Method and system for sorting and forwarding electronic messages and other data
First Claim
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1. An information forwarding system for automatically forwarding electronic messages to a plurality of destinations, comprising:
- a program command module to enter user-defined criteria for selecting and forwarding messages to said plurality of destinations;
a classifier, said classifier including a plurality of filters that may be programmed using said user-defined criteria to select information to be forwarded;
a channel selector module having a plurality of routers, said plurality of routers including one router linked to the output of one said filter of said classifier, each said router containing forwarding information for a corresponding filter; and
a channel output controller having a plurality of form converters, one form converter of said channel output linked to one corresponding said router of said channel selector module;
wherein each said form converter of said channel output controller converts filtered messages from one filter routed by one router into a form suitable for the destination to which the filtered message is to be forwarded to.
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Abstract
An electronic message forwarding system selectively forwards information to a plurality of different receiving device types. One or more user defined filters filter incoming messages, route the messages, and send the routed message to appropriate form converters to convert the message into a form appropriate to the receiving device type, such as e-mail, pager, facsimile, or telephone forwarding. In a preferred embodiment, a plurality of filters, router, and form converters may be used to perform a message classification, channel selection, and channel output control function.
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Citations
22 Claims
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1. An information forwarding system for automatically forwarding electronic messages to a plurality of destinations, comprising:
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a program command module to enter user-defined criteria for selecting and forwarding messages to said plurality of destinations;
a classifier, said classifier including a plurality of filters that may be programmed using said user-defined criteria to select information to be forwarded;
a channel selector module having a plurality of routers, said plurality of routers including one router linked to the output of one said filter of said classifier, each said router containing forwarding information for a corresponding filter; and
a channel output controller having a plurality of form converters, one form converter of said channel output linked to one corresponding said router of said channel selector module;
wherein each said form converter of said channel output controller converts filtered messages from one filter routed by one router into a form suitable for the destination to which the filtered message is to be forwarded to. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. An information forwarding system for automatically forwarding electronic messages and data to a plurality of destinations, comprising:
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a filter configured to select input messages to be forwarded based upon a user defined filter criteria;
a router that may be programmed with forwarding information to determine the destination of the forwarded messages, said router receiving filtered messages from said filter; and
a form converter linked to said router;
wherein said form converter converts filtered messages routed to said form converter into a form suitable for the destination to which the message is to be forwarded to. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. An information forwarding system for automatically forwarding electronic messages to e-mail address destinations and non e-mail destinations, comprising:
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programmable filter means using user-defined criteria to select messages to be forwarded;
programmable router means to route filtered messages; and
converter means to convert said filtered messages into a format suitable for the intended forwarding device. - View Dependent Claims (20)
programmable message collector means for collecting articles from the world wide web that are to be forwarded.
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21. A method of forwarding electronic messages received by a computer from a server, comprising the steps of:
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a) providing a message forwarding system comprising user definable filters to classify the incoming messages, where filtered messages from each filter are routed by a router to a form converter that converts the incoming message into a form suitable for transmission according to the receiving device type to which the message is being forwarded;
b) inputting filter criteria for each said filter, said filter criteria including source indicia and keywords; and
c) inputting forwarding information for each said router, said forwarding information including forwarding addresses(es), receiving device type(s), and time intervals during which information is to be forwarded. - View Dependent Claims (22)
d) providing a programmable information collector for acquiring information from a local server or the world web and sending said information to said computer as an incoming message;
e) inputting keywords and access times for said programmable information collector to search a server for articles of interest.
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Specification