Patent Application
20080031225
A method and system for aggregating capabilities from multiple endpoints associated with a user are provided. In one embodiment, a presence system determines the capabilities of each active endpoint of a user. For example, the user may have a cell phone endpoint, a laptop endpoint, and a desktop endpoint. Each endpoint may have different capabilities such as instant messaging, voice, and video calling through which the user can be reached. For example, each endpoint may publish an XML document defining the capabilities of the endpoint. The system aggregates the capabilities of the endpoints associated with a user into an aggregate view of available modes of communication for reaching the user. For example, the presence system may produce an XML document that is an aggregate view of each combination of endpoint and capability through which the user can be reached. Then the presence system publishes the aggregate view so that other users who want to send communications to the user will know the modes of communication available for that user. For example, the presence system may publish the XML aggregate view to a real-time communication server. In this way, a sending user can attempt to communicate with the user using a currently available mode of communication and thus increase the likelihood of reaching the user.
In some embodiments, the presence system selects a preferred endpoint for each mode of communication. The preferred endpoint may be the most active or the most desirable for that service. For example, if the user is available on a laptop and a desktop computer, but has more recently used the laptop, then the laptop may be flagged as the preferred endpoint. Similarly, if two devices can receive instant messages, but one has a better keyboard or other input device, then the better device may be selected as the preferred endpoint. Capabilities for capturing and rendering may also be used to eliminate devices from being selected as preferred that can capture in a format but not render in that format or vice versa. For example, a phone with a display but no keyboard may be able to render instant messaging text on the display, but not send reply text. Therefore, it may be undesirable to mark the phone as preferred for instant messaging. In some embodiments, the endpoint that is marked as the preferred endpoint auto-accepts invitations. For example, if a sending user attempts to communicate with a user that has text capability at both a phone and a desktop computer, but the desktop computer is identified as the preferred device, then the desktop computer will know to accept an invitation for text communications that is received, while the phone will know to reject the invitation.
In some embodiments, the presence system receives preferences from a user that are used to select the preferred endpoint. For example, a user may specify that when the user is away from the office, voice calls by cell phone are the preferred way to reach the user. The presence system may also indicate preferred modes based on events related to the user. For example, if the user is in a meeting, he may prefer to be reached by instant messaging, or if the user is away from his desk, he may prefer to be reached by voice over the phone. The presence system may receive this information from the user, or the presence system may receive information from a separate service, such as a corporate email server, that informs the presence system, for example, when the user is in a meeting. The user may also specify preferences based on the instant messaging state of an endpoint. For example, if the state is “busy,” then the user may prefer that email be used to reach him rather than instant messaging.
In some embodiments, each endpoint exposes multiple addresses for sending communications to the endpoint. Each address may have its own list of available capabilities that are published by the presence system for the endpoint. For example, the presence system may publish an XML document specifying each of several Universal Resource Identifiers (URIs) to which communications can be addressed. For each URI, a list of capabilities may follow that URI in the XML document. For example, a URI “sip:ankurc@microsoft.com” may have available capabilities such as text, voice, and video. When aggregating capabilities, the presence system may extract each address for all of the endpoints and produce an aggregate view grouped by address. For example, from multiple XML documents containing capabilities for each of several URIs for various endpoints, the presence system may produce a single service document that specifies the modes of communication available for reaching a user at each URI.
In some embodiments, the presence system receives an express indication from a device that a capability is not available, called a negative capability. For example, a device with no keyboard may indicate that instant messaging is not available. Using negative capabilities may allow the presence system to offer a sending user more ways of reaching a recipient than if the system disabled modes of communication that could not be verified. For example, the presence system might allow the sending user to initiate a voice call to a recipient's cell phone when the presence system does not know if the cell phone is turned on or off. The presence system may optimistically assume that capabilities are available that are not expressly marked as unavailable. While aggregating device capabilities into available modes of communication, the presence system eliminates inconsistent states created by negative capabilities. For example, if one endpoint associated with a user indicates that it does not have instant messaging capability, but another endpoint indicates that it does have instant messaging capability, then the presence system will list instant messaging as an available mode of communication. The presence system may mark the endpoint that indicated that instant messaging capability was available as the preferred endpoint.
In some embodiments, a device sends its capabilities along with a message that initiates a conversation. For example, a device may send its capabilities as an extra header on a SIP INVITE message. For example, a device, such as a cell phone, may indicate that it has slow text capabilities. A device may also send similar information in response to a message that initiates a conversation. For example, if a sending user requests a text conversation with a recipient on a cell phone, the recipient's device may indicate that the text capability is limited in response. The sending user may then be able to select a better mode of communication for interacting with the recipient, or the user interface may indicate to the sending user that the communication will be slow, thereby reducing the frustration of the sending user by properly setting expectations.
In some embodiments, the presence system provides a user interface that indicates the available modes of communication for a particular endpoint. For example, the user interface may display each of a user's devices and each of the modes of communication available on each device. The user interface may also indicate, such as by displaying an asterisk, the modes that are preferred, or which modes are not preferred, such as by graying out or not displaying those modes. The system may also use negative capabilities to disable certain modes in the user interface.
In some embodiments, the user interface provides a shortcut for reaching a user by the user's preferred mode of communication. For example, the user interface may display a “contact user” button that factors in the preferences published for the user's devices and initiates communication with the user using the preferred mode of communication with the user. This provides the sending user with a quick method of reaching the recipient by their preferred mode of communication.
The computing device on which the system is implemented may include a central processing unit, memory, input devices (e.g., keyboard and pointing devices), output devices (e.g., display devices), and storage devices (e.g., disk drives). The memory and storage devices are computer-readable media that may contain instructions that implement the system. In addition, the data structures and message structures may be stored or transmitted via a data transmission medium, such as a signal on a communication link. Various communication links may be used, such as the Internet, a local area network, a wide area network, a point-to-point dial-up connection, a cell phone network, and so on.
Embodiments of the system may be implemented in various operating environments that include personal computers, server computers, hand-held or laptop devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based systems, programmable consumer electronics, digital cameras, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers, distributed computing environments that include any of the above systems or devices, and so on. The computer systems may be cell phones, personal digital assistants, smart phones, personal computers, programmable consumer electronics, digital cameras, and so on.
The system may be described in the general context of computer-executable instructions, such as program modules, executed by one or more computers or other devices. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, and so on that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Typically, the functionality of the program modules may be combined or distributed as desired in various embodiments.
From the foregoing, it will be appreciated that specific embodiments of the presence system have been described herein for purposes of illustration, but that various modifications may be made without deviating from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the invention is not limited except as by the appended claims.
