METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR AUTOMATICALLY GENERATING REMINDERS IN RESPONSE TO DETECTING KEY TERMS WITHIN A COMMUNICATION

• US 20100004922A1
• Filed: 07/01/2008
• Published: 01/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/01/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bradley, Lisa, Tandon, Geetika, Li, FuYi
• Granted Patent: US 8,527,263 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/56 Natural language generation
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue

Abstract

A computer-implemented method of automatically generating an electronic reminder is provided. The method includes identifying, using term-recognition circuitry, at least one key term within an electronic message received with an electronic communications device. The method further includes generating at least one reminder based upon the at least one key term. One or more reminders are, according to the method, electronically conveyed to a user at a time later than when the message was received.

Claims

8. A system for automatically generating an electronic reminder, the system comprising:

a device interface adapted to communicatively link to a communications device;

term-recognition circuitry for searching an electronic communications received with the electronic communications device to identify at least one key term within the electronic message; and

a reminder generator for generating at least one reminder if at least one key term is identified, the at least one reminder being based upon the at least one key term and being electronically conveyed to a user at a time later than when the message was received.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the electronic message comprises text, and wherein the term-recognition circuitry is configured to perform the searching to identify the at least one key term by parsing terms contained in the text and comparing the parsed terms to a plurality of pre-determined terms stored in an electronic database to determine whether any parsed term corresponds to one or more pre-determined terms.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the electronic message comprises a voice utterance, and wherein the term-recognition circuitry is configured perform the searching to identify to identify the at least one key term by identifying distinct terms within the voice utterance and comparing each distinct term with a plurality of pre-determined terms stored in an electronic database to determine whether any distinct term corresponds to one or more pre-determined terms.

11. The system of claim 8, further comprising pattern-recognition circuitry for recognizing a behavioral pattern of the user and generating at least one reminder based upon the recognized behavioral pattern.

12. The system of claim 8, further comprising a user interface for receiving user input specifying at least one term and for electronically storing the at least one term within an electronic database, and wherein the term-recognition circuitry is configured to subsequently compare the at least one term to terms contained within the received electronic message to determine whether the received electronic message contains at least one key term.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the reminder generator is configured to generate at least one reminder by selecting from a database a stored reminder template and inserting at least one reminder term in the reminder template.

14. The system of claim 8, further comprising a user input for receiving a user input and control circuitry configured to perform at least one among determining when the at least one reminder is conveyed to the user based upon the user input, determining the number of times one or more reminders are conveyed to the user based upon the user input, and blocking delivery of the reminder to the user based upon the user input.

15. A computer-readable medium in which computer-readable code is embedded, wherein when loaded on and executed by a computer system, the computer-readable code causes the computer system to perform the steps of:

searching an electronic communications received with an electronic communications device, using term-recognition circuitry, to identify at least one key term within the electronic message; and

if at least one key term is identified, generating at least one reminder based upon the at least one key term, the at least one reminder being electronically conveyed to a user at a time later than when the message was received.

1. A computer-implemented method of automatically generating an electronic reminder, the method comprising:

searching an electronic communications received with an electronic communications device, using term-recognition circuitry, to identify at least one key term within the electronic message; and

if at least one key term is identified, generating at least one reminder based upon the at least one key term, the at least one reminder being electronically conveyed to a user at a time later than when the message was received.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic message comprises text, and wherein the step of searching to identify at least one key term comprises parsing terms contained in the text and comparing the parsed terms to a plurality of pre-determined terms stored in an electronic database to determine whether any parsed term corresponds to one or more pre-determined terms.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic message comprises a voice utterance, and wherein the step of searching to identify at least one key term comprises identifying distinct terms within the voice utterance and comparing each distinct term with a plurality of pre-determined terms stored in an electronic database to determine whether any distinct term corresponds to one or more pre-determined terms.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising recognizing a behavioral pattern of the user using pattern-recognition circuitry and generating at least one reminder based upon the recognized behavioral pattern.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving user input specifying at least one term and electronically storing the at least one term with in an electronic database for subsequently comparing the at least one term to terms contained within the received electronic message to determine whether the received electronic message contains at least one key term.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of generating at least one reminder comprises selecting from a database a stored reminder template and inserting at least one reminder term in the reminder template.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a user input specifying at least one among a timing instruction for determining when the at least one reminder is conveyed to the user, a limit instruction for determining the number of times one or more reminders are conveyed to the user, and a blocking instruction for blocking delivery of the reminder to the user.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the electronic message comprises text, and wherein the step of searching an electronic communications to identify at least one key term comprises parsing terms contained in the text and comparing the parsed terms to a plurality of predetermined terms stored in an electronic database to determine whether any parsed term corresponds to one or more pre-determined terms.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the electronic message comprises a voice utterance, and wherein the step of searching an electronic communications to identify at least one key term comprises identifying distinct terms within the voice utterance and comparing each distinct term with a plurality of pre-determined terms stored in an electronic database to determine whether any distinct term corresponds to one or more pre-determined terms.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, further comprising computer-readable code for causing the computer system to recognize a behavioral pattern of the user and generate at least one reminder based upon the recognized behavioral pattern.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, further comprising computer-readable code for causing the computer system to electronically store, based upon user input, at least one user-supplied term with in an electronic database and subsequently compare the at least one user-supplied term to terms contained within the received electronic message to determine whether the received electronic message contains at least one key term.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, further comprising computer-readable code for causing the computer system to perform at least one among determining when the at least one reminder is conveyed to the user based upon a user input, determining the number of times one or more reminders are conveyed to the user based upon a user input, and blocking delivery of the reminder to the user based upon a user input.

19-1. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the computer-readable code for causing the computer system to generate at least one reminder comprises computer-readable code for causing the computer system to select from a database a stored reminder template and insert at least one reminder term in the reminder template.