Method for generating prospective availability data

• US 8,060,459 B2
• Filed: 12/14/2007
• Issued: 11/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/01/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mitel Networks Corporation
• Original Assignee: Mitel Networks Corporation
• Inventors: Gray, Thomas A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Gaffin; Jeffrey A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kim; David H
• Application Number:
  US12/002,199
• Publication Number:
  US 20080114713A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,432 Days
• Field of Search: 715/963, 707/951, 708/112, 379/266.08, 706/47
• US Class Current: 706/47
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/2072 Schedules, e.g. personal calendars
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42365 Presence services providing information on the willingness to communicate or the ability to communicate in terms of media capability or network connectivity
• 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 3/4872 Non-interactive information services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/51 Centralised call answering arrangements requiring operator intervention , e.g. call or contact centers for telemarketing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/006 Networks other than PSTN/ISDN providing telephone service, e.g. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) , including next generation networks with a packet-switched transport layer H04L65/00 takes precedence; aspects not specific to the type of network H04M3/00; special services in those networks H04M3/42

Abstract

A method and system of generating prospective ability data is provided. Availability for at least one future temporal block is estimated, responsive to receiving an availability request, by applying availability rules to temporal block data associated with the at least one future temporal block, the temporal block data stored in a database.

Claims

1. A method of generating prospective availability data, the method comprising:

receiving a request regarding an availability of a user for receiving a call;

transmitting a message regarding the availability of the user as a response to the request;

generating prospective availability data regarding the user using a processing server, including estimating the availability of the user for at least one future temporal block by applying availability rules to temporal block data for the user associated with said at least one future temporal block; and

the message being generated in response to estimating that the user is available in said at least one future temporal block,

wherein said estimating the availability of the user for said at least one future temporal block comprises querying at least one of a calendar of a user associated with said temporal block data and a calendar of at least one other user associated with said user to determine meetings in which said user may be involved and estimating confidence of said queried calendar by querying an estimator that monitors actual meeting information of the user associated with said queried calendar, comparing said actual meeting information with meeting information recorded in said queried calendar, and determining the proportion of accurately recorded meeting information with respect to a total amount of meeting information recorded, and giving preference to meetings associated with the queried calendar having the highest confidence when applying said availability rules.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said applying said availability rules to said at least one future temporal block comprises applying said availability rules to a plurality of future temporal blocks.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein applying said availability rules to said plurality of future temporal blocks occurs in temporal order until at least one of said plurality of future temporal blocks is determined to be prospectively available.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said estimating availability for said at least one future temporal block is further responsive to determining that current availability is not-available.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a prospective availability message in response to determining that said at least one future temporal block is prospectively available and transmitting said prospective availability message to indicate prospective availability as a response to said availability request.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising generating a second prospective availability message for informing a user associated with said temporal block data of said transmitting said prospective availability message.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said applying availability rules comprises determining a proactive availability and a reliability estimate of availability for said at feast one future temporal block.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising generating a prospective availability message in response to determining that said at least one future temporal block is prospectively available and transmitting said prospective availability message to indicate prospective availability as a response to said availability request, said prospective availability message comprising said proactive estimate of availability and said reliability estimate.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said availability rules comprise fuzzy indicators of degrees of availability, and said applying availability rules to said at least one future temporal block comprises pre-determined ones of said availability rules firing responses, and computing from said responses a crisp indicator of availability.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said availability rules comprise at least one of a user indication rule, a location rule, a time rule, an activity rule and a call type rule.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein said querying at least one of a calendar of a user associated with said temporal block data and a calendar of at least one other user associated with said user comprises determining at least one of time period associated with each of said meetings, a location associated with each of said meetings, and co-present personnel associated with each of said meetings.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein said estimating availability for at least one future temporal block in an appointment schedule comprises transmitting an availability request and, in response, receiving an indication of availability.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein said availability comprises a confidence metric of availability determined by processing at least one estimate of availability for the at least one future temporal block.