Efficient phone and e-mail resolution with contact data

• US 20070092072A1
• Filed: 09/30/2005
• Published: 04/26/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Jacobs, Andrew
• Application Number:
  US11/239,822
• Publication Number:
  US 20070092072A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/142.06
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

The sender of a telephone call or an e-mail message is represented by an incoming contact identifier, such as the originating phone number or e-mail address, respectively. The recipient of the telephone call or e-mail message can identify the contact corresponding to the incoming identifier by matching the identifier with an entry in a data store. The data store comprises of an alphabetized index of contact/translated contact identifier pairs for efficient lookup. The incoming identifier is translated in order to match an entry in the index. The position in the index of the translated identifier is determined and if a sufficient match is found, the corresponding contact is indicated. Otherwise, the closest matches are noted or a message indicating that no conclusive match was found is communicated.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented system that facilitates matching a contact identifier with a contact, comprising the following computer-executable components:

a data store that includes an index of translated contact identifiers and corresponding contacts; and

a contact lookup component that receives and translates a contact identifier and returns a corresponding contact from the index.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a locator component that identifies the corresponding contact from the data store based at least in part on the translated contact identifier and incorporates notification preferences based at least in part on a general setting and a specific setting.

3. The system of claim 2, further comprising a translator component that translates the contact identifier into a format utilized by the locator component.

4. The system of claim 3, further comprising an artificial intelligence component that employs a probabilistic or statistical based analysis in connection with the identification.

5. The system of claim 1, the data store is updated through at least one of a web-based search, an external process, and a manual user input.

6. The system of claim 1, the contacts in the data store correspond with at least one of a phone number and an e-mail address.

7. The system of claim 6, further comprising, the phone number is formatted in reverse order and the e-mail address as formatted in plain order before an “

@”

delimiter and reverse order after the “

@”

delimiter.

8. The system of claim 1, content within the data store is organized in alphabetical order by translated contact identifier.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising a portable user interface that enables communication of data among users.

10. A computer-implemented method that facilitates matching a contact identifier with a contact, comprising the following computer-executable acts:

receiving a contact identifier;

translating the contact identifier;

identifying a contact in a data store corresponding to the translated contact identifier; and

returning the contact.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising organizing an alphabetical index of translated contact identifiers and corresponding contacts in the data store.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

locating a position of the translated contact identifier in the index;

determining whether the translated contact identifier exactly matches an entry in the index; and

determining whether the leading strings of the translated contact identifier and adjacent entries of contact identifiers match.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising employing artificial intelligence to evaluate whether a proposed entry sufficiently matches the received translated contact identifier.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

displaying at least one of a contact and artificial intelligence results by way of a portable user interface; and

employing a notification method based at least in part on a general preference and a specific preference.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

reversing the digits of a phone number if the contact identifier is a phone number; and

reversing the characters after an “

@”

delimiter if the contact identifier is an e-mail address.

16. The method of claim 10, further comprising updating the data store through at least one of a web-based search and a manual user input.

17. A computer-implemented system that facilitates matching a contact identifier with a contact, comprising:

computer-implemented means for receiving a contact identifier;

computer-implemented means for translating the contact identifier;

computer-implemented means for identifying a contact in a data store corresponding to the translated contact identifier; and

computer-implemented means for returning the contact.

18. The system of claim 17, further comprising at least one of:

means for reversing the digits of a phone number if the contact identifier is a phone number;

means for reversing the characters after an “

@”

delimiter if the contact identifier is an e-mail address;

means for alphabetizing the translated contact identifiers in an index for the data store; and

means for updating the data store through at least one of an Internet search, a database search, and a manual user input.

19. The system of claim 17, further comprising means for processing possible contact matches with artificial intelligence.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising:

means for displaying at least one of the contact match and artificial intelligence results; and

means for facilitating notification of the contact match based at least in part on a general preference and a specific preference.