Advanced information gathering for targeted activities
First Claim
1. A method for creating an information summary, comprising the steps of:
- (a) retrieving a plurality of terms descriptive of an upcoming event;
(b) transmitting the terms to a software agent that autonomously creates a query based on the terms;
(c) querying a network of information utilizing the query; and
(d) updating the information associated with the upcoming event with information from the query, the updating comprising adding information obtained from the query when the information summary has previously been created, or creating the information summary when the information summary has not vet been created, wherein the information summary is established or updated at a predetermined time before the event.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An agent based system assists in preparing an individual for an upcoming meeting by helping him/her retrieve relevant information about the meeting from various sources based on preexisting information in the system. The system obtains input text in character form indicative of the target meeting from a calendar program that includes the time of the meeting. As the time of the meeting approaches, the calendar program is queried to obtain the text of the target event and that information is utilized as input to the agent system. Then, the agent system parses the input meeting text to extract its various components such as title, body, participants, location, time etc. The system also performs pattern matching to identify particular meeting fields in a meeting text. This information is utilized to query various sources of information on the web and obtain relevant stories about the current meeting to send back to the calendaring system. For example, if an individual has a meeting with Netscape and Microsoft to talk about their disputes, the system obtains this initial information from the calendaring system. It will then parse out the text to realize that the companies in the meeting are “Netscape” and “Microsoft” and the topic is “disputes”. It will then surf the web for relevant information concerning the topic. Thus, in accordance with an objective of the invention, the system updates the calendaring system and eventually the user with the best information it can gather to prepare for the target meeting. In accordance with a preferred embodiment, the information is stored in a file that is obtained via selection from a link imbedded in the calendar system.
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Citations
53 Claims
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1. A method for creating an information summary, comprising the steps of:
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(a) retrieving a plurality of terms descriptive of an upcoming event;
(b) transmitting the terms to a software agent that autonomously creates a query based on the terms;
(c) querying a network of information utilizing the query; and
(d) updating the information associated with the upcoming event with information from the query, the updating comprising adding information obtained from the query when the information summary has previously been created, or creating the information summary when the information summary has not vet been created, wherein the information summary is established or updated at a predetermined time before the event. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. An apparatus that creates an information summary, comprising:
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(a) a processor;
(b) a memory that stores information under the control of the processor;
(c) logic that retrieves a plurality of search terms descriptive of an upcoming event (d) logic that transmits the terms to a software agent that autonomously creates a query based on the terms;
(e) logic that queries a network of information utilizing the query; and
(f) logic that updates the information associated wit the upcoming event with information from the query, the logic that updates comprising adding information obtained from the query when the information summary has previously been created, or creating the information summary when the information summary has not yet been created, wherein the information summary is established or updated at a predetermined time before the event.
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20. A computer program embodied on a computer-readable medium that creates an information summary, comprising:
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(a) a code segment that retrieves a plurality of terms descriptive of an upcoming event;
(b) a code segment that transmits the terms to a software agent that autonomously creates a query based on the terms;
(c) a code segment that queries a network of information utilizing the query; and
(d) updating the information associated with the upcoming event with information from the query, the updating comprising adding information obtained from the query when the in formation summary has previously been created, or creating the in formation summary when the information summary has not yet been created, wherein the information summary is established or updated at a predetermined time before the event. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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29. A method for creating an information summary, comprising the steps of:
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(a) retrieving a plurality of terms descriptive of an upcoming event;
(b) transmitting the terms to a software agent that autonomously creates a query based on the terms;
(c) querying a network of information utilizing the query; and
(d) updating the information associated with the upcoming event with information from the query, wherein the query is created by applying a pattern template to the plurality of terms, and wherein the pattern template is adapted for identifying words separated by punctuation, identifying full names by finding two capitalized words, parsing out time strings, and identifying continuous phrases of capitalized words as at least one of a company, topic and location. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31)
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32. Method for creating an information summary regarding an upcoming event comprising:
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receiving input regarding the upcoming event;
autonomously creating a query based on the input;
autonomously querying a network utilizing the query to retrieve relevant information;
autonomously deriving background information for the upcoming event from the relevant information, the background information comprising a subset of the relevant information; and
updating the information associated with the upcoming event with the background information, the updating comprising adding information obtained from the query when the information summary has previously been created, or creating the information summary when the information summary has not vet been created, wherein the information summary is established or updated at a predetermined time before the event. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46)
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47. Method for retrieving relevant creating an information summary regarding an upcoming event for a user comprising:
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receiving input regarding the upcoming event;
autonomously creating a first query based on the input;
autonomously querying a first network utilizing the first query to retrieve first relevant information;
autonomously creating a second query based on the input, the second query being different from the first query;
autonomously querying a second network utilizing the second query to retrieve second relevant information; and
updating the information associated with the upcoming event with information from the queries, the updating comprising adding at least a nation of the first relevant information and second relevant information when the information summary has previously been created, or creating the information summary when the information summary has not yet been created, wherein the information summary is established or updated at a predetermined time before the event. - View Dependent Claims (48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53)
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Specification