Method and system for inferring presence of a principal based on past presence information

• US 8,804,573 B2
• Filed: 06/15/2006
• Issued: 08/12/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/15/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Maes, Stephane H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hamza, Faruk
• Assistant Examiner(s): GUADALUPE CRUZ, AIXA AMYR
• Application Number:
  US11/424,451
• Publication Number:
  US 20070291859A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,980 Days
• Field of Search: 709/224, 370/256
• US Class Current: 370/256
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/20 of structured data, e.g. relational data
• 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

Abstract

Systems, methods, and machine-readable media are disclosed for using past presence information to help determine a current presence of a principal. In one embodiment, determining presence of a principal on one or more devices or communication channels can comprise periodically querying a plurality of devices to determine a presence of the principal on one or more of the plurality of devices. An indication of the presence of the principal on the one or more of the plurality of devices can be received and presence information related to the indication of the presence of the principal on the one or more devices can be stored. A request for a presence of the principal can be received and, in response, the stored presence information can be retrieved. The stored presence information and, in some cases, current presence information can be provided in response to the request for the presence of the principal.

Claims

1. A method of determining presence of a principal on one or more devices or communication channels, the method comprising:

determining a presence attribute of the principal at a presence server based at least in part on past presence information for the principal;

storing the determined presence attribute of the principal by the presence server as a past presence attribute of a plurality of past presence attributes, each of the plurality of past presence attributes indicating a past presence of the principal;

determining with the presence server a relevance of each the stored past presence attributes;

storing the determined relevance as a relevance attribute of each stored past presence attribute;

receiving at the presence server a request for a presence of the principal after determining the presence attribute of the principal, storing the past presence attribute of the principal, and determining the relevance of each the stored past presence attributes;

retrieving by the presence server the stored past presence attributes and the stored relevance attributes for the principal;

determining by the presence server a current presence of the principal in real time in response to the request, wherein the stored past present attributes indicate presence of the principal at a time prior to a time of the current presence;

determining by the presence server an order for the retrieved past presence attributes based on the relevance attribute of each retrieved past presence attribute; and

providing in response to the request for the presence of the principal the current presence of the principal, two or more of the retrieved past presence attributes indicating the past presence of the principal, and the retrieved relevance attributes of each of the stored presence attributes from the presence server, wherein the two or more of the retrieved past presence attributes are presented in the determined order.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the presence attribute of the principal comprises querying a plurality of end devices.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the presence attribute of the principal comprises querying a plurality of servers.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the presence attribute of the principal comprises querying a service that interacts with the principal.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the presence attribute of the principal comprises querying a communication channel.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the past presence attributes include a time at which the presence of the principal was determined.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein storing the determined past presence attribute of the principal comprises storing an identification of the one or more communication channels.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein storing the determined past presence attribute of the principal comprises storing an identification of the one or more devices.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the relevance of the stored past presence attributes is based on a time since each stored past presence attribute was determined.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein determining the relevance of the stored past presence attributes is further based on a device type for each of the one or more of the plurality of devices.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising ordering the stored past presence attributes with the presence server based on relevance.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to a change of the relevance of the past presence attributes, updating one or more subscribers to the past presence attributes.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein determining a relevance of the stored past presence attributes is based on a time since each past presence attribute was determined.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein updating one or more subscribers to the past presence attributes comprises determining new presence attributes and sending the new presence attributes to the one or more subscribers.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the presence of the principal comprises periodically determining the presence of the principal.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising publishing the stored past presence attributes filtered by preferences to one or more authorized watchers.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein determining by the presence server the current presence of the principal in real time comprises determining the current presence of the principal is not indicated and, in response to determining the current presence of the principal is not indicated, providing in response to the request for the presence of the principal only the two or more of the retrieved past presence attributes indicating the past presence of the principal and the retrieved relevance attributes of each of the stored presence attributes from the presence server.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising, after providing the current presence of the principal, two or more of the retrieved past presence attributes indicating the past presence of the principal, and the retrieved relevance attributes of each of the stored presence attributes from the presence server, receiving a request to refresh the presence of the principal from a requestor making the received request for the presence of the principal.

19. A method of determining presence of a principal on one or more devices or communication channels, the method comprising:

determining with a presence server a relevance of each of a plurality of past presence attributes related to a principal stored at the presence server and indicating a past presence of the principal on one or more of a plurality of devices;

storing the determined relevance as a relevance attribute of each stored past presence attribute;

receiving at the presence server a request for a presence of the principal after determining the relevance of each past presence attribute and storing the determined relevance;

retrieving with the presence server the plurality of past presence attributes and relevance attributes stored by the presence server and related to the principal;

determining by the presence server a current presence of the principal in real time in response to the request, wherein the plurality of past present attributes indicate presence of the principal at a time prior to a time of the current presence;

determining with the presence server an order for the retrieved plurality of past presence attributes based on the relevance attributes of each stored presence attribute; and

providing in response to the request for the presence of the principal the current presence of the principal, two or more of the retrieved past presence attributes related to the principal and indicating the past presence of the principal, and the relevance attributes of each of the plurality of past presence attributes, wherein the two or more of the retrieved past presence attributes are provided from the presence server in the determined order.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein determining the relevance of the stored past presence attributes is based on a time since each stored past presence attributes was determined.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein determining the relevance of the stored past presence attributes is further based on a device type for each of the one or more devices.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein receiving the request for the presence of the principal comprises periodically receiving the request for the presence of the principal.

23. A system for determining presence of a principal on one or more devices or communication channels, the system comprising:

a repository; and

a presence enabler of a presence server communicatively coupled with the repository and adapted to determine a presence of the principal, receive an indication of the presence of the principal, and store a plurality of past presence attributes related to the indication of the presence of the principal in the repository and indicating a past presence for the principal and wherein the presence enabler is further adapted to periodically determine a relevance of each of the stored past presence attributes, store the determined relevance as a relevance attribute of each past presence attribute, and in response to a change of the relevance of the past presence attributes, determine an order for the past presence attributes based on the relevance attribute of each past presence attribute determine a current presence of the principal in real time in response to the request, wherein the plurality of past present attributes indicate presence of the principal at a time prior to a time of the current presence, and provide the current presence of the principal, two or more stored past presence attributes indicating the past presence of the principal, and stored relevance attributes of each past presence attribute to one or more subscribers to the presence attributes, wherein the two or more of the retrieved past presence attributes are provided in the determined order.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the presence enabler determines a relevance of the stored past presence attributes based on a time since each past presence attribute was determined.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the presence enabler updates one or more subscribers to the past presence attributes by determining new presence attributes, determining a relevance for each of the presence attributes including the new presence attributes, and sending the new presence attributes, the past presence attributes, relevance of each of the new presence attributes, and relevance of each of the past presence attribute to the one or more subscribers.

26. The system of claim 23, wherein the presence enabler determines the presence of the principal by querying a plurality of end devices.

27. The system of claim 23, wherein the presence enabler determines the presence of the principal by querying a plurality of servers.

28. The system of claim 23, wherein the presence enabler determines the presence of the principal by querying a service that interacts with the principal.

29. The system of claim 23, wherein the presence enabler determines the presence of the principal by querying a communication channel.

30. The system of claim 23, wherein the past presence attributes include a time at which the presence of the principal was determined.

31. The system of claim 23, wherein the presence enabler stores past presence attributes related to the indication of the presence of the principal including storing an identification of the one or more communication channels.

32. The system of claim 23, wherein the presence enabler stores past presence attributes related to the indication of the presence of the principal including storing an identification of the one or more devices.

33. The system of claim 23, wherein the presence enabler is further adapted to receive a request for a presence of the principal and retrieve the stored past presence attributes.

34. The system of claim 33, wherein the presence enabler is further adapted to provide the stored past presence attributes in response to the request for the presence of the principal.

35. The system of claim 23, wherein the presence enabler is further adapted to determine a relevance of the stored past presence attributes and providing the relevance with the stored past presence attributes in response to the request for the presence of the principal.

36. The system of claim 35, wherein the presence enabler determines the relevance of the stored past presence attributes based on a time since each presence attribute was determined.

37. The system of claim 36, wherein the presence enabler determines the relevance of the stored past presence attributes further based on a device type for each of the one or more of the plurality of devices.

38. The system of claim 23, wherein the presence enabler is further adapted to periodically determine the presence of the principal.