications between the contactor and the contactee.

2. The system of claim 1, the request includes at least one of the contactor'"'"'s capabilities, goals, tasks, schedules, priorities, deadlines, costs, and benefits in order to maximize the utility to the contactee.

3. The system of claim 1, the response including at least one of the capabilities of the contactee, the contactee'"'"'s preferences relating to the contactor'"'"'s preferences and how the contactee prefers to be contacted, the preferences of being contacted varying in respect to the contactor over at least one of time and topics of communication.

4. The system of claim 3, the contactee restricts communications of a selected group of contactor'"'"'s over time via at least one of actions by the contactee and by modifying the preferences in the contactee preferences data store.

5. The system of claim 1, the contactor optimizes at least one of a measure of priority and a measure of value to facilitate communications between the parties.

6. The system of claim 1, the contact manager optimizes at least one of a measure of priority and a measure of value to facilitate communications between the parties.

7. The system of claim 1, the preferences of at least one of the contactor and the contactee including at least one of a time of day for communicating, a time of week for communicating, identity of the contactor that includes the identity of unknown contactors, hardware currently available, hardware available within a time horizon of a communication attempt, software available, and interruptability information.

8. The system of claim 1, the contactee data store including dynamically changing communication information relating to needs of the contactee.

9. The system of claim 1, the contact manager facilitates communications between at least one of multiple parties and multiple communications channels.

10. The system of claim 1, the contact manager enabling a dialog session between the contactor and the contactee to facilitate communications between the parties.

11. The system of claim 1, the contact manager informs the contactee of the contactor'"'"'s attempt to communicate, the contactee is provided with an opportunity to override current preferences in the contactee data store based on current capabilities of the contactee.

12. The system of claim 1, the contactee is presented a list of options for being contacted via the contact manager.

13. The system of claim 1, the contactor is presented with a list of communications options with high utilities determined in accordance with the preferences of the contactee via the contact manager.

14. The system of claim 1, the contact manager is operably associated with at least one of an e-mail, a video transmission, a television transmission, a telephone, a mobile communications device, an instant message and a computing device.

15. The system of claim 1, the contact manager including at least one of a set of rules and a set policies to facilitate communications between the parties.

16. A method to facilitate communications between parties, comprising:

communicating a first set of preferences to send information;

communicating a second set of preferences to receive the information; and

enabling communications between two or more parties based at least in part on the preferences and decision-theoretic formulae, the decision-theoretic formulae including the following equation;

$A^{*}=a<br><br><br><br>r<br><br><br><br>g<br><br><br><br>\underset{j}{\max }<br><br>\underset{i}{\sum <br><br>}<br><br>p<br><br>\left({\mathrm{context}}^R<br><br>i|E\right)\times <br><br>u<br><br>\left(A_j,A_k^C,C,{\mathrm{context}}^R<br><br>i,{\mathrm{context}}^C\right)$

A_j is a communication modality being considered;

A^C_k is a communication modality employed by a contactor;

context^R_i is a context of a contactee;

context^C is a context of the contactor;

C is an identity of the contactor; and

p(context^R_i|E) is a conditional probability that the contactee has a certain context given the evidence E and is employed with a utility function u to determine ideal communication actions that maximize the utility of communications between the contactor and the contactee.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising transmitting one or more selection options from a first party requesting attentional resources of a second party, the communications between the parties based at least in part on the selected option.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising,

enabling at least one party to override the preferences in order to receive further communications from the first party.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising,

transmitting a list of options to at least one party, the list arranged according the communications preferences of at least one other party.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising,

enabling a dialog session between the parties to facilitate further communications between the parties.

21. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing the acts of claim 16.

22. A system to facilitate communications between parties, comprising:

means for specifying preferences to send and receive communications;

means for transmitting one or more selection options requesting the attention of at least one party via the communications; and

means for enabling further communications between the parties based at least in part on the preferences the selected option and decision-theoretic formulae, the decision-theoretic formulae including the following equation;

$A^{*}=a<br><br><br><br>r<br><br><br><br>g<br><br><br><br>\underset{j}{\max }<br><br>\underset{i}{\sum <br><br>}<br><br>p<br><br>\left({\mathrm{context}}^R<br><br>i|E\right)\times <br><br>u<br><br>\left(A_j,A_k^C,C,{\mathrm{context}}^R<br><br>i,{\mathrm{context}}^C\right)$

A_j is a communication modality being considered;

A^C_k is a communication modality employed by a contactor;

context^R_i is a context of a contactee;

context^C is a context of the contactor;

C is an identity of the contactor; and

p(context^R_i|E) is a conditional probability that the contactee has a certain context given the evidence E and is employed with a utility function u to determine ideal communication actions that maximize the utility of communications between the contactor and the contactee.

23. A system to facilitate unsolicited communications between parties, comprising:

a contact manager to transmit an offer to communicate from an unknown contactor to a contactee, the contact manager including decision-theoretic formulae, the decision-theoretic formulae including the following equation;

$A^{*}=a<br><br><br><br>r<br><br><br><br>g<br><br><br><br>\underset{j}{\max }<br><br>\underset{i}{\sum <br><br>}<br><br>p<br><br>\left({\mathrm{context}}^R<br><br>i|E\right)\times <br><br>u<br><br>\left(A_j,A_k^C,C,{\mathrm{context}}^R<br><br>i,{\mathrm{context}}^C\right)$

A_j is a communication modality being considered;

A^C_k is a communication modality employed by a contactor;

context^R_i is a context of a contactee;

context^C is a context of the contactor;

C is an identity of the contactor; and

p(context^R_i|E) is a conditional probability that the contactee has a certain context given the evidence E and is employed with a utility function u to determine ideal communication actions that maximize the utility of communications between the contactor and the contactee; and

a preference component associated with the contactee to enable an acceptance of the offer based in part upon consideration presented in the offer.

24. The system of claim 23, further comprising a preference component associated with the unknown contactor to describe one or more parameters of the offer.

25. The system of claim 23, the offer includes a request to at least one of listen, view, examine and interact with at least one of a commercial, political ad, survey, and infomercial.

26. The system of claim 23, the consideration includes at least one of money, gifts, rebates, perks, and discounts on other items.

27. The system of claim 23, the contact manager automatically disables further communications with the unknown contactor based upon settings in the preference component associated with the contactee.

28. The system of claim 27, the contact manager provides feedback to the unknown contactor indicating whether communications are established with the contactee.

29. The system of claim 23, at least one of the contact manager and the contactee enable further communications via acceptance of the offer.

30. The system of claim 29, the acceptance includes an agreement to communicate in the future.

31. The system of claim 29, the acceptance is based upon past consideration.

32. The system of claim 23, the preference component enables a predetermined amount of messages to be received from a predetermined number of message sources.

33. The system of claim 23, the contact manager enables a dialog session to facilitate an agreement to communicate between the unknown contactor and the contactee.

34. The system of claim 23, further comprising an agreement component to at least one of arrange parameters, modalities, times, topics, and value between the unsolicited contactor and the contactee.

35. The system of claim 34, further comprising a receipt component to monitor properties of the agreement between the unsolicited contactor and the contactee.

36. The system of claim 35, further comprising a consideration calculator to adjust one or more parameters of the agreement.

37. A method to facilitate communications between unknown parties, comprising:

transmitting an offer having at least one incentive to induce communications between parties;

analyzing preference data associated with at least one of the parties; and

establishing communications between the parties based at least in part on the preference data, the at least one incentive, actions between the parties and decision-theoretic formulae, the decision-theoretic formulae including the following equation;

$A^{*}=a<br><br><br><br>r<br><br><br><br>g<br><br><br><br>\underset{j}{\max }<br><br>\underset{i}{\sum <br><br>}<br><br>p<br><br>\left({\mathrm{context}}^R<br><br>i|E\right)\times <br><br>u<br><br>\left(A_j,A_k^C,C,{\mathrm{context}}^R<br><br>i,{\mathrm{context}}^C\right)$

A_j is a communication modality being considered;

A^C_k is a communication modality employed by a contactor;

context^R_i is a context of a contactee;

context^C is a context of the contactor;

C is an identity of the contactor; and

p(context^R_i|E) is a conditional probability that the contactee has a certain context given the evidence E and is employed with a utility function u to determine ideal communication actions that maximize the utility of communications between the contactor and the contactee.

38. The method of claim 37, further comprising determining whether to present the offer to one of the parties based on the preference data.

39. The method of claim 38, further comprising disabling further communications between the parties based on the preference data.

40. The method of claim 37, further comprising providing feedback to at least one of the parties regarding the ability of the other party to communicate.

41. The method of claim 37, further comprising establishing a dialog to enable further negotiations of the offer.

42. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing the acts of claim 37.

43. A system to facilitate communications between unknown parties, comprising:

means for transmitting an offer to induce communications between parties;

means for analyzing preference data associated with at least one of the parties;

means for establishing communications between the parties based at least in part on the preference data, actions between the parties and decision-theoretic formulae, the decision-theoretic formulae including the following equation;

$A^{*}=a<br><br><br><br>r<br><br><br><br>g<br><br><br><br>\underset{j}{\max }<br><br>\underset{i}{\sum <br><br>}<br><br>p<br><br>\left({\mathrm{context}}^R<br><br>i|E\right)\times <br><br>u<br><br>\left(A_j,A_k^C,C,{\mathrm{context}}^R<br><br>i,{\mathrm{context}}^C\right)$

A_j is a communication modality being considered;

A^C_k is a communication modality employed by a contactor;

context^R_i is a context of a contactee;

context^C is a context of the contactor;

C is an identity of the contactor; and

p(context^R_i|E) is a conditional probability that the contactee has a certain context given the evidence E and is employed with a utility function u to determine ideal communication actions that maximize the utility of communications between the contactor and the contactee; and

means for negotiating the offer.