Abstract:
Computers are commonly connected in networks which allow interactive communications between two or more computer users. Occasionally, one user tries unsuccessfully to interactively communicate with another user who is unavailable for interactive communications. Accordingly, the inventor devised a system, method, and software to summon the unavailable user through an alternative communications device, for example, a pager, associated with the unavailable user.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention pertains to computer systems and communication networks, particularly networked computer systems that enable interactive communications between two or more computer systems. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Computers, particularly personal computers, are well on there way to becoming as ubiquitous as televisions and telephones. The ascendency of computers from relative obscurity to commonness has been fueled by their utility as everyday communications devices. This utility stems largely from the fantastic, compounded growth of computer networks, particularly the much heralded Internet. 
     The Internet, a worldwide network of computers interconnected through private wiring systems and public telephone systems, functions as a planetary communications system for sending and receiving information from one computer to one or more other computers. A seminal example of Internet-based communications is electronic mail, more commonly known as e-mail. E-mail, an electronic analog to centuries-old parcel-based mail systems, entails creating a message and sending it electronically to a recipient by specifying her computer address. The message, which may include text, audio, and video information, waits in an electronic mailbox to be accessed at the recipient&#39;s convenience without further action by the sender. 
     The Internet also supports interactive communications, such as conversations, between two or more computer users or computer systems. Interactive communications also encompass videoconferencing as well as multi-player games with many players interacting on a common gameboard or playing field or within an artificial environment. However, regardless of the particular manifestation, interactive communications between two users requires that each user, more precisely each user&#39;s computer system, be connected to the other user&#39;s computer system. In network parlance, this means each user must be online. 
     Unfortunately, it is fairly common that when one user tries to converse, play, or otherwise interact with another user over a network, such as the Internet or the Public Shared Telephone Network via point-to-point protocol, the other user is not online, foiling the desired interaction. When this happens, the one user has several inconvenient options, including trying the interaction later or manually telephoning the user at his home or office. However, if the other user is away from his computer or telephone, none of these options is very helpful. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     To address these and other shortcomings, the inventor has devised a system, method, and software that enable online users to conveniently notify offline users of their desire to interact. Specifically, one embodiment determines that a particular user or computer system is offline or otherwise unavailable, searches a database listing other communications devices associated with that user or computer system, and then automatically tries to transmit a message to another communications device, for example, a wireless pager, associated with the offline user or computer system. The message, in some embodiments, identifies the network address of the computer user seeking an online interaction as well as the type of interaction, for example, an online conversation or multi-player game. 
     Other embodiments, aspects and advantages of the invention will become apparent in view of the accompanying drawings and the following detailed description. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a diagram of a system incorporating the invention; 
     FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a method incorporating the invention; and 
     FIG. 3 is a table illustrating a data structure for a user database. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     The following detailed description, which references and incorporates FIGS. 1-3, describes and illustrates specific embodiments of the invention. These embodiments, offered not to limit but only to exemplify and teach the invention, are shown and described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention. Thus, where appropriate to avoid obscuring the invention, the description may omit certain information known to those of skill in the art. 
     FIG. 1 shows a diagram of an exemplary communications system  10  incorporating a system, method, and software for on-line computer systems to communicate with off-line computer users, for example, to request off-line users to come on-line for conversations, games, or other online interactivity. To this end, communications system  10  includes a plurality of representative computers systems  12   a ,  12   b ,  12   c  interconnected or potentially interconnected via respective communications links  14   a ,  14   b , and  14   c  to a generic computer network  16 . Link  14   a , shown as a solid line, represents an active communications link, whereas links  14   b  and  14   c , shown as broken lines, represent inactive communications links. In other words, system  12   a  is online and systems  12   b  and  12   c  are offline, at least with respect to network  16 . In various embodiments, network  16  is a wide-area network, such as the Internet or the World Wide Web, a local-area network, or an intranet. 
     Communications system  10  further includes a paging server  18  which links computer network  16  to paging network  20 . Paging network  20  communicates, according to conventional paging technology, with pagers  22   a ,  22   b , and  22   c , which are associated with respective computer systems  12   a ,  12   b , and  12   c . In various embodiments, this association stems from attachment or integration of the pagers into the respective computer systems or from physical or logical association of the pagers with one or more users of these respective computer systems. The pagers, or portable selective call receivers, in some embodiments, also include a transmission capability. 
     Computer systems  12   a ,  12   b , and  12   c , in the exemplary embodiment, are similarly equipped personal computer systems, such as the G6 personal computer manufactured by Gateway 2000 of North Sioux City, S. Dak. (In other embodiments, the computers systems may differ from each other in form and capabilities. For example, in some embodiments, one or more of the systems is a portable system, such as the Solo™ 9100 XL portable computer system from Gateway 2000, Inc.) Among the most pertinent features of systems  12   a ,  12   b , and  12   c  are respective processors  121   a ,  121   b , and  121   c , respective network communications devices  122   a - 122   c , and respective data-storage device  123   a - 123   c . In the exemplary embodiment, the processors are Intel Pentium II processors; the network communications devices are 56-Kilobyte-per-second modems; and the storage devices include respective hard drives. However, other embodiments of the invention, use other types of processors, network communications devices, and data storage devices. For example, depending on the particular embodiment, the data storage device includes one or more of the following: a read-only memory (ROM), a random-access-memory (RAM), an electrically-erasable and programmable-read-only memory (EEPROM), an optical disk, or a floppy disk. 
     Additionally, systems  12   a ,  12   b , and  12   c  include respective display devices  124   a ,  124   b , and  124   c , and respective user-interface devices  125   a ,  125   b , and  125   c . Display devices  124  include a color monitor and virtual-reality goggles, and user-interface devices  125  include a keyboard, mouse, joystick, microphone, videocamera, body-field sensors, and virtual-reality apparel, such as gloves, headbands, bodysuits, etc. 
     System  12   a , unlike systems  12   b  and  12   c , also includes offline-user-summoning software  126  and an associated user-summoning database  127 . (As used herein, the term “database” encompasses any physical or logical collection of machine-readable data.) However, in other embodiments, one or both of systems  12   b  and  12   c  also include software  126  and similar databases  127 . In the exemplary embodiment, software  126  and database  127  are stored in data-storage device  123   a.    
     In general, offline-user-summoning software  126  responds to an unsuccessful attempt to interactively engage or communicate with a target computer system or computer user, such as one or both of computer systems  12   b  and  12   c , via network  16 . The attempt may be unsuccessful for any number of reasons; however, for purposes of teaching the invention, one may assume that neither system  12   b  nor system  12   c  has an active link to network  16  as FIG. 1 indicates. However, in other embodiments, one or both of systems  12   b  and  12   c  may be filtering out or ignoring “calls” originating from system  12   a , irrespective of their online status. In any event, after determining or sensing that no interactive link has been established, software  126  causes processor  121   a  to access database  127  and to send a message concerning the failed interaction to an alternative communications device, such as pager  22   b  or  22   c  or other passive communications device, which is associated with system  12   b  or  12   c.    
     More specifically, offline-user-summoning software  126  causes its host computer system, for example system  12   a , to operate according to the exemplary method illustrated in FIG.  2 . The exemplary method begins at step  50 , assuming installation of software  126  and creation of a specific version of database  127 . In step  50 , processor  121  determines that a system user has tried unsuccessfully to initiate an interactive session with a target computer system identified by a name, network address, or other identifying information. In the exemplary embodiment, the target computer system has a conventional Internet address, which conforms to Uniform-Resource-Locator (URL) standards. 
     In step  52 , the processor, having determined that there was an unsuccessful attempt to initiate an interactive session, searches database  127  for the name of the target computer system or user. FIG. 3 shows an exemplary structure for database  127 , which includes a number of interactive-contact records, with each record including a username field, a summoning-device field, and a message field. The username field includes a user name or alias; the summoning-device field includes a pager number, an e-mail address, voice telephone number, and/or fax number; and the message field includes a text or numeric message. In other embodiments, each record further includes a network-address field which identifies a primary network address, a group identification field which identifies one or more groups to which the username belongs, and an interaction-type field which identifies a type of network interactivity, such as conversation, multi-player game, videoconference, virtual-reality session, and so forth. 
     When the processor finds a match, that is, at least one name that corresponds identically or contextually to the target name, the processor accesses the summoning-device field associated with that username. In one embodiment, this field includes a pager number, or other communications-device identifier. 
     Although the exemplary embodiment assumes only one target system or user, other embodiments allow searching for two or more target names, which might be a subset of a target user group. Thus, for example, if a user attempts to initiate an interactive game with a target group of users (or computer systems), with some of the target group being available and others unavailable, one embodiment of the invention will attempt to contact the unavailable users while the other users commence interaction. 
     In step  54 , after having found a match to the target name, system  12   a  attempts to send a message to the one or more alternate communications devices identified in the summoning-device field. In the exemplary embodiment, this entails communicating with pager  22   b  or  22   c  through network  16 , paging server  18 , and paging network  20 . More specifically, processor  121   a  e-mails the pager number and a message through communications device  122   a  and network  16  to an Internet paging service, such as server  18 , and the paging service transmits the message through paging network  20  to the corresponding pagers. (U.S. Pat. 5,487,100 to Kane, which is entitled Electronic Mail Message Delivery System and incorporated herein by reference, discloses details of one technique for achieving this end.) However, other embodiments directly call the pager number, providing it with the message. The exemplary message is a predetermined message identifying the URL, or alias, of system  12   a  with text indicating that an Internet link is desired. However, other embodiments provide a message that also identifies the type of network interaction desired by the online user and/or prompt the user to create a message. 
     In still other embodiments, the software includes instructions for causing the processor to send an e-mail message and/or facsimile to a respective address and facsimile machine associated with the computer system, in addition to-sending the pager message. Still other embodiments include sending an audio file message or establishing a voice telephone link with a speech-to-text interface that transcribes a voice message for use as text in an e-mail. Thus, these embodiments provide additional opportunities for reaching the unavailable user. 
     The system and method of the invention are adaptable to a wide range of applications. For example, one embodiment of the invention operates in the context of an online customer service center, wherein a customer can seek interactive on-line services from a customer-service provider who at times becomes temporarily unavailable. Thus, when the provider is unavailable, this embodiment attempts to contact the customer-service provider via a pager associated with the provider. Other interactive on-line services suitable for such an arrangement include, for example, non-emergency medical services, stock brokerage services, psychic hotline services, virtual-experience services, etc. 
     Conclusion 
     The present invention provides a convenient system, method, and software for summoning or notifying offline computer users that they are wanted online for interactive communications. In the exemplary embodiment, the invention responds to a failed attempt to interactively communicate with a computer system or computer user by searching a database for alternative communications device, such as a pager, associated with the system or user and then sends a message to the system or user via the alternative device, saving time and effort in notifying the offline user. 
     The embodiments described above are intended only to illustrate and teach one or more ways of practicing or implementing the present invention, not to restrict its breadth or scope. The scope of the invention, which encompasses all ways of practicing or implementing the invention, is defined only by the following claims and their equivalents.