Graphical interface for defining mutually exclusive destinations

• US 20070143411A1
• Filed: 12/16/2005
• Published: 06/21/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/16/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Baudisch, Patrick, Costea, Mihai, Delaney, Aidan
• Granted Patent: US 7,730,141 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/42 Mailbox-related aspects, e.g. synchronisation of mailboxes

Abstract

A user defines mutually exclusive inbox and spam folders to which emails are routed based on a rating assigned to each email. A variable user-defined range defines a mapping of the ratings to each folder. Incoming emails are routing to one of the folders according to the range. A reference set of emails is designated, each having a rating and either an inbox label or a spam label. A display indicates the number the reference emails in each folder if the reference emails are routed to one of the folders according to their ratings and according to the user-defined range.

Claims

1. In a computer having a user interface including a display, a method for assisting the user in defining mutually exclusive destinations, to which incoming objects are routed based on a rating assigned to each object, the interface using a set of reference objects, each reference object having a rating and having a label corresponding to only one of the destinations, said method comprising:

receiving a variable user-defined range which defines a mapping of the ratings to each destination;

displaying the number the reference objects in each destination if the reference objects are routed to one of the destinations according to their ratings and according to the user-defined range, wherein for each particular destination the displaying indicates the number of reference objects having the label corresponding to the particular destination, and the number of reference objects having a label not corresponding to the particular destination;

routing incoming objects to one of the destinations according to the user-defined range.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the range comprises a first set of ratings which is noncontiguous with a second set of ratings.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the rating indicates a probability that the object contains at least one of the following:

spam, a phishing attack, a virus, and a pharming attack.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the labels of each reference object is defined by the user.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the object is at least one of the following:

an email, a document, a RSS feed, a movie review, and a text message.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the mutually exclusive destinations include first and second destinations wherein ratings within the range are mapped to the first destination and wherein ratings outside the range are mapped to the second destination so that objects with ratings within the range are routed to the first destination and objects with ratings outside the range are routed to the second destination.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the destinations is a folder or a program.

8. In a computer having a user interface including a display and a selection device, a method for assisting the user in defining mutually exclusive folders to which incoming emails are routed based on a rating assigned to each email, the interface using a set of reference emails, each reference email having a rating and having a label corresponding to only one of the folders, said method comprising:

receiving a variable user-defined range which defines a mapping of the ratings to each folder;

displaying the number the reference emails in each folder if the reference emails are routed to one of the folders according to their ratings and according to the user-defined range, wherein for each particular folder the displaying indicates the number of reference emails having the label corresponding to the particular folder, and the number of reference emails having a label not corresponding to the particular folder;

routing incoming emails to one of the folders according to the user-defined range.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the mutually exclusive folders include first, second and third folders and the range include first and second user-defined ranges wherein ratings within the first range are mapped to the first folder, ratings within the second range are mapped to the second folder, and ratings outside the first and second ranges are mapped to the third folder so that emails with the rating within a first range are routed to the first folder, emails with the rating within a second range are routed to the second folder, and emails with the rating outside of the first and second ranges are routed to a third folder.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the first folder is an inbox folder, the second folder is a junk email folder, the third folder is a deleted email folder, and wherein emails with a rating within the first range indicate a low probability that the email contains spam, emails with a rating within the second range indicate a medium probability that the email contains spam, and emails with a rating outside of the first and second ranges indicate a high probability that the email contains spam.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the folders include at least one of the following:

an inbox folder, a junk email folder, a deleted email folder, and a quarantine folder.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the rating indicates a probability that the email contains at least one of the following:

spam, a phishing attack, a virus, and a pharming attack.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the label indicates that the reference email contains at least one of the following:

spam, a phishing attack, a virus, and a pharming attack.

14. The method claim 8, wherein the receiving comprises allowing a user to move a slider control with the selection device in per rating increments on a graph displayed on the display, said graph indicating the number of reference emails per label per rating so that position of the slider defines the user-defined range.

15. The method of claim 8, wherein one or more computer-readable media have computer-executable instructions for performing the method of claim 8.

16. A system for assisting a user in defining mutually exclusive folders, at least an inbox folder and a spam folder, to which emails are routed based on a rating assigned to each email, said system comprising:

a reference set of emails, wherein each reference email has a rating and each reference email having either an inbox label or a spam label; and

a processor including instructions for defining;

a variable user-defined range which defines a mapping of the ratings to each folder, wherein incoming emails are routing to one of the folders according to said range; and

a display indicating the number the reference emails in each folder if the reference emails are routed to one of the folders according to their ratings and according to the user-defined range, said display further indicating the number of reference emails which would be routed to the inbox folder having the inbox label, and the number of reference emails which would be routed to the inbox folder having the spam label said display further indicating the number of reference emails which would be routed to the spam folder having the inbox label, and the number of reference emails which would be routed to the spam folder having the spam label.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the mutually exclusive folders include an inbox folder and a spam folder, wherein ratings within the range are mapped to the inbox folder and wherein ratings outside the range are mapped to the spam folder so that emails with ratings within the range are routed to the inbox folder and emails with ratings outside the range are routed to the spam folder.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the rating indicates a probability that the email contains at least one of the following:

spam, a phishing attack, a virus, and a pharming attack.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the rating is based on at least one of the following:

a continuous scale and an ordinal scale.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the wherein a variable user-defined range is defined by a radio button control wherein each radio button represents a mapping of one of the ratings to one of the folders so that the selection of the radio button indicates that emails with the particular rating are to be routed to the corresponding mapped folder.