System and method for defining, refining, and personalizing communications policies in a notification platform

• US 7,003,525 B1
• Filed: 01/23/2004
• Issued: 02/21/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 01/25/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Horvitz, Eric J., Kadie, Carl M.
• Primary Examiner(s): MOFIZ, APU M
• Application Number:
  US10/764,088
• Time in Patent Office: 760 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/10, 707/101, 707/102, 707/103.R, 455/413, 455/461, 706/46, 709/201, 709/202, 709/206, 701/36
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/224 providing notification on incoming messages, e.g. pushed notifications of received messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• 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: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/20 Services signaling; Auxiliary data signalling, i.e. transmitting data via a non-traffic channel
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/922 Communications
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

A system and method is provided for personalizing and refining policies within a general notification platform. The system includes a profile definition and selection system that receives contextual information relating to a user state. The profile definition and selection system generates and/or relays a set of control parameters based at least partially upon the contextual information, and a notification manager selectively sends a user notification and/or communication based upon the set of control parameters. Methods are provided for tuning the notification platform. This may include defining one or more context profiles, assigning values to parameters employed in one or more context profiles, determining a current user context, determining which of the one or more user profiles is consistent with the current user context, and utilizing the parameter value associated with the one or more context profiles consistent with the current user context to adjust the notification system.

Claims

1. A notification system, comprising;

a profile definition and selection system that receives contextual information relating to a current user state, the profile definition and selection system generating and/or relaying a set of control parameters based at least partially upon the contextual information, the control parameters generated at least in part utilizing a statistical model to infer uncertainties about the contextual information; and

a notification manager that selectively sends a user at least one of a notification and a communication based at least in part upon the set of control parameters, the notification manager determining whether to send the at least one of the notification and the communication at least in part by considering whether a value of sending the at least one of the notification and the communication exceeds a cost of sending the at least one of the notification and the communication, the cost based at least in part on the contextual information.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the profile definition and selection system is a user context component.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein user context component selects at least one of M user profiles, M being an integer, based upon the contextual information, the user profiles including at least one of N user context variables to define different states associated with a user.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the user profiles define at Least one state relating to when, what, how and where.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the user profiles are provided via at least one of default files, prototype files, and survey directed files.

6. The system of claim 2, wherein user context component selects at least one of M context profiles, M being an integer, based upon the contextual information, the context profiles including at least one of N user context variable sets to define different states associated with a user.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the context profiles are associated with a tuning value that is employed to adjust the notification manager.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the tuning value increases or decreases an amount of notifications associated with the context profiles.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein the context profiles are defined as at least one of an empty set, a single set and a multiple set of context parameter acting upon the notification manager.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising a user interface for adjusting the control parameters.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the user interface includes sliding adjustments to enable the control parameters to be increased or decreased.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the user interface utilizes display feedback to indicate anticipated system performance effects based upon the adjustments.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the display feedback is determined from past system performance.

14. A signal facilitating communications in a notification system, comprising:

a data packet for communicating contextual information associated with a notification manager and a user context component, the user context component determining the contextual information at least in part by making a probabilistic inference about the contextual information;

the notification manager determining whether to send a communication at least in part by considering whether a value of sending the communication exceeds a cost of sending the communication, the cost based at least in part on the contextual information;

the signal providing at least one adjustment to the notification manager relating to the contextual information.

15. The system of claim 14, at least a portion of the contextual information relating to a current geographic location of a user.

16. The system of claim 14, the notification manager selects one of a plurality of communications devices based at least in part upon the contextual information and relays a message to the selected communications device.

17. A notification system, comprising:

an adaptive component that automatically tunes one or more parameters by collecting feedback about notification behavior during a training phase; and

a notification manager that employs a decision-theoretic analysis to determine whether to selectively send a communication, the decision-theoretic analysis based at least in part upon the one or more parameters, the one or more parameters relating to at least a value and a cost of sending the communication, the cost determined at least in part by evaluating a user'"'"'s context, the decision-theoretic analysis comprising inferring at least one user context parameter value based on a likelihood.

18. The system of claim 17, the adaptive component further comprises a history for at least one of tracking, reporting, and summarization of changes for users.

19. The system of claim 17, the feedback includes at least one of “

I am busy now, that was not worth it in this context,”

“

I'"'"'d like to be getting more email,” and

“

I am being bothered too much with this facility.”

20. A notification system, comprising;

a rules-based system operative according to one or more rules, the rules-based system receives contextual information relating to a user state, infers contextual uncertainties according to a probability and generates a set of control parameters based at least in part upon the contextual information and the one or more rules; and

a notification manager that selectively sends a notification based upon at least one of the set of control parameters and the one or more rules, wherein at least one of the rules relates to a value and a cost of sending the notification.

21. The system of claim 20, further comprising a use interface to at least one of employ, refine, and view sets of logical IF-THEN rules that define policies and related controls for the policies.

22. The system of claim 21, the related controls further comprising at least one of thresholds, message-chunking, and one or more preferred devices.