Active Messenger: Email Filtering and Mobile Delivery
Description of the system 2.1Background and concept of Active Messenger
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2.Description of the system2.1Background and concept of Active MessengerThe Active Messenger focuses explicitly on the specific communication needs of the members of the MIT Media Laboratory Speech Interface Group. They have a multitude of communication channels and devices available. First, there are networked PC’s and workstations in the offices, and all users have PC’s with dial-up or even permanent network connections at home. Email can be delivered to alphanumeric pagers with different ranges (Canard [5][6] is MIT Campus wide, SkyTel™ [27] USA nation wide in major metropolitan areas, and Iridium™ [13] worldwide), as well as to text-capable cellular telephones (Short Messaging Service based on the GSM standard). Email can also be transformed to fax messages and sent to the most likely location of the user, be it at home or in the office. Messages can be sent to ICQ™ by Mirabilis [12] or the Instant Messenger™ by AOL [1]. Both are popular commercial instant or even real-time messaging channels, based on the “buddy list” idea.10 Furthermore, the Active Messenger can call up wired or cellular phones and read the email message using a text-to-speech module. Over the phone, it is not restricted to synchronous telephone connections, but can also leave messages on answering machines and voice mail systems. Additionally, a user can read email and listen to voice mail from Phoneshell [26]11, the Speech Group's phone interface to email and voice mail. Upon an incoming email message, the Active Messenger has to solve the following four primary problems:
Problem 1 is non-trivial, because most channels don't provide information about their status and the status of sent messages (see Table 1: Characteristics of some communication channels). However, looking at the usage of the devices (log files) can provide hints to the availability of devices. E.g., if a user sends a message back from a pager, one can assume that another message sent to this device shortly before was transmitted successfully and read, because sending a message implies that the device is online, messages can be received, and the user is probably using her device. Problem 2 is solved by using the prioritization system Clues [19]. In addition, Active Messenger looks at log files of received phone calls (caller ID), sent and received pager messages, sent and received cellphone text messages (SMS), and Activity Server [16] information that is based on finger12 and is used also for Locate13 and Watcher14. Problems 3 and 4 are recursive. Depending on the importance of a message, different strategies are selected by the system. In general, the device most likely to be available to the user is selected. E.g., if the Activity Server reports that a person is logged in to a terminal and typing, the Active Messenger does not send the message anywhere immediately, because the user will probably read it from the standard UNIX mail spool file. However, because it is possible that the user has just left the terminal, the Active Messenger waits to determine if the message was indeed read and may take more steps. If a message is very important, the system will try at all costs to deliver the message, including calling up cellular phones and home phones with a text-to-speech module. In this case, the user who has previously agreed on that she can receive such important messages from a specific sender, has to acknowledge actively the message by sending an email reply or calling the system back, e.g., via Phoneshell [26]. The “obtrusiveness” of the Active Messenger's behavior depends highly on the previously determined importance of a message. Upon request of the ratified senders, the system can also send back information about the status of the message delivery, the assumed location of the user, and the most recently used communication channels. Figure 9: Matching priorities to channels, depending on the user's location shows that depending on the importance of an incoming message, Active Messenger selects several channels sequentially, awaiting the user’s reactions. Depending on the user’s location, different phone or fax numbers are used. The user can limit the availability of the device for each location and channel.
Figure 9: Matching priorities to channels, depending on the user's location To keep the configuration of the Active Messenger simple, there is just one preference file (see Figure 7: Sample user preference file). It contains all relevant information about the user, such as her current communication infrastructure and preferences about what actions are appropriate at what time of day or week, and which aren't. 2.2Current implementation of Active Messenger
Directory: ~stefanm ~stefanm -> Mit media Lab Stefan Marti mit media Lab running head: Active Messenger Download 0.67 Mb. Share with your friends:
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