Linking unable to respond messages to entries in electronic calendar

• US 7,778,858 B1
• Filed: 07/17/2006
• Issued: 08/17/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/17/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Gentle, Christopher R., Kawahara, Lisa Y., Maity, Ashis Kumar, Daily, Daniel J., Thomas, Michael J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Boswell; Beth V.
• Assistant Examiner(s): MILLER, ALAN S
• Application Number:
  US11/488,487
• Time in Patent Office: 1,492 Days
• Field of Search: 705/7, 705/8, 705/9, 715/751, 715/752, 715/809, 709/205, 709/206, 709/207, 709/224
• US Class Current: 705/7.15
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063114 Status monitoring or status determination for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/02 using automatic reactions or user delegation, e.g. automatic replies or chatbot-generated messages

Abstract

The present invention is directed to the storage of a customized greeting in an on-line calendar entry of a subscriber and providing the customized greeting to a contactor contacting the subscriber when the calendar entry is current.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

(a) receiving, from a first contactor and at an input, a first contact for a first subscriber, the first contact having a first timestamp and a first communication modality, wherein the first contactor is of a first type, and wherein the first type is at least one of an internal contactor or an external contactor;

(b) determining, by a server, from an electronic calendar, that the first subscriber has a first electronic calendar entry indicating that the first subscriber is unavailable at the time of the first timestamp, wherein two or more customized greetings created by the first subscriber are associated with the first electronic calendar entry and stored in a storage location with the first calendar entry;

(c) determining, by the server, the first communication modality used by the first contact;

(d) based on the first communication modality and the first type of the first contact, retrieving, by the server, from the storage location of the first electronic calendar entry a first customized greeting;

(e) providing, by the server, the first customized greeting to the contactor;

(f) receiving, from a second contactor and at the input, a second contact for a first subscriber, the second contact having a second timestamp and a second communication modality, wherein the second contactor is of a second type, and wherein the second type is at least one of an internal contactor or an external contactor;

(g) determining, by the server, from the electronic calendar, that the first subscriber has the first electronic calendar entry indicating that the first subscriber is unavailable at the time of the second timestamp;

(h) determining, by the server, the second communication modality used by the second contact;

(i) based on the second communication modality and the second type of the second contact, retrieving, by the server, from the storage location of the first electronic calendar entry the second customized greeting;

(j) providing, by the server, the second customized greeting to the second contactor; and

wherein the first customized greeting and the second customized greeting are different and wherein the first type and second type are based on contact information for the first contactor and a second contactor.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein, for a selected calendar entry, a text message receives the first customized greeting and a live voice contact the second customized greeting.

3. The method of claim 1, further compromising:

receiving a third contact from a third contactor having the first modality;

the server determining that the third contactor is a third type, wherein the third type is at least one of a family member, a friend, or a business acquaintance;

sending a third customized greeting based on the first modality and the first type;

receiving a fourth contact from a fourth contactor having the second modality;

the server determining that the fourth contactor is a fourth type, wherein the fourth type is based at least on one of a private cell phone number or a business phone number; and

the server sending a fourth customized greeting based on the second modality and the second type.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first customized greeting and the second customized greeting are stored at a storage location linked to the first electronic calendar entry.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first contact is a live voice communication and wherein the first customized greeting is stored as a text string and wherein a Text-To-Speech (“

TTS”

) conversion engine converts the text string to a voice equivalent, the voice equivalent being provided to the contactor.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein a plurality of electronic calendar entries correspond to different types of events and wherein second and third calendar entries correspond to a common type of event and different customized greetings and wherein the first customized greeting and the second customized greeting were stored at the time of creation of the first calendar entry.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the different types of events are at least one of an out-of-office meeting, an in-the-office meeting, a telephone conference, a vacation, and an outside-of-business hours entry.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first customized greeting is not to be used for the second contactor.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein step (a) comprises the substeps:

(A1) determining that the contact is a text message, the text message being one of an instant message and electronic mail message;

(A2) waiting a predetermined period of time to determine if the first subscriber responds to the text message; and

(A3) applying the following rules;

when the first subscriber responds during the predetermined period of time, not performing step (e); and

when the first subscriber fails to respond during the predetermined period of time, performing step (e).

10. A computer readable medium, stored on a tangible medium and encoded with machine instructions that, when executed by a server, perform a method, the computer readable medium being in communication with and accessible by a server, the instructions comprising:

instructions to receive, from a first contactor and at an input, a first contact for a first subscriber, the first contact having a first timestamp and a first communication modality, wherein the first contactor is of a first type, and wherein the first type is at least one of an internal contactor or an external contactor;

instructions to determine, from an electronic calendar, that the first subscriber has a first electronic calendar entry indicating that the first subscriber is unavailable at the time of the first timestamp, wherein different first customized greeting and second customized greeting created by the first subscriber are associated with the first electronic calendar entry and stored in a storage location with the first calendar entry;

instructions to determine a first communication modality used by the first contact;

based on the first communication modality of the first contact, instructions to retrieve from the storage location of the first electronic calendar entry the first customized greeting;

instructions to provide the first customized greeting to the contactor;

instructions to receive, from a second contactor and at the input, a second contact for a first subscriber, the second contact having a second timestamp and a second communication modality, wherein the second contactor is of a second type, and wherein the second type is at least one of an internal contactor or an external contactor;

instructions to determine, from the electronic calendar, that the first subscriber has the first electronic calendar entry indicating that the first subscriber is unavailable at the time of the second timestamp;

instructions to determine a second communication modality used by the second contact;

based on the second communication modality of the second contact, instructions to retrieve from the storage location of the first electronic calendar entry the second customized greeting; and

instructions to provide the second customized greeting to the contactor.

11. A system, comprising:

a server, the server comprising;

a memory;

a processor in communication with the memory, the processor operable to receive, from a contactor, a contact for a first subscriber, the contact having a first timestamp and the contactor having a first type, and operable to execute;

a calendar module;

a greeting manager in communication with the calendar module;

an unable-to-contact API in communication with the greeting manager, the unable-to-contact API operable to;

in response to the processor receiving the contact, determine, from an electronic calendar, that the first subscriber has a first electronic calendar entry indicating that the first subscriber is unavailable at the time of the first timestamp;

determine a communication modality used by the contact and a type for the contactor, wherein the type is based on one of an identity of the contactor or a type of incoming contact;

a greeting selection agent in communication with the calendar module and the unable-to-contact API, the greeting selection agent operable to;

based on the communication modality of the contact and the type of contactor, retrieve, from a storage location linked to the first electronic calendar entry a customized greeting previously received from the first subscriber, wherein the first electronic calendar entry is associated with two or more customized greetings for two or more communication modalities used by incoming contacts; and

provide the customized greeting to the contactor.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein, for the first calendar entry third customized greeting that is associated with a first type of contactor, wherein the first type is based on an identity of the contactor and the identity is one of a family member, a friend, or a business associate and a fourth customized greeting that is associated with a second type of contactor, wherein the second type is based on the type of incoming contact and the type of incoming contact is one of an internal contact or an external contact.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein, for the first calendar entry, a text message modality receives a first customized greeting and a live voice contact modality receives a second customized greeting.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the two or more customized greetings are stored at the storage location with the first calendar entry.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the contact is a live voice communication and wherein the first customized greeting is stored as a text string and wherein a Text-To-Speech (“

TTS”

) conversion engine converts the text string to a voice equivalent, the voice equivalent being provided to the contactor.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein a plurality of electronic calendar entries correspond to different types of events and wherein second and third calendar entries correspond to a common type of event and are associated with different customized greetings.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the different types of events are at least one of an out-of-office meeting, an in-the-office meeting, a telephone conference, a vacation, and an outside-of-business hours entry.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the customized greeting is not to be used for a second contactor.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein operation (a) comprises the sub-operations:

(A1) determine that the contact is a text message, the text message being one of an instant message and electronic mail message;

(A2) wait a predetermined period of time to determine if the first subscriber responds to the text message; and

(A3) thereafter apply the following rules;

when the first subscriber responds during the predetermined period of time, not perform operation (e); and

when the first subscriber fails to respond during the predetermined period of time, perform operation (e).

20. A method, comprising:

(a) receiving, from a first contactor and at an input, a first contact for a first subscriber, the first contact having a first timestamp and a first communication modality, the first contactor having a first type, wherein the first type is at least one of an internal contactor or an external contactor;

(b) determining, by a server, from an electronic calendar, that the first subscriber has a first electronic calendar entry indicating that the first subscriber is unavailable at the time of the first timestamp;

(c) determining, by the server, that the first contactor is of the first type;

(d) determining, by the server, that the first electronic calendar entry is associated with at least a first customized greetings previously received from the first subscriber;

(e) determining, by the server, that the first contact is a text message, the text message being one of an instant message and electronic mail message;

(E1) determining, by the server, a communication modality used by the contact;

wherein the first electronic calendar entry is associated with differing customized greetings for differing communication modalities used by incoming contacts;

(f) waiting, by the server, a predetermined period of time to determine if the first subscriber responds to the text message; and

(g) applying, by the server, the following rules;

(G1) when the first subscriber responds during the predetermined period of time, not providing, by the server, the first customized greeting to the first contactor; and

(G2) when the first subscriber fails to respond during the predetermined period of time and in response to determining that the first contact is a text message and determining that the first contactor is of the first type, wherein the first type is based on an identity of the first contactor, the-server retrieving, by the server, from a storage location of the first electronic calendar entry the first customized greeting and providing, by the server, the first customized greeting to the first contactor.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the first customized greeting is not to be used for a second contactor.