JP2004272311A - Presence system, presence notification destination control method used therefor, and its program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a presence system for allowing a presentity to finely control the notification destination of a status. <P>SOLUTION: When presence managed by a presence managing part 12 is changed, a presentity agent 1 requests the notification of the change of the presence to a presence notifying part 13. The presence notifying part 13 requests the list of subscribers 3 to which the presence change should be actually notified to a notification destination deciding part 14. The notification destination deciding part 14 acquires the subscriber decided based on a notification destination decision rule from the list of the subscribers 3 acquired from the subscriber managing part 11, and returns it to the presence notifying part 13. The presence notifying part 13 notifies the change of the presence to the subscriber 3 acquired from the notification destination deciding part 14. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO&NCIPI

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a presence system, a presence notification destination control method used therefor, and a program therefor, and more particularly to a presence system including a system for managing the communication state of each user.
[0002]
[Prior art]
In the presence system, a presentity (PRESENTITIES) that provides its own presence information, a subscriber (SUBSCRIBER) that observes it, and a presence service (PRESENCEN) that receives presence information from the presentity and distributes it to the subscribers. SERVICE). The subscriber requests the presence service to notify when the presence information of a presentity changes (for example, see Non-Patent Document 1).
[0003]
The presentity, subscriber, and presence service are all logical components of the presence system, and when they are physically placed on the network, they do not require a server for the presence service. There are cases where a configuration is adopted, and there is a case where a part of the functions of the presentity and the subscriber is distributed and arranged between the client terminal and the server terminal, but this is not distinguished.
[0004]
[Non-Patent Document 1]
RFC (Request for Comments) 2778 “A Model for Presence and Instant Messaging”, February 2000
[0005]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
In the above-described conventional presence service, the notification of the presence change is notified to all subscribed subscribers at the same time, and the presentity cannot finely control the notification destination of the state.
[0006]
For this reason, in the conventional presence service, there is a case where inconvenience may occur when some relationship with the subscriber occurs according to the state of the presentity. For example, if a limited number of relationships can be processed at one time, such as when a call starts when the presentity comes online, there may be subscribers who cannot establish a relationship with the presentity semi-permanently. There is.
[0007]
In addition, in the conventional presence service, there is no mechanism that can specially process even a relationship that is particularly preferentially processed. Further, in the conventional presence service, there is no mechanism in which the presentity controls the notification destination according to the context such as the state and time.
[0008]
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the above-described problems and provide a presence system capable of finely controlling a notification destination of a presentity state, a presence notification destination control method used therefor, and a program therefor.
[0009]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
The presence system according to the present invention includes a presentity (PRESENTITIES) that provides presence information indicating at least a state of the element, a subscriber (SUBSCRIBER) that observes the presence information, and the presence information received from the presentity. The present system includes a presence system including a presence service distributed to subscribers, and the presentity includes notification means for notifying the presence information only to a specific subscriber.
[0010]
The presence notification destination control method according to the present invention includes a presentity (PRESENTITIES) that provides presence information indicating at least the state of the element, a subscriber (SUBSCRIBER) that observes the presence, and the presence received from the presentity. A presence notification destination control method for a presence system comprising a presence service for distributing information to the subscriber, comprising the step of notifying the presentity side of the presence information only to a specific subscriber Yes.
[0011]
The presence notification destination control method program according to the present invention receives from the presentity a presentity (PRESENTITIES) that provides presence information (PRESENCE) indicating at least the state of the element, a subscriber (SUBSCRIBER) that observes the presentity. A program of a presence notification destination control method of a presence system including a presence service (PRESERVICE SERVICE) that distributes the presence information to the subscriber, and executes a process of notifying the computer of the presence information only to a specific subscriber I am letting.
[0012]
That is, the presence system of the present invention notifies only a subscriber who satisfies a specific condition among watchers (hereinafter referred to as subscribers) monitoring the state of the presentity when the presence of the presentity changes. It is a method. For example, there is a method in which presence change of a presentity is notified in order from a subscriber at the head of a queue.
[0013]
As a result, in the presence system of the present invention, while a certain presentity and a certain subscriber are communicating, communication with the presentity is possible even if other subscribers cannot communicate with the presentity. It can be ensured that all subscribers who want to be able to communicate with the presentity.
[0014]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a presence system according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 1, a presence system according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a presentity agent 1 for providing his / her presence information and a subscriber (SUBSCRIBER) 3 [subscriber watcher (WATCHERS) for observing the presence information. , And presence service 2 that receives presence information from the presentity agent 1 and distributes it to the subscriber 3.
[0015]
The presentity agent 1, the subscriber 3, and the presence service 2 are logical components of the presence system, respectively. When physically arranged on the network, the peer-to-service that does not require a server for the presence service. There are cases where a peer configuration is used, or a configuration in which some of the functions of the presentity and subscribers are distributed between the client terminal and the server terminal, but this is not distinguished.
[0016]
The “presence information” is “information indicating at least the state of the element” in the presentity agent 1 that is a logical component, and this “state” is also an object indicated by the presentity. However, the personal communication status ("busy", "empty", "power off", etc.), device usage status ("busy", "vacant", "failure", etc.), personal status (""During desk work", "Meeting", "During break", "During meal", "Sleeping", etc.).
[0017]
The presentity agent 1 includes a subscriber management unit 11, a presence management unit 12, a presence notification unit 13, a notification destination determination unit 14, a notification destination determination rule holding unit 15, and a recording medium 16. The recording medium 16 stores a computer-executable program, and the presentity agent 1 executes the program to realize the processing of each unit described above.
[0018]
The subscriber management unit 11 manages a list of subscribers 3 who are connected through the presence service 2 and wish to be notified of a change in presence. The presence manager 12 manages the present presence of the presentity.
[0019]
Based on the rule acquired from the notification destination determination rule holding unit 15, the notification destination determination unit 14 determines a party to actually notify the presence change among the subscribers 3 managed by the subscriber management unit 11. The presence notification unit 13 notifies the subscriber 3 determined by the notification destination determination unit 14 of the presence change.
[0020]
Presence notification destination decision rules include subscribers such as “subscriber who subscribes first”, “subscriber belonging to a specific group”, “subscriber belonging to a private group when the presence of the presentity is“ free ””, etc. Rules based on the three attributes and actions, the presence status of the presentity, and the like can be set, and the format of the rules is arbitrary. As described above, the “presence” targeted in one embodiment of the present invention includes not only the personal communication status but also the usage status of the device or the like.
[0021]
FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the presentity agent 1 of FIG. The operation of presence notification destination control processing in the presence system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. The processing shown in FIG. 2 is realized by the presentity agent 1 executing the program of the recording medium 16.
[0022]
Upon receiving a presence notification request (subscribe) from the subscriber 3 (step S7 in FIG. 2), the presentity agent 1 adds this to the list (not shown) of the subscriber management unit 11 (step S8 in FIG. 2). Also, the presentity agent 1 notifies the presence to the subscriber 3 that has issued the subscription (steps S5 and S6 in FIG. 2).
[0023]
When the presence managed by the presence management unit 12 changes (step S1 in FIG. 2), the presentity agent 1 requests the presence notification unit 13 to notify the presence change.
[0024]
The presence notification unit 13 requests the notification destination determination unit 14 for a list of subscribers 3 that actually notify the presence change. The notification destination determination unit 14 acquires the subscriber 3 determined based on the notification destination determination rule from the list of subscribers 3 acquired from the subscriber management unit 11 (steps S2 to S4 in FIG. 2). return.
[0025]
The presence notification unit 13 notifies the subscriber 3 acquired from the notification destination determination unit 14 of the presence change (steps S5 and S6 in FIG. 2). The presentity agent 1 repeatedly executes the above-described presence notification destination control process.
[0026]
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a specific example of a presence system according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 3, it is assumed that the usage status of a certain device A is managed by the presentity agent 1.
[0027]
Here, the presence of the presentity has two states of being used / free. In addition, a user who wants to use the device A can use the device A by monitoring the usage status of the device A from the subscribers 3-1 to 3-N through the presence service 2 and receiving a notification of the “vacant” state.
[0028]
In addition, as a notification destination determination rule, a rule “subscriber first subscribed” B is set, and among the subscribers 3-1 to 3 -N managed by the subscriber management unit 11, the presentity agent 1 It is assumed that the subscriber who subscribed first is selected as the notification destination when the presence changes.
[0029]
The subscriber who wants to use the device A subscribes to the presentity agent 1 corresponding to the device A from the subscribers 3-1 to 3-N through the presence service 2, and monitors the usage status of the device A. If the user A who wants to use the device A subscribes, if the device A is in an “empty” state, the user who wants to use the device A ends the monitoring (subscribe) and immediately uses the device A. be able to.
[0030]
Hereinafter, an operation when the device A is “in use” and one or more users who want to use the device A subscribe to the device A will be described. Here, the user who wishes to use the device A is identified by the subscribers 3-1, 3-2,..., 3 -N in the order of subscribing. Assume that you are receiving.
[0031]
When the usage status of the device A changes from “in use” to “free”, the presence management unit 12 of the presentity agent 1 requests the presence notification unit 13 to notify the presence change. The presence notification unit 13 requests the notification destination determination unit 14 for a list of subscribers 3-1 to 3-N that actually notify the presence change.
[0032]
The notification destination determination unit 14 acquires “subscriber 3-1” determined from the notification destination determination rule “subscriber first subscribed” B from the list of subscribers 3-1 to 3-N acquired from the subscriber management unit 11. And returns it to the presence notification unit 13.
[0033]
The presence notification unit 13 notifies the acquired “subscriber 3-1” of the “vacant” state. The “subscriber 3-1” having received the notification of the “vacant” state ends the subscription, starts using the device A, and the usage status of the device A managed by the presence management unit 12 becomes “in use”. change.
[0034]
When the “subscriber 3-1” finishes using the device A, the presence management unit 12 returns to the presence change notification request to the presence notification unit 13 described above.
[0035]
The “subscriber 3-1” that has received the “vacant” notification does not start using the device A, and as a result, no one can use the device A. In order to avoid this, in the process of “subscriber 3-1” that has received the notification of the “free” state, if it does not change to “in use” even after a certain period of time, it returns to the list request by the presence notification unit 13, and A “vacant” notification may be sent to the user “subscriber 3-2” who wants to use the service.
[0036]
At that time, “subscriber 3-1” may be deleted from the subscriber management unit 11 or may be treated as a subscriber with a low priority. The presentity need not be limited to the device A. For example, the present state may be the state of the user, and a method similar to the above may be applied even in a case where a call is started when a certain user becomes “vacant”. it can.
[0037]
As described above, in the present embodiment, presence notification is preferentially performed on the subscribers 3-1 to 3-N determined based on a specific rule, so that a change in the presence of the presentity is used as a trigger. When a “relationship” exists between the presentity and the subscribers 3-1 to 3 -N, the establishment of the “relationship” can be controlled.
[0038]
For example, when a device A corresponding to a presentity becomes empty, and a user who wants to use the device A corresponding to the subscriber 3 uses the device A, a user corresponding to the presentity is in an online state. When a call with another user corresponding to the subscriber 3 is started, the order of establishment of the “relationships” can be controlled by controlling the state change notification destination.
[0039]
Thus, in this embodiment, if a presentity and a subscriber 3,3-1 to 3-N establish a “relationship”, even if other subscribers cannot establish a relationship with that presentity. For example, it is possible to guarantee that all the subscribers 3-1 to 3 -N who desire to establish the relationship with the presentity establish the relationship with the presentity by performing the notification according to the order of the subscription. .
[0040]
Therefore, when the device A having presence indicates whether or not the device A is “in use”, it is possible to sequentially give usage permission to a user who desires to use the device A.
[0041]
In this embodiment, when it is desired to notify only a specific subscriber 3 that a certain state has been reached, it is also possible to control this. For example, it is not possible to notify only a close friend of the state such as “I want to go for a drink because I am free”, or to notify the user that the operation status of the device A is “failed”. It is also possible to perform a control such as notifying only to.
[0042]
In one embodiment of the present invention, the notification is sent to only one of the subscribers 3-1 to 3-N, but the notification is sent to a plurality of subscribers 3-1 to 3-N at a time. It is also possible. In this case, different presence information can be simultaneously transmitted to the plurality of subscribers 3-1 to 3 -N.
[0043]
In one embodiment of the present invention, the notification destination is simply determined according to the order of subscribing, but if the subscription from the user continues even after the device A is used, After notifying the “medium” state, the “free” state can be preferentially notified to the subscriber having the longest elapsed time.
[0044]
Also, in one embodiment of the present invention, when the subscribers 3-1 to 3 -N waiting for the turn temporarily go offline, the presentity stores the order of the subscribers 3-1 to 3 -N. You can also As a result, after the subscribers 3-1 to 3-N come back online, the subscribers 3-1 to 3-N that have reissued the subscription can resume waiting in the order in which they went offline.
[0045]
Furthermore, in one embodiment of the present invention, the notification destination is simply determined according to the order of subscription, but the notification order may be determined according to the attributes of the subscribers 3-1 to 3 -N. For example, a member preferential service or the like can issue a notification preferentially to a subscriber having a preferential right.
[0046]
In addition to the above, in the present invention, the notification destination may be changed according to the time and the state of the presentity. For example, if the presentity represents the user's "working at desk", "meeting", "resting", "mealing", "sleeping", the status is only for work-related subscribers during working hours Notification can be made and status notifications can be sent only to subscribers such as family members and friends outside the working hours.
[0047]
In this case, an attribute indicating how the subscriber is related to the presentity is used in the notification destination determination rule. Further, when there are a plurality of attributes between the subscriber and the presentity, the plurality of attributes are used in the notification destination determination rule. At that time, presence information corresponding to each attribute is simultaneously sent to a plurality of subscribers.
[0048]
In one embodiment of the present invention, since the state is notified only to the subscriber 3 determined by the notification destination determination unit 14, the notification waiting time cannot be predicted for other subscribers. It is possible to predict the waiting time until a subscriber who is not the notification target receives the notification by notifying the subscribers that are not the notification target of the order of the notification target.
[0049]
Further, in one embodiment of the present invention, the subscriber 3 who has received the notification of the “vacant” status has obtained the right to use the device A. By sending a time-limited electronic ticket or the like together with this notification, The use right of the device A can be confirmed by the electronic ticket.
[0050]
FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a presence system according to another embodiment of the present invention. 4, the presence system according to another embodiment of the present invention has the same configuration as the presence system according to the embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 1 except that a notification condition management unit 4 is added to the subscriber 3. The same components are denoted by the same reference numerals. The operation of the same components is almost the same as that of the embodiment of the present invention, and differences from the embodiment of the present invention will be described below.
[0051]
In another embodiment of the present invention, the subscriber 3 employs a method of issuing a subscription by adding the notification condition acquired from the notification condition management unit 4 when the subscription is issued.
[0052]
FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of presence notification destination control processing in the presence system according to another embodiment of the present invention. The operation of the presence notification destination control process in the presence system according to another embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. Note that the process shown in FIG. 5 is realized by the presentity agent 1 executing the program of the recording medium 16.
[0053]
When presentity agent 1 receives a presence notification request (subscribe) from subscriber 3 (step S17 in FIG. 5), it adds this to a list (not shown) in subscriber management unit 11 (step S18 in FIG. 5).
[0054]
If the notification condition is included in the subscription (step S19 in FIG. 5), the presentity agent 1 adds the notification condition to the rule held in the notification destination determination rule holding unit 2 as a notification destination determination rule (step in FIG. 5). S20). Thereafter, the presentity agent 1 notifies the presence to the subscriber 3 who has issued the subscription (steps S15 and S16 in FIG. 5).
[0055]
When the presence managed by the presence management unit 12 changes (step S11 in FIG. 5), the presentity agent 1 requests the presence notification unit 13 to notify the presence change.
[0056]
The presence notification unit 13 requests the notification destination determination unit 14 for a list of subscribers 3 that actually notify the presence change. The notification destination determination unit 14 acquires a subscriber determined based on the notification destination determination rule from the list of subscribers 3 acquired from the subscriber management unit 11 (steps S12 to S14 in FIG. 5), and returns the subscriber to the presence notification unit 13. .
[0057]
The presence notification unit 13 notifies the subscriber 3 acquired from the notification destination determination unit 14 of the presence change (steps S15 and S16 in FIG. 5). The presentity agent 1 repeatedly executes the above-described presence notification destination control process.
[0058]
Here, as the notification condition, a rule such as “when a certain state is reached” can be specified. In addition, the notification condition can include a waiting-wait participation request. In another embodiment of the invention, all subscribers who have issued a subscription participate in the queue.
[0059]
If you do not explicitly include the queued participation request in the subscription, you can prevent participation in the queue by simply subscribing to subscribe for viewing the device usage status and queued subscription. Both can be realized. When a subscriber who has issued a subscription for viewing the usage status uses the device, a subscription including an order waiting request is performed again. In this case, information indicating a usage right or the like is included in the notification to the subscribers participating in the waiting order.
[0060]
Alternatively, subscribers participating in the queue are notified of usage rights using means other than normal presence change notification such as IM (Instant Messaging), e-mail, telephone, etc. The change may be notified to all subscribing subscribers as in the normal presence service.
[0061]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, the configuration and operation as described above can provide an effect that the presentity can finely control the notification destination of the state.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a presence system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation of the presentity agent of FIG.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a specific example of a presence system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a presence system according to another embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of presence notification destination control processing in the presence system according to another embodiment of the present invention.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Presentity agent 2 Presence service 3 Subscriber 4 Notification condition management part 11 Subscriber management part 12 Presence management part 13 Presence notification part 14 Notification destination determination part 15 Notification destination determination rule holding | maintenance part 16 Recording medium A Device B First subscribed Subscriber

Claims (19)

Presentity (PRESENTIES) that provides presence information indicating at least the state of its own element, a subscriber (SUBSCRIBER) that observes it, and a presence service that distributes the presence information received from the presentity to the subscriber ( A presence system comprising: PRESENCE SERVICE, wherein the presentity has notification means for notifying only a specific subscriber of the presence information. The presentity includes means for deriving the specific subscriber from a notification destination determination rule held by the presentity,
The presence system according to claim 1, wherein the notification unit notifies the presence information only to the specific subscriber derived from the notification unit. Means for deriving the specific subscriber from a notification destination determination rule including a notification condition specified by the subscriber;
The presence system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the notification means notifies the presence information only to the specific subscriber derived from the notification means. The presence system according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein a subscriber who notifies the presence information is determined according to an order in which the subscriber subscribes. The presence system according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein a subscriber who notifies the presence information is determined according to an attribute of the subscriber. The presence system according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein a subscriber who notifies the presence information is determined according to presence of the presentity. The presence system according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein information for authenticating that a notification destination subscriber is the specific subscriber is added when the presence information is notified. The presence system according to claim 7, wherein the information for authentication is information with a preset time limit. The presence system according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the presence information notification includes at least one of an instant message, an electronic mail, and a telephone notification. Presentity (PRESENTIES) that provides presence information indicating at least the state of its own element, a subscriber (SUBSCRIBER) that observes it, and a presence service that distributes the presence information received from the presentity to the subscriber ( A presence notification destination control method of a presence system comprising PRESENCE SERVICE, wherein the presence information is notified only to a specific subscriber on the presentity side. Deriving the specific subscriber from a notification destination determination rule held by the presentity on the presentity side;
The presence notification destination control method according to claim 10, wherein the notification of presence information is performed by notifying the presence information only to the derived specific subscriber. Deriving the specific subscriber from a notification destination determination rule including a notification condition designated by the subscriber on the presentity side;
12. The presence notification destination control method according to claim 10, wherein the presence information notification step notifies the presence information only to the derived specific subscriber. The presence notification destination control method according to any one of claims 10 to 12, wherein a subscriber who notifies the presence information is determined according to an order in which the subscriber subscribes. 14. The presence notification destination control method according to claim 10, wherein a subscriber who notifies the presence information is determined according to an attribute of the subscriber. 15. The presence notification destination control method according to claim 10, wherein a subscriber who notifies the presence information is determined according to presence of the presentity. 16. The presence notification destination according to claim 10, wherein information for authenticating that a notification destination subscriber is the specific subscriber is added when the presence information is notified. Control method. The presence notification destination control method according to claim 16, wherein the information for authentication is information with a preset time limit. 18. The notification of presence information is performed by notifying the presence information by means including at least one of an instant message, an e-mail, and a telephone notification. The presence notification destination control method according to any one of the above. Presentity (PRESENTIES) that provides presence information indicating at least the state of its own element, a subscriber (SUBSCRIBER) that observes it, and a presence service that distributes the presence information received from the presentity to the subscriber ( A program for a presence notification destination control method of a presence system comprising PRESENCE SERVICE), which causes a computer to execute a process of notifying only a specific subscriber of the presence information.

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