Patent ID: 7529683

Claim:
A computer-implemented system that facilitates information processing, comprising: a processor; and a memory, communicatively coupled to the processor, having stored thereon at least one component comprising: an analyzer that automatically determines a user's availability based at least in part upon patterns of the user's interruptability; and a deferral component that determines a bounded deferral period at the end of which to deliver an information item to the user in accordance with the user's availability, wherein a maximal deferral time is determined based at least in part on one or more of an exact or approximate minimization of a net expected cost to the user both of delay and of interruption, the net expected cost of delay and the net expected cost of interruption scaled to a substantially similar scale, the maximal deferral time, t, being determined via one of an ideal or approximate minimization of the following formula: W ( t )=( c +ƒ( t )) g ( t )+∫ 0 t −g ′( s )ƒ( s ) ds, where W(t) is a total expected cost; g(t) describes a probability that the user will be busy after waiting up until the maximal deferral time t; ƒ(t) is a loss in the value of seeing the information item, relative to an initial value of reviewing the information item when it arrives, when reviewing the information item at the maximal deferral time t; ƒ(s) is a loss of value of the information item at time s that the user might become available before the maximal deferral time t under uncertainty; and c is a cost of interruption if the user is busy.