Methods and apparatus for determining a presence of a user
First Claim
1. A method comprising:
- establishing, by a terminal, a data connection with a presence server at time T1;
transmitting, by the terminal, a macro-presence event to the presence server via the data connection;
detecting, by the terminal, a first user input at time T2, wherein the first user input is indicative of a first micro-presence event that is different from the macro-presence event, and wherein time T1<
time T2;
determining, by the terminal, whether the first micro-presence event falls within t time units of a prior micro-presence event recorded by the terminal;
transmitting, by the terminal, the first micro presence event to the presence server in response to determining that the first micro-presence event fails to fall within t time units of the prior micro-presence event; and
establishing, by the terminal, a communications session in response to a selection performed by the presence server, wherein the terminal is selected from a plurality of terminals based on the fact that a first value computed for the first micro-presence event has a greater presence and availability status than those values computed for the plurality of terminals.
24 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Methods and apparatus are disclosed for collecting presence information about a user from one or more presence sources associated with the user, such as applications, devices and locations. A presence agent is associated with each presence source; and the presence agents provide presence information to one or more presence servers. Typically, the presence agents execute on a processor associated with the corresponding presence source. The presence agent reports one or more of macropresence events and micropresence events. The presence agent optionally prompts the user to update the presence information based on one or more criteria, such as exceeding a time threshold since the last presence event. Continuous presence functions are generated for each presence source that characterize the likelihood of the user to be present on the corresponding presence source at a given time.
-
Citations
27 Claims
-
1. A method comprising:
-
establishing, by a terminal, a data connection with a presence server at time T1; transmitting, by the terminal, a macro-presence event to the presence server via the data connection; detecting, by the terminal, a first user input at time T2, wherein the first user input is indicative of a first micro-presence event that is different from the macro-presence event, and wherein time T1<
time T2;determining, by the terminal, whether the first micro-presence event falls within t time units of a prior micro-presence event recorded by the terminal; transmitting, by the terminal, the first micro presence event to the presence server in response to determining that the first micro-presence event fails to fall within t time units of the prior micro-presence event; and establishing, by the terminal, a communications session in response to a selection performed by the presence server, wherein the terminal is selected from a plurality of terminals based on the fact that a first value computed for the first micro-presence event has a greater presence and availability status than those values computed for the plurality of terminals. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
-
-
9. A method comprising:
-
receiving, by a presence server, a respective micro-presence event from each of a plurality of sources associated with a user, wherein the presence server receives each respective micro-presence event from one of the plurality of sources at different times based on a temporal interval established by each source; in a first computation, computing a first value for each source based on their respective micro-presence event, wherein the first value is computed by the presence server using a continuous function; receiving, by the presence server, a query to determine which source in the plurality of sources has a greater likelihood to be available at time T1 to establish a communications session; determining, by the presence sever, that a first source in the plurality of sources has a greater likelihood of being available at time T1 based at least in part on the first value computed for each source; selecting, by the presence server, the first source in the plurality of sources based on the determination; and transmitting, by the presence server, a response to a subscriber indicating that the first source in the plurality of sources has the greater likelihood of being available at time T1 to establish the communications session. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
-
-
19. A terminal comprising:
-
a memory; and a processor, coupled to the memory, operative to; establish a data connection with a presence server at time T1; transmit a macro-presence event to the presence server via the data connection; detect a first user input at time T2, wherein the first user input is indicative of a first micro-presence event that is different from the macro-presence event, and wherein time T1<
time T2;determine whether the first micro-presence event falls within t time units of a prior micro-presence event recorded by the terminal; transmit the first micro presence event to the presence server in response to determining that the first micro-presence event fails to fall within t time units of the prior micro-presence event; and establish a communications session in response to a selection performed by the presence server, wherein the terminal is selected from a plurality of terminals based on the fact that a first value computed for the first micro-presence event has a greater presence and availability status than those values computed for the plurality of terminals. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
-
-
27. An article of manufacturer comprising a recordable medium containing instructions, which when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform steps comprising:
-
establishing a data connection with a presence server at time T1; transmitting a macro-presence event to the presence server via the data connection; detecting a first user input at time T2, wherein the first user input is indicative of a first micro-presence event that is different from the macro-presence event, and wherein time T1<
time T2;determining whether the first micro-presence event falls within t time units of a prior micro-presence event recorded by the terminal; transmitting, by the terminal, the first micro presence event to the presence server in response to determining that the first micro-presence event fails to fall within t time units of the prior micro-presence event; and establishing a communications session in response to a selection performed by the presence server, wherein the terminal is selected from a plurality of terminals based on the fact that a first value computed for the first micro-presence event has a greater presence and availability status than those values computed for the plurality of terminals.
-
Specification