Announcing presence information during telephone call ringback
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A computer-readable medium containing instructions for controlling a computer system to provide a ringback tone by a method comprising:
- subscribing with a presence server to receive presence information of users, the presence information of a user including a mapping of a telephone number to the user;
receiving from the presence server notifications of changes to the presence information of the users as the presence server is updated with the presence information of the users and storing the presence information of the users as indicated by the notifications;
receiving an indication of an incoming call from a caller to a telephone number;
identifying a called user from the called telephone number using the mapping of users to telephone numbers of the stored presence information;
retrieving from the stored presence information presence information for the called user identified from the called telephone number, the presence information including availability of the called user; and
before the incoming call is answered, outputting to the caller a ringback tone indicating the availability of the called userwherein the ringback tone indicating the availability of the called user is output before the call is answered so that the caller knows the availability of the called user before the call is answered.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method and system for outputting a call announcement based on presence information of a callee as a ringback tone is provided. The announcement system is provided with presence information of users. When the telephone system receives an indication of an incoming call from a caller, the telephone system identifies the callee. After the callee is identified, the announcement system retrieves the presence information for the callee and generates an announcement based on that presence information.
50 Citations
15 Claims
-
1. A computer-readable medium containing instructions for controlling a computer system to provide a ringback tone by a method comprising:
-
subscribing with a presence server to receive presence information of users, the presence information of a user including a mapping of a telephone number to the user; receiving from the presence server notifications of changes to the presence information of the users as the presence server is updated with the presence information of the users and storing the presence information of the users as indicated by the notifications; receiving an indication of an incoming call from a caller to a telephone number; identifying a called user from the called telephone number using the mapping of users to telephone numbers of the stored presence information; retrieving from the stored presence information presence information for the called user identified from the called telephone number, the presence information including availability of the called user; and before the incoming call is answered, outputting to the caller a ringback tone indicating the availability of the called user wherein the ringback tone indicating the availability of the called user is output before the call is answered so that the caller knows the availability of the called user before the call is answered. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
-
-
6. A method for controlling computing device to provide a ringback tone, the method comprising:
-
subscribing by the computing device with a presence server to receive presence information of users, the presence information of a user including a mapping of a telephone number to the user; receiving from the presence server notifications of changes to the presence information of the users as the presence server is updated with the presence information of the users and storing the presence information of the users as indicated by the notifications; receiving an indication of an incoming call from a caller to a telephone number; identifying by the computing device a called user from the called telephone number using the mapping of users to telephone numbers of the stored presence information; retrieving by the computing device from the stored presence information presence information for the called user identified from the called telephone number, the presence information including availability of the called user; and before the incoming call is answered, outputting to the caller a ringback tone indicating the availability of the called user wherein the ringback tone indicating the availability of the called user is output before the call is answered so that the caller knows the availability of the called user before the call is answered. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10)
-
-
11. A computing device for providing a ringback tone comprising:
-
a processor; and a memory encoded with computer-executable instructions for subscribing with a presence server to receive presence information of users, the presence information of a user including a mapping of a telephone number to the user; receiving from the presence server notifications of changes to the presence information of the users as the presence server is updated with the presence information of the users and storing the presence information of the users as indicated by the notifications; receiving an indication of an incoming call from a caller to a telephone number; identifying a called user from the called telephone number using the mapping of users to telephone numbers of the stored presence information; retrieving from the stored presence information presence information for the called user identified from the called telephone number, the presence information including availability of the called user; and before the incoming call is answered, outputting to the caller a ringback tone indicating the availability of the called user wherein the ringback tone indicating the availability of the called user is output before the call is answered so that the caller knows the availability of the called user before the call is answered. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15)
-
Specification