Method and device for determining location-enhanced presence information for entities subscribed to a communications system

A device for determining location-enhanced presence information for a particular entity subscribed to a communications system, said device comprising:

• a) a first input for receiving a location update for the particular entity, said location update indicative of a current location of the particular entity;
• b) a second input for receiving a presence update for the particular entity, said presence update indicative of a current activity status of the particular entity within the communications system;
• c) a processing unit including a set of conditional rules associated with the particular entity, said processing unit operative to apply a combination of said current location and said current activity status of the particular entity as a condition to said rules for determining current location-enhanced presence information for the particular entity.

A computer-readable storage medium containing a program element for execution by a computing apparatus to determine location-enhanced presence information for a particular entity, the program element including:

• a) computer-readable program code for detecting receipt of a location update for the particular entity, said location update indicative of a current location of the particular entity;
• b) computer-readable program code for detecting receipt of a presence update for the particular entity, said presence update indicative of a current activity status of the particular entity;
• c) computer-readable program code for processing a combination of said current location and said current activity status of the particular entity on a basis of a set of predefined conditional rules associated with the particular entity, thereby determining location-enhanced presence information for the particular entity.

A method of influencing communications session routing in a multimedia communications network, the multimedia communications network including a plurality of terminals, each terminal having a display, said method comprising:

• a) obtaining location-enhanced presence information associated with a first entity subscribed to the multimedia communications network, said location-enhanced presence information having been determined on a basis of a combination of a current location of the first entity and a current activity status within the multimedia communications network of the first entity;
• b) conveying said location-enhanced presence information for the particular entity to a second entity subscribed to the multimedia communications network via a display of one of the plurality of terminals.

A computer-readable storage medium containing a program element for execution by a computing apparatus to influence communications session routing in a multimedia communications network, the multimedia communications network including a plurality of terminals, each terminal having a display, said program element including:

• a) computer-readable program code for detecting receipt of location-enhanced presence information for a first entity subscribed to the multimedia communications network, said location-enhanced presence information having been determined on a basis of a combination of a current location of the first entity and a current activity status within the multimedia communications network of the first entity;
• b) computer-readable program code for conveying said location-enhanced presence information for the particular entity to a second entity subscribed to the multimedia communications network via a display of one of the plurality of terminals.