INSTANT MESSAGING AND PRESENCE USING VIRTUAL DEVICES

摘要

The virtual instant messaging system (12) adds instant messaging and presence capability to devices and appliances (16) which are not natively designed for instant messaging. The virtual instant messaging system performs the physical communication handling an semantic translation (20) issues to allow legacy devices (16, 18) to operate within the instant messaging paradigm. Virtual devices, representing real devices (16) or information sources (18), may be constructed, on the fly as needed, or on a more permanent or persistent basis. Multiple virtual devices may be combined to compose or synthesize a new virtual device, affording capabilities not found in the real world devices or information sources themselves.