CONTEXTUAL SUMMARY OF RECENT COMMUNICATIONS METHOD AND APPARATUS

• US 20110208816A1
• Filed: 02/19/2010
• Published: 08/25/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/19/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Arlington Technologies, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Chavez, David L.
• Granted Patent: US 9,258,143 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/063 Content adaptation, e.g. replacement of unsuitable content
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/08 Annexed information, e.g. attachments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/56 Unified messaging, e.g. interactions between e-mail, instant messaging or converged IP messaging [CPM]

Abstract

The present invention provides mechanisms for determining contextual information and including at least some of the determined contextual information in a communication. As an example, a multi-modal communications thumbnail providing context and prior communications summary as an attachment to a communication may be provided. The context and prior communications summary may supplement or replace one or more of a typical communications identifier such as subject, title, and distribution information.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

determining that a communication message at least one of (i) has been transmitted, (ii) is being transmitted, and (iii) is being created for transmission from a communication device of a sending party to a communication device of a receiving party;

in response to the determining step, identifying at least one source of contextual information;

generating a contextual filter based on one or more of an identity of the sending party, an identity of the receiving party, a time at which the determining step occurred, a media type of the communication message, and a subject of the message;

retrieving contextual information associated with the communication message by retrieving information from the identified at least one source of contextual information and applying the contextual filter to the information retrieved from the identified at least one source of contextual information;

conditioning the filtered contextual information for presentation in association with the communication message; and

causing the filtered contextual information to be presented to at least one of the sending party and receiving along with the communication message.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication message is transmitted in a first medium and wherein the contextual information is presented to at least one of the sending and receiving party in a second, different medium.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein a contextual summary having less than a predetermined number of characters is initially presented to at least one of the sending party and receiving party, wherein the contextual summary is determined based on the filtered contextual information but comprises fewer characters than the filtered contextual information, and wherein the filtered contextual information is accessible via the contextual summary.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the filtered contextual information is accessed by at least one of the sending party and receiving party when at least one of the following is detected:

the contextual summary or a predefined location within the contextual summary has been selected;

a dialog box to review the entire communication message has been opened;

a context tab has been selected;

an incoming call is answered;

an incoming call is allowed to pass to voicemail;

the communication message has been transferred.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the identified at least one source of contextual information includes at least two of a message archive for voice messages, a message archive for emails, a message archive for text messages, a call log of the sending party, a call log of the receiving party, a global call log maintained in a shared communication archive, and a context cache.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

assigning a contextual relevancy score to each instance of information retrieved from the at least one source of contextual information based on a matching of the instance of information to the parameters of the contextual filter;

ranking each instance of information according to its assigned contextual relevancy score; and

presenting only a subset of each instance of information to at least one of the sending party and receiving party.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying, generating, retrieving, and conditioning steps are performed at least twice.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein a first instance of the identifying, generating, retrieving, and conditioning steps are performed where the communication message is being created and wherein a second instance of the identifying, generating, retrieving, and conditioning steps are performed after the communication device of the sending party has transmitted the communication message.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the first instance of identifying, generating, retrieving, and conditioning steps result in the generation of a first instance of contextual information that is displayed to the sending user, wherein the second instance of identifying, generating, retrieving, and conditioning steps result in the generation of a second instance of contextual information that is displayed to the receiving user, and wherein the first and second instance of contextual information are different.

10. A communication system, comprising:

a context service operating, at least in part, on a server, the context service including;

a discovery module that is adapted to identify at least one source of contextual information for a communication message in response to determining that the communication message at least one of (i) has been transmitted, (ii) is being transmitted, and (iii) is being created for transmission from a communication device of a sending party to a communication device of a receiving party, the discovery module being further adapted to generate a contextual filter based on one or more of an identity of the sending party, an identity of the receiving party, a time at which the determining step occurred, a media type of the communication message, and a subject of the message, then retrieve contextual information associated with the communication message by retrieving information from the identified at least one source of contextual information and applying the contextual filter to the information retrieved from the identified at least one source of contextual information;

a presentation module adapted to condition the filtered contextual information for presentation in association with the communication message; and

a network interface adapted to transmit the filtered contextual information to at least one of a sending party and a receiving party for presentation on a communication device of the at least one of a sending party and receiving party.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the communication message is transmitted in a first medium and wherein the contextual information is presented to at least one of the sending and receiving party in a second, different medium.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein a contextual summary having less than a predetermined number of characters is initially presented to at least one of the sending party and receiving party, wherein the contextual summary is determined based on the filtered contextual information but comprises fewer characters than the filtered contextual information, and wherein the filtered contextual information is accessible via the contextual summary.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the filtered contextual information is accessed by at least one of the sending party and receiving party when at least one of the following is detected:

the contextual summary or a predefined location within the contextual summary has been selected;

a dialog box to review the entire communication message has been opened;

a context tab has been selected;

an incoming call is answered;

an incoming call is allowed to pass to voicemail;

the communication message has been transferred.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the identified at least one source of contextual information includes at least two of a message archive for voice messages, a message archive for emails, a message archive for text messages, a call log of the sending party, a call log of the receiving party, a global call log maintained in a shared communication archive, and a context cache.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the context service further comprises a relevancy module adapted to assigning a contextual relevancy score to each instance of information retrieved from the at least one source of contextual information based on a matching of the instance of information to the parameters of the contextual filter, ranking each instance of information according to its assigned contextual relevancy score, and present only a subset of each instance of information to at least one of the sending party and receiving party.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the identified at least one source of contextual information includes a database storing voice call conversations which have been archived via speech-to-text and analyzed for contextual information.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein the discovery module is invoked multiple times as the communication message travels from the sending party to the receiving party, wherein the discovery module is invoked in a first instance while the communication message is being created and wherein the discovery module is invoked in a second instance after the communication device of the sending party has transmitted the communication message.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the first instance of invocation results in the generation of a first instance of contextual information that is displayed to the sending user, wherein the second instance of invocation results in the generation of a second instance of contextual information that is displayed to the receiving user, and wherein the first and second instance of contextual information are different.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein during the first instance of invocation a call log for the sending party is utilized as a source of contextual information and wherein during the second instance of invocation a call log for the receiving party is utilized as a source of contextual information.

20. The system of claim 17, further comprising a client device including the context service, wherein the context service operating on the client device is invoked during the first instance and wherein the context service operating on the server is invoked during the second instance.