Information provider

• US 20040044658A1
• Filed: 04/24/2003
• Published: 03/04/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/20/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: British Telecommunications PLC (BT Group PLC)
• Original Assignee: British Telecommunications PLC (BT Group PLC)
• Inventors: Polane, Matthew J, OʼDonoghue, John J, Titmuss, Richard J, Crabtree, Ian B, Loffler, Alexander, Bowskill, Jeremy M
• Granted Patent: US 7,512,678 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access

Abstract

The invention is concerned with a method of selecting information sources in accordance with a subject matter of interest to a user, where the subject matter of interest is identifiable by a plurality of sets of subject-related data, and each set has an indication of at least one context in which the set is of interest to the user. The method of the invention comprises the steps of

(i) tracking the state of the user,

(ii) identifying one or more contexts from the tracked state,

(iii) selecting at least some sets of subject-related data in accordance with a predetermined relationship between at least some of the identified contexts and said indication of context,

(iv) generating a list of information sources based on the selected sets of subject-related data, and

(v) transmitting said list to a terminal associated with said user so as to allow said user to select an information source of interest and thereby to access information from said source.

Claims

1. A method of selecting information sources in accordance with a subject matter of relevance to a user, the subject matter being identifiable by a plurality of sets of subject-related data, each set having an indication of at least one context in which the set is relevant to the user, the method comprising the steps of

(i) tracking the state of the user,

(ii) identifying one or more user contexts from the tracked state,

(iii) selecting at least some sets of subject-related data in accordance with a predetermined relationship between at least some of the identified user contexts and said indication of context,

(iv) generating a list of information sources based on the selected sets of subject-related data, and

(v) transmitting said list to a terminal associated with said user so as to allow said user to select an information source and thereby to access information from said source.

2. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, in which the tracking step (ii) includes the steps of:

tracking the location of a user by receipt of tracking information for the user, and

comparing the tracking information with predetermined location information in accordance with predetermined criteria, the predetermined location information defining at least a “

home”

context and a “

work”

context, and the predetermined criteria including conditions between the tracking information and the predetermined location information.

3. A method according to claim 2 in which the tracking step (ii) further includes receiving schedule information for the user from a temporal schedule, and the predetermined criteria used in the comparing step further includes conditions relating to schedule information.

4. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, in which the tracking step (ii) further includes receiving inputs from at least one of a position detector, an acceleration detector, stress detecting means, a temperature detector, light level detecting means.

5. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, in which the predetermined relationship between at least some of the identified contexts and said indication of context includes a correspondence therebetween.

6. A method according to claim 5, in which, when the correspondence is null, the selected sets of subject-related data are all of the sets of subject-related data, and said generating step (iv) includes the steps of:

retrieving information sources in accordance with the selected sets of subject-related data,

tagging the retrieved information sources with the context indicated against the corresponding set of subject-related data,

ranking said tagged information sources, at least on part, in accordance with correspondence between the identified context of the user and the tagged context, and

compiling a list comprising the tagged information sources, the rankings associated therewith determining positions of the tagged information sources on the list.

7. A method according to claim 5, in which, when there is identical correspondence between at least some of the identified contexts and said indication of context, said generating step (iv) includes the steps of:

retrieving information sources in accordance with the selected subject-related data, and

compiling a list comprising the retrieved information sources.

8. A method according to claim 6 or claim 7, further including the steps of:

monitoring the selection of at least one information source on the list by the user, in order to determine a relevance weight for the or each information source, and

for each information source on the list,

identifying the set of subject-related data corresponding thereto,

allocating the relevance weight to the identified set of subject-related data,

such that any ranking of tagged information sources is also performed in accordance with the allocated relevance weight.

9. A method according to claim 8, in which the monitoring step includes, at least in part, utilising a Bayes Net in respect of the or each information source.

10. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, in which the state of the user to be identified is the current state of the user.

11. A method according to any one of the preceding claims in which said subject-related data comprises keywords.

12. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, in which the transmitting step (v) comprises

inputting the tracked user state to at least one predetermined transmission condition,

processing the or each transmission condition,

and if the transmission conditions are deemed to be satisfied, transmitting the list.

13. A method according to claim 12, in which the at least one transmission condition includes one or more rules for determining whether the user is disposed to receive information.

14. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, in which information relating to said selected information sources is provided to a user via a communications system.

15. A method of storing information in respect of subject matter of interest to a user on the basis of a state of the user, wherein the subject matter of interest includes a plurality of sets of keywords, each set of keywords having at least one identifiable state of the user and/or environment allocated thereto, the method including the steps of:

(i) selecting information sources according to any one of claims 1 to 11,

(ii) organising the selected information sources in accordance with a plurality of criteria, at least one of which includes the identified state of the user or the environment, and

(iii) storing the organised information.

16. A method according to claim 15 including presenting the retrieved information to the user via a terminal, said presentation of information including creating a viewable page comprising at least some of the retrieved information, such that when a viewable page is created, a selection of said stored information is retrieved in accordance with display capabilities of the terminal.

19. A computer program, or a suite of computer programs, comprising a set of instructions to cause a computer, or a suite of computers, to perform the method steps according to any one of claims 1 to 16.

17. A method of identifying information sources in accordance with a subject matter of interest to a user, the subject matter of interest including a plurality of sets of keywords, each set of keywords having an indication of at least one context in which the set of keywords is of interest to the user, the method comprising the steps of:

(i) tracking the state of the user,

(ii) identifying one or more contexts from the tracked state,

(iii) selecting at least some sets of keywords in accordance with a predetermined relationship between at least some of the identified contexts and said indication of context, and

(iv) identifying information sources based on the selected sets of keywords.

18. A method according to claim 17, in which the state of the user to be identified is the current state of the user.