Method and system for dynamic context based contact service

• US 8,074,230 B2
• Filed: 09/27/2007
• Issued: 12/06/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/27/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: inContact Incorporated (Nice Ltd)
• Original Assignee: Siemens Enterprise Communications, Inc. (Atos SE)
• Inventors: Mayer, Paul G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Sough, S
• Assistant Examiner(s): HOANG, PHUONG N
• Application Number:
  US11/904,956
• Publication Number:
  US 20090089806A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,531 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 719/318
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications

Abstract

A method, system, and computer readable medium, the method including monitoring an application for the occurrence of a predetermined event associated with the application; collecting, in response to the occurrence of the predetermined event, contact information associated with the application; associating the collected contact information with an entry of a contact list; and placing a call by using the contact list entry.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

a plurality of event monitors monitoring a plurality of applications for an occurrence of at least one predetermined event and at least one of the event monitors extracting contact information from at least one application of the applications in response to a detection of the at least one predetermined event and sending the extracted contact information to at least one event service;

the at least one event service receiving the extracted contact information from at least one of the event monitors;

the at least one event service providing the received extracted contact information to a contact list manager, the contact list manager managing a contact list accessible to a user device;

the contact manager updating the contact list by at least one of associating the received extracted contact information with at least one entry in the contact list and adding at least one entry to the contact list with contact information of the received extracted contact information, wherein the contact manager is a device that is separate from the user device and is comprised of hardware components and software components;

the user device requesting an entry for a contact of the contact list or listing of entries for contacts of the contact list from the contact manager for use in placing a call;

the contact manager providing the entry or listing of entries to the user device; and

the user device placing a call utilizing the entry or the listing of entries.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined event is accessing at least one of a file, a text message, an instant message, a SMS (short message service) message, and a MMS (multimedia messaging service) message.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the user device is a mobile phone or a device having a computer processor to execute code stored on memory accessible by the computer processor.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the contact list in a non-transitory memory.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the user device is a communication device for placing the call.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the contact list is at least one of a personal contact list associated with one individual, a contact list associated with more than one individual, and a company contact list.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

the contact manager obtaining additional information related to the collected contact information from a source other than the at least one application; and

the contact manager associating the additional information and the collected contact information with at least one entry of the contact list.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the entry on the contact list expires after one of:

a passage of time, and a predetermined number of additional associations of collected contact information are made with entries of the contact list.

9. A communication system comprising:

event monitors monitoring applications for an occurrence of at least one predetermined event;

at least one event service receiving contact information from at least one of the event monitors in response to the at least one event monitor detecting an occurrence of the at least one predetermined event, the received contact information being extracted from at least one of the applications monitored by that at least one event monitor;

a user device;

a contact list manager managing a contact list accessible to the user device;

the at least one event service providing the received contact information to the contact list manager;

the contact manager updating the contact list by at least one of associating the received contact information with at least one entry for at least one contact of the contact list and adding at least one contact to the contact list with contact information of the received contact information, wherein the contact manager is a device that is separate from the user device and is comprised of hardware components and software components;

the user device requesting an entry or a listing of entries of the contact list from the contact manager for use in placing a call;

the contact manager providing the entry or listing of entries to the user device; and

the user device placing a call utilizing the entry or the listing of entries.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the predetermined event is accessing at least one of a file, a text message, an instant message, a SMS (short message service) message, and a MMS (multimedia messaging service) message.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the user device is a mobile phone or a device having a computer processor to execute code stored on memory accessible by the computer processor.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the user device is a user communication device or a mobile phone.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the contact list is at least one of a personal contact list associated with one individual, a contact list associated with more than one individual, and a company contact list.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein

the contact manager also obtaining additional information related to the collected contact information from a source other than the at least one application;

and

associating the additional information and the collected contact information with the entry of the contact list.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein the entry on the contact list expires after one of:

a passage of time, and a predetermined number of additional associations of collected contact information are made with entries of the contact list.

16. A non-transitory computer readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon, the instructions defining a method executable by at least one device that processes the instructions of the medium, the method defined by the instructions comprising:

event monitors monitoring applications for an occurrence of at least one predetermined event and extracting contact information from at least one of the applications in response to a detection of the at least one predetermined event;

at least one event service receiving contact information extracted from the at least one application monitored by at least one of the event monitors;

the at least one event service providing the received extracted contact information to a contact list manager, the contact list manager managing a contact list accessible to a user device;

the contact manager updating the contact list by at least one of associating the received extracted contact information with contacts in the contact list and adding contacts to the contact list with contact information of the received extracted contact information, wherein the contact manager is a device that is separate from the user device and is comprised of hardware components and software components;

the user device requesting an entry or listing of entries of the contact list from the contact manager for use in placing a call, the entry or listing of entries comprising contact information of at least one contact of the contact list;

the contact manager providing the entry or listing of entries to the user device; and

the user device placing a call utilizing the entry or the listing of entries.

17. The medium of claim 16, wherein the predetermined event is

accessing at least one of a file, a text message, an instant message, a SMS (short message service) message, and a MMS (multimedia messaging service) message.

18. The medium of claim 16, wherein the contact list entry expires after one of:

a passage of time, and a predetermined number of additional associations of collected contact information are made with entries of the contact list.