Presence management system

摘要

The present invention provides presence management to a multimodal communication network. A unified messaging system, providing the ability to deliver messages across multiple modes of communication, is integrated with a presence managing system. The presence management system provides an ability to locate a recipient of a message according to a stored schedule. The unified messaging system retrieves contact information from a presence management system. Upon received the message, the recipient can respond along the established line of communication. Multiple modes of communication comprises telephone, wireless telephone, electronic mail, pager, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), video, audio, picture, among others.

主权项

1. A method of providing a unified messaging platform in a communication network, the method comprising:
receiving a message, comprising message text, for a recipient from a sender; retrieving contact information and schedule information from a calendar schedule stored on a personal computer of the recipient, wherein the personal computer provides a web access point for the recipient; determining a single, schedule-dependent contact address, comprising a cellular phone number for a recipient cellular phone, from the contact information and the schedule information; verifying availability of a mode of communication associated with the schedule-dependent contact address; generating a voice message indicative of the message text; initiating a call session and calling the recipient cellular phone based on the cellular phone number; responsive to the recipient answering the call, delivering the voice message via the communication line; maintaining the call session after delivering the voice message to receive a recipient response; responsive to detecting a voice response from the recipient:
converting the voice response to response text; anddelivering the response text to the sender; and responsive to detecting a tone indicative of the recipient pushing a button on the recipient cellular phone:
generating a recipient acknowledgement; anddelivering the recipient acknowledgement to the sender.