Bounded-deferral policies for guiding the timing of alerting, interaction and communications using local sensory information

• US 7,444,383 B2
• Filed: 06/30/2003
• Issued: 10/28/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/17/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Horvitz, Eric J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Etienne; Ario
• Assistant Examiner(s): SALL, EL HADJI MALICK
• Application Number:
  US10/611,491
• Publication Number:
  US 20040030753A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,947 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206, 709/207, 709/223, 709/224, 709/229, 709/245
• US Class Current: 709/207
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/404 characterised by control arrangements for compensation, e.g. for backlash, overshoot, tool offset, tool wear, temperature, machine construction errors, load, inertia G05B19/19, G05B19/41 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/224 providing notification on incoming messages, e.g. pushed notifications of received messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/226 Delivery according to priorities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/56 Unified messaging, e.g. interactions between e-mail, instant messaging or converged IP messaging [CPM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/61 taking into account QoS or priority requirements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/75 Indicating network or usage conditions on the user display
• 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: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system and method to facilitate communications of important messages, communications, or interactions. Policies are introduced that consider a user'"'"'s current situation, including the cost of interrupting the user, or directly sensed surrogates for such a cost, and decide on a suitable time, within a deadline for delivering the information or establishing a communication. Deadlines for delivery are determined based on the urgency of the information that is inferred or detected from the message sender, type, and content. If a suitable context is not detected within a deadline, the information is delivered at the deadline. If it is determined that a suitable context will not achieved within a deadline, the information is transmitted immediately. Suitable contexts for delivery can be determined via the use of one or more sensors on or near endpoint devices, including accelerometers, microphones, touch sensing, and gaze and head pose detection. Other information, including appointment status as indicated on a user'"'"'s calendar, the time of day, and previously assessed patterns of availability can be employed in decisions about the deferral of alerts. Endpoint sensors, calendar information, and patterns of availability also may used to identify the likelihood that information will be received at a device. Such information can be passed back directly or in a summary form as the likelihood of transmission success to a central notification manager or used locally in decisions about the salience and repetition of alerting.

Claims

1. A system that facilitates conveying at least one notification, comprising:

a processor coupled to a memory, the processor executing;

a prioritization component that infers an urgency of an obtained message, the inference is based at least in part on considerations of a message sender, a message type or message content;

a context analyzer that employs a decision model to infer information regarding an attentional state and an availability state of a user, the inference is based at least in part on an expected utility of conveying the obtained message to the user, the expected utility is determined through analysis of a value of conveying the obtained message versus a cost of conveying the obtained messaged, the context analyzer utilizes end point sensing of at least one device to gather context information of the user employed to evaluate value and cost of conveying the obtained message;

a resolution component that determines a time period to deliver the message based upon the urgency of the obtained message, the time period is a bounded deferral period that is bounded between a time the message is obtained and a deadline for making the user aware of the obtained message that contains information of value to the user, the bounded deferral period depends at least in part on the urgency of the information; and

a notification component that conveys the obtained message to the user based at least in part upon the inferred attentional and availability states and the bounded deferral period such that the message is conveyed within the bounded deferral period.

2. The system of claim 1, the endpoint sensing relates to a transmission reliability associated with a probability that a message is conveyed to a user given endpoint sensing of the device and/or estimates given background information.

3. The system of claim 1, the bounded deferral is associated with at least one of sensors, calendar information, an alerting type and a time of day to determine whether a user is too busy to receive an alert currently or in a predetermined time in the future.

4. The system of claim 3, further comprising policies for processing a deadline associated with conveying notifications.

5. The system of claim 4, the policies include at least one of:

if the deadline is reached and an alert has not yet been delivered, the alert is delivered at the deadline;

if a deadline will pass and there is no purpose in waiting, then the alert is passed immediately.

6. The system of claim 3, the sensors determine a user current cost of interruption or state of busyness.

7. The system of claim 3, the sensors determine when a user available to receive information.

8. The system of claim 2, further comprising sensors that determine information relating to the transmission reliability.

9. The system of claim 8, the sensor information is passed to a central notification manager that is deliberating about where to send messages, or an endpoint device computes the transmission reliability from related sensors and passes the transmission reliability to the central notification manager.

10. The system of claim 1, the bounded deferral period is employed to allow a system to take dialog initiative in a conversational application.

11. The system of claim 10, the application at least one of initiates a conversation or continues a conversation that has been interrupted by a user'"'"'s attention being diverted elsewhere for a task or another conversation.

12. The system of claim 1, further comprising a gaze sensor to determine when a user observes a display.

13. The system of claim 12, further comprising a deferral period until a user looks away from an item of importance absorbing the user'"'"'s attention.

14. The system of claim 8, the sensors compute a transmission reliability based on at least one of heat, motion, acoustical information, and wireless information.

15. The system of claim 1, further comprising a component that causes bounded deferral and transmission reliability to interact.

16. The system of claim 15, further comprising a component to determine if a transmission reliability has reached a threshold before a deferral tolerance is reached, a user can be notified via a first type of alert while bypassing a second type of alert.

17. The system of claim 1, the bounded deferral period is applied to putting a caller on hold and enabling a break through over a predetermined time horizon.

18. The system of claim 17, the bonded deferral is applied by an endpoint device or by a standard communications system connected to sensors.

19. The system of claim 1, further comprising bounded deferral policies that are coordinated with other parameters.

20. The system of claim 19, the other parameters are related to a user'"'"'s location and/or context.

21. The system of claim 1, further comprising tasks of predetermined length that are available in contexts where a user is reviewing media.

22. The system of claim 1, further comprising global bounded deferral policies that are viewed as approximation of more detailed decision-theoretic analyses.

23. The system of claim 1, further comprising a component to provide low time criticality messages during a breakthrough period of another message.

24. The system of claim 1, when a bounded deferral policy has been reached, an endpoint device can be instructed to send a message back to a central notification manager or a sender of an alert, informing the central notification manager that the endpoint device is unsuccessful at relaying a message.

25. The system of claim 1, the at least one device employs one or more sensors locally to determine a suitable time within an indicated bounded deferral period to alert a user.

26. The system of claim 1, the prioritization component assigns more urgent messages a shorter bounded deferral period.

27. The system of claim 1, at least one of the device and the notification component process multi-message interactions, such that when a message breaks through to the user, other parties can be allowed to come through to the user.

28. The system of claim 1, at least one of the device and the notification component assigns a value for multiple messages that leads to a shorter bounded deferral period.

29. The system of claim 28, at least one of the device and the notification component determine a sum of the value of independent messages.

30. The system of claim 1, the prioritization component includes one or more parameters on the bounded deferral data that is locally computed or determined based on local analysis of identity of a sender or nature of a message content.

31. The system of claim 30, the parameters are received as part of metadata or control data from a central notification manager, the metadata or control data included in a notification schema associated with a message.

32. The system of claim 30, the parameters are a function of a variable set by another user or a function of a priority value set by a notification manager.

33. The system of claim 1, the at least one device is associated with one or more application models.

34. The system of claim 33, the application models include local calendar information to guide a device to hold alerts until after an event.

35. The system of claim 33, the application models include sound receptors that are employed to sense when someone has stopped speaking or sense a background noise.

36. The system of claim 33, the application models includes one or more motion devices to sense at least one of a user'"'"'s movements, a user'"'"'s has stopped talking, or when a car has stopped.

37. The system of claim 33, the application models process ringing after a bounded deferral period is reached and then again as backup after quiet or other sensor condition.

38. The system of claim 33, the application models pause until a person is in proximity or has touched a device before delivering a notification.

39. The system of claim 33, the application models automated cause deferral of a phone ring, wherein silence is applied for a predetermined number of rings while waiting for speech to stop.

40. The system of claim 39, the application models employ an agent picking up a phone if a user is sensed to be temporarily busy and asking a caller to hold on, then connecting through when the user has stopped speaking or if a bound has been reached.

41. The system of claim 40, the agent performs phone ringing deferral for selected people or people within specially indicated groups.

42. The system of claim 33, the application models employ at least one of a Global Positioning System (GPS), an 802.11 signal strength sensor, an infrared proximity sensors, and a touch sensor.

43. The system of claim 1, at least one of the device and the notification component determines at least one of attention-sensitive costs of disruption, a value of information, a loss based in decreased fidelity, and a transmission reliability associated with the use of an alerting modality of the device.

44. The system of claim 43, the transmission reliability of the device is represented as a probability p, p (transrel|context), that is the likelihood of getting through on the device given context, the context is a function, f(context) or f(sensed states).

45. The system of claim 1, further comprising a subscription service provided at a notification source that enables users to tag notifications according to a predefined priority.

46. The system of claim 45, the predefined priority is assigned based upon a happening of a condition.

47. The system of claim 45, further comprising a subscription user interface to enable users to configure attributes of a notification.

48. The system of claim 47, the attributes are defined in a notification schema.

49. A computer readable medium having computer readable instructions stored thereon for implementing at least on of the device and the notification component of claim 1.

50. A system that facilitates communications, comprising:

a processor coupled to a memory, the processor configured to act as;

means for obtaining a notification message that contains information of value to a user;

means for sensing a contextual situation of the user;

means for processing a value of notifying the user of the message and a cost of notifying the user of the message based upon the sensed contextual situation;

means for determining an expected utility of notifying the user of the message based upon the value and cost;

means for employing the expected utility, the value and the cost in a decision model;

means for inferring an attentional state of the user based the decision model;

means for assigning an urgency to the notification message based upon considerations of message sender, message type or message content;

means for determining a bounded deferral period based at least in part on the assigned urgency, the bounded deferral period relates to a maximum time that conveyance of the notification message can be deferred, the deferral period is bounded between a time when the notification message is obtained and the maximum time; and

means for conveying the notification message to the user in accordance with the bounded deferral period and the inferred attentional state such that the message is conveyed within the bounded deferral period.

51. A computer-implemented method that facilitates conveying notifications, comprising:

using at least one device to infer information regarding an attentional state and/or location of a user, the inference is based at least in part on a temporal decision model;

determining a bounded deferral period that represents a time period from receipt of a message to a deadline for making a user aware of a message containing information of value to the user, the bounded deferral period is dependent on the urgency of the information of value, the urgency is inferred from considerations of at least one of a message sender, a message type or content;

employing a decision model, the decision model includes processing at least one of a value of actions or a cost of actions, the processing determines an expected utility with conveying the notification to the user, the value of actions or cost of actions determined at least in part on considerations of attentional focus and workload of the user, attentional focus represents the task or item occupying the attention of the user, the attentional focus and workload determined based at least in part on at least one of perceptual sensors, device interactions, a calendar, a current day or a current time;

employing the bounded deferral period, the inferred information and the decision model in connection with decision-making regarding conveying a notification to the user of the message, the decision-making determines if a suitable time exists to convey the notification within the bounded deferral period and before the deadline; and

conveying the notification to the user within the bounded deferral period and by at least the deadline specified by the bounded deferral period.