Automatic user availability status determination for a handheld communication device

Abstract

To automatically determine the availability status of the user of a handheld communication device, various selected conditions of the device may be checked, which imply whether or not the user is likely Available, or Unavailable or the equivalent. Normally, the selected conditions are checked only if the user has not explicitly or semi-explicitly set his or her status to Unavailable. The conditions to be checked can vary widely, but generally include anything from which it might be inferred or implied that the user is likely either Available or Unavailable or the equivalent. Such conditions can include, for example, whether or not a specified timeout for use of a keypad, trackwheel or other mechanical feature of the device has elapsed yet; whether or not a real-time application is in use; and preferably any one or more of a variety of other conditions, one further example being whether or not there are any unattended-to notifications such as an unanswered phone call, or a missed e-mail, SMS or other message.

1 . A method for determining the availability status of a user of a handheld communication device, the method comprising:
 checking if an interval between when the handheld device is removed from a holster and returned to the holster is less than a predetermined threshold; and   if the interval is less than the threshold, determining the availability status as Unavailable.   
     
     
         2 . A method as in  claim 1 , further comprising checking whether or not the availability status has been explicitly or semi-explicitly set to Unavailable, and if so, bypassing the checking if the interval is less than the predetermined threshold. 
     
     
         3 . A method as in  claim 2 , wherein, after bypassing, there is no further checking until when and if the availability status is set to Available. 
     
     
         4 . A method as in  claim 2 , wherein, after bypassing, there is no further checking until a second predetermined time interval has passed. 
     
     
         5 . A handheld communication device provided with a computer-readable medium containing instructions, which, when executed by the handheld communication device, cause the handheld communication device to perform a method for determining the availability status of a user of the device, the method comprising:
 checking if an interval between when the handheld device is removed from a holster and returned to the holster is less than a predetermined threshold; and   if the interval is less than the threshold, determining the availability status as Unavailable.   
     
     
         6 . A handheld communication device as in  claim 5 , wherein the method further comprises checking whether or not the availability status has been explicitly or semi-explicitly set to Unavailable, and if so, bypassing the checking if the interval is less than the predetermined threshold. 
     
     
         7 . A handheld communication device as in  claim 6 , wherein. after bypassing, there is no further checking of availability status until when and if the availability status is set to Available. 
     
     
         8 . A handheld communication device as in  claim 6 , wherein after bypassing, there is no further checking of availability status until a second predetermined time interval has passed. 
     
     
         9 . A method for determining the availability status of a user of a handheld communication device, the method comprising:
 checking if an interval between when the handheld device is removed from a holster and returned to the holster is less than a predetermined threshold;   if the interval is less than the threshold, determining the availability status as Unavailable; and   communicating the availability status via a network with which the handheld communication device is in communication.