Telephony usage derived presence information

Abstract

The present invention relates to a mechanism for providing state information, which bears on the presence of a telephone user, to a presence system. The state information is derived by monitoring events relating to telephony use. Once derived, the state information is directly or indirectly sent to a presence service, which provides presence information to applications requiring such information about the telephone user. The state information preferably bears on the presence, absence, or availability of the telephone user based on their interaction with a telephony device or function. In one embodiment, a telephony switching system is configured to monitor events associated with a telephony device or function and send messages to a presence service over a packet-switched network when the state of the telephony device or function changes. In another embodiment, an IP telephone system is configured to provide state information to the presence service.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.