Rich presence status based on location, activity, availability and transit status of a user

• US 8,583,079 B2
• Filed: 03/22/2011
• Issued: 11/12/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/14/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: mPanion Incorporated
• Original Assignee: mPanion Incorporated
• Inventors: CHAWLA, NEERAJ
• Primary Examiner(s): DOAN, PHUOC HUU
• Application Number:
  US13/069,380
• Publication Number:
  US 20110183645A1
• Time in Patent Office: 966 Days
• Field of Search: 455/456.2, 455/410, 455/573, 719/320, 709/204
• US Class Current: 455/410
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/14 with services dependent on location where the service is an information service H04M2242/15; services independent of location H04M3/42229
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42357 where the information is provided to a monitoring entity such as a potential calling party or a call processing server
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42374 where the information is provided to a monitoring entity such as a potential calling party or a call processing server

Abstract

A method and system for determining and sharing rich presence status of a user is presented. Multiple types of presence status options are associated with user'"'"'s status based on location, activity, availability, transit status, and user'"'"'s text updates, which the user can selectively share on their mobile device with different groups of users, and make one or more aspects of their presence status broadly available to everyone. Also a system to determine status based on auto-updates and manual updates is presented.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

at least one mobile device configured to determine input parameters associated with one or more of location, activity, availability, and transit status of a user; and

at least one application server configured to maintain privacy settings of the user, wherein

the at least one application server is configured to determine a status of the user based on the input parameters,

the rich presence status can be determined based on one or more of location, activity, availability, and transit status of the user, and

the at least one mobile device is configured to display a user interface with options to manage privacy settings for groups of users, to receive user selections of the privacy settings for the groups of users, and to transmit the privacy settings for the groups of users to the at least one application server.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one application server is further configured to maintain the groups and associated privacy settings of the user.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one application server is further configured to maintain privacy levels associated with the groups of the user, contacts of the user, or the groups of the user and the contacts of the user to determine what status is available to a contact.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one mobile device is configured to determine and provide relevant textual status options based on the location or activity of the user.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobile device is further configured to send the user'"'"'s status as text messages to the groups of users.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the application server is further configured to combine a most recent auto status update with recent manual status updates selected by the user.

7. A method, comprising:

determining, by a mobile device, the input parameters associated with one or more of location, activity, availability, and transit status of a user;

sending, by the mobile device, the input parameters to an application server;

determining, by the application server, relevant text status messages corresponding to the one or more of the location, activity, availability, and transit status of the user;

displaying, by the mobile device, a user interface with options to manage privacy settings for groups of contacts or applications;

receiving, by the mobile device, user selections of the privacy settings for the groups of contacts or applications;

transmitting, by the mobile device the privacy settings for the groups of contacts to the application server;

associating, by the application server, privacy settings associated with groups of contacts or applications; and

sending, by the application server, the text messages to the contacts or applications based on the associated privacy settings.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the mobile device, the application server, or both are configured to associate user-specified defaults for status associated with specified geographic locations of the user.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the mobile device, the application server, or both are configured to associate system-specified defaults for point of location categories, or the specific points of locations.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

combining, by the application server, a most recent auto status update with recent manual status updates selected by the user.

11. A method, comprising:

displaying, by a mobile device, a user interface with options to manage privacy settings for groups of users or other applications;

receiving, by the mobile device, user selections of the privacy settings for the groups of users or other applications; and

transmitting, by the mobile device, the privacy settings for the groups of users or other applications to at least one application server, wherein

status information pertaining to the mobile device that is shared with each group of users or applications is based on a respective privacy level for the group, and

the mobile device is configured to display a user interface with options to manage privacy settings for groups of users, to receive user selections of the privacy settings for the groups of users, and to transmit the privacy settings for the groups of users to the at least one application server.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

maintaining, by an application server, the groups of users and associated privacy settings of a user of the mobile device.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

maintaining, by an application server, privacy levels associated with the groups of users, contacts of a user, or the groups of the users and the contacts of the user of the mobile device.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

determining and providing, by the mobile device, relevant textual status options based on one or more of location, activity, availability, or transit status of a user of the mobile device.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the mobile device is further configured to send the user'"'"'s status as text messages to the groups of users.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

associating, by the mobile device, an application server, or both, user-specified defaults for status options associated with favorite locations of the user.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

associating, by the mobile device, the application server, or both, system-specified defaults for point of location categories, specific points of locations, or the point of the location categories and the specific points of the locations.

18. A method, comprising:

determining, by an application server, relevant text messages associated with one or more of location, activity, availability, and transit status of a user;

sending the relevant text messages, by the application server, to a mobile device of a user;

displaying, by the mobile device, the relevant text messages to the user for selection; and

sending the selected text message, by the mobile device, to the application server, wherein

the mobile device is configured to display a user interface with options to manage privacy settings for groups of users, to receive user selections of the privacy settings for the groups of users, and to transmit the privacy settings for the groups of users to the application server.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

displaying, by the mobile device, a user interface with options to manage privacy settings for sharing selected text messages with groups of contacts or applications;

receiving, by the mobile device, user selections of the privacy settings for the groups of contacts or applications;

transmitting, by the mobile device, the privacy settings for the groups of contacts or applications to the application server;

associating, by the application server, privacy settings associated with groups of contacts or applications; and

sending, by the application server, the text messages to the contacts or applications based on the associated privacy settings.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

combining, by the application server, a most recent auto status update with recent manual status updates selected by the user.