Patent ID: 7907051

Claim:
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 component 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 communications server that determines the presence indicator status of the user in accordance with a presence setting selection made 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 of the 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 components 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 component of said wheel from said device to the communications server; receiving an updated presence indicator status at said device 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.