U.S. patent application number 09/303517 was filed with the patent office on 2001-12-27 for unified alerting method and apparatus.
Invention is credited to CLOUTIER, JOCELYN.
Application Number | 20010055963 09/303517 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 23172481 |
Filed Date | 2001-12-27 |
United States Patent
Application |
20010055963 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
CLOUTIER, JOCELYN |
December 27, 2001 |
UNIFIED ALERTING METHOD AND APPARATUS
Abstract
This invention provides for a unified alerting system that
alerts the subscriber via one or more devices. The unified alerting
system receives alert events from services subscribed to by the
subscriber, filters the alert events and alerts the subscriber via
one or more devices identified in a subscriber profile. The alert
event is filtered by if-then-else statements that contain
conditions and actions. Conditions have Boolean values and the
actions set various control variables or may be further
if-then-else statements. In this way, the subscriber may specify
complex conditions that process each alert event to determine
whether the subscriber should be alerted via one of the available
devices. The subscriber profile specifies possible devices through
which the subscriber may be alerted via a schedule corresponding to
each of the devices. The profile also includes a priority level for
each of the devices when multiple devices are available. The
unified alerting device may also perform various conversions such
as voice-to-text and text-to-voice so that messages may be sent in
an alert regardless of the capabilities of the devices used.
Inventors: |
CLOUTIER, JOCELYN; (MENLO
PARK, CA) |
Correspondence
Address: |
OLIFF & BERRIDGE, PLC
P. O. BOX 19928
ALEXANDRIA
VA
22320
US
|
Family ID: |
23172481 |
Appl. No.: |
09/303517 |
Filed: |
May 3, 1999 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
455/417 ;
455/567 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04W 68/12 20130101;
H04W 4/12 20130101; H04W 88/184 20130101; H04W 8/18 20130101; H04W
4/16 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
455/417 ;
455/567 |
International
Class: |
H04M 003/42 |
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A method for alerting a subscriber in a communication network,
comprising: receiving an alert event from the network; filtering
the alert event; and alerting the subscriber with an alert via a
device based on a subscriber profile and a result of the
filtering.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the filtering step makes a
decision whether to alert the subscriber, the decision being made
by evaluating one or more if-then-else statements based on one or
more conditions and one or more actions.
3. The method of claim 2, further comprising: evaluating one or
more conditions to obtain Boolean values, where each of the
conditions evaluate to a Boolean value; and taking one or more
actions based on the Boolean values.
4. The method of claim 3, wherein a condition is a regular
expression of one or more variables combined with operators, each
of the variables having a quantity that may be evaluated.
5. The method of claim 2, wherein an action includes setting a
value of a variable or evaluating additional one or more conditions
and taking additional one or more actions based on results of the
evaluations of the additional one or more conditions.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein the subscriber profile includes a
schedule of availability for one or more devices, the schedule
specifying a date and time for each of the devices that may be used
to alert the subscriber.
7. The method of claim 6, wherein the subscriber profile includes a
priority specification, the priority specification indicating a
priority of each of devices that are available for a common period
of time.
8. The method of claim 7, further comprising: selecting a device
from the subscriber profile that has a highest priority among those
devices that may receive an information type that matches an
information type of a communication corresponding to the alert
event; and alerting the subscriber using the information type of
the communication via the selected device.
9. The method of claim 8, wherein the information type includes
text, voice and video.
10. The method of claim 1, wherein the alert includes at least one
of an audio signal, a text message or a video message.
11. The method of claim 10, further comprising: extracting
information from a communication corresponding to the alert event;
and one of: including extracted information with the alert, or
sending the extracted information as the alert.
12. The method of claim 1, further comprising one of: waiting for a
predetermined amount of time before performing the alerting step;
or not performing the alerting step during a pre-specified period
of time.
13. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving a portion
of a communication corresponding to the alert event in one
information type; and generating the alert for the device in
another information type, where information types include text,
voice and video.
14. A unified alerting device that alerts a subscriber in a
communication network, comprising: a database; a network interface;
and a controller coupled to the database and the network interface,
the controller receiving an alert event from the network via the
network interface, filtering the alert event, and alerting the
subscriber via a device based on a subscriber profile retrieved
from the database and a result of the filtering.
15. The device of claim 14, wherein the controller makes a decision
whether to alert the subscriber, the decision being made by
evaluating one or more if-then-else statements based on one or more
conditions and one or more actions.
16. The device of claim 15, wherein the controller evaluates one or
more conditions to obtain Boolean values, where each of the
conditions evaluate to a Boolean value, and takes one or more
actions based on the Boolean values.
17. The device of claim 16, wherein a condition is a regular
expression of one or more variables combined with operators, each
of the variables having a quantity that may be evaluated.
18. The device of claim 15, wherein an action includes setting a
value of a variable or evaluating additional one or more conditions
and taking additional one or more actions based on results of the
evaluations of the additional one or more conditions.
19. The device of claim 14, wherein the subscriber profile includes
a schedule of availability for one or more devices, the schedule
specifies a date and time for each of the devices that may be used
to alert the subscriber.
20. The device of claim 19, wherein the subscriber profile includes
a priority specification, the priority specification indicating a
priority of each of devices that are available for a common period
of time.
21. The device of claim 20, wherein the controller selects a device
from the subscriber profile that has a highest priority among those
devices that may receive an information type that matches an
information type of a communication corresponding to the alert
event, and alerts the subscriber using the information type of the
communication via the selected device.
22. The device of claim 21, wherein the information type includes
text, voice and video.
23. The device of claim 14, wherein the alert include at least one
of an audio signal, a text message or a video message.
24. The device of claim 14, wherein the controller receives a
portion of a communication corresponding to the alert event in one
information type, and generates the alert for the device in another
information type, where information types include text, voice and
video.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0001] 1. Field of Invention
[0002] This invention relates to a method and apparatus for unified
alerting of subscribers.
[0003] 2. Description of Related Art
[0004] In this age of telecommunication explosion, a person may
subscribe to a large number of different services such as paging
service, cellphone service, e-mail service and many others
delivered over the telephone network or the Internet, for example.
A subscriber to multiple services may receive messages in any one
of the services during a period of time even when that particular
service is not accessible to the subscriber. Thus, the subscriber
may be unaware of messages and miss opportunities to take timely
action. Accordingly, new technology is needed to improve techniques
for alerting subscribers.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0005] This invention provides for a unified alerting system that
alerts the subscriber via one or more subscriber identified
devices. The unified alerting system includes a unified alerting
device that receives alert events from services subscribed to by
the subscriber such as e-mail, paging service, wireless mobile
service (e.g., cellphone), Internet services, etc. The unified
alerting device filters the alert event and, based on the filtering
results, may generate an alert to one or more devices identified in
a subscriber profile.
[0006] The alert event is filtered by a set of logic specified by
the subscriber in terms of if-then-else statements containing
conditions and actions, for example. Conditions have Boolean values
of TRUE and FALSE based on values of variables as specified by the
subscriber. For example, one variable may be the time of day while
other variables may have Boolean values that are defined by the
subscriber. For example, a Boolean variable A is TRUE if a title of
an e-mail includes "project X"; otherwise, the Boolean variable A
has a value of FALSE.
[0007] The actions included in the subscriber logic may set various
control variables such as urgency level or priority or may be
further if-then-else statements. In this way, the subscriber may
specify complex conditions that process each alert event to
determine whether the subscriber should be alerted via one of the
available devices.
[0008] The subscriber profile includes entries corresponding to
each of possible devices through which the subscriber may be
alerted. A schedule may be entered by the subscriber that indicates
times when each of the devices may be used to alert the subscriber.
The profile also may include a priority level corresponding to each
of the devices during time periods when multiple devices are
available. Thus, the subscriber may specify during any time period
which of the available devices is/are preferred for the alerting
function.
[0009] The unified alerting device may also perform various
conversions such as voice-to-text and text-to-voice or information
extracted for their summaries so that messages received via text
may be converted to voice and voice communication may be converted
to text and the subscriber may converse with another party
regardless of the capabilities of the device used.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0010] The invention is described in detail with reference to the
following figures, wherein like numerals reference like elements,
and wherein:
[0011] FIG. 1 shows an exemplary diagram of a unified alerting
system;
[0012] FIG. 2 shows an exemplary process for generating an alert
signal;
[0013] FIG. 3 shows an exemplary block diagram for an alert
filtering device shown in FIG. 2;
[0014] FIG. 4 shows a table of variables;
[0015] FIG. 5 shows a table of conditions;
[0016] FIG. 6 shows a user device profile;
[0017] FIG. 7 shows an exemplary alert command;
[0018] FIG. 8 shows an exemplary block diagram for a unified
alerting device; and
[0019] FIG. 9 shows a flow chart of an exemplary process of the
unified alerting device.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0020] FIG. 1 shows an exemplary block diagram of a unified
alerting system 100. The unified alerting system 100 includes a
network 102 coupled to: an e-mail server 108, service providers
132, cellphones such as cellphone 114 via mobile base stations 110
and towers 112, pagers such as pager 118 via paging towers 116,
terminals 124-130 (e.g., telephone stations, personal computers,
etc.) via local access providers (LAP) 120 and 122, and a unified
alerting device 104.
[0021] The network 102 may include a telephone network (e.g., local
and/or long distance), a data network such as the Internet, or
other wired or wireless networks either private or public. The LAPs
102 and 122 may be local exchange carriers or other network
interfaces such as Internet Service Providers.
[0022] A subscriber to the unified alerting system 100 may have
subscribed to many other services. For example, the subscriber may
have subscribed to a cellphone service, a pager service, an
Internet service that receives e-mails from the e-mail server 108,
and other types of services such as a system calendar with
automated reminders and airline services that provide for flight
change notification.
[0023] When the subscriber is on a trip without access to e-mail,
for example, and e-mail is received for the subscriber, the e-mail
server 108 may send an alert event to the unified alerting device
104 to indicate that an e-mail has been received for the
subscriber. The alert event may be a message that identifies the
sender and may include a summary of a received communication. For
example, for e-mail, the alert event may include a title and a
sender ID of the e-mail. For voice communication such as a
telephone call, the alert event may provide caller ID information
such as available from Automatic Name Identification (ANI).
[0024] When the alert event is received, the unified alerting
device 104 filters the alert event based on conditions prespecified
by the subscriber. If the alert event survives the filtering
process, the unified alerting device 104 retrieves a subscriber
profile from a database 106 and searches for a most likely device
that may be used to alert the subscriber of the incoming e-mail.
For example, if the subscriber profile indicates that the
subscriber may be reached via the pager 118, the unified alerting
device 104 then sends an alert (a page) via the paging towers 116
to alert the subscriber via the pager 118 of the incoming
e-mail.
[0025] Similar to the above, if the subscriber receives a facsimile
transmission at the terminal 124 (e.g., a subscriber's facsimile
machine), either the terminal 124 or the LAP 120 may send an alert
event to the unified alerting device 104 to indicate that the
facsimile transmission has been received. After the filtering
process, the unified alerting device 104 may locate an alternate
facsimile device that is accessible to the subscriber and transfer
the facsimile to the alternate facsimile device. If a facsimile
device is not available, the unified alerting device 104 may send
an alert to the subscriber via the cellphone 114 using synthesized
voice, for example, to indicate that a facsimile has been received.
The subscriber may retrieve the facsimile directly or instruct the
unified alerting device 104 to forward the facsimile to a facsimile
device accessible to the subscriber by contacting the unified
alerting device 104 directly or by modifying the subscriber
profile.
[0026] If the subscriber receives a voice phone call at the
terminal 126 (the subscriber's telephone station) and the
subscriber had specified that communications to the terminal 126
should be re-routed, then the LAP 120 may send an alert event to
inform the unified alerting device 104 of the call. The unified
alerting device 104 filters the alert event and, if required,
determines via the subscriber profile whether the subscriber may
receive the voice phone call via the cellphone 114 (or other voice
terminals or devices), for example. If the subscriber may be
reached via the cellphone 114, the unified alerting device 104
routes the call to the cellphone 114 via the mobile base station
110 and the tower 112. If the subscriber had specified that a
logging device (not shown) be alerted, for example, then the
unified alerting device 104 sends the alert to the logging device
which in turn logs the communication. The LAP 120 may also generate
an alert event when the communication ends (i.e., if the
communication was re-routed and responded to) and this alert event
may be directed to the logging device to log when the communication
ended. The unified alerting device 104 may generate the alert to
the logging device so that a record of the communication and its
duration may be saved, for example. Thus, the unified alerting
device 104 locates and alerts the subscriber or a subscriber device
or service when communication for the subscriber is received by any
one of the services subscribed to by the subscriber.
[0027] While the above description provides for specific examples
of services that generate alert events, other sources of alert
events may also be possible. For example, the subscriber may
subscribe to a calendar service that generates alert events based
on prespecified circumstances. The alert event may be a message
that contains an appointment time and names of parties of the
appointment. The subscriber may have made flight reservations with
an airline that offers flight schedule change alerts. Thus, if a
flight schedule has changed, an alert may be generated that
indicates a new departure time, for example. The subscriber may
also instruct the unified alerting device 104 to alert a party at
the landing location to indicate arrival time changes to inform the
party when to pick up the subscriber, for example. Thus, there may
be many sources for alert events and these events are processed by
the unified alerting device 104 as described below.
[0028] The unified alerting device 104 filters the alert events
received from various services subscribed to by the subscriber to
determine an urgency level of the associated communication. As
shown in FIG. 2, the unified alerting device 104 proceeds along a
process 200 which first performs an alert filtering process 202 for
each of the alert events received and those alert events that are
selected by the filtering process 202 result in an alert command.
An alert device selection process 204 receives the alert command
and generates an alert signal to a device specified in a subscriber
profile.
[0029] The alert filtering process 202 filters each alert event
based on a set of conditions that is specified by the subscriber.
For example, the subscriber may plan to take a business trip to
attend two meetings regarding very important business transactions.
However, due to unavoidable circumstances, critical information
needed to complete the meetings is not available at the time the
subscriber leaves for the meetings. Such information is being
acquired by other members of the business team such as Jocelyn, the
subscriber's boss, and Joe, the subscriber's coworker. Thus, in
order to ensure that the information obtained by Jocelyn and Joe
may be obtained as soon as the information is available, the
subscriber may specify the conditions so that the subscriber is
alerted as soon as messages from Jocelyn and Joe are received. At
the same time, the subscriber may desire to filter out all other
messages so that only alerts corresponding to messages from Jocelyn
or Joe are permitted to alert the subscriber during a specified
period of time.
[0030] FIG. 3 shows an exemplary block diagram of a device that
performs the alert filtering process 202. An alert filtering engine
210 receives alert events from the network 102 and generates alert
commands based on subscriber filtering data 212. The alert
filtering engine 210 may execute a program that essentially
performs logical functions in the form of if-then-else statements
such as if <condition> then <action list 1> else
<action list 2>. An action list is a set of one or more
actions. For the remainder of the discussion, only one action in
the action list 1 (action 1) and one action in the action list 2
(action 2) are used for ease of discussion. The condition may be a
regular expression which has a Boolean value of "TRUE" or "FALSE".
For example, the condition may be A AND B where A has a Boolean
value of TRUE if the title of a received e-mail includes "project
X"; otherwise, A has a value of FALSE. B has a value of TRUE if the
title of the e-mail includes "project Y"; otherwise, B has a value
of FALSE. Thus, A AND B will have a value of TRUE if the e-mail
message includes both project X and project Y.
[0031] Actions may be a specific action taken by the alert
filtering engine 210 such as setting an urgency level value or
generating an alert command. For example, action 1 may set the
urgency level to 1 and action 2 may set the urgency level to 2,
where the urgency level of 1 is of greater urgency than the urgency
level of 2. Thus, the alert filtering engine 210 may filter
incoming alert events based on logical values of Boolean variables
combined using operators in regular expressions specified by the
subscriber. The operators may include any mathematical operators
(e.g., algebraic/set operators such as >, <, =, -, .div.,
.times., , , , , , .orgate., .andgate., .di-elect cons., ,
.A-inverted., , , etc., and Boolean operators such as AND, OR, NOT,
XOR, etc.).
[0032] The action performed by the alert filtering engine 210 may
either be a direct action, such as setting an urgency level, or
another if-then-else statement. Thus, the subscriber may specify
complex conditions so that a sophisticated filtering process may be
achieved. While the above embodiment of the filtering process uses
the if-then-else construct, other techniques of filtering are also
possible. For example, any program that selects certain alert
events over other alert events based on specified circumstances may
be applied.
[0033] The subscriber filtering data 212 may include variable
definitions as well as expressions as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5. In
FIG. 4, a table 214 of variables A-E are shown as an example. The
table 214 has a variable column 216 and a definition column 218.
Entries 220 -228 define the meaning of each of the corresponding
variables A-E. For example, entries 220 and 222 specify the
definition of Boolean variables A and B as discussed earlier.
Entries 224 and 226 specify the definition of Boolean variables C
and D. The Boolean variable C has the value of TRUE if the e-mail
is from Sally and FALSE otherwise. Sally may be a rendezvous
between Joe and the subscriber, for example. The Boolean variable D
has the value of TRUE is the e-mail is from "Jocelyn" and FALSE
otherwise. In entry 228, the variable E is not a Boolean variable
but an algebraic variable that is set to the time of day. These
variables are set to their respective values by the alert filtering
engine 210 based upon the specifications as set forth in the
description field 218 of the table 214. The alert filtering engine
210 may also interact with the source of the alert event such as
the e-mail server 108 to obtain the information required to set the
variable values.
[0034] FIG. 5 shows a table 230 of regular expressions. The table
230 has a regular expression identification field 232 and a regular
expression field 234. The entries 236-244 of the table 230 define
all of the conditions as specified by the subscriber. For example,
entry 236 specifies condition 1 being TRUE when the time of day E
is less than 9:00 am on Jan. 26, 1999. Thus, if the time of day is
after 9:00 am, condition 1 is FALSE. Similarly, condition 2 is TRUE
when the time of day is between 9:00 am and 11:30 am on Jan. 26,
1999 and if Boolean variable A and D are TRUE. Thus, condition 2 is
TRUE if an alert event is an e-mail received from Jocelyn having
the title "project X" and the alert event is received between 9:00
am and 11:30 am on Jan. 26, 1999. Conditions 3-5 are similarly
defined.
[0035] Based on the subscriber filtering data as described in FIGS.
4 and 5 above, the subscriber may specify the alert filtering as
follows:
1 . . . if condition 1 then urgency level = 5 else if condition 2
then urgency level = 1 else if condition 3 then urgency level = 1
else if condition 4 then urgency = 2 else if condition 5 then
urgency level = 5 end if; end if; end if; end if; end if; . . . if
condition 1 AND urgency level >3 then generate alert command end
if; if (condition 2 OR condition 4) AND urgency level >2 then
generate alert command end if; if condition 3 AND urgency level
>4 then generate alert command end if; if condition 5 AND
urgency level >8 then generate alert command end if; . . .
[0036] The above program example first sets urgency levels based on
the conditions 1-5 and then specifies the conditions under which
alert commands are generated. Other types of programs and variables
and/or condition specifications are also possible including other
program type statements such as assign, case, etc. Thus, the alert
filtering engine 210 executes filtering instructions based upon the
subscriber filtering data 212 to determine when an alert command
may be generated.
[0037] The alert device selection process 204 determines which of
the services specified by the subscriber in a subscriber profile
300 may be used to alert the subscriber. FIG. 6 shows the
subscriber profile 300 which includes a device field 302 and an
availability field 304. The device field 302 identifies all the
devices that may be used to alert the subscriber and the
availability field 304 indicates the time when each of the devices
identified in the device field 302 may be used to alert the
subscriber and the priority in which the device should be used when
more than one device are available. The subscriber profile 300 may
be initially generated by the unified alerting device 104 based on
records of the services subscribed to by the subscriber. As the
need arises, the subscriber may modify the subscriber profile 300
by adding other devices that may be accessible (e.g., a facsimile
machine near a meeting room) and the time periods that each of the
devices may be used.
[0038] For example, between 8:30 am and 11:30 am on January 26, the
subscriber may be reached via a pager as indicated in entry 306, a
facsimile machine as indicated in entry 314, a telephone station
(telephone 1) as indicated in entry 316 and an Internet log-on ID
as indicated in entry 322. As indicated by the numbers above each
schedule line, the subscriber has specified a priority order for
each of the available devices as: the pager first, then telephone 1
second, then fax 2 third and then Internet 2 fourth. For example,
if the incoming communication is text, the alert device selection
process 204 may select the pager of entry 306 and display the title
of the text. However, if the pager does not acknowledge receipt
(either transmission via a two-way pager signal or via a revertive
call), then the alert device selection process 204 may send an
alert via telephone 1 of entry 316 by converting the title of the
text into voice and outputting speech via speech synthesis to the
telephone 1 when answered.
[0039] If telephone 1 does not answer, the alert device selection
process 204 may then convert the text into a facsimile transmission
and transmit the converted text to fax 2 of the entry 314. If fax 2
cannot be reached (i.e., no answer or busy, for example), then the
alert device selection process 204 may send the text to the
Internet ID at Internet 2 of entry 322. Thus, the priority assigned
by the subscriber indicates an order in which the alert device
selection process 204 attempts to communicate the received
communication. If two of the available devices have the same
priority, or no priority is specified, then the alert device
selection process 204 may attempt to alert the subscriber via all
the available devices at the same priority concurrently.
Alternatively, the unified alerting device 104 may use a round
robin technique for selecting an alert device, for example. In this
way, the alert device selection process 204 may achieve a best
effort to reach the subscriber.
[0040] The subscriber profile 300 may include other parameters set
by the subscriber to elect other features such as to specify a
number of times to retry before going on to lower priority devices,
to delay the alert by a predetermined amount of time, to delay the
alert until after a predetermined time period (e.g., if the
subscriber will not be accessible or does not want to be accessible
between 9:00 am and 10:00 am), to convert between communication
types (e.g., between text, voice or video), or to extract or
summarize the received communication for the alert or to be sent
with the alert. If an incoming communication is transmitted in one
type such as text (e.g., ASCII), and the device selected is an
audio type device such as a telephone, for example, then the
subscriber may elect to convert the text to voice to alert the
subscriber via an audio signal such as a telephone call. Thus,
subscriber has the option of directing the alert device selection
process 204 to select an available device having a higher priority
or to select the best available device with the highest priority
that is capable of receiving the incoming communication without
conversion (i.e., the selected device is capable of receiving
communication of the same type as the incoming communication).
[0041] For example, if a facsimile is received at 9:00 am on
January 26, the unified alerting device 104 may send the facsimile
to fax 2 (entry 214) immediately, unless otherwise specified. The
subscriber may also specify to always alert via the pager 118, for
example. In this case, the unified alerting device 104 also sends
an alert via the pager 118 with a message such as "facsimile
waiting at fax 2", for example. The subscriber profile may be
overridden by the subscriber explicitly specifying how various
communications should be handled via the alert filtering process
202 so that the alert device selection process 204 may be directed
to search for one or more devices based on the schedule portion of
the subscription profile 300.
[0042] For example, if a facsimile message is received and the
subscriber's profile indicates that the cellphone 114 is a first
priority device and a facsimile machine is a second priority
device, the unified alerting device 104 may select the facsimile
device over the cellphone 114 because the incoming message is a
facsimile message. However, the subscriber may have specified via
the subscriber filtering data 212 that for this particular alert
event (identified by title, sender name, etc.), the alert is to be
transmitted via the cellphone 114 with text of title and sender ID
speech synthesized and the full text is to be transmitted to the
PDA (entry 308 in FIG. 6, for example) at the same time. If the
above alert cannot be completed, then send the full text via a
facsimile.
[0043] The subscriber may also specify, via the alert filtering
process 202, to extract particular information to use for the
alert. For example, the title and sender ID of an e-mail may be
extracted for a pager alert. More advanced extraction techniques
such as automatic summary or identification of keywords may also be
performed.
[0044] FIG. 7 shows an alert command 500 for the above filtering
result. A field 502 indicates priority and fields 504-508 indicate
the device type and message content of the alert. Thus, the alert
command indicates alerting via the cellphone 114 with title and
sender ID and sending the full text to a PDA as a first priority.
The full message is sent to a facsimile machine as a second
priority only if the first priority devices do not respond.
[0045] While the above describes a particular embodiment for the
alert device selection process 204, other techniques may also be
used. For example, the device selection may be completely imbedded
into the conditions as processed by the alert filtering engine 210.
Thus, the alert command may include specific parameters that
directs the alert device selection process 204 to select a
particular device and to perform any conversions such as
text-to-voice or voice-to-text that may be necessary. In this way,
the subscriber may have broad flexibility to control which
communications are received, which device(s) to receive the
communication and how the communication is received.
[0046] FIG. 8 shows an exemplary block diagram of the unified
alerting device 104. The unified alerting device 104 includes a
controller 402, a memory 404, the alert filtering engine 210, a
network interface 408, and a database interface 410. The above
components may be coupled together via a signal bus 412. While FIG.
8 shows a bus architecture, other hardware configurations may also
be possible as is well known in the art. In addition, while FIG. 8
shows the controller 402 and the alert filtering engine 210 as
separate units, the functions performed by these units may be
combined or may be further divided among specific processors such
as digital signal processors and/or performed by dedicated hardware
such as application specific integrated circuits (ASIC) or other
hardware implementations such as PLD, PAL or PLAs, for example.
[0047] When an alert event is received via the network interface
408, the controller 402 may retrieve the subscriber filtering data
212 via the database interface 410, place the subscriber filtering
data 212 in the memory 404 and instruct the alert filtering engine
210 to determine whether an alert command should be generated based
on the subscriber filtering data 212. The alert filtering engine
210 executes the logic specified by the subscriber conditions, etc.
and issues an alert command to the controller 402 based on the
subscriber logic. If an alert command is received, the controller
402 retrieves the subscriber profile from the database 106 via the
database interface 410 and performs the alert device selection
process 204 to determine which of the devices is available to reach
the subscriber and what conversions might be necessary to be
performed so that the communication may be placed in the correct
format for the selected device.
[0048] For example, if a telephone call was received for the
subscriber and the subscriber may only be reached via the Internet,
the controller 402 may perform text-to-speech and speech-to-text
conversions and connect the calling party with the subscriber's
Internet logon so that the subscriber may communicate with the
caller via an Internet access terminal. The reverse situation may
also be achieved if the subscriber is available via a telephone
while the other communicating party is using a text terminal such
as a personal digital assistant (PDA). Thus, the controller 402 may
alert the subscriber via an appropriate device and may serve as a
critical communication link between the subscriber and the other
communicating party.
[0049] FIG. 9 shows a flowchart for a process of the unified
alerting device 104. In step 1000, the controller 402 receives an
alert event through the network interface 408 and goes to step
1002. In step 1002, the controller 402 directs the alert filtering
engine 210 to process the alert event and goes to step 1004. In
step 1004, the controller 402 determines whether the alert
filtering engine 210 has generated an alert command. If an alert
command is generated, the controller 402 goes to step 1006;
otherwise, the controller 402 goes to step 1031. In step 1031, the
controller 402 terminates the alert process by either instructing
the device that generated the corresponding alert event to place a
message in the voice mailbox (for a phone call, for example) or
take no further action (for e-mail service, for example) and goes
to step 1032 to end the process.
[0050] In step 1006, the controller 402 selects the alert device
based on the alert command and the subscriber profile 300 retrieved
via the database interface 410 and goes to step 1008. In step 1008,
the controller 402 determines whether the subscriber is reachable.
The alert command may include multiple devices, each identified
with a priority field. If such is the case, the controller 402
attempts to alert the subscriber via the highest priority devices
and, if unsuccessful, then the next highest priority device(s) is
used to generate the alert. The controller 402 determines that the
subscriber is not reachable only when all of the identified device
and alert command has been exhausted. If reachable, the controller
goes to step 1014; otherwise, the controller goes to step 1018.
[0051] In step 1018, the controller 402 determines whether the
subscriber has selected a retry option. If retry is selected, the
controller 402 goes to step 1024; otherwise, the controller 402
goes to step 1032 and ends the process. In step 1024, the
controller 402 delays for a predetermined amount of time and goes
to step 1026. In step 1026, the controller 402 increments a count
and goes to step 1028. In step 1028, the controller 402 determines
whether the count has exceeded the maximum. If exceeded, the
controller 402 goes to step 1032 to end the process; otherwise the
controller 402 returns to step 1006 to select the alert device. A
new alert device must be selected because time has passed and
different devices may be available since the last selection.
[0052] In step 1014, the controller 402 determines whether alert
message conversion is required. If required, the controller 402
goes to step 1016; otherwise, the controller 402 goes to step 1030.
In step 1016, the controller 402 determines whether the alert
device is a voice device or a text device. If a voice device, the
controller 402 goes to step 1020; otherwise, the controller 402
goes to step 1022. In step 1020, the controller 402 generates a
voice message (with conversion if necessary) and goes to step 1030.
In step 1022, the controller 402 generates a text message (with
conversion if necessary) and goes to step 1030. In step 1030, the
controller 402 sends the alert to the selected alert device and
goes to step 1032 to end the process.
[0053] While the invention has been described in conjunction with
specific embodiments thereof, it is evident that many alternatives,
modifications and variations will be apparent to those skilled in
the art. Accordingly, preferred embodiments of the invention as set
forth herein are intended to be illustrative, not limiting. Various
changes may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of
the invention.
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