US 6,691,151 B1 · Unified messaging methods and systems for communication and cooperation among distributed agents in a computing environment

Abstract

The present invention provides a Unified Messaging system with an emphasis on ubiquitous access and dynamic presentation of the information and services supported by an agent community. The present invention allows queries across dynamically changing, complex information; shared context and reference resolution among applications; and flexible translation of multimedia data. Utilizing an Open Agent Architecture, the present invention allows a user to receive multiple information types, such as email, voicemail, and multimedia data, utilizing a single user interface, such as a phone. Communication and cooperation between agents are brokered by one or more facilitators, which are responsible for matching requests, from users and agents, with descriptions of the capabilities of other agents. It is not generally required that a user or agent know the identities, locations, or number of other agents involved in satisfying a request, and relatively minimal effort is involved in incorporating new agents and “wrapping” legacy applications. Extreme flexibility is achieved through an architecture organized around the declaration of capabilities by service-providing agents, the construction of arbitrarily complex goals by users and service-requesting agents, and the role of facilitators in delegating and coordinating the satisfaction of these goals, subject to advice and constraints that may accompany them.

Claims38

Dependent claims

A method for providing unified messaging within an Open Agent Architecture (OAA) having a plurality of distributed electronic agents, the unified messaging method comprising the computer implemented acts of:

receiving a user request for messages of more than one type, wherein said messages are communications intended for consumption by one or more human beings;
and
providing to the user said messages utilizing a facilitator agent, wherein said facilitator agent, in a course of providing said messages requested by said user, generates one or more sub-goals and dispatches each of said one or more sub-goals to a particular client agent for performance based on capabilities of the particular client agent, wherein the capabilities of the particular client agent are made known to the facilitator agent and other client agents through registration of the capabilities with the facilitator agent.

A unified messaging system operable within an Open Agent Architecture (OAA), the unified messaging system operable to allow a user to receive messages of more than one type, the unified messaging system comprising:

a user interface system having an input structure operable to receive a user request for messages of more than one type, wherein said messages are communications intended for consumption by one or more human beings and the user interface capable of interfacing with the user according to a set of message types;
a processing system including:
a central processing unit (CPU);
memory bi-directionally coupled to the CPU;
a transceiver bi-directionally coupled to the CPU;
and
a facilitator agent operable to facilitate provision of said messages requested by said user, wherein said facilitator agent, in a course of providing said messages requested by said user, generates one or more sub-goals and dispatches each of said one or more sub-goals to a particular client agent for performance based on capabilities of the particular client agent, wherein the capabilities of the particular client agent are made known to the facilitator agent and other client agents through registration of the capabilities with the facilitator agent.

4 more elements

A computer program embodied on a computer readable medium for providing unified messaging within an Open Agent Architecture (OAA), the computer program comprising:

a code segment that receives a user request for messages of more than one type, wherein said messages are communications intended for consumption by one or more human beings;
and
a code segment that provides to the user said messages utilizing a facilitator agent, wherein said facilitator agent, in a course of providing said messages requested by said user, generates one or more sub-goals and dispatches each of said one or more sub-goals to a particular client agent for performance based on capabilities of the particular client agent, wherein the capabilities of the particular client agent are made known to the facilitator agent and other client agents through registration of the capabilities with the facilitator agent.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Unified messaging methods and systems for communication and cooperation among distributed agents in a computing environment

Life of this patent

Unified messaging methods and systems for communication and cooperation among distributed agents in a computing environment

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims38