SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ADVANCED COMMUNICATION THREAD ANALYSIS

• US 20120221638A1
• Filed: 05/25/2011
• Published: 08/30/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Arlington Technologies, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: KRISHNASWAMY, Venkatesh, WU, Xiaotao, EDAMADAKA, Rajeshwari
• Granted Patent: US 9,026,591 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• 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

Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for forming communication threads. A system configured to practice the method receives a first log of first communications in a first modality and receives a second log of second communications in a second modality. Then, the system analyzes the first log and the second log to determine relationships between the first communications and the second communications. The system identifies, based on the relationships, sets of communications having a relationship strength above a threshold, and can form communication threads based on the sets of communications. The system can form communication threads by adding a meta-data tag to a communication unit. Example modalities include short message service (SMS), text, instant messages, phone calls, video calls, emails, events, social networking, and voicemail. The system can further rank the importance of communications threads based on user actions, to yield an importance value.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a first log of first communications in a first modality;

receiving a second log of second communications in a second modality;

analyzing, via a processor, the first log and the second log to determine relationships between the first communications and the second communications;

identifying, based on the relationships, sets of communications having a relationship strength above a threshold; and

forming communication threads based on the sets of communications.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein forming communication threads is performed by adding a meta-data tag to a communication unit.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first modality and the second modality comprise at least two modalities of:

short message service (SMS), text, and instant messenger communications;

phone calls;

video calls;

emails;

events;

social networking; and

voicemail.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

ranking the importance of communications threads to a user based at least in part on user actions, to yield an importance value.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

displaying to a user communication threads calculated to be most relevant to the user based at least in part on the importance value.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

assigning closely related communication threads to a project;

analyzing which people relate to the project; and

assigning people into teams based at least in part on how closely they relate to the project.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein a user can modify parameters affecting relationship strength.

8. A system comprising:

a processor;

a first module configured to control the processor to receive a first log of first communications in a first modality and to receive a second log of second communications in a second modality;

a second module configured to control the processor to analyze the first log and the second log to determine relationships between the first communications and the second communications;

a third module configured to control the processor to identify, based on the relationships, sets of communications having a relationship strength above a threshold; and

a fourth module configured to control the processor to form threads based on the sets of communications.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the fourth module further comprises the adding of meta-data tags to a communication unit when forming threads.

10. The system of claim 8, further comprising:

a fifth module configured to control the processor to rank the relevance of communications threads to a user based at least in part on user actions, to yield an relevance value.

11. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

a sixth module configured to display to the user at least one of a top n communication threads and a top n communication threads communication units, where n is a number, and the top n communication threads is based at least in part on relevance values.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the first modality and the second modality comprise at least two modalities of:

short message service (SMS), text, and instant messenger communications;

phone calls;

video calls;

emails;

events;

social networking; and

voicemail.

13. The system of claim 8, further comprising:

a fifth module configured to control to the processor to assign closely related communication threads to a project;

a sixth module configured to control the processor to analyze which people relate to the project; and

a seventh module configured to control the processor to assign people into teams based at least in part on how closely they relate to the project.

14. The system of claim 13, the fifth module further comprising:

determining a topical distance between threads and merging threads having a close topical distance.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a computer program having instructions which when executed by a processor control the processor to group communications having common themes into threads, the instructions comprising:

receiving a first log of first communications in a first modality;

receiving a second log of second communications in a second modality;

analyzing the first log and the second log to determine relationships between the first communications and the second communications;

identifying, based on the relationships, sets of communications having a relationship strength above a threshold; and

forming communication threads based on the sets of communications.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, the instructions further comprising:

assigning closely related communication threads to a project;

analyzing which people relate to the project; and

assigning people into teams based at least in part on how closely they relate to the project.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, the instructions further comprising:

analyzing similarities between more than one communication thread; and

if the more than one communication thread is sufficiently similar, merging the more than one communication thread into a single communication thread.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, the instructions further comprising:

analyzing, based at least in part on user actions and current context, the relevancy of each communication thread to a user; and

displaying to the user at least one of communication threads or communication thread components having a sufficiently high relevancy value.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the first modality and second modality comprise at least two modalities of:

short message service (SMS), text, instant messenger;

phone calls;

video calls;

emails;

events;

social networking; and

voicemail.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19, the instructions further comprising utilizing a speech-to-text converter when a communication unit has a speech component.