Smart address book

• US 10,162,847 B2
• Filed: 06/13/2014
• Issued: 12/25/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/09/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Comcast Interactive Media LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Comcast Interactive Media LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Inventors: Lester, Peter, Miller, Justin, Lee, Hendrick, Sharma, Aseem, Gattis, Galen Trevor, Dixon, Amber, Nguyen, Huy Tuan, McGowan, Derek, McCrea, John
• Primary Examiner(s): Williams, Clayton R
• Application Number:
  US14/304,285
• Publication Number:
  US 20140365509A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,656 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2365 Ensuring data consistency and integrity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting

Abstract

An apparatus, method, system, and computer-readable medium are provided for maintaining contact information associated with a contact. In some embodiments a request associated with a contact may be received. Contact information may be obtained from one or more external or internal sources. One or more confidence scores may be generated for the obtained contact information and for one or more values received with the request. Based on the confidence score(s), one or more values associated with the contact may be incorporated in one or more data stores. In some embodiments, suggestions for contact related information may be generated. Responses to the suggestions may be used to update the generated confidence score(s).

Claims

1. A method comprising:

obtaining, by a computing device and from a first source, trajectory data associated with first contact information and with a previous version of the first contact information;

obtaining, by the computing device and from a second source, second contact information;

generating, based at least in part on a comparison of the trajectory data and the second contact information, a first confidence score for the first contact information;

generating, based at least in part on metadata associated with the second contact information, a second confidence score for the second contact information;

selecting, based at least in part on application of a rule that determines the first confidence score indicates more confidence than the second confidence score, the first contact information; and

storing, in a contact data store, the first contact information.

2. The method of claim 1,

wherein the obtaining the trajectory data from the first source comprises obtaining the first contact information from a first address book associated with a first user, and

wherein the storing the first contact information comprises incorporating the first contact information into a second address book associated with a second user different from the first user.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a request for data associated with a person, wherein the obtaining the trajectory data is responsive to the receiving the request for the data.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

comparing the first confidence score with the second confidence score; and

suggesting the first contact information based at least in part on the comparing.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

suggesting, based at least in part on the first confidence score, the first contact information to a user requesting the first contact information; and

receiving a response to the suggesting,

wherein the storing is further based on the response.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, based on the comparison of the trajectory data and the second contact information, that the previous version of the first contact information matches the second contact information,

wherein the generating the first confidence score indicating more confidence than the second confidence score is based at least in part on the determining.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the obtaining the trajectory data comprises obtaining the first contact information in a first field of a plurality of fields each comprising different information associated with a particular person.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first contact information comprises at least one of a name, an email address, a mailing address, a phone number, or an instant messenger handle.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

prioritizing the first source relative to the second source in response to the storing the first contact information.

10. The method of claim 1,

wherein the generating the first confidence score is further based on at least one of an identification of the first source, a timestamp associated with the first contact information, an identification of an origin of the first contact information, or an indication of whether the first source is a public source or a private source, and

wherein the metadata comprises at least one of second trajectory data associated with the second contact information, a timestamp associated with the second contact information, an identification of the second source, an identification of an origin of the second contact information, or an indication of whether the second source is a private source or public source.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating the first confidence score is further based on a number of sources comprising the first contact information.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating the first confidence score comprises applying another rule that assigns a higher confidence score to the first contact information if the trajectory data indicates that the second contact information was changed to the first contact information than if the trajectory data indicates that the first contact information was changed to the second contact information.

13. A method comprising:

obtaining, by a computing device and from a first source, first contact information and second contact information, wherein the second contact information represents an earlier version of the first contact information;

obtaining, by the computing device and from a second source, third contact information;

generating, based at least in part on a determination that the second contact information matches the third contact information, a first confidence score for the first contact information;

generating, based at least in part on metadata associated with the third contact information, a second confidence score for the third contact information;

incorporating, based at least in part on an evaluation that the first confidence score indicates more confidence than the second confidence score, the first contact information into a contact data store; and

based on the incorporating the first contact information into the contact data store, prioritizing the first source for generating a future suggestion.

14. The method of claim 13,

wherein the generating the first confidence score is further based on metadata associated with the first contact information, the metadata associated with the first contact information comprising at least one of an identification of the first source, a timestamp associated with the first contact information, an identification of an origin of the first contact information, or an indication of whether the first source is a private source or public source, and

wherein the metadata associated with the third contact information comprises trajectory data associated with the third contact information, a timestamp associated with the third contact information, an identification of the second source, an identification of an origin of the third contact information, or an indication of whether the second source is a private source or public source.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising providing a suggestion comprising the first contact information in response to a determination that the first confidence score satisfies a threshold or indicates more confidence than another confidence score.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

providing, based at least on the first confidence score, a suggestion that suggests the first contact information,

wherein the incorporating comprises incorporating, in response to approval of the suggestion, the first contact information into the contact data store.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the prioritizing comprises increasing a priority level of the first source relative to other sources that provide contact information.

18. The method of claim 13,

wherein the generating the first confidence score for the first contact information is based at least in part on a priority level of the first source,

wherein the priority level is based at least in part on acceptance or rejection of a past suggestion of other contact information of the first source, and

wherein the prioritizing the first source for generating the future suggestion comprises updating the priority level of the first source.

19. A method comprising:

obtaining, by a computing device and from a first source, first contact information and first trajectory data indicating that the first contact information replaced previous contact information;

obtaining, by the computing device and from a second source, second contact information;

generating, based at least in part on a determination that the previous contact information matches the second contact information, a first confidence score for the first contact information;

generating, based at least in part on metadata associated with the second contact information, a second confidence score for the second contact information; and

updating a priority level of the first source in response to a determination to incorporate, based on the first confidence score and the second confidence score indicating that the first contact information is more likely to be accurate than the second contact information, the first contact information into a contact data store.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising incorporating the first contact information into the contact data store based at least in part on the first confidence score.

21. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

in response to a determination that the first confidence score satisfies a threshold or is greater than the second confidence score, providing a suggestion to incorporate the first contact information; and

in response to acceptance of the suggestion, determining to incorporate the first contact information into the contact data store.

22. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

determining, based at least on a privacy consideration associated with the first contact information, whether to suggest the first contact information to a first user, wherein the first contact information comprises contact information for contacting a second user.