PRESENTING INFORMATION RELATED TO TOPICS EXTRACTED FROM EVENT CLASSES

• US 20080027979A1
• Filed: 07/31/2006
• Published: 01/31/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Surendran, Arungunram C., Chandrasekar, Raman, Forney, Michael K., Slawson, Dean A., Choudhury, Piali, Renshaw, Erin
• Granted Patent: US 7,685,199 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/103R
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3334 Selection or weighting of terms from queries, including natural language queries

Abstract

An information dissemination system provides users information related to topics extracted from event classes. Event classes can generally be thought of as scripts that specify topics and actions for obtaining information related to the topics. The event classes are executed to obtain information related to the particular event class. The information dissemination system identifies a user event that is of interest to a user. The information dissemination system then identifies an event class that corresponds to the user event. The information dissemination system then performs the actions specified for the event class, obtains the action results, and renders the action results to the user.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for rendering information based on event classes, the method comprising:

creating event classes, each event class comprising an event class recognizer, a set of special topics, and for each special topic, at least one action;

identifying a user interest;

determining an event class from the user interest; and

processing the event class to render information based on the event class.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the event class is determined based on the event class recognizer.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the event class is determined based on user input.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the event class recognizer comprises a set of heuristics.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the actions included in the event class is specified as a parameterized URL.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the event class comprises performing the actions included in the event class.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein one of the actions is to invoke a URL.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein each special topic comprises at least one slot and, for each slot, a slot recognizer, wherein the slot is a parameter that describes an attribute of the special topic, and further wherein the slot recognizer identifies a value for the slot.

9. A computer-implemented method for creating an event class, the method comprising:

creating an event class recognizer;

creating a set of special topics; and

for each special topic,

creating a set of slots, each slot being a placeholder that describes an attribute of the special topic;

for each slot, creating a slot recognizer, wherein the slot recognizer identifies a slot filler for the slot, the slot filler being a value for the slot; and

creating a set of actions for retrieving information relevant to the special topic.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein an action in the set of actions is a URL having one or more slots.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein a special topic in the set of special topics is a travel advisory topic.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein a special topic in the set of special topics is a weather advisory topic.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein a special topic in the set of special topics is a meeting topic.

14. A computer-readable medium containing instructions for controlling a computer system to process an event class, by a method comprising:

identifying special topics included in the event class, each special topic comprising a set of slots, a slot recognizer for each slot, and at least one action; and

for each special topic,

identifying the slots included in the special topic;

determining the values for the slots using the slot recognizer corresponding to each slot;

performing the actions included in the special topic;

obtaining action results; and

rendering the action results.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 14 further comprising:

prior to rendering the action results,

digesting the action results to extract relevant information; and

rendering the relevant information.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein at least one action is specified as a parameterized URL.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein at least one slot recognizer is executed on a set of emails.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein at least one slot recognizer is executed on a set of calendar items.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein at least one slot recognizer is a regular expression that defines how to derive a value for the slot.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein an least one action is specified as a parameterized URL, and performing the action comprises:

determining a value for the parameter;

instantiating the parameterized URL; and

executing the instantiated parameterized URL.