Statistical language-model based system for detection of missing attachments

• US 20070233459A1
• Filed: 03/29/2006
• Published: 10/04/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Perronnin, Florent
• Granted Patent: US 7,574,349 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

A method for processing electronic mail includes computing a probability that a text string in an electronic mail message refers to an attachment as a function of a stored probability value for each of a plurality of sequences of words within the text string. Where the email message lacks an attachment, the method includes prompting a user if the computed probability indicates that the text string refers to an attachment.

Claims

1. A method for processing electronic mail comprising:

computing a probability that a text string in an electronic mail message refers to an attachment as a function of a stored probability value for each of a plurality of sequences of words within the text string; and

where the email message lacks an attachment, prompting a user if the computed probability indicates that the text string refers to an attachment.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

prior to computing the probability, identifying whether the electronic message lacks an attachment.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein at least some of the stored probabilities are derived from a corpus of email message text which refers to an attachment.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing of the probability includes computing a first probability that the text string refers to an attachment using a first set of stored probability values and, where the first probability exceeds a predetermined value, computing a second probability that the text string does not refer to an attachment using a second set of stored probability values, the probability that a text string in an electronic mail message refers to an attachment being computed as a function of the first and second probabilities.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the first set of probability values are derived from a first corpus of email message text strings determined to refer to an attachment and the second set of probability values are derived from a second corpus of email message text strings determined not to refer to an attachment.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing of the probability includes summing log probability values for each of the plurality of sequences of words.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

for each of a plurality of text strings in the electronic mail message, computing a probability that the text string refers to an attachment as a function of a stored probability value for each of a plurality of sequences of words within the text string.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein when none of the plurality of text strings has a computed probability which exceeds a threshold value, sending the email without prompting the user.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing of the probability that the text string refers to an attachment includes identifying a preselected number of sequences of words in the text string, retrieving stored probability values for each of the identified sequences, and computing the probability as a function of the retrieved probability values.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the text string comprises a predetermined fixed number of words.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein each sequence of words comprises the same number of words.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising, prior to computing the probability, identifying a language of the email message.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising, prior to computing the probability, identifying a portion of the email message prepared by the user and computing the probability for a text string in the identified portion.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the prompting includes displaying a query to the user on a screen.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising adapting at least one stored probability value to the writing patterns of the user.

16. A system for processing electronic mail comprising:

a statistical language model which stores probability values for a plurality of text sequences; and

a processor which executes instructions for retrieving stored probability values from the statistical language model for a plurality of text sequences in the email message and computing a probability that that the electronic mail message refers to an attachment as a function of the retrieved probability values.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the probability values stored by the statistical language model include a first set of probability values which relate to the probability that the text sequence refers to an attachment and a second set of probability values which relate to the probability that the text sequence does not refer to an attachment and the instructions include instructions for computing a first probability using probability values retrieved from the first set and instructions for computing a second probability using probability values retrieved from the second set, the instructions for computing the probability that the electronic mail message refers to an attachment including instructions for computing a function of the first and second probabilities.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the processor executes instructions for prompting a user when the computed probability that the electronic mail message refers to an attachment exceeds a threshold value.

19. A computer program product comprising:

a computer-usable data carrier storing instructions that, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform a method comprising;

computing a probability that a text string in an electronic mail message refers to an attachment as a function of a stored probability value for each of a plurality of sequences of words within the text string; and

where the email message lacks an attachment, prompting a user if the computed probability indicates that the text string refers to an attachment.

20. A method for processing electronic mail comprising:

analyzing words of at least one text string of an electronic mail message with a statistical language model to determine whether the text string has at least a threshold probability of referring to an attachment; and

where the email message lacks an attachment and the text string is determined to have at least the threshold probability that the text string refers to an attachment, prompting a user.

21. A method for developing a statistical language model comprising:

establishing a first set of probability values for sequences of words found in a first corpus of sentences of electronic mail messages which are determined to refer to an attachment as a function of a frequency of their occurrence in the first corpus; and

establishing a second set of probability values for sequences of words found in a second corpus of sentences of electronic mail messages which are determined not to refer to an attachment as a function of a frequency of their occurrence in the second corpus.