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

• US 7,389,351 B2
• Filed: 03/15/2001
• Issued: 06/17/2008
• 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 J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Burgess; Glenton B.
• Assistant Examiner(s): STRANGE, AARON N
• Application Number:
  US09/809,142
• Publication Number:
  US 20020161862A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,651 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/204, 709/205, 709/207, 709/220, 709/240, 709/249, 709/227
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4053 without floor control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• 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 3/436 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 embodied on a computer readable storage medium for facilitating communication between entities, comprising:

one or more communication modalities that respectively provide for communication between at least two entities, and

a communication manager that analyzes a first communication data set associated with a first entity and a second communication data set associated with a second entity, where at least one of the first entity or the second entity is a human being, the communication manager identifying a subset of the one or more communication modalities based at least in part on analysis of the first and second communication data sets utilizing at least one of reasoning under uncertainty and deterministic processing, the communication manager determining one or more current expected utilities associated with a communication between the first entity and second entity based, at least in part, on current contactor data, current contactee data and current communication modality data, where the current contactee data comprises current state data and the current contactor data comprises current state data, the communication manager determining one or more predicted expected utilities associated with a communication between the first entity and second entity based, at least in part, on predicted contactor data, predicted contactee data and predicted communication modality data, where the predicted contactee data comprises predicted state data and the predicted contactor data comprises predicted state data;

the communication manager comparing one or more current expected utilities to one or more predicted expected utilities and ranking the current expected utilities with the predicted expected utilities, wherein the ranking of the predicted expected utilities is weighted by one or more costs associated with delaying the communication to a point in time associated with the predicted expected utility, and the communication manager establishing a communication between the entities via at least one modality of the subset based upon the ranking.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more communication modalities comprise at least one of:

telephone modalities, facsimile modalities, computer modalities, paging modalities, or personal modalities, or any combination thereof.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the telephone modalities comprise at least one of:

POTS telephony, cellular telephony, satellite telephony, or Internet telephony, or any combination thereof.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the computer modalities comprise at least one of:

email, collaborative editing, instant messaging, network meetings, calendaring, or home networking devices, or any combination thereof.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the personal modalities comprise at least one of:

videoconferencing, messengering, or face-to-face meeting, or any combination thereof.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein establishing a communication includes at least one of scheduling one or more communications, calendaring one or more communications, displaying information concerning one or more possible communication modalities available for communication between the entities, or initiating one or more communications, or any combination thereof.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the first communication data set comprises a set of contactor context data and a set of contactor preference data.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the second communication data set comprises a set of contactee context data and a set of contactee preference data.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the communication manager comprises:

a preference resolver adapted to analyze the set of contactee preference data and the set of contactor preference data and produces a resolved preference data;

a context analyzer adapted to analyze the set of contactee context data and the set of contactor context data and produce an analyzed context data;

a channel analyzer adapted to analyze the possible communication channels between a contactor and a contactee and produce a communication channel data; and

a communication establisher adapted to establish a communication between the contactor and the contactee based, at least in part, on the resolved preference data, the analyzed context data, entity selection data and the communication channel data.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the set of contactee context data comprises contactee hardware data, contactee software data and contactee observed data.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the set of contactor context data comprises contactor hardware data, contactor software data and contactor observed data.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the contactee hardware data comprises at least one of capacity data, bandwidth data, availability data, status data, cost data, revision data, or hardware metadata, or any combination thereof.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the contactee software data comprises at least one of capacity data, version data, cost data, or capability data, or any combination thereof.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the contactee observed data comprises at least one of time of day data, current activity data, current task data, calendar data, location data, contactor to contactee history data, attentional status data, contactor class data, environment data, or communication needs data, or any combination thereof.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the contactee preference data comprises at least one of contactee preference hardware data, contactee preference software data, contactee preference time of day data, contactee preference calendar data, contactee preference contactor priority list data, or contactee preference special needs data, or any combination thereof.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the contactor hardware data comprises at least one of capacity data, bandwidth data, availability data, status data, cost data, revision data, or hardware metadata, or any combination thereof.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the contactor software data comprises at least one of capacity data, version data, cost data, or capability data, or any combination thereof.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the contactor observed data comprises at least one of time of day data, current activity data, current task data, calendar data, location data, contactor to contactee history data, attentional status data, contactee class data, environment data, or communication needs data, or any combination thereof.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the contactor preference data comprises at least one of contactor preference hardware data, contactor preference software data, contactor preference time of day data, contactor preference calendar data, or contactor preference special needs data, or any combination thereof.

20. The system of claim 9, wherein the communication manager is further operable to perform at least one of the preference resolver inferring probabilities for unspecified preferences, the context analyzer is operable to infer probabilities for context data, or the channel analyzer is operable to infer probabilities for channel data, or any combination thereof.

21. A method for identifying and establishing one or more communications between one or more communicating parties, comprising:

determining one or more current expected utilities associated with a communication between the communicating parties based, at least in part, on current contactor data, current contactee data and current communication modality data, where the current contactee data comprises current state data and the current contactor data comprises current state data, where at least one of the communicating parties is a human being;

determining one or more predicted expected utilities associated with a communication between the communicating parties based, at least in part, on predicted contactor data, predicted contactee data and predicted communication modality data, where the predicted contactee data comprises predicted state data and the predicted contactor data comprises predicted state data;

comparing one or more current expected utilities to one or more predicted expected utilities;

ranking the current expected utilities with the predicted expected utilities, where the ranking of the predicted expected utilities is weighted by one or more costs associated with delaying the communication to a point in time associated with the predicted expected utility; and

establishing the communication.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein the current contactor data further comprises contactor preference data.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the contactor preference data comprises at least one of:

time data, location data, task data, goal data, or communication needs data, or any combination thereof.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the current contactee data comprises at least one of:

contactee situation data, or contactee preference data, or any combination thereof.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the contactee situation data comprises at least one of:

contactee application data, contactee user data, or contactee capability data, or any combination thereof.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the contactee preference data comprises at least one of:

time data, location data, task data, goal data, or communication needs data, or any combination thereof.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein determining the one or more current expected utilities comprises:

analyzing at least one of the contactor data or the contactee data to determine one or more relationships between at least one of contactee preferences, contactor preferences, contactor communication needs, contactee communication goals, contactee capabilities, or contactor capabilities, or any combination thereof;

selecting one or more rules based, at least in part, on the relationships; and

applying one or more rules to determine the expected utilities based, at least in part, on the relationships.

28. The method of claim 27, the contactor data comprising:

deterministic data associated with a current state of the contactor; and

prediction data associated with future possible states of the contactor.

29. The method of claim 28, the contactee data comprising:

deterministic data associated with a current state of the contactee; and

prediction data associated with future possible states of the contactee.

30. The method of claim 26, wherein determining the one or more current expected utilities comprises:

analyzing the contactee data to determine one or more missing data values;

selectively inferring one or more missing contactee context data elements and/or one or more missing contactee situation data elements to produce one or more inferences;

analyzing the one or more inferences to determine one or more relationships between at least one of the inferences, contactor preferences, contactor communication needs, or contactor capabilities, or any combination thereof; and

applying one or more inference formulae to maximize the expected utility of the communication between the communicating parties.

31. The method of claim 30 where the inference formulae are decision-theoretic formulae.

32. The method of claim 30, the contactor data comprising:

deterministic data associated with a current state of the contactor; and

prediction data associated with future possible states of the contactor.

33. The method of claim 32, the contactee data comprising:

deterministic data associated with a current state of the contactee; and

prediction data associated with future possible states of the contactee.

34. The method of claim 27 wherein establishing the communication comprises:

presenting information concerning the communication to one or more communicating parties; and

performing at least one of scheduling, calendaring, or initiating one or more communications between the communicating parties based, at least in part, on one or more responses to the information presented concerning the communication.

35. The method of claim 33 wherein establishing the communication comprises:

presenting information concerning the communication to one or more communicating parties; and

performing at least one of scheduling, calendaring, or initiating one or more communications between the communicating parties based, at least in part, on a response to the information presented concerning the communication.

36. A method for identifying an optimal communication between one or more communicating parties, comprising:

determining one or more current expected utilities associated with a communication between the communicating parties based, at least in part, on current contactor data, current contactee data and current communication modality data, where the current contactee data comprises current state data and the current contactor data comprises current state data, where at least one of the communicating parties is a human being;

determining one or more predicted expected utilities associated with a communication between the communicating parties based, at least in part, on predicted contactor data, predicted contactee data and predicted communication modality data, where the predicted contactee data comprises predicted state data and the predicted contactor data comprises predicted state data;

comparing one or more current expected utilities to one or more predicted expected utilities; and

ranking the current expected utilities with the predicted expected utilities, where the ranking of the predicted expected utilities is weighted by one or more costs associated with delaying the communication to a point in time associated with the predicted expected utility, wherein the ranking is at least one of stored on a computer readable storage medium, displayed on a display device, employed by one or more processes executed on one or more processors, or transmitted between two or more processes executing on one or more processors.

37. A system embodied on a computer readable storage medium for optimizing one or more contacts between one or more parties, comprising:

means for determining one or more current expected utilities associated with a communication between the communicating parties based, at least in part, on current contactor data, current contactee data and current communication modality data, where the current contactee data comprises current state data and the current contactor data comprises current state data, where at least one of the communicating parties is a human being;

means for determining one or more predicted expected utilities associated with a communication between the communicating parties based, at least in part, on predicted contactor data, predicted contactee data and predicted communication modality data, where the predicted contactee data comprises predicted state data and the predicted contactor data comprises predicted state data;

means for comparing one or more current expected utilities to one or more predicted expected utilities; and

means for ranking the current expected utilities with the predicted expected utilities, where the ranking of the predicted expected utilities is weighted by one or more costs associated with delaying the communication to a point in time associated with the predicted expected utility, wherein the ranking is at least one of stored on a computer readable storage medium, displayed on a display device, employed by one or more processes executed on one or more processors, or transmitted between two or more processes executing on one or more processors.

38. The system of claim 37 where the inference formulae are decision-theoretic formulae.

39. A computer readable storage medium storing computer executable components for a system that facilitates communication between entities, comprising:

an identifying component that identifies a plurality of communication modalities that respectively provide for communication between at least two entities, and

an analyzing component that determines one or more current expected utilities associated with a communication between the two entitities based, at least in part, on current contactor data, current contactee data and current communication modality data, where the current contactee data comprises current state data and the current contactor data comprises current state data, where at least one of the entities is a human being, the communication manager determining one or more predicted expected utilities associated with a communication between the two entities based, at least in part, on predicted contactor data, predicted contactee data and predicted communication modality data, where the predicted contactee data comprises predicted state data and the predicted contactor data comprises predicted state data;

the communication manager comparing one or more current expected utilities to one or more predicted expected utilities and ranking the current expected utilities with the predicted expected utilities, wherein the ranking of the predicted expected utilities is weighted by one or more costs associated with delaying the communication to a point in time associated with the predicted expected utility.

40. A computer readable storage medium containing computer executable instructions for performing a process for identifying and establishing one or more communications between one or more communicating parties, the process comprising:

applying one or more inference formulae operable to infer probabilities associated with contactor data, contactee data and communication modality data;

determining one or more current expected utilities associated with a communication between the communicating parties based, at least in part, on current contactor data, current contactee data and current communication modality data, where the current contactee data comprises current state data and the current contactor data comprises current state data, where at least one of the communicating parties is a human being;

determining one or more predicted expected utilities associated with a communication between the communicating parties based, at least in part, on predicted contactor data, predicted contactee data and predicted communication modality data, where the predicted contactee data comprises predicted state data and the predicted contactor data comprises predicted state data;

comparing one or more current expected utilities to one or more predicted expected utilities; and

ranking the current expected utilities with the predicted expected utilities, where the ranking of the predicted expected utilities is weighted by one or more costs associated with delaying the communication to a point in time associated with the predicted expected utility, and

establishing the communication.