AUTOMATIC RELEVANCE FILTERING

• US 20120290587A1
• Filed: 07/26/2012
• Published: 11/15/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: David H. Soghoian, Eric S. Peyton, Tim W. Bumgarner, Todd R. Fernandez
• Original Assignee: David H. Soghoian, Eric S. Peyton, Tim W. Bumgarner, Todd R. Fernandez
• Inventors: Peyton, Eric S., Bumgarner, Tim W., Fernandez, Todd R., Soghoian, David H.
• Granted Patent: US 8,515,920 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/749
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 17/00 Digital computing or data processing equipment or methods, specially adapted for specific functions information retrieval, database structures or file system structures therefor G06F16/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 7/00 Methods or arrangements for processing data by operating upon the order or content of the data handled logic circuits H03K19/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

A computer-implemented method and an apparatus for use in a computing apparatus are disclosed. The method includes determining a context and a data requirement for a candidate action to be selected, the selection specifying an action in a workflow; and filtering the candidate actions for relevance in light of the context and the data requirement. The apparatus, in a first aspect, includes a program storage medium encoded with instructions that, when executed by a computing device, performs the method. In a second aspect, the apparatus includes a computing apparatus programmed to perform the method.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for use in a computing apparatus, the method comprising:

automatically determining a context and a data requirement for a candidate action to be selected, the selection specifying an action in a workflow; and

automatically filtering the candidate actions for relevance in light of the context and the data requirement.

2-41. -41. (canceled)

42. A program storage medium encoded with instructions that, when executed by a computing device, performs a method comprising:

determining a context and an input data requirement for a candidate action to be selected, the selection specifying an action in a workflow, wherein determining the context and the input data requirement comprises identifying a previously selected action; and

filtering, for user selection of one or more of the candidate actions, the candidate actions for relevance with respect to the context and the input data requirement, wherein filtering comprises providing the highest relevance to candidate actions that accept as input any data and providing all other candidate actions the lowest relevance.

43. The program storage medium encoded with instructions that, when executed by a computing device, performs the method of claim 42, wherein filtering the candidate actions for relevance further comprises assigning a relevance to the respective candidate actions as a function of data compatibility between the previously selected action and the respective candidate action, and further comprises at least one of:

assigning a relevance to each of the candidate actions relative to the degree to which data type conversion will be required between the selected action and the respective candidate action; and

assigning a relevance to each of the candidate actions that require no data conversion to accept the output of the previously selected action as input.

44. The program storage medium encoded with instructions that, when executed by a computing device, performs the method of claim 42, wherein the method further comprising presenting the filtered candidates through a graphical user interface.

45. The program storage medium encoded with instructions that, when executed by a computing device, performs the method of claim 42, wherein the method further comprising ordering the filtered candidate actions by their relevance.