Message Focusing

• US 20120158856A1
• Filed: 12/15/2010
• Published: 06/21/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Loofbourrow, Wayne, Arrouye, Yan
• Granted Patent: US 8,990,318 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal

Abstract

A method and apparatus of a device that focuses messages is described. In an exemplary method, the device receives a first and second group of message. The device further selects a related message from the second group of messages that is related to each message in the first group. This selecting is based on an affinity group, where the affinity group includes a message address that occurs in at least one of the messages in the second group and the affinity group is determined using the message addresses contained in the first and second groups.

Claims

1. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having executable instructions to cause one or more processing units to perform a method comprising:

receiving a first group of messages and a second group of messages, wherein each of the messages in the first and second group of messages includes a plurality of message addresses;

selecting a related message from the second group of messages that is related to each message in the first group of messages, wherein the selecting is based on an affinity group of message addresses, the affinity group includes message addresses representing entities that communicate with each other for a particular common purpose and the affinity group is determined using the plurality of message addresses contained in the first and second groups of messages; and

generating data to present the related message.

2. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein an affinity group is a group of message addresses that are related to each other.

3. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein a message is of a type selected from the group consisting of email, Short Message Service, Multimedia Message Server, Enhanced Message Service, TWITTER, FACEBOOK, telephone message log, and instant messaging.

4. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 3, wherein the plurality of messages includes a plurality of message types.

5. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the selecting comprises:

computing a message signature for each message in the first and second group of messages.

6. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 5, wherein the message signature for a message is a distance vector between the affinity group and a plurality of addresses associated with that message.

7. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 5, wherein the selecting further comprises:

computing a similarity value between the message signature of a message in the first group and the message signature of a message in the second group to result in a plurality of similarity values; and

determining the related message from the plurality of similarity values.

8. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the entities communicate above a minimum frequency regarding the particular common purpose.

9. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having executable instructions to cause one or more processing units to perform a method comprising:

receiving a first group of messages and a second group of messages, wherein each of the messages in the first and second group of messages includes a plurality of message addresses;

selecting a related message from the second group of messages that is related to each message in the first group of messages, wherein the selecting is based on an affinity group of message addresses, the affinity group includes a message address that occurs in at least one of the messages in the second group and the affinity group is determined using the plurality of message addresses contained in the first and second groups of messages; and

generating data to present the related message.

10. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein an affinity group is a group of message addresses that are related to each other.

11. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the plurality of messages includes a plurality of message types.

12. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the selecting comprises:

computing a message signature for each message in the first and second group of messages.

13. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the message signature for a message is a distance vector between the affinity group and a plurality of addresses associated with that message.

14. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the selecting further comprises:

computing a similarity value between the message signature of a message in the first group and the message signature of a message in the second group to result in a plurality of similarity values; and

determining the related message from the plurality of similarity values.

15. An apparatus comprising:

means for receiving a first group of messages and a second group of messages, wherein each of the messages in the first and second group of messages includes a plurality of message addresses;

means for selecting a related message from the second group of messages that is related to each message in the first group of messages, wherein the selecting is based on an affinity group of message addresses, the affinity group includes a message address that occurs in at least one of the messages in the second group and the affinity group is determined using the plurality of message addresses contained in the first and second groups of messages; and

means for generating data to present the related message.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein an affinity group is a group of message addresses that are related to each other.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the plurality of messages includes a plurality of message types.

18. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the means for selecting comprises:

means for computing a message signature for each message in the first and second group of messages.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the message signature for a message is a distance vector between the affinity group and a plurality of addresses associated with that message.

20. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the means for selecting further comprises:

means for computing a similarity value between the message signature of a message in the first group and the message signature of a message in the second group to result in a plurality of similarity values; and

means for determining the related message from the plurality of similarity values.