Smart Address Book

• US 20140365509A1
• Filed: 06/13/2014
• Published: 12/11/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/09/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Comcast Interactive Media LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Comcast Interactive Media LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Inventors: Lester, Peter, Miller, Justin, Lee, Hendrick, Sharma, Aseem, Gattis, Galen Trevor, Dixon, Amber, Nguyen, Huy Tuan, McGowan, Derek, McCrea, John
• Granted Patent: US 10,162,847 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/748
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2365 Ensuring data consistency and integrity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting

Abstract

An apparatus, method, system, and computer-readable medium are provided for maintaining contact information associated with a contact. In some embodiments a request associated with a contact may be received. Contact information may be obtained from one or more external or internal sources. One or more confidence scores may be generated for the obtained contact information and for one or more values received with the request. Based on the confidence score(s), one or more values associated with the contact may be incorporated in one or more data stores. In some embodiments, suggestions for contact related information may be generated. Responses to the suggestions may be used to update the generated confidence score(s).

Claims

1. (canceled)

2. A method comprising:

obtaining, by a computing device, contact information from a source;

generating a confidence score for the contact information based at least in part on at least one of a trajectory associated with the contact information, a timestamp associated with the contact information, or an identification of the source; and

incorporating the contact information in a data store based at least in part on the confidence score.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the incorporating the contact information in the data store comprises incorporating the contact information in an address book.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the obtaining the contact information from the source comprises obtaining the contact information from a second address book associated with a user different from a user associated with the address book.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising receiving a request for data associated with a person, wherein the obtaining the contact information is responsive to the receiving the request for the data.

6. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

comparing the confidence score with a second confidence score for second contact information related to the contact information; and

suggesting the contact information based at least in part on the comparing.

7. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

suggesting the contact information to a user requesting the contact information based at least in part on the confidence score.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

receiving a response from the user in response to suggesting the contact information to the user; and

updating the data store based at least in part on the response.

9. The method of claim 2, wherein the generating the confidence score for the contact information comprises generating the confidence score for a first field of a plurality of fields of the contact information.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising generating a second confidence score for a second field of the plurality of fields of the contact information, the plurality of fields of the contact information comprising fields for at least one of a name, an email address, a phone number, or an instant messenger handle.

11. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

prioritizing the source relative to other sources in response to the incorporating the contact information in the data store.

12. A method comprising:

obtaining, by a computing device, contact information from a source external to the computing device;

generating a confidence score for the contact information based at least in part on at least one of a trajectory associated with the contact information, a timestamp associated with the contact information, or an identification of the source; and

in response to incorporating the contact information into a data store based at least on the confidence score, prioritizing the source for generating a future suggestion.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

associating metadata to the contact information, the metadata comprising at least one of;

the identification of the source, the timestamp associated with the contact information, and an identification of an origin of the contact information.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising providing a suggestion comprising the contact information in response to a determination that the confidence score exceeds a threshold or another confidence score.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

providing a suggestion that suggests the contact information based at least on the confidence score,

wherein the incorporating comprises incorporating the contact information into the data store in response to approval of the suggestion.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the prioritizing comprises increasing a priority level of the source relative to other sources that provide contact information.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein the generating of the confidence score for the contact information is based at least in part on a priority level of the source, wherein the priority level is based at least on acceptance or rejection of a past suggestion of other contact information of the source.

18. A method comprising:

obtaining, by a computing device, contact information from a source;

generating a confidence score for the contact information based at least in part on at least one of a trajectory associated with the contact information, a timestamp associated with the contact information, or a priority level of the source; and

updating the priority level of the source in response a determination to incorporate the contact information into a data store.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein incorporating the contact information into the data store is based at least in part on the confidence score.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

providing a suggestion to incorporate the contact information if the confidence score exceeds a threshold or another confidence score for another version of the contact information; and

determining to incorporate the contact information upon acceptance of the suggestion.

21. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

determining whether to suggest the contact information to a first user based at least on a privacy consideration associated with the contact information of a second user.