Call shuffling

• US 8,577,007 B2
• Filed: 08/07/2008
• Issued: 11/05/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/09/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Sherman, Itay, Bychkov, Eyal, Perry, Hagit, Ron, Uri
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Duc
• Assistant Examiner(s): GAY, SONIA L
• Application Number:
  US12/187,966
• Publication Number:
  US 20090041221A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,916 Days
• Field of Search: 379/210.01, 379/355.02, 379/201.01, 455/564, 455/414.1
• US Class Current: 379/210.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/0254 comprising one or a plurality of mechanically detachable modules
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2746 Sorting, e.g. according to history or frequency of use
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2749 Automatic dialling or redialling systems, e.g. on off-hook or redial on busy
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72451 according to schedules, e.g. using calendar applications
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A method for automatically scheduling phone calls, including dynamically assigning priorities to each of a plurality of a user'"'"'s contacts, selecting one of the plurality of the user'"'"'s contacts based on highest priority, wherein random selection is used in case more than one contact has the highest priority, placing a phone call to the selected contact, and updating the priority of the selected contact, if the placing a phone call successfully reaches the selected contact. A telephone and a computer-readable storage medium are also described and claimed.

Claims

1. A method for automatically scheduling phone calls, comprising:

designating at least a portion of a user'"'"'s contacts, stored in the user'"'"'s telephone, as being shuffle-able;

dynamically assigning priorities to the designated contacts comprising deriving scores for the designated contacts based on one or more priority impact factors;

automatically selecting one of the designated contacts based on highest priority in response to the telephone being inserted into a jacket device, wherein random selection is used in case more than one designated contact has the highest priority;

placing a phone call to the selected contact; and

dynamically reassigning the priority of the selected contact, in response to said placing a phone call successfully reaching the selected contact.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said dynamically assigning is performed periodically at regular intervals.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said automatically selecting is pre-scheduled by the user.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising automatically selecting one of the designated contacts in response to the user having free time, as indicated by a user schedule.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein said automatically selecting, placing a phone call and dynamically reassigning are performed repeatedly.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein one of the priority impact factors is a special date relating to a contact.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the special date is the contact'"'"'s birth date.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein the special date is the contact'"'"'s wedding anniversary.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein one of the priority impact factors is the length of time since a phone call was last made to a contact.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein one of the priority impact factors is the length of time remaining prior to a designated deadline.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein one of the priority impact factors is a metric of importance of a contact.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein one of the priority impact factors is a contact'"'"'s availability status within an Internet communication service.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising prompting the user whether or not to place a phone call to the selected contact, prior to said placing a phone call.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein said prompting the user comprises presenting text to the user reminding the user of the reason he wanted to call the selected contact.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein said prompting the user comprises presenting information to the user regarding special dates related to the selected contact.

16. The method of claim 13 wherein said prompting the user comprises presenting to the user the last date and time when the user spoke with the selected contact.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the designated contacts comprise contacts who are awaiting replies from the user.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein the designated contacts comprise friends and family of the user.

19. The method of claim 1 further comprising importing at least one of the designated contacts from an external database of user contacts.

20. A telephone with an automatic call scheduler, comprising:

a memory for storing a plurality of a user'"'"'s contacts and priorities assigned thereto, wherein at least a portion of the contacts are designated as being shuffle-able;

a prioritizer coupled with said memory for dynamically assigning the priorities to the designated contacts by deriving scores for the designated contacts based at least on one or more priority impact factors, and for dynamically reassigning the priority of a designated contact in response to a phone call being successfully made to the designated contact;

a scheduler coupled with said prioritizer and with said memory for automatically selecting one of the designated contacts based on highest priority in response to the telephone being inserted into a jacket device, wherein said scheduler uses random selection in case more than one designated contact has the highest priority; and

a dialer coupled with said scheduler for automatically placing a phone call to the selected contact.

21. The telephone of claim 20 further comprising an activation button for activating said scheduler and said dialer.

22. The telephone of claim 20 wherein said scheduler automatically selects one of the designated contacts in response to the telephone being in a moving vehicle.

23. The telephone of claim 20 wherein one of the priority impact factors used by said prioritizer is a special date relating to a contact.

24. The telephone of claim 23 wherein the special date is the contact'"'"'s birth date.

25. The telephone of claim 23 wherein the special date is the contact'"'"'s wedding anniversary.

26. The telephone of claim 20 wherein one of the priority impact factors used by said prioritizer is the length of time since a phone call was last made to a contact.

27. The telephone of claim 20 wherein one of the priority impact factors used by said prioritizer is the length of time remaining prior to a designated deadline.

28. The telephone of claim 20 wherein one of the priority impact factors used by said prioritizer is a metric of importance of a contact.

29. The telephone of claim 20 wherein one of the priority impact factors used by said prioritizer is a contact'"'"'s availability status within an Internet communication service.

30. The telephone of claim 20 wherein one of the priority impact factors used by said prioritizer is a style of a jacket in which the telephone is housed.

31. The telephone of claim 20 further comprising a prompter for prompting the user whether or not to place a phone call to the selected contact, prior to said dialer placing a phone call.

32. The telephone of claim 31 wherein said prompter presents text to the user reminding the user of the reason he wanted to call the selected contact.

33. The telephone of claim 31 wherein said prompter presents information to the user regarding special dates related to the selected contact.

34. The telephone of claim 31 wherein said prompter presents to the user the last date and time when the user spoke with the selected contact.

35. The telephone of claim 20 wherein the designated contacts comprise contacts who are awaiting replies from the user.

36. The telephone of claim 20 wherein the designated contacts comprise friends and family of the user.

37. The telephone of claim 20 wherein the telephone is a land-line telephone.

38. The telephone of claim 20 wherein the telephone is a cellular telephone.

39. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing program code which, when executed by a processor of a telephone causes the telephone:

to designate at least a portion of a user'"'"'s contacts as being shuffle-able;

to dynamically assign priorities to the designated contacts by deriving scores for the designated contacts based on one or more priority impact factors;

to automatically select one of the designated contacts based on highest priority in response to the telephone being inserted into a jacket device, wherein random selection is used in case more than one designated contact has the highest priority;

to place a phone call to the selected contact; and

to dynamically reassign the priority of the selected contact, in response to the placed phone call successfully reaching the selected contact.

40. A telephone with an automatic call scheduler, comprising:

a memory for storing a plurality of a user'"'"'s contacts and priorities assigned thereto, wherein at least a portion of the contacts are designated as being shuffle-able;

a prioritizer coupled with said memory for dynamically assigning the priorities to the designated contacts by deriving scores for the designated contacts based at least on a style of a jacket in which the telephone is housed, and for dynamically reassigning the priority of a designated contact in response to a phone call being successfully made to the designated contact;

a scheduler coupled with said prioritizer and with said memory for selecting one of the designated contacts based on highest priority, wherein said scheduler uses random selection in case more than one designated contact has the highest priority; and

a dialer coupled with said scheduler for automatically placing a phone call to the selected contact.