Representation, decision models, and user interface for encoding managing preferences, and performing automated decision making about the timing and modalities of interpersonal communications

• US 7,330,895 B1
• Filed: 10/28/2002
• Issued: 02/12/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Horvitz, Eric J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Burgess; Glenton B.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Higa; Brendan Y
• Application Number:
  US10/281,546
• Time in Patent Office: 1,933 Days
• Field of Search: 709220-222, 709227-229, 709/225, 709/240, 455414-420, 379265-266, 706/61, 714/43, 705/7
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/066 Format adaptation, e.g. format conversion or compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/226 Delivery according to priorities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/30 Profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/564 Enhancement of application control based on intercepted application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/59 Providing operational support to end devices by off-loading in the network or by emulation, e.g. when they are unavailable
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/60 Scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests, e.g. requests for application data transmissions using the analysis and optimisation of the required network resources admission control or resource allocation H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/24 Negotiation of communication capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/2066 Call type detection of indication, e.g. voice or fax, mobile of fixed, PSTN or IP
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42229 Personal communication services, i.e. services related to one subscriber independent of his terminal and/or location diverting calls from one subscriber to another subscriber, i.e. two different subscriptions H04M3/54; selecting arrangements in intelligent networks H04Q3/005
• 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 7/12 : for working between exchanges having different types of switching equipment, e.g. power-driven and step by step or decimal and non-decimal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/252 : Processing of multiple end-users' preferences to derive collaborative data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 : communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system and methodology providing a user interface that can be employed by contactors and contactees in conjunction with a communications architecture for identifying and establishing an optimal communication based on preferences, capabilities, contexts and goals of the parties to engage in the communication. The user interface can include a graphical display having a plurality of display objects and associated input fields operable by one or more parties to a communication in order to facilitate convenient access, control, personalization and communications via the communications architecture. For example, configuration capabilities are provided in the user interface to enable operational adjustments to one or more operating parameters, communications groupings, policies and/or context preferences relating to a preferred modality of communication and to potential parties of communication between the contactors and contactees. User interface controls are also provided for defining deterministic policies and for encoding preferences for cost-benefit analyses.

Claims

1. A system to facilitate communications between parties, comprising:

a user interface that is configurable by a contactor and/or a contactee; and

a data store adapted to receive N parameters from the user interface, N being an integer, the N parameters relating to a communications preference, context and/or policy, the N parameters to guide decisions that facilitate optimal communications between parties,

the data store further comprising a formula to guide the decisions, the formula including the following equation;

$A^{*}=\arg <br><br><br><br>\underset{j}{\max }<br><br>u<br><br>\left(A_J,A_k^C,C,{\mathrm{context}}^R,{\mathrm{context}}^C\right)$

where

A* is the ideal, selected communication modality for the communication;

A_j represents each of all communication modalities being considered;

A^C_k is the initial communication modality employed by the contactor;

C refers to an identity or group membership of the contactor;

context^R is the known or assumed context of the contactee;

context^C is the known or assumed context of the contactor; and

u() represents a utility function to operate on the arguments that provides an encoding of preferences about communications for the recipient or another entity whose preferences are being used to guide the handling of the communications in order to determine optimal communication actions that maximize the utility of communications between the contactor and the contactee.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a contact component that facilitates communications between the at least one contactor and contactee based upon decisions that employ the communications preference, context and/or policy.

3. The system of claim 1, the N parameters further comprising one or more communications configuration parameters.

4. The system of claim 1, the data store further configured to monitor information for the contactee or the contactor that comprises an inferred and/or a user setting regarding context of the parties, the context comprising an availability, a task, a location, a current or recent software usage, an attentional status, a busy-ness state, a calendar appointment status, a recent communication history between the contactee and the contactor, and/or a status of shared projects or files among the contactee and the contactor.

5. The system of claim 1, the data store comprising one or more gestures regarding communications preferences and capabilities of the parties.

6. The system of claim 5, the gestures being a predetermined and/or an inferred gesture that provide information between the parties when communications are attempted.

7. The system of claim 6, the gestures further comprising busy information, availability information, hardware information, channel reliability information, and/or urgency information.

8. The system of claim 1, the data store further comprising K communications preferences, K being an integer, that relate to at least one of a present and future ability to communicate.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising L selected groupings of potential parties to a communication, L being an integer.

10. The system of claim 9, the selected groupings including a static, a relationship, and/or a dynamic grouping.

11. The system of claim 10, further comprising M policy settings to control how, when and if parties communicate, M being an integer.

12. The system of claim 11, the user interface configured to allow policy settings to be assigned to selected groupings by a drag and drop assignment, an advanced assignment, a user-defined assignment, and/or a conditional assignment.

13. The system of claim 1, further comprising an XML file to facilitate capturing one or more settings of the user interface.

14. The system of claim 1, the data store further comprising at least one user state, the user state including a state of busy-ness and/or a state of availability.

15. The system of claim 14, the at least one user state configured in a disjunctive manner and/or a conjunctive manner.

16. The system of claim 1, the data store further comprising a consideration of the utility of communications for different times in the future, based on current contexts of the contactee and contactor or forecasts of the future contexts of the contactee and the contactor.

17. The system of claim 1, the data store further comprising an encoding of preference information in a parameter representing a cost of delaying a communication as a function of time and an identity, group memberships, relationships, and/or contexts of the contactor and contactee.

18. The system of claim 17, the encoding of preference information comprising the cost of delaying a communication, in a decision-theoretic analysis of an expected utility of the best modality and time for scheduling a communication.

19. The system of claim 17, the encoding of preference information comprising a contactee'"'"'s desire to communicate a stored message with contactors associated with particular identities, groups, and/or contexts to receive.

20. The system of claim 17, the data store further configured to store the encoding of preference information relating to the contactee to capture preferences about communicating some portion of the present or future context of the contactee.

21. The system of claim 17, the encoding of preferences comprising sharing some information about the contactee'"'"'s context when an analysis or policy indicates that a communication should be rescheduled for a later time.

22. A system to facilitate communications between parties, comprising:

a user interface that is configurable by a contactor and/or a contactee; and

a data store adapted to receive N parameters from the user interface, N being an integer, the N parameters relating to a communications preference, context and/or policy, the N parameters to guide decisions that facilitate optimal communications between parties,

the data store further comprising a decision-theoretic formula to guide the decisions, the formula including the following equation;

$A^{*}=\arg <br><br><br><br>\underset{j}{\max }<br><br>\underset{i}{\sum <br><br>}<br><br>p<br><br>\left({\mathrm{context}}_i^R|E\right)<br><br>u<br><br>\left(A_j,A_k^C,C,{\mathrm{context}}_i^R,<br><br>{\mathrm{context}}^C\right)$

where

A* is the ideal, selected communication modality for the communication;

A_j represents each of all communication modalities being considered;

A^C_k is the initial communication modality employed by the contactor;

C refers to an identity or group membership of the contactor;

context^Ri represents each of the contexts being considered for the contactee, representing the situation of the contactee;

p(context^Ri|E) represents the probability distribution over the context of the contactee, representing the conditional probabilities that the contactee is in a certain context given the evidence E;

context^C is a known or assumed context of the contactor; and

u( ) represents a utility function to operate on the arguments that provides an encoding of preferences about communications for the recipient or another entity whose preferences are being used to guide the handling of the communications in order to determine optimal communication actions that maximize the utility of communications between the contactor and the contactee.

23. The system of claim 22, further comprising a contact component that facilitates communications between the at least one contactor and contactee based upon decisions that employ the communications preference, context and/or policy.

24. The system of claim 22, the N parameters further comprising one or more communications configuration parameters.

25. The system of claim 22, the data store further configured to monitor information for the contactee or the contactor that comprises an inferred and/or a user setting regarding context of the parties, the context comprising an availability, a task, a location, a current or recent software usage, an attentional status, a busy-ness state, a calendar appointment status, a recent communication history between the contactee and the contactor, and/or a status of shared projects or files among the contactee and the contactor.

26. The system of claim 22, the data store comprising one or more gestures regarding communications preferences and capabilities of the parties.

27. The system of claim 26, the gestures being a predetermined and/or an inferred gesture that provide information between the parties when communications are attempted.

28. The system of claim 27, the gestures further comprising busy information, availability information, hardware information, channel reliability information, and/or urgency information.

29. The system of claim 22, the data store further comprising K communications preferences, K being an integer, that relate to at least one of a present and future ability to communicate.

30. The system of claim 22, further comprising L selected groupings of potential parties to a communication, L being an integer.

31. The system of claim 30, the selected groupings including a static, a relationship, and/or a dynamic grouping.

32. The system of claim 31, further comprising M policy settings to control how, when and if parties communicate, M being an integer.

33. The system of claim 32, the user interface configured to allow policy settings to be assigned to selected groupings by a drag and drop assignment, an advanced assignment, a user-defined assignment, and/or a conditional assignment.

34. The system of claim 22, further comprising an XML file to facilitate capturing one or more settings of the user interface.

35. The system of claim 22, the data store further comprising at least one user state, the user state including a state of busy-ness and/or a state of availability.

36. The system of claim 35, the at least one user state configured in a disjunctive manner and/or a conjunctive manner.

37. The system of claim 22, the data store further comprising a consideration of the utility of communications for different times in the future, based on current contexts of the contactee and contactor or forecasts of the future contexts of the contactee and the contactor.

38. The system of claim 22, the data store further comprising an encoding of preference information in a parameter representing a cost of delaying a communication as a function of time and an identity, group memberships, relationships, and/or contexts of the contactor and contactee.

39. The system of claim 38, the encoding of preference information comprising the cost of delaying a communication, in a decision-theoretic analysis of an expected utility of the best modality and time for scheduling a communication.

40. The system of claim 38, the encoding of preference information comprising a contactee'"'"'s desire to communicate a stored message with contactors associated with particular identities, groups, and/or contexts to receive.

41. The system of claim 38, the data store further configured to store the encoding of preference information relating to the contactee to capture preferences about communicating some portion of the present or future context of the contactee.

42. The system of claim 38, the encoding of preferences comprising sharing some information about the contactee'"'"'s context when an analysis or policy indicates that a communication should be rescheduled for a later time.

43. A system to facilitate communications between parties, comprising:

a user interface that is configurable by a contactor and/or a contactee; and

a data store adapted to receive N parameters from the user interface, N being an integer, the N parameters relating to a communications preference, context and/or policy, the N parameters to guide decisions that facilitate optimal communications between parties,

the data store further comprising a decision-theoretic formula to guide the decisions, the formula including the following equation;

$A^{*}=\arg <br><br><br><br>\underset{j}{\max }<br><br>\underset{i}{\sum <br><br>}<br><br>p<br><br>\left({\mathrm{context}}_i^C|E\right)<br><br>u<br><br>\left(A_j,A_k^C,C,{\mathrm{context}}^R,<br><br>{\mathrm{context}}_i^C\right)$

where

A* is the ideal, selected communication modality for the communication;

A_j represents each of all communication modalities being considered;

A^C_k is the initial communication modality employed by the contactor;

C refers to an identity or group membership of the contactor;

context^Ci represents each of the contexts being considered for the contactor, representing the situation of the contactor;

p(context^Ci|E) represents the probability distribution over the context of the contactor, representing the conditional probabilities that the contactor is in a certain context given the evidence E;

context^R is a known or assumed context of the contactee; and

u( ) represents a utility function to operate on the arguments that provides an encoding of preferences about communications for the recipient or another entity whose preferences are being used to guide the handling of the communications, in order to determine optimal communication actions that maximize the utility of communications between the contactor and the contactee.

44. The system of claim 43, further comprising a contact component that facilitates communications between the at least one contactor and contactee based upon decisions that employ the communications preference, context and/or policy.

45. The system of claim 43, the N parameters further comprising one or more communications configuration parameters.

46. The system of claim 43, the data store further configured to monitor information for the contactee or the contactor that comprises an inferred and/or a user setting regarding context of the parties, the context comprising an availability, a task, a location, a current or recent software usage, an attentional status, a busy-ness state, a calendar appointment status, a recent communication history between the contactee and the contactor, and/or a status of shared projects or files among the contactee and the contactor.

47. The system of claim 43, the data store comprising one or more gestures regarding communications preferences and capabilities of the parties.

48. The system of claim 47, the gestures being a predetermined and/or an inferred gesture that provide information between the parties when communications are attempted.

49. The system of claim 48, the gestures further comprising busy information, availability information, hardware information, channel reliability information, and/or urgency information.

50. The system of claim 43, the data store further comprising K communications preferences, K being an integer, that relate to at least one of a present and future ability to communicate.

51. The system of claim 43, further comprising L selected groupings of potential parties to a communication, L being an integer.

52. The system of claim 51, the selected groupings including a static, a relationship, and/or a dynamic grouping.

53. The system of claim 52, further comprising M policy settings to control how, when and if parties communicate, M being an integer.

54. The system of claim 43, the user interface configured to allow policy settings to be assigned to selected groupings by a drag and drop assignment, an advanced assignment, a user-defined assignment, and/or a conditional assignment.

55. The system of claim 43, further comprising an XML file to facilitate capturing one or more settings of the user interface.

56. The system of claim 43, the data store further comprising at least one user state, the user state including a state of busy-ness and/or a state of availability.

57. The system of claim 56, the at least one user state configured in a disjunctive manner and/or a conjunctive manner.

58. The system of claim 43, the data store further comprising a consideration of the utility of communications for different times in the future, based on current contexts of the contactee and contactor or forecasts of the future contexts of the contactee and the contactor.

59. The system of claim 43, the data store further comprising an encoding of preference information in a parameter representing a cost of delaying a communication as a function of time and an identity, group memberships, relationships, and/or contexts of the contactor and contactee.

60. The system of claim 59, the encoding of preference information comprising the cost of delaying a communication, in a decision-theoretic analysis of an expected utility of the best modality and time for scheduling a communication.

61. The system of claim 59, the encoding of preference information comprising a contactee'"'"'s desire to communicate a stored message with contactors associated with particular identities, groups, and/or contexts to receive.

62. The system of claim 59, the data store further configured to store the encoding of preference information relating to the contactee to capture preferences about communicating some portion of the present or future context of the contactee.

63. The system of claim 59, the encoding of preferences comprising sharing some information about the contactee'"'"'s context when an analysis or policy indicates that a communication should be rescheduled for a later time.

64. A system to facilitate communications between parties, comprising:

a user interface that is configurable by a contactor and/or a contactee; and

a data store adapted to receive N parameters from the user interface, N being an integer, the N parameters relating to a communications preference, context and/or policy, the N parameters to guide decisions that facilitate optimal communications between parties,

the data store further comprising a decision-theoretic formula to guide the decisions, the formula including the following equation;

$\begin{array}{cc}{A}^{*}=\arg <br><br><br><br>\underset{j}{\max }<br><br>\underset{i}{\sum <br><br>}<br><br>p<br><br>\left({\mathrm{context}}_i^R|<br><br>E\right)<br><br><br><br>\underset{n}{\sum <br><br>}<br><br>p(<br><br>{\mathrm{context}}_n^C|E)<br><br><br><br>u(<br><br>A_j,A_k^C,C,{\mathrm{context}}_i^R,{\mathrm{context}}_n^C)& \end{array}$

where

A* is the ideal, selected communication modality for the communication;

A_j represents each of all communication modalities being considered;

A^C_k is the initial communication modality employed by the contactor;

C refers to an identity or group membership of the contactor;

context^Ri represents each of the contexts being considered for the contactee, representing the situation of the contactee;

p(context^Ri|E) represents the probability distribution over the context of the contactee, representing the conditional probabilities that the contactee is in a certain context given the evidence E;

context^Cn represents each of the contexts being considered for the contactor, representing the situation of the contactor;

p(context^Cn|E) represents the probability distribution over the context of the contactor, representing the conditional probabilities that the contactor is in a certain context given the evidence E; and

u( ) represents a utility function to operate on the arguments that provides an encoding of preferences about communications for the recipient or another entity whose preferences are being used to guide the handling of the communications, in order to determine optimal communication actions that maximize the utility of communications between the contactor and the contactee.

65. The system of claim 64, further comprising a contact component that facilitates communications between the at least one contactor and contactee based upon decisions that employ the communications preference, context and/or policy.

66. The system of claim 64, the N parameters further comprising one or more communications configuration parameters.

67. The system of claim 64, the data store further configured to monitor information for the contactee or the contactor that comprises an inferred and/or a user setting regarding context of the parties, the context comprising an availability, a task, a location, a current or recent software usage, an attentional status, a busy-ness state, a calendar appointment status, a recent communication history between the contactee and the contactor, and/or a status of shared projects or files among the contactee and the contactor.

68. The system of claim 64, the data store comprising one or more gestures regarding communications preferences and capabilities of the parties.

69. The system of claim 68, the gestures being a predetermined and/or an inferred gesture that provide information between the parties when communications are attempted.

70. The system of claim 69, the gestures further comprising busy information, availability information, hardware information, channel reliability information, and/or urgency information.

71. The system of claim 64, the data store further comprising K communications preferences, K being an integer, that relate to at least one of a present and future ability to communicate.

72. The system of claim 64, further comprising L selected groupings of potential parties to a communication, L being an integer.

73. The system of claim 72, the selected groupings including a static, a relationship, and/or a dynamic grouping.

74. The system of claim 73, further comprising M policy settings to control how, when and if parties communicate, M being an integer.

75. The system of claim 74, the user interface configured to allow policy settings to be assigned to selected groupings by a drag and drop assignment, an advanced assignment, a user-defined assignment, and/or a conditional assignment.

76. The system of claim 64, further comprising an XML file to facilitate capturing one or more settings of the user interface.

77. The system of claim 64, the data store further comprising at least one user state, the user state including a state of busy-ness and/or a state of availability.

78. The system of claim 77, the at least one user state configured in a disjunctive manner and/or a conjunctive manner.

79. The system of claim 64, the data store further comprising a consideration of the utility of communications for different times in the future, based on current contexts of the contactee and contactor or forecasts of the future contexts of the contactee and the contactor.

80. The system of claim 64, the data store further comprising an encoding of preference information in a parameter representing a cost of delaying a communication as a function of time and an identity, group memberships, relationships, and/or contexts of the contactor and contactee.

81. The system of claim 80, the encoding of preference information comprising the cost of delaying a communication, in a decision-theoretic analysis of an expected utility of the best modality and time for scheduling a communication.

82. The system of claim 80, the encoding of preference information comprising a contactee'"'"'s desire to communicate a stored message with contactors associated with particular identities, groups, and/or contexts to receive.

83. The system of claim 80, the data store further configured to store the encoding of preference information relating to the contactee to capture preferences about communicating some portion of the present or future context of the contactee.

84. The system of claim 80, the encoding of preferences comprising sharing some information about the contactee'"'"'s context when an analysis or policy indicates that a communication should be rescheduled for a later time.