Push-to-talk event notification

• US 7,756,539 B2
• Filed: 05/27/2005
• Issued: 07/13/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Criddle, Linda, Milstein, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Edouard; Patrick N
• Assistant Examiner(s): HEIBER, SHANTELL LAKETA
• Application Number:
  US11/140,461
• Publication Number:
  US 20060270430A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,873 Days
• Field of Search: 455517-520
• US Class Current: 455/518
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/06 Optimizing the usage of the radio link, e.g. header compression, information sizing , discarding information system modifying transmission characteristic according to link quality by modifying frame length H04L1/0007; dynamic adaptation of the packet size for flow control or congestion control H04L47/365
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/10 Push-to-Talk [PTT] or Push-On-Call services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/00 User notification, e.g. alerting and paging, for incoming communication, change of service or the like
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/00 Local resource management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/45 for Push-to-Talk [PTT] or Push-to-Talk over cellular [PoC] services

Abstract

A method and system for notifying a push-to-talk enabled user of an event. The method includes the steps of: receiving event data to be provided to a user; determining a push-to-talk configuration including carrier information for the user; and based on the push-to-talk configuration, providing the event data and user identification information to a carrier identified in the carrier information. The system may include an aggregation service controller; a text to speech converter; a user PTT connection mapping database; an online service interface; and a PTT service provider interface.

Claims

1. A method for notifying a user of an event, comprising:

receiving an identifier of a push-to-talk (PTT) carrier and information for addressing a user'"'"'s PTT enabled device via the PTT carrier, the identifier and information received by an online service that generates event data for users having accounts with the online service;

receiving, by the online service, a request from the user to forward event data to the user via the PTT carrier if the user is not available online, the request describing what portion of the event data is to be forwarded to the user via the PTT carrier, the portion being less than the entire event data;

receiving event data to be provided to the user from the online service, the event data is received at an event data processor;

determining whether the user is online to receive the event data via the online service;

delivering the entire event data to the user online via the online service if the user is online;

if the user is not online, performing the substeps of;

filtering the event data to determine which portions of the event data to provide to the user, the portions comprising less than the entire event data, the filtering is based on the stored description of what portion of the event data is to be forwarded to the user via the PTT carrier;

creating a message configured to comply with a PTT format associated with the PTT carrier for the user;

determining how to provide the message to the PTT carrier associated with the user based on the received PTT identifier and the information for addressing the user'"'"'s PTT enabled device via the PTT carrier; and

providing the message with the filtered event data and the information for addressing the user'"'"'s PTT enabled device via the PTT carrier to the PTT carrier based on the PTT format, the message is provided from the event data processor to the PTT carrier to be delivered to the user'"'"'s PTT enabled device without the PTT enabled device having a session maintained with the event data processor.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the event data includes text data, and the method further includes the step of converting the text data to audio information for the user.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the method further includes:

receiving a response from the push-to-talk carrier indicating whether or not the message was not played at the push-to-talk enabled device; and

reporting to the online service that the message was delivered to but not played at the push-to-talk enabled device.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the response comprises one of a voice packet or text response.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein the step of determining how to provide the message to the PTT carrier includes associating the (PTT) carrier identifier with a communication interface for the PTT carrier, the push-to-talk format including a protocol, the message configured to comply with the protocol for the push-to-talk carrier.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the method further includes receiving event data from at least two online service providers.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the method further includes providing event data to at least two different users, each user associated with a different PTT carrier.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the method further includes the step of determining whether user data provided by said providing step has been accessed by the user.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the event data is one of an email message, a calendar reminder, an instant message, a voice message, or voice over IP data.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving user identifier information from the online service;

wherein the determining a push-to-talk carrier associated with the user includes mapping the user identifier information to the push-to-talk carrier associated with the user.

11. A notification event server, comprising:

an aggregation service controller;

a text to speech converter;

an online service interface that receives notification events from at least one online service provider, the notification events including event data, the online service interface receives first user identification information for a first user that is to be sent a first notification event of the notification events;

an interface for receiving push-to-talk (PTT) configuration information, the PTT configuration information for the first user including an identifier of a PTT carrier for the first user, information for addressing the first user'"'"'s PTT client via the identified PTT carrier, and a description of what portion of the event data for the notification events is to be forwarded to the first user via the PTT carrier, the portion being less than the entire event data for the notification events;

a user PTT connection mapping database which contains information that allows the notification event server to forward event notifications to the user'"'"'s PTT client without the PTT client being logged in to the notification event server;

a controller that determines whether the first notification event should be delivered to the user via the online service, the online service interface delivers the first notification event to the user via the online service if the first notification is to be sent via the online service, the controller accesses the mapping database to determine how to provide the first notification event to the PTT carrier associated with the user and to determine how to create a message that contains the first notification event if the first notification event should not be delivered to the user via the online service, the message contains less than all of the event data for the first notification event; and

a PTT service provider interface that delivers the message containing the first notification event to the user based-on the first PTT carrier information if the first notification event should not be delivered to the user via the online service.

12. The server of claim 11 further including a carrier inbound message queue and a carrier outbound message queue.

13. The server of claim 11 wherein the connection mapping database includes routing information to a PTT carrier service.

14. The server of claim 11 wherein the text to speech converter includes two or more language options selectable by a user.

15. A method for providing an online service, comprising:

providing an online service generating events for users having accounts with the online service;

maintaining a push-to-talk (PTT) configuration including carrier information for at least one of the users having accounts with the online service, the carrier information is received from the online service and stored at an event message processor, the carrier information allows event notifications to be forwarded from the event message processor to a PTT client without the push-to-talk client having an active session with the event message processor or being logged in to the event message processor, the carrier information identifies a PTT provider that the PTT client subscribes to and includes information for addressing the PTT client via the PTT carrier, PTT configuration further includes a description of what portion of a event data is to be forwarded to the PTT client via the PTT provider, the portion being less than the entire event data;

generating a notification event for said at least one user, the notification event is described by event data;

determining whether the notification event should be delivered to the at least one user via the online service;

delivering the notification event to the at least one user via the online service if it is determined that the notification should be delivered via the online service;

if it is determined that the notification event should not be delivered to the at least one user via the online service, performing the substeps of;

determining that the notification event should be delivered through a PTT client for said at least one user;

filtering the event data to determine which portions of the event data to provide to the PTT client for said at least one user, the filtering is based on the description of what portion of the event data is to be forwarded to the PTT client via the PTT provider, the portion being less than the entire event data;

generating a message with user identification information for the at least one user and the portions of the event data that are to be provided for the notification event, the message configured to comply with a protocol for the PTT carrier identified in the PTT configuration for said at least one user;

outputting the message having the portions of the event data that are to be provided for the notification event and user identification information to the PTT client for said at least one user via a carrier identified in the carrier information.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the method further includes outputting the portions of the event data that are to be provided for the notification event to an aggregation interface between the online service and the carrier.

17. The method of claim 15 wherein the method further includes notifying an event data sender whether the user has received the message data.

18. The method of claim 15 wherein the method further includes maintaining event filtering information indicating which events are to be delivered to the user.