System and method for automatically populating a dynamic resolution list

• US 6,952,805 B1
• Filed: 04/24/2000
• Issued: 10/04/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/24/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Crevier, Daniel W., Cortright, David S., Tafoya, John E., O'Connor, James J., Fullerton, Michael W., Spencer, Jud E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Cabeca, John
• Assistant Examiner(s): Detwiler, Brian J.
• Application Number:
  US09/556,223
• Time in Patent Office: 1,989 Days
• Field of Search: 715738-739, 715/752, 715/764, 715/765, 715/816, 715/506, 715/507, 709/206, 709/214, 709/219, 707/1, 707/530, 707/531, 707/533, 707/534, 345/738, 345/739, 345/752, 345/816, 345/825
• US Class Current: 715/739
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/18 of spreadsheets form-filling G06F40/174
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

The system and method of the present invention automatically provides dynamically generated completion information for facilitating user input of email addresses or contact information. This completion information is developed from a “data store” comprised of multiple data sources such as previously sent or received email, and other types of electronic files such as word processor or spreadsheet files. The present invention monitors and uses the information in the data store to automatically store, track, maintain, and organize data entries in a dynamic “resolution list”. As a user begins to input an email address or contact, the present invention can either automatically complete the entry using a most probable result from the resolution list, or can display a list of likely matches from which the user may select the desired email address or contact.

Claims

1. An electronic contact resolution method, comprising:

automatically extracting contact information from any of a plurality of file types included in a data store, said data store including at least one of word processor files, spreadsheet files, and presentation files;

wherein extracting the contact information includes automatically examining the complete contents of one or more of the files in the data store and extracting any contact information located within those contents;

maintaining a list of at least one contact entry derived from the contact information extracted from the data store;

automatically computing a weight for each entry in the list;

tracking contact information associated with the contact entry;

automatically resolving contact entries in real time by dynamically providing specific contact entries from the maintained list based on the weight of each entry in the list;

wherein new entries are added to the list as new information enters the data store;

wherein entries are removed from the list and replaced with new entries when the list is full; and

wherein entries are assigned relative weights, and wherein new entries having weights that are at least equal to the weights of existing entries in the list are added to the list to replace the existing entries.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the data store includes sent and received email.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the data store further includes database files.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the weight of an entry is updated dynamically based on the number of times that the entry has been used.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the weight of an entry is updated dynamically based on the time since an email using the contact data of the entry was sent.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the weight of an entry is updated dynamically based on the time since an email using the contact data of the entry was received.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the weight of an entry is updated dynamically based on the time since an item containing data matching the entry was added to the data store.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the weight of an entry is updated dynamically as new information enters the data store.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein automatically resolving contact entries comprises providing a most probable match to an input.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein automatically resolving contact entries comprises providing a most recently used match to an input.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein automatically resolving contact entries comprises providing the entry having the greatest weight where one or more entries match an input.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the size of the list is constrained to improve performance of automatically resolving contact entries.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the size of the list is specified by a user.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the list is disabled by a user.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the new entry is not added to the list if all entries in the list have higher weights than the new entry.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein an entry in the list having the lowest weight will be chosen at random and replaced with the new entry if the lowest weight of entries in the list is equal to the weight of the new entry and that weight is shared by at least two entries in the list.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein new entries are added to the list after those entries are first used.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein an existing contact database is used with the maintained list for automatically resolving contact entries.

19. The method of claim 1 wherein the maintained list is stored in random access memory and cached in a nonvolatile storage medium.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein entries are removed from the list when matching entries are added to a contact database.

21. The method of claim 14 wherein entries are not added to the list if they are already stored in a contact database.

22. The method of claim 1 wherein the automatically resolved contact entry is selectable by a user via a user interface.

23. The method of claim 1 wherein items entering the data store are automatically scanned for contact information as the items enter the data store.

24. The method of claim 1 wherein entries in the list are automatically updated as new information matching the entries enter the data store.

25. The method of claim 1 wherein particular items within the data store are excluded from tracking.

26. The method of claim 1 wherein email received from at least one of specific email addresses and Internet domains are excluded from tracking.

27. The method of claim 1 wherein the contact information of the entries includes a plurality of information elements including:

an email address;

a friendly name;

a number of times that the entry has been used;

a date the email address was last sent to;

a date the email address was last received from; and

a weight.