US6980993B2
Expired / Lapsed
US
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
Schemas for a notification platform and related information services
Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC
•
Filing: 2002-03-14
•
Granted: 2005-12-27
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Expires: 2022-03-14
Abstract
Abstract Described is a schema-based notification platform that provides regularized notification handling including user control and normalization of the operation of policies across different information types and contexts. Information-service schemas and services are combined to build a content-sensitive and context-sensitive information service to communicate information to recipient devices of users that subscribe to those services. An information agent service collects the information, and based on various criteria, determines if, when, and how to send and render the information, and to which subscribing client device or devices. The set of schemas include a notification schema that represents the subscription of a service to an information source and details about that information, and a device schema that represents information about user devices. The information agent service accesses criteria including user preferences and user contextual information, including presence information, location information, and schedule information along with people and groups data and extended-context data. Preferences about subscriptions and information handling policies may be stored and used at notification sources or in more central preference encodings. Access to multiple preferences is maintained, and a user interface is provided that allows users to inspect and control multiple subscriptions in one conceptual place.
Inventors
- 👤 Eric J. Horvitz
- 👤 Paul A. Steckler
- 👤 Shaun D. Pierce
- 👤 Lijiang Fang
- 👤 Mark H. Lucovsky
- 👤 Winnie C. Wu
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
US
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-10-24 20:51
CPC Classifications
G; G06; G06Q; G06Q10/00; G06Q10/10; G06Q10/109; G06F; G06F21/00; G06F21/30; G06F21/31; G06F21/33; G06F21/335; G06F21/60; G06F21/62; G06F21/6218; G06F21/6227; G06F21/6236; G06F21/6245; G06F21/6272; G06F21/629; H; H04; H04L; H04L63/00; H04L63/10; H04L63/102; H04L67/00; H04L67/01; H04L67/02; H04L67/2866; H04L67/30; H04L67/303; H04L67/306; H04L67/50; H04L67/51; H04L67/56; H04L67/564; H04L67/60; H04L67/62; H04L9/00; H04L9/40; G06F2221/00; G06F2221/21; G06F2221/2115; G06F2221/2117; G06F2221/2119; G06F2221/2141; G06F2221/2149; H04L67/133; H04L69/00; H04L69/30; H04L69/32; H04L69/322; H04L69/329; Y; Y10; Y10S; Y10S707/00; Y10S707/99931; Y10S707/99939; Y10S707/99941; Y10S707/99942; Y10S707/99943
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 29
Claim 1
Independent Claim
145 words
In a computer network, a method comprising, receiving a notification directed to a client from an information source, the notification regularized according to a notification schema; determining whether the user should receive the notification based on user preference and context data, and if so, determining a selected device to receive the notification and sending the notification to the selected device, wherein the preference data comprises source preference data regularized according to a source preference schema for access by the source, and main preference data regularized according to a main preference schema for access by an information agent where the notification is recieved, and determining at the information source that the user should receive the notification based on source preference data, and modifying data of the notification at the information agent based on the main preference data before sending the notification output to the selected device.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
145 words
In a computer network, a method comprising, receiving a notification directed to a client from an information source, the notification regularized according to a notification schema; determining whether the user should receive the notification based on user preference and context data, and if so, determining a selected device to receive the notification and sending the notification to the selected device, wherein the preference data comprises source preference data regularized according to a source preference schema for access by the source, and main preference data regularized according to a main preference schema for access by an information agent where the notification is recieved, and determining at the information source that the user should receive the notification based on source preference data, and modifying data of the notification at the information agent based on the main preference data before sending the notification output to the selected device.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
41 words
The method of claim 1 , further comprising, obtaining information about the selected device from a device service, and modifying data of the notification based on the information about the selected device before sending the notification output to the selected device.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
26 words
The method of claim 2 wherein the device service provides the information about the selected device in a data structure regularized according to a device schema.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
24 words
The method of claim 1 , further comprising, accessing the context data from a service, the context data regularized according to a context schema.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
33 words
The method of claim 1 , further comprising, at the context service, accessing the context data from at least one other service, including a presence service, a location service or a schedule service.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
40 words
The method of claim 5 wherein the presence service provides data regularized according to a presence schema, the location service provides data regularized according to a location schema, and the schedule service provides data regularized according to a schedule schema.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
37 words
The method of claim 1 , further comprising, accessing the context data from at least one service, the context data regularized according to at least one of a presence schema, a location schema or a schedule schema.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
16 words
The method of claim 1 wherein the preference data is regularized according to a preference schema.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
19 words
The method of claim 1 , further comprising, receiving the context data regularized according to an extended context schema.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
20 words
The method of claim 1 , further comprising, receiving the context data regularized according to a people and groups schema.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
20 words
The method of claim 1 , further comprising, receiving the context data regularized according to a client computing context schema.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
30 words
The method of claim 1 wherein it is determined that the user should not receive the notification based on user preference and context data, and further comprising, discarding the notification.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
30 words
The method of claim 1 wherein it is determined that the user should not receive the notification based on user preference and context data, and further comprising, storing the notification.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
55 words
The method of claim 13 , further comprising, performing a later determination on whether the user should receive the notification based on user preference and context data, and if the later determination indicates the user should receive the notification, determining a selected device to receive the notification and sending the notification to the selected device.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
34 words
The method of claim 1 wherein the preference data comprises the source preference data accessible to the source and regularized according to the source preference schema, and further comprising, editing the source preference data.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
17 words
The method of claim 1 wherein the notification comprises an independent message emitted by the information source.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
21 words
The method of claim 1 wherein the notification comprises a message emitted by the information source that accompanies other communicated data.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
24 words
The method of claim 1 wherein the notification comprises a subset of the total notification data that the notification schema is capable of representing.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
12 words
The method of claim 1 wherein the notification comprises rendering preference data.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
32 words
The method of claim 1 wherein the notification includes rendering and fidelity information, and wherein determining a selected device comprises, evaluating the rendering and fidelity information ability with respect to available devices.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim
34 words
The method of claim 20 wherein a device that is not currently available is selected as the selected device, and further comprising, waiting for the selected device to be available before sending the notification.
Claim 23
Dependent Claim
37 words
The method of claim 20 wherein a device that is currently available is selected as the selected device, and further comprising, modifying content in the notification into an approximate version of the content before sending the notification.
Claim 24
Dependent Claim
46 words
The method of claim 1 wherein the notification comprises multiple types or components of content for rendering, and further comprising, determining capabilities of the selected device, and modifying the notification content based on capabilities of the selected device before sending the notification to the selected device.
Claim 25
Dependent Claim
24 words
The method of claim 23 wherein the order of data that comprises the content establishes a preference for sending the content to a device.
Claim 26
Dependent Claim
25 words
The method of claim 23 wherein the notification includes fidelity information that corresponds to the multiple types or components of content type in the notification.
Claim 27
Dependent Claim
40 words
The method of claim 1 wherein the notification comprises multiple types or components of content for rendering, and further comprising, receiving the content at the selected device, and determining content to render based on the capabilities of the selected device.
Claim 28
Dependent Claim
35 words
The method of claim 1 wherein the notification includes rendering and fidelity information, and wherein determining a selected device comprises, evaluating the rendering abilities of available devices and available bandwidth data for sending the notification.
Claim 29
Dependent Claim
15 words
A computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions for performing the method of claim 1 .
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USPTO Annuity & Maintenance Windows
| Annuity Stage | Window Opens | Payment Deadline | Surcharge Period Until | Estimated Fee | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.5 Years (Year 4) | 2008-12-26 | 2009-06-27 | 2009-12-27 | $2000.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 7.5 Years (Year 8) | 2012-12-26 | 2013-06-27 | 2013-12-27 | $3760.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 11.5 Years (Year 12) | 2016-12-26 | 2017-06-27 | 2017-12-27 | $7700.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |