Patent ID: 8185583

Claim:
A presence communication method comprising: a first endpoint determining a second endpoint with which to establish a desired communication session; the first endpoint sending a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) notification message to the second endpoint regarding the desired communication session; the second endpoint providing a response message to the SIP notification message prior to establishing the desired communication session, the response message containing presence state data, and image capture data comprising surroundings of the second endpoint, the image capture data provided by an image device in communication with the second endpoint; the first endpoint receiving the response message from the second endpoint prior to establishing the desired communication session; the first endpoint making a decision based on the image capture data and presence state data, prior to establishing the desired communication session, of whether to terminate an attempt to establish the desired communication session or to continue to establish the desired communication session; and wherein making the decision comprises the first endpoint performing image processing on the image capture data and interpreting the presence state data to determine a presence of the second endpoint; and wherein the second endpoint providing a response message to the SIP notification message comprises the second endpoint checking an image enable flag, the second endpoint providing image capture data when the image enable flag is set, and the second endpoint not providing the image capture data when the image enable flag is clear such that the response message does not contain the image capture data.