(12) Unlted States Patent (10) Patent N0.: US 7,907,051 B2
Contents
1. 20 Claims 9 Drawing Sheets Communications Server US 7 907 051 B2 Page 2 U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 2008 0242231 Al 10 2008 Gray nnn 455 66 1 OTHER PUBLICATIONS Arabshian et al Enhancing Enterprise Communications Systems with Wireless Devices and Presence Information Columbia Uni versity Department of Computer Science Aug 2002 Kohno et al TACT Mobile Wireless Terminal for Digitally Enabled Environments The Sixth International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing UbiComp Sep 2004 Milewski et al Providing Presence Cues to Telephone Users Proceedings of the 2000 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work CSCW 00 Dec 2000 cited by examiner U S Patent Mar 15 2011 Sheet 1 of 9 US 7 907 051 B2 FIG 1 ua E 2 d 6 oO US 7 907 051 B2 Sheet 2 of 9 Mar 15 2011 U S Patent DIH oTnpoW SUOHEITUNWWO ov weigo1g uoneorddy sinding 10 pue syndu sjueuoduio Jeu Hun ooegioju XIOMJoN ngu 07 8 suono euuoo uoneorunuluio IO yu AO TI US 7 907 051 B2 Sheet 3 of 9 Mar 15 2011 U S Patent al 81 DIA apo eurduq uonensiSoy uonegoJddy per SUSI sjndjno 10 pue sindur sjueuoduiro 19410 I Ovi O I 9z1 ce s uonoouuoo uoneorunululo ISO KIOWA DCI zz uf eoeprioju JOMIN yu Zurss soIdg OcI A gl US 7 907 051 B22. 58 Field of a vp were x p Techniques are provided for specifying a presence setting S lication file f gt l hhi IELAS selection and for displaying a presence indicator status of a ce application He TOF Compete RN user with respect to a device associated with the user The 56 References Cited presence setting selection includes providing an input selec U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 5 608 794 A 3 1997 Larson nsss 379 396 5 630 144 A 5 1997 Woog etal aeee 713 310 5 793 365 A 8 1998 Tang etal 715 758 6 065 138 A 5 2000 Gouldetal 714 47 6 147 608 A 11 2000 Thacker 340 573 1 6 282 655 B1 8 2001 Given nennen 726 34 6 360 252 B1 3 2002 Rudy etal 709 206 6 611 281 B2 8 2003 Strubbe 7 100 116 B1 8 2006 Shafrir etal 715 751 7 348 967 B2 3 2008 Zadesky et al 345 173 7 711 815 B2 5 2010 Gargetal 709 224 ee tion component on a surface of a first component of the device A presence setting is received at the device in accor dance with a manual presence selection made using the input selection component In connection with the presence indi cator status one or more indicators are provided on a surface portion of a first component of the device The presence indicator status indicating the presence of the user with respect to the device is received One or more indicators at the device are set in accordance with the presence indicator sta tus
3. Memory 22 as well as storage 30 are examples of computer storage media Computer storage media includes volatile and nonvolatile removable and non removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer readable instructions data structures program modules or other data Computer storage media includes but is not limited to RAM ROM EEPROM flash memory or other memory technology CD ROM DVD or other optical storage magnetic cassettes magnetic tape magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can accessed by device 12 Commu nication media typically embodies computer readable instructions data structures program modules or other data in a modulated data signal such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism and includes any information delivery media The term modulated data signal means a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal By way of example and not limitation communication media includes wired media such as a wired network or direct wired connec tion and wireless media such as acoustic RF infrared and other wireless media Combinations of the any of the above should also be included within the scope of computer read able media The device 12 may also contain communications connec tion s 24
4. Sheet 4 of 9 Mar 15 2011 U S Patent vr Old OIZ jueuoduio jnduy 907 10 1pU __007 US 7 907 051 B2 Sheet 5 of 9 Mar 15 2011 U S Patent S Old oic jueuoduro ndug u 957 sIopesirpuf A osz US 7 907 051 B2 Sheet 6 of 9 Mar 15 2011 U S Patent 9 DIA 017 jueuoduio ndug pog UONIOd enuoojurnoit INQ TOE qnH A 00 US 7 907 051 B2 Sheet 7 of 9 Mar 15 2011 U S Patent L I4 90t tOr lojeorpug uoyng Olt yueuodwo A oor US 7 907 051 B2 Sheet 8 of 9 Mar 15 2011 U S Patent 9SP SIOJCOIPUT 9Sy E 8 DIJ ROSY US 7 907 051 B2 Sheet 9 of 9 Mar 15 2011 U S Patent 6 DIF JOjeorpul Jensia YIM pe ejdsip se snyejs Jojeorpul aouosad qt eouepi1oooe ur xoeqpoo opne peuond I ISATS SUONEITUNUNUOI WOI peunjo1 snjejs I0jeorpui 9ouosold YIM oouep10oooe UI I0jeorpur JENSIA SIIS IMAI IMAP 0 snjejs 1ojeorpur oguasoad sumjo1 JoAJes SUOIJeSTUNUIWIOS JeAJes suoneorunuruoo 0 uoroe es Sumes usd ojeorunuruio uon e es Josn U0T O9 9S 1osn BIA poArooo1 jndul Sumas oouoso1d A 00 US 7 907 051 B2 1 TECHNIQUES FOR SETTING AND INDICATING PRESENCE FOR A DEVICE BACKGROUND Existing techniques indicating the presence of a user include the user manually setting an indicator using a mouse or keyboard and using an application which may
5. 1 are a device 12 a network 14 and a communications server 15 The device 12 may be for example a user computer a phone a PDA or other wireless mobile communications device The device 12 included in FIG 1 is exemplary for purposes of illustrating the techniques described herein in connection with specifying a presence setting and displaying a presence indicator status Any device that has connectivity to the server 15 and having the function ality described herein may be included in an embodiment Additionally although only a single device is illustrated an embodiment may use one or more devices The device 12 may include a processor used to execute code included in one or more program modules Described in more detail elsewhere herein are program modules that may be executed by the devices in connection with the techniques described herein The device 12 may operate in a networked environment and communicate with the communications server 15 and other computers not shown in FIG 1 The communications server 15 may be used in connection with processing and routing communications to devices such as 12 connected to the network 14 As will be described in following paragraphs in one embodiment a user may manu ally select a presence setting using a presence setting input component of the device 12 The presence setting may be communicated from device 12 to the communications server 15 The communications server 15 may subsequently provide
6. a device associated with the second user Using the techniques described herein a registered user may visually view his her presence status indicator for a device on a physical visual display indicator of the device Such observation may be made without using for example a computer display device and the selection of a presence setting may be manually made without using a mouse of the computer system The techniques described herein for dis playing a presence status and selecting a presence setting may also be used in connection with a variety of different commu nications devices having connectivity in the network 14 Par ticular examples of the visual display indicator and the com 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 6 ponent that may be used in connection with a user manually selecting a presence setting will now be described Referring now to FIG 4 shown is an example 200 of components that may be included in an arrangement of a device 12 for use in connection with the techniques for speci fying a presence setting on a device and for displaying a visual indicator in accordance with a presence indicator sta tus The example 200 includes a selection button 204 and an indicator 206 The component 210 may vary with the device and is used to represent one arrangement of the components 204 and 206 with respect to another input component 210 of the particular device For example in one embodiment in which the d
7. such auditory overlap The techniques described herein for specifying a presence setting and or displaying a presence status indicator for a computer device may be used independent of the state of a computer display device Additionally the techniques described herein may be used in connection with other devices such as phones PDAs and other wired or wireless devices having connectivity to the communications server in the network US 7 907 051 B2 9 Although the subject matter has been described in lan guage specific to structural features and or methodological acts it is to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above Rather the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims What is claimed is 1 A method for specifying a presence setting selection for a device comprising providing a physical wheel for use in connection with making a manual presence setting selection on a device of a user wherein an outer circumferential portion of said wheel comprises a presence setting input compo nent and a hub portion of said wheel comprises one or more indicators for indicating a presence indicator status of the user said device having connectivity to a commu nications server that determines the presence indicator status of the user in accordance with a presence setting selection made
8. the device 12 with a presence indicator status The device 12 may display the presence indicator status on a presence indi cator display component of the device 12 A presence indica tor status may be determined for each device For example as will be described herein in more detail when a user is deter mined to be present with respect to a registered device for the user the device may accordingly display a visual indicator in accordance with the current present mode When the user is determined to be away with respect to a registered device for the user the device may accordingly display a different visual indicator in accordance with the current away mode It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that although the device 12 is shown in the example as communi cating in a networked environment the device 12 may com municate with other components utilizing different commu US 7 907 051 B2 3 nication mediums For example the device 12 may communicate with one or more components utilizing a net work connection and or other type of link known in the art including but not limited to the Internet an intranet or other wireless and or hardwired connection s Referring now to FIG 2 shown is an example of compo nents that may be included in the device 12 as may be used in connection with performing the various embodiments of the techniques described herein The device 12 may include one or more pr
9. 0 The method of claim 1 wherein touching different areas of said outer circumferential portion scrolls through a plurality of presence settings 11 The method of claim 10 wherein touching said outer circumferential portion without cycling through one or more presence setting options results in a default presence setting selection indicating that the user is available 12 The method of claim 1 further comprising providing audio feedback in accordance with the selected presence setting of the user 13 A method for displaying a presence indicator status of a user with respect to a mobile communications device asso ciated with the user the method comprising providing a physical wheel for use in connection with making a manual presence setting selection on a surface portion of a mobile communications device associated with the user said wheel comprising an outer circum ferential portion for allowing the user to scroll through a plurality of presence settings and a hub portion includ ing one or more indicators for indicating a presence indicator status of the user said mobile communications device having connectivity to a communications server that determines the presence indicator status of the user in accordance with a presence setting selection made by the user said surface portion comprising one or more input components for receiving manual input from the user and a display screen for displaying the presence indicator status of
10. United States Patent US007907051B2 12 10 Patent No US 7 907 051 B2 Pall et al 45 Date of Patent Mar 15 2011 neen 2002 0026483 Als 22002 Isaacs eral 709 206 saacs etal INDICATING FRESENCE FORA DEVICE 2004 0127253 Al 7 2004 Hauptvogel et al 2004 0133638 Al 7 2004 Doss et al 75 Inventors Gurdeep S Pall Sammamish WA 2004 0147261 Al 7 2004 Roelands US Dawson Yee Bellevue WA US 2004 0193686 Al 9 2004 Blagsvedt et al Alex Riemann Redmond WA US 2004 0201668 Al 10 2004 Matsubara et al 2004 0248588 Al 12 2004 Pell et al s y 2005 0170847 Al 8 2005 Karlsson et al 73 Assignee Microsoft Corporation Redmond WA 2005 0243019 Al 11 2005 Fuller et al US 2005 0265296 Al 12 2005 Zhang et al 2005 0271187 Al 12 2005 Bohmer et al Notice Subject to any disclaimer the term of this 2005 0289470 Al 12 2005 Pabla et al patent is extended or adjusted under 35 Saat ee RM i y 20m ryle etal en a CITY an m U S C 154 b by 190 days 2008 0201438 Al 8 2008 Mandre 709 206 21 Appl No 11 451 820 Continued 22 Filed Jun 13 2006 OTHER PUBLICATIONS Vogiazou et al Wireless Presence and Instant Messaging Knowl g ging 65 Prior Publication Data edge Media Institute KMi Nov 2002 US 2007 0287376 Al Dec 13 2007 Continued 51 Int Cl Primary Examiner Benjamin C Lee PE v s Sea Assistant Examiner Sigmund Tang 2 USAC 1 eee 340 539 1 709 201 57 ABSTRACT
11. arrangement of a device 12 for use in connection with the techniques for speci fying a presence setting on a device and for displaying a visual indicator in accordance with a presence indicator sta tus In the example 400 the button 404 is utilized and may behave in a manner similar to button 204 as described herein The indicator 406 may be utilized and behave in a manner similar to indicator 206 In the example 400 there may be no input or keyboard as illustrated in the examples of FIGS 4 5 and 6 In particular the example 400 may illustrate an arrangement of the elements 404 and 406 on a handset of a phone It should be noted that element 406 may also include multiple indicators as described in connection with the example 250 of FIG 5 Referring now to FIG 8 shown is a fifth example 450 of components that may be included in an arrangement of a device 12 for use in connection with the techniques for speci fying a presence setting on a device and for displaying a visual indicator in accordance with a presence indicator sta tus In the example 450 the button 454 is illustrated on the face or surface portion of a device Button 454 may be utilized and may behave in a manner similar to button 204 as described herein Element 456 may represent one or more indicators located on a side surface of the device The indi cators of 456 may behave in a manner similar to one or more other indicators as described herein If 456 includes a single i
12. automati cally determine the presence of a user The resulting indicator representing the presence of a user may be displayed on the computer screen When the computer screen goes blank or enters a locked state such as when a screen saver is enabled and activated due to computer inactivity a user is no longer able to set or view his her presence indicator One drawback of the foregoing is that in order to set or view the user s presence setting the user has to activate the computer screen such as by logging on to the computer SUMMARY This summary is provided to introduce a selection of con cepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed sub ject matter nor is it intended to be used as an aid in determin ing the scope of the claimed subject matter Techniques are provided for specifying a presence setting selection and for displaying a presence indicator status of a user with respect to a device associated with the user The presence setting selection includes providing an input selec tion component on a surface of a first component of the device A presence setting is received at the device in accor dance with a manual presence selection made using the input selection component In connection with the presence indi cator status one or more indicators are provided on a surface portion of a first compo
13. by the user said device comprising one or more other input components for receiving manual input from the user and a display screen for displaying the presence indicator status of the user receiving a current presence indicator status of the user at said device from the communications server displaying the current presence indicator status ofthe user on the display screen of said device for allowing the user to view the current presence indicator status and select a presence setting using said one or more other input com ponents of said device monitoring activity of said device in response to inactivity of said device causing the display screen of said device to no longer display the current presence indicator status of the user receiving a manual presence setting selection made by the user using said presence setting input component of said wheel said manual presences setting selection being made when the current presence indicator status of the user is not being displayed by the display screen and without using said one or more other input components of said device used to select a presence setting when the current presence indicator status of the user is being displayed on the display screen communicating the manual presence setting selection made by the user using said presence setting input com ponent of said wheel from said device to the communi cations server receiving an updated presence indicator status at said devi
14. ce from the communications server and setting said one or more indicators of said hub portion of said wheel in accordance with the updated presence indicator status received from the communications server 2 The method of claim 1 wherein said hub portion of said wheel presents a colored visual indication of said updated presence indicator status 3 The method ofclaim 1 wherein subsequent depressions of a particular area of said outer circumferential portion scrolls through a plurality of presence settings 4 The method of claim 1 wherein said device is a com puter 5 The method of claim 4 wherein said one or more other input components used to select a presence setting when the presence indicator status of the user is being displayed on the display screen com prise one or more of a mouse and a keyboard used with said computer and a 5 25 30 40 45 60 65 10 said presence setting input component reflects the manual presence setting selection made by the user 6 The method of claim 1 wherein said device is a phone 7 The method of claim 6 wherein said presence setting input component is provided on a handset of said phone 8 The method of claim 1 wherein said device is a mobile communications device 9 The method of claim 1 wherein said hub portion of said wheel is a single indicator which is set to one of a plurality of colors in accordance with said updated presence indicator status 1
15. ction for the presence setting on the device If not control returns to step 502 until step 502 evalu ates to yes If step 502 evaluates to yes control proceeds to step 504 where the presence setting input by the user is received as by the communications module of the device At step 506 optional audio feedback may be provided to the user regarding the user s selection At step 508 the device com municates the user s presence setting selection to the com munications server At step 510 the communications server determines a presence indicator status for the device in accor dance with the user s setting selection and optionally other information available to the communications server The presence indicator status is returned to the device At step 512 the device sets a visual indicator in accordance with the presence indicator status value returned from the communi cations server At step 514 audio feedback may be optionally provided by the device in accordance with the presence indi cator status displayed with the visual indicator at step 512 It should be noted that in an embodiment the total time from when the user manual makes a selection in step 504 to when the visual indicator is displayed may be fractions ofa second Asaresult audio feedback provided in steps 506 and 514 may overlap with one another As such an embodiment may wait a predetermined amount of time between the audio feedback of steps 506 and 514 in order to avoid any
16. en communicate the manual presence setting selection made by the user using said presence setting input component of said wheel from said device to the communications server receive an updated presence indicator status at said device from the communications server and set said one or more indicators of said hub of said wheel in accordance with the updated presence indicator status received from the communications server 20 The method of claim 13 wherein subsequent depres sions of a particular area of said outer circumferential portion scrolls through the plurality of presence settings UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION PATENT NO 7 907 051 B2 Page of 1 APPLICATION NO 11 451820 DATED March 15 2011 INVENTOR S Gurdeep S Pall et al It is certified that error appears in the above identified patent and that said Letters Patent is hereby corrected as shown below In column 9 line 57 in Claim 3 delete wherein and insert wherein therefor In column 10 line 50 in Claim 13 delete device and insert device therefor Signed and Sealed this David J Kappos Director ofthe United States Patent and Trademark Office
17. escribed herein may be implemented The computing environment illustrated in FIG 1 is only one example of a suitable computing environment and is not intended to suggest any limitation as to the scope of use or functionality of the techniques described herein in connection with specifying a presence setting and displaying a presence indicator status Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the techniques described herein may be suitable for use with other general purpose and specialized purpose computing environments and configurations Examples of well known computing systems environments and or configurations include but are not limited to personal computers server computers hand held or laptop devices multiprocessor sys tems microprocessor based systems programmable con sumer electronics network PCs minicomputers mainframe computers distributed computing environments that include any of the above systems or devices and the like The techniques set forth herein 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 the like that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types Typically the functionality of the program mod ules may be combined or distributed as desired in various embodiments Included in FIG
18. evice is a computer the components 204 206 and 210 may be included in a keyboard of the computer The component 210 may represent that portion of the keyboard including the keys such as alphabetic and numeric keys Also included in the keyboard may be button 204 and indicator 206 As described herein the presence setting may be specified via manual selection by a user In the example 200 the user may perform such selection using button 204 When depressed button 204 may cycle through the different pres ence settings for the device For example if the device 12 is a computer each depression of the button 204 may cycle through a set of presence selections including available or online away and do not disturb Other selections may be included in an embodiment for a computer or other device The indicator 206 may be a visual indicator such as an LED which displays a color in accordance with the presence indi cator status returned from the communications server For example the indicator 206 may bea tri color LED displaying one of a number of colors such as three possible colors in accordance with the presence indicator status If the user s presence indicator status changes with respect to the device the indicator 206 is accordingly updated Referring now to FIG 5 shown is a second example 250 of components that may be included in an arrangement of a device 12 for use in connection with the techniques for speci fying a presence se
19. iated user configuration The particular values or statuses for a presence indicator status as determined by the communications server and accordingly displayed on a device 12 may vary with the particular device 12 For example the device 12 may have a first set of possible presence indicator status values if the device is a computer A second set of possible presence indi cator status values if the device is a phone PDA or other device The presence aggregation engine 150 may aggregate the manually entered user presence setting optionally along with other information for the device of a registered user to deter mine a presence status indicator for the registered user with respect to the device As described above and elsewhere herein the other information may include information about modes of communication for the device as well as informa tion that may vary with an embodiment For example the engine 150 may be aware that a user is not in the office and may appropriately set indicators for those devices in the office for the user The one or more inputs and the way in which the engine 150 determines the presence status indicator for each device may vary with embodiment The presence status indi cator for each user with respect to a registered device may be maintained by the engine 150 and may be made available to registered users so that one registered user may be aware of the presence status of a second registered user with respect to
20. n a user may register one or more devices which are associated with the user s identifier Each device such as a phone computer mobile phone or PDA may have its own IP address or associated location so that the device may be identified in the network in connection with communications such as for forwarding an incoming transmission received at the server 15 Each registered device may have an associated one or more modes of communica tion Modes of communication may include for example voice text and or video indicating which types of commu nication a particular device is capable A device may also be enabled disabled for a particular mode of communication even though the device may be capable of the particular mode For example a computer may be registered for a user The user may specify either as part of registration or at a later time using various techniques known in the art that only a selected mode of communication is to be used with the com puter The presence indicator status as described above may be determined by the communications server as an aggregate or composite value in one embodiment using one or more inputs One input may be the user s manually specified pres ence setting as provided by a device Other optional inputs may include for example the modes of communication for which a device is capable and or enabled The modes of communication for a device may vary in accordance with the particular device and assoc
21. ndicator the indicator may be utilized and function as described in connection with the example 200 of FIG 4 If 456 includes multiple indicators the indicators may be uti lized and function as described in connection with the example 250 of FIG 5 It should also be noted that the button 454 may also be located on the side of the device on a same surface as the one or more indicators of 456 In another variation the element 454 and 456 may be located on differ ent side surfaces of a device As described herein the particular location and type of components used in connection with selecting a presence setting by a user and displaying a presence indicator status as may be returned from the communications server or other component in an embodiment herein may vary with the device If the device is a computer the forgoing components for presence selection and display ofthe presence status may be included for example on one or more surfaces of a key board If the device is a phone the foregoing components for 30 40 45 55 65 8 presence selection and display of the presence status may be included for example on a handset ofthe phone or next to the number pad under a display As illustrated in FIGS 4 8 in one embodiment the com ponent used to manually select a presence setting may be for example a physical button wheel and the like The compo nent used to facilitate the selection of the presence setting may be a
22. nent of the device The presence indicator status indicating the presence of the user with respect to the device is received One or more indicators of the device are set in accordance with said presence indicator status DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed descrip tion of exemplary embodiments thereof taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which FIG 1 is an example of an embodiment illustrating an environment that may be utilized in connection with the tech niques described herein FIG 2 is an example of components that may be included in an embodiment of a device for use in connection with performing the techniques described herein FIG 3 is an example of components that may be included in an embodiment of a communications server for use in connection with performing the techniques described herein FIGS 4 8 are examples illustrating different components ofinput and display arrangements for use with presence set ting and displaying a presence indicator status and FIG 9 is a flowchart of processing steps that may be per formed in an embodiment in connection with the techniques described herein DETAILED DESCRIPTION Referring now to FIG 1 illustrated is an example of a suitable computing environment in which embodiments uti 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 2 lizing the techniques d
23. nt value of said presence indicator status is repre sented by a single unique one of said color indicators at a single point in time 16 The method of claim 13 wherein said hub portion of said wheel includes a plurality of color indicators and a current value of said presence indicator status is repre sented by more than one of said color indicators at a single point in time 17 The method of claim 14 wherein touching different areas of said outer circumferential portion scrolls through the plurality of presence settings 18 The method of claim 13 further comprising providing audio feedback in accordance with said presence indicator status displayed by said hub portion of said wheel 19 An apparatus for specifying a presence setting and displaying a presence indicator status comprising one or more input components on a surface of a device of a user said device having connectivity to a communica tions server that determines a presence indicator status of the user in accordance with a presence setting selec tion made by the user said one or more input compo nents for receiving manual input from the user a display screen for displaying the presence indicator status of the user physical wheel on said surface of said device for use in connection with making a manual presence setting selection wherein an outer circumferential portion of said wheel comprises a presence setting input compo nent and a hub portion of
24. ocessing units 20 memory 22 a network interface unit 26 storage 30 one or more other communication con nections 24 and a system bus 32 used to facilitate communi cations between the components of the device 12 Depending on the configuration and type of user device 12 memory 22 may be volatile such as RAM non volatile such as ROM flash memory etc or some combination of the two Additionally the device 12 may also have additional features functionality For example the device 12 may also include additional storage removable and or non removable including but not limited to USB devices magnetic or opti cal disks or tape Such additional storage is illustrated in FIG 2 by storage 30 The storage 30 of FIG 2 may include one or more removable and non removable storage devices having associated computer readable media that may be utilized by the device 12 The storage 30 in one embodiment may be a mass storage device with associated computer readable media providing non volatile storage for the device 12 Although the description of computer readable media as illustrated in this example may refer to a mass storage device such as a hard disk or CD ROM drive it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the computer readable media can be any available media that can be accessed by the device 12 By way of example and not limitation computer readable media may comprise computer storage media and communi cation media
25. physical element of component of the device dedi cated for use in selecting a presence setting Similarly an embodiment may include a physical indicator for displaying the presence status dedicated for such use In connection with a user s selection of a presence setting and or displaying a presence indicator status an embodiment may provide audio feedback to the user For example when a user makes a presence selection indicating and away pres ence setting audio feedback may be provided indicating the selection Similarly when an indicator of the device is set audio feedback may be provided in accordance with the dis played indicator It should be noted that the time delay between when a selection is made and when an indicator status is displayed may be a very small amount of time such as fractions ofa second Accordingly if an embodiment pro vides audio feedback in connection with both selection and display of the indicator the audio feedback may overlap An embodiment may therefore provide for a time lag between any two audio feedbacks to ensure no overlap Referring now to FIG 9 shown is a flowchart 500 summa rizing the processing steps just described in connection with the techniques described herein The steps of flowchart 500 may be performed with respect to a user for a device regis tered on the communications server 15 for the user At step 502 a determination is made as to whether the user has made his her manual sele
26. r outputs 48 The operating system 40 may be any one of a variety of commercially available or proprietary operating systems The operating system 40 for example may be loaded into memory in connection with controlling operation of the user computer One or more application programs 46 may execute in the device 12 in connection with performing user tasks and operations The communications module 42 may be used in connec tion with processing a user s presence setting as may be manually input through a component of the device 12 The communications module 42 may subsequently facilitate com municating the setting to the communication server 15 Addi tionally the communications module 42 may be used in con nection with receiving a presence indicator status from the communications server 15 and displaying a visual indicator on the device 12 in accordance with the received status from the server 15 In one embodiment the received presence indicator status may be characterized as a resultant or aggre gate presence status that may be determined by the commu nications server 15 in accordance with the user s presence setting as manually input on the device 12 and optionally one or more other factors about the particular user with respect to the device 12 It should be noted that any one of a variety of different techniques may be used to communicate the presence setting to the communications server For example the presence setting may be pu
27. said wheel comprises one or more indicators for indicating the presence indicator status of the user a network interface for communicating a presence setting selection made by the user from the device to the com 20 30 35 12 munications server and for receiving a presence indica tor status at the device from the communications server memory storing computer executable instructions and a processor for executing said computer executable instructions causing said device to receive a current presence indicator status of the user at said device from the communications server display the current presence indicator status of the user on the display screen for allowing the user to view the current presence indicator status and select a presence setting using said one or more input components of said device monitor activity of said device in response to inactivity of said device cause the display screen to no longer display the current presence indica tor status of the user receive a manual presence setting selection made by the user using said presence setting input component of said wheel said manual presences setting selection being made when the current presence indicator status ofthe user is not being displayed by the display screen and without using said one or more input components of said device used to select a presence setting when the current presence indicator status of the user is being displayed on the display scre
28. shed from the device 12 to the communica tions server 15 It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that other techniques such as pulling information from the device 12 polling and the like may also be used The application program 46 may be any one of a variety of different application programs for the particular device For example in one embodiment in which the device 12 is a user computer the application program 46 may be code which monitors the activity on the computer causing display of a screensaver when there is inactivity Referring now to FIG 3 shown is an example of compo nents that may be included in the communications server 15 and used in connection with performing the various embodi ments of the techniques described herein As illustrated in FIG 3 an embodiment ofthe communications server 15 may include components similar to those described in connection with FIG 2 Additionally the communications server 15 may include a presence aggregation engine 150 and a registration module 146 In one embodiment as described herein the communications server 15 may communicate with one or more devices for registered users US 7 907 051 B2 5 The registration module 146 may be used in connection with registration of a user As part of the registration process the user may be assigned a user identifier and register one or more associated devices for the particular user identifier As an example of device registratio
29. that allow the user computer to communicate with other devices and components such as by way of example input devices and output devices Input devices may include for example a keyboard mouse pen voice input device touch input device etc Output device s may include for example a display speakers printer and the like These and um 0 pak 5 20 30 35 40 45 50 60 4 other devices are well known in the art and need not be discussed at length here The one or more communications connection s 24 are an example of communication media In one embodiment the device 12 may operate in a net worked environment as illustrated in FIG 1 using logical connections to remote computers through a network The device 12 may connect to the network 14 of FIG 1 through a network interface unit 26 connected to bus 32 The network interface unit 26 may also be utilized in connection with other types of networks and or remote systems and components One or more program modules and or data files may be included in storage 30 During operation of the device 12 one or more of these elements included in the storage 30 may also reside in a portion of memory 22 such as for example RAM for controlling the operation of the user computer 12 The example of FIG 2 illustrates various components including an operating system 40 a communications module 42 one or more application programs 46 and other components inputs and o
30. the user communicating a presence setting selection made by the user from said mobile communications device to the communications server receiving from the communications server a presence indicator status of the user with respect to the mobile communications device in accordance with the presence setting selection made by the user displaying the presence indicator status of the user with respect to the mobile communications device on the display screen of said mobile communications device monitoring activity of said mobile communications device in response to inactivity of said mobile communications device causing the display screen of said mobile com munications device to no longer display the presence indicator status of the user and when the presence indicator status of the user is not being displayed by the display screen on said mobile commu nications device indicating the presence indicator status of the user using said one or more indicators of said hub portion of said wheel in accordance with the presence indicator status received from the communications server 14 The method of claim 13 wherein said hub portion of said wheel includes a single indicator which is set to one of a plurality of colors in accordance with a current value of said presence indicator status US 7 907 051 B2 11 15 The method of claim 13 wherein said hub portion of said wheel includes a plurality of color indicators and a curre
31. tile presence wheel A user can scroll or roll through the possible presence setting selections using 304 The element 304 may be characterized as an outer circumferential portion of a US 7 907 051 B2 7 physical wheel including components 302 and 304 The hub 302 of the wheel display may present a colored visual indi cator in accordance with the presence indicator status as returned from the communications server In one embodi ment the component 304 may be depressed each time to allow a user to cycle through the various presence setting selections In another embodiment different portions of 304 may be associated with different presence setting selections so that as different portions of 304 are depressed in different areas the user scrolls or rolls through the particular setting selection associated with the currently depressed portion of 304 In one embodiment using the arrangement of the example 300 of FIG 6 touching the element 304 without cycling through the various presence setting selections may result in a default selection of available In other words by touching the portion 304 without specifically selecting a presence set ting indicates that the user is physically present near the device and may be viewed as a shortcut to setting the wheel to available without having to cycle through to the appropriate selection Referring now to FIG 7 shown is a fourth example 400 of components that may be included in an
32. tting on a device and for displaying a visual indicator in accordance with a presence indicator sta tus In the arrangement 250 the components 204 and 210 may be as described in connection with FIG 4 Rather than have a single indicator which can display one of variety of different colors or other visual indicator states in accordance with the presence indicator status the embodiment of FIG 5 includes more than one indicator or instance of an indicator in 256 such as for example one or more LEDs The example 250 illus trates any number of indicators In one embodiment a single indicator included in 256 may be displayed in accordance with each possible presence indicator status so thatifthere are n possible presence indicator status values element 256 may include n visual indicators with only a single indicator dis playing at any time An embodiment may also uniquely rep resent each possible presence indicator status value using a combination of more than one indicator in area 256 Referring now to FIG 6 shown is a third example 300 of components that may be included in an arrangement of a device 12 for use in connection with the techniques for speci fying a presence setting on a device and for displaying a visual indicator in accordance with a presence indicator sta tus In the arrangement 300 the component 210 may be as described elsewhere herein in connection with other figures The elements 302 and 304 may comprise portions ofa tac
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