Presence management system

• US 8,781,081 B2
• Filed: 04/21/2005
• Issued: 07/15/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/21/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: AT&T Knowledge Ventures, L.P. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Walter, Edward
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Hemant
• Application Number:
  US11/111,376
• Publication Number:
  US 20060239424A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,372 Days
• Field of Search: 348 1401- 1416, 370259-271, 370351-357, 379 671- 8828, 379 9301- 9304, 37914201-14218, 379/201.01, 37920106-2011, 37921101-21501, 379352-37602, 4554121-417, 455/426.1, 455/426.2, 4555501-560, 4554121-420, 4554561-560, 4555751-5759, 455 901- 903, 709201-207, 709217-248
• US Class Current: 379/88.14
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42374 where the information is provided to a monitoring entity such as a potential calling party or a call processing server
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5307 for recording messages comprising any combination of audio and non-audio components

Abstract

The present invention provides presence management to a multimodal communication network. A unified messaging system, providing the ability to deliver messages across multiple modes of communication, is integrated with a presence managing system. The presence management system provides an ability to locate a recipient of a message according to a stored schedule. The unified messaging system retrieves contact information from a presence management system. Upon received the message, the recipient can respond along the established line of communication. Multiple modes of communication comprises telephone, wireless telephone, electronic mail, pager, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), video, audio, picture, among others.

Claims

1. A method of providing a unified messaging platform in a communication network, the method comprising:

receiving a message, comprising message text, for a recipient from a sender;

retrieving contact information and schedule information from a calendar schedule stored on a personal computer of the recipient, wherein the personal computer provides a web access point for the recipient;

determining a single, schedule-dependent contact address, comprising a cellular phone number for a recipient cellular phone, from the contact information and the schedule information;

verifying availability of a mode of communication associated with the schedule-dependent contact address;

generating a voice message indicative of the message text;

initiating a call session and calling the recipient cellular phone based on the cellular phone number;

responsive to the recipient answering the call, delivering the voice message via the communication line;

maintaining the call session after delivering the voice message to receive a recipient response;

responsive to detecting a voice response from the recipient;

converting the voice response to response text; and

delivering the response text to the sender; and

responsive to detecting a tone indicative of the recipient pushing a button on the recipient cellular phone;

generating a recipient acknowledgement; and

delivering the recipient acknowledgement to the sender.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein initiating the call session includes employing a signaling protocol compliant with a Session Initiation Protocol.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein delivering the response text comprises emailing the response text to an email address of the sender.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein delivering the response text comprises providing a text message including the response text to a cellular phone of the sender.

5. A non-transitory computer readable medium including stored, processor executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

receiving a message, comprising message text, for a recipient from a sender;

retrieving contact information and schedule information from a calendar schedule stored on a personal computer of the recipient, wherein the personal computer provides a web access point for the recipient;

determining a single, schedule-dependent contact address, comprising a cellular phone number for a recipient cellular phone, from the contact information and the schedule information;

verifying availability of a mode of communication associated with the schedule-dependent contact address;

generating a voice message indicative of the message text;

initiating a call session and calling the recipient cellular phone based on the cellular phone number;

responsive to the recipient answering the call, delivering the voice message via the communication line;

maintaining the call session after delivering the voice message to receive a recipient response;

responsive to detecting a voice response from the recipient;

converting the voice response to response text; and

delivering the response text to the sender; and

responsive to detecting a tone indicative of the recipient pushing a button on the recipient cellular phone;

generating a recipient acknowledgement; and

delivering the recipient acknowledgement to the sender.

6. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 5, wherein initiating the call session includes employing a signaling protocol compliant with a Session Initiation Protocol.

7. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 5, wherein delivering the response text comprises emailing the response text to an email address of the sender.

8. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 5, wherein delivering the response text comprises providing a text message including the response text to a cellular phone of the sender.