Methods for routing items for communications based on a measure of criticality

• US 7,233,954 B2
• Filed: 03/08/2004
• Issued: 06/19/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/30/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Horvitz, Eric
• Primary Examiner(s): WOO, ISAAC M
• Application Number:
  US10/795,713
• Publication Number:
  US 20040172483A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,198 Days
• Field of Search: 707100-1041, 709204-207
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/353 into predefined classes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/224 providing notification on incoming messages, e.g. pushed notifications of received messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/226 Delivery according to priorities
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 Pattern matching access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99939 Privileged 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
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

The routing of prioritized documents such as email messages is disclosed. In one embodiment, a computer-implemented method first receives a text. The method assigns a priority to the document, based on a text classifier such as a Bayesian classifier or a support-vector machine classifier. The method then routes the text based on a routing criteria. In one embodiment the routing is directed by a measure of priority that reflects the expected cost of delayed review of the document.

Claims

1. A system effectuated at least in part by a machine that facilitates interpersonal communicating, comprising:

a trainable classifier that generates a priority of a received communication for a user; and

a component that alerts the user based upon the priority of the received communication, the component alerts the user when an expected value of alerting (EVA) is positive and refrains from alerting the user when the EVA is non-positive, the EVA =EL_alert−

EL_no-alert −

EC, and the EL_alert is a first expected loss of a user reviewing the received communication at a current time with an alert, the EL_no-alert is a second expected loss of the user reviewing the received communication at a future time without the alert, and EC is a first expected cost of alerting at the current time.

2. The system of claim 1, the priority is a measure of a rate of cost accrued with delayed review of the received communication.

3. The system of claim 1, the priority is related to a net expected value of alerting (NEVA) where NEVA=EVTA−

ECA−

TC, and EVTA is an expected value of alerting, ECA is a second expected cost of alerting and TC is a transmission cost.

4. The system of claim 3, the component alerts the user when the NEVA exceeds a predetermined threshold.

5. The system of claim 3, the component that alerts utilizes a bin-packing approximation to prioritize communications, the bin-packing approximation is the NEVA divided by a size of a communication in bytes.

6. The system of claim 1, the received communication comprises at least one of an email, a text, a document, a file, a message, a message attachment, and content associated with the message.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a routing component that routes the received communication based on a routing criteria and the priority.

8. The system of claim 7, the routing component forwards the received communication.

9. The system of claim 7, the routing component replies to a sender of the received communication.

10. The system of claim 1, the classifier determines a priority class to which the received communication belongs.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising a sensor that determines a user'"'"'s presence, the alerting component employs the presence to alert the user.

12. The system of claim 1, further comprising a component that determines user preoccupation, the alerting component utilizes the preoccupation to identify whether to alert a user at a current time.

13. A machine readable medium having instructions stored thereon for execution by a processor to perform a method comprising:

generating a priority of a received item based on a trained classifier; and

communicating the received item to a user based on a preset criteria and the priority when an expected value of alerting (EVA) is positive and delaying communication when the EVA is less than or equal to zero, the EVA =EL_alert−

EL_no-alert−

EC, and the EL_alert is a first expected loss of a user reviewing the received item at a current time with an alert, the EL_no-alert is a second expected loss of the user reviewing the received item at a future time without the alert, and EC is a first expected cost of alerting at the current time.

14. The machine readable medium of claim 13, the priority relates to an urgency of the received item relative to an intended recipient.

15. The machine readable medium of claim 13, the priority is a measure of a rate of cost accrued with delayed review of the received item.

16. The machine readable medium of claim 13, the priority is related to a net expected value of alerting (NEVA) where NEVA =EVTA-ECA-TC, where EVTA is an expected value of alerting, ECA is a second expected cost of alerting and TC is a transmission cost.

17. The machine readable medium of claim 13, the received item comprises at least one of an email, a text, a document, a file, a message, a message attachment, and content associated with the message.

18. The machine readable medium of claim 13, further comprising determining whether the priority exceeds a predetermined threshold and communicating the received item if the priority exceeds the threshold.