Patent Publication Number: US-2009222512-A1

Title: Entryway Communication System

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD  
     This invention relates to generally to electronic communications systems, and specifically to intercom systems. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
     A drop-by visitor to an office, a business, or other premises, may find the office door closed or the business door locked. The visitor is thus discouraged or prevented from communicating face-to-face with the occupant(s) of the office or business. Use of administrative assistants, security guards, identification card readers, office-hour signs, notes on doors indicating the status of the occupant, intercom systems, and the like, or even knocking by the visitor, ameliorate the problem somewhat. A better solution is for the visitor to call or instant-message the occupant(s), e.g., on the visitor&#39;s cell phone. But this results in a real-time two way communication only if the occupant is willing to be interrupted by the call and answer it immediately, as opposed to allowing the call to go to voice mail. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
     According to one aspect of the invention, there is provided an entryway communication client device or system that enables a visitor to a premises to communicate with an occupant of the premises in real time, but in a way that is less intrusive than face-to-face communications such as voice communications—namely, via visual communications such as icons and text. The client device is located in proximity to the entryway to the premises, and comprises a user-interface and a display screen. The client device is connected, or adapted for connection, to a communication server that implements a presence service for the occupant and provides presence information about the occupant to the device. The device displays the provided presence information on its display screen and provides information entered by the visitor via its user interface to the server. The server displays the entered information to the occupant. 
     This manner of communicating with the visitor is much less intrusive on and disruptive to the occupant than a voice communication. Hence, there may be no situation, except for the occupant not being present on the premises, where as little (none) communication occurs as if the visitor were to knock on the entryway and receive no answer. Consequently, the visitor&#39;s visit is not in vain even if the visitor does not get to speak with the occupant. 
     The invention may be implemented both as a method and an apparatus, as well as a computer-readable medium containing instructions which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform the method. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING  
       These and other features and advantages of the invention will become more apparent from considering the following description of an illustrative embodiment of the invention together with the drawing, in which: 
         FIG. 1  shows premises that include an illustrative embodiment of the invention; 
         FIG. 2  is a block diagram of a client device of the premises of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 3  is a block diagram of a server of the premises of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 4  shows an illustrative image displayed by the client device of  FIG. 2 ; 
         FIG. 5  shows an illustrative image displayed by the server of  FIG. 3 ; and 
         FIG. 6  is a flowchart showing illustrative use of an entryway communication system of the premises of  FIG. 1 . 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       FIG. 1  shows premises  100  equipped with a communications system that comprises a client device  104  located near an entryway  102  to premises  100  and connected to a server  108 . Premises  100  may be any desired premises, such as an individual office, a business, a residence, etc. If entryway  102  is an outdoor entrance, device  104  is weather-proofed. When a visitor  110  drops by premises  100  intending to speak with occupant  112  of premises  100 , but finds entrance  102  to be closed or locked, visitor  110  uses device  104  to find out the status (“presence”) of occupant  112  and to appraise occupant  112  of the physical presence of visitor  110  at entrance  102  and of the purpose of the visitor&#39;s visit. 
     Connection  106  is any desired wired or wireless communications connection. For example, connection  106  may be an instant messaging (IM) connection. Device  104  is shown in more detail in  FIG. 2 . It is illustratively a stored-program controlled device comprising storage  202  for storing programs  210  and data, a processor  200  for executing programs from storage  202 , an input/output (I/O)  204  such as a communications port for communicatively connecting device  104  to server  108  via connection  106 , a display screen  208 , and a user interface (UI)  206  such as a keyboard, a touch-sensitive screen, and/or a point-and-click device. For example, device  104  may comprise a cellular telephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), or a tablet personal computer. Device  104  may be mounted on a wall of premises  100 . 
     Server  108  is shown in more detail in  FIG. 3 . Server  108  is likewise a stored-program controlled device that comprises storage  302  for storing programs  310 - 314  and data, a processor  300  for executing programs from storage  302 , an input/output (IO)  304  for connecting server  108  to connection  106 , a display screen  308 , and user interface (UI)  306 . For example, server  108  may be a personal computer or a workstation of occupant  112 . Alternatively, server  108  may comprise a user device akin to device  104  and a separate host computer that interfaces the two user devices. Server  108  implements a conventional presence service  314  for occupant  112 . For this purpose, server  108  has access to sources of presence information regarding occupant  112 , such as the occupant&#39;s on-line calendar  312 , current telephone-status source  320 , current personal-computer-status source  316 , on-premises badge reader  318 , etc. Additionally, occupant  112  may manually enter their presence status into server  108 . The manual entry may either override or supplement the presence status that is automatically determined by the presence service  314 . Presence service  314  creates and maintains a presentity representing occupant  112 , and device  104  is subscribed as a watcher to the presentity, in a conventional manner. 
     If premises  100  are shared by a plurality of occupants  112 , server  108  provides a presence service  314  for each occupant  112 , and device  104  indicates the presence of whichever occupant  112  is selected by visitor  110  through interaction with device  104 . 
       FIG. 4  shows a sample image  400  that is displayed on display screen  208  of device  104  according to one aspect of the invention. Image  400  presents one or more status icons  406  that represent current presence status of occupant  112 , a plurality of task icons  407  that represent tasks that a visitor  110  may select, a calendar field  408  that shows calendar entries of occupant  112 , a text field  409  that presents a chat interface between visitor  110  and occupant  112  showing the visitor&#39;s text entries and the occupant&#39;s text responses, and an “alternative page” icon  410  the selection of which by visitor  110  causes alternative pages or child views to be displayed as images on display screen  208 . The location of icons  406 ,  407 , and  410  and of fields  408  and  409  on display screen  208  is not important—they may be located anywhere as desired. Icons  406 ,  407 , and  410  may be elaborated or simplified depending on cost, context (e.g., type of business, number of occupants, etc.), or other factors (type of applications for calendar, presence, etc.). Calendar field  408  shows a simplified—sanitized—version of the occupant&#39;s calendar, such as merely indicating a time and whether the occupant is “busy-in office”, “busy-out of office”, or “free” at that time, without giving details. Status icons  406  may represent status such as “do not disturb”, “knock and come in”, “on phone”, “in a meeting”, “please wait”, “time delay”, “pick a time to meet”, etc. Task icons  407  may represent tasks such as “Can we talk?”, “Amount of time needed?”, “We have a scheduled meeting—shall we postpone?”, “criticality of visit”, “topic(s)”, “visitor&#39;s identity”, “business or personal visit”, “let&#39;s chat”, etc. Other icons  407  may be specific to particular premises  100 , such as to a residence or to a type of business being conducted on premises  100 . Some icons  406  and  407  may come pre-programmed as generally-useful icons, while other icons  406 ,  407  may be created by occupant  112  to customize image  400  to the occupant&#39;s particular needs. 
     Substantially the same image  500  is illustratively presented to occupant  112  on server  108 , as shown in  FIG. 5 , but with icons  407  and  408  reversed, such that icons  506  show all icons  406  selectable by occupant  112 , and icons  507  shown icons  407  selected by visitor  110 . Furthermore, image  500  may show the occupant&#39;s full calendar  508 , as opposed to the sanitized version  408  thereof. When a visitor  110  begins to use device  104 , an alerting icon such as a small version of image  500  may pop up on a display screen  308  of server  108  to alert occupant  112  to the visitor&#39;s presence. When occupant  112  selects that alerting icon, a full-size version of image  500  is displayed to occupant  112 . 
       FIG. 6  illustrates use of the communication system of premises  100 . When visitor  110  arrives at premises  100  and first interacts with device  104 , such as by selecting one or more icons  407  or entering text in chat field  409 , at step  600 , occupant  112  is notified and presented with the visitor&#39;s input, at step  602 . For example, a pop-up is displayed to occupant  112  on display screen  308  of server  108 , and when occupant  112  selects the pop-up, server  108  displays image  500  highlighting the selected icon(s)  407  or showing the inputted text. At step  604 , occupant  112  determines if visitor  110  selected “Can we talk?” icon  407  or inputted similar text. If so, and if occupant  112  decides to talk to the visitor  110  at this time, occupant  112  selects a “come in” icon  506  in image  500 . This icon  506  is displayed to visitor  110  as an icon  406  in image  400  on device  104 , at step  606 . If visitor  110  selected “Can we talk?” icon  407  or inputted similar text but occupant  112  decides not to talk to visitor  110  at this time, or if visitor  110  did not select “Can we talk?” icon  407  and did not input similar text, visitor  110  and occupant  112  interact via device  104  (and server  108 ), at step  608 , to, for example, schedule a meeting, arrange a drop-back time, or answer the visitor&#39;s question. If visitor  110  selected “Can we talk?” icon  407  or inputted similar text, but occupant  112  has not yet decided whether or not to talk to visitor  110 , occupant  112  considers other information that visitor  110  may have provided, such as other icons  407  selected by visitor  110  or textual information input by visitor  110 , to determine whether or not to meet with visitor  110 , at step  616 . For example, occupant  112  may need to ascertain the topic of desired conversation, the amount of time needed for the conversation, and the criticality of the subject, before deciding whether or not to talk to visitor  110 . If visitor  110  did not provide sufficient additional information, as determined at step  610 , occupant  112  prompts visitor  110  via device  104  to provide the additional information, at step  612 , and visitor does so via device  104 , at step  614 . If occupant  112  determines at step  616  that the additional information, such as the time, topic, and/or criticality, favor talking to the visitor, occupant  112  invites visitor  110  to come in, at step  606 . If talking is not favored at step  616 , occupant  112  and visitor  110  proceed to interact via device  104 , at step  608 . If occupant  112  is conditionally willing to talk to visitor  110 , occupant  112  indicates the conditions to visitor  110 , at step  618 . A condition may be, for example, “Can you wait five minutes?”. Visitor  110  responds to the conditions via device  104 , at step  620 . If visitor  110  does not accept the conditions, as determined at step  622 , the interaction of occupant  112  and visitor  110  proceeds to step  608 . If visitor  110  accepts the conditions, as determined at step  622 , and when the conditions are fulfilled, as determined at step  624 , occupant  112  returns to step  616  to determine if anything has changed in the meantime, e.g., has a critical phone call arrived, to change the occupant&#39;s decision to meet with visitor  110 . If nothing has changed, occupant  112  proceeds to step  606  to meet with visitor  110 . 
     Of course, various changes and modifications to the illustrative embodiment described above will be apparent to those skilled in the art. For example, device  104  may be supplemented with a camera or a biometric detector that helps occupant  112  ensure that visitor  110  is who they say they are. Or, device  104  could be a PDA or other device that user  110  might carry with them, and when user  110  arrives at the door, they could be signaled via a tone or vibration that a user interface is available for load to their device via IRDA port or equivalent. Another variation is that an IRDA port could be resident on device  104  that could in turn transmit a future meeting to the user&#39;s device (PDA or similar) via the IRDA port. These changes and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit and the scope of the invention and without diminishing its attendant advantages. It is therefore intended that such changes and modifications be covered by the following claims except insofar as limited by the prior art.