Method and apparatus for computed relevance messaging
First Claim
1. A communications system, comprising:
- an advice provider computer associated with an advice provider, wherein said advice provider computer provides advisories for a plurality of consumer computers associated with advice consumers, irrespective of actual relevance of said advisories to any of said plurality of consumer computers and said advice consumers, each of said advisories comprising a relevance clause comprising criteria defined by said advice provider wherein said respective advisory is potentially relevant to a recipient;
a consumer computer of said plurality of consumer computers for gathering said advisories from said advice provider computer over a communications medium, said consumer computer having an associated advice consumer;
a mechanism for synchronizing said advisories between said advice provider computer and said consumer computer, wherein said synchronization is performed through said consumer computer any of continuously, automatically and manually, and wherein said synchronization comprises maintaining a one-to-one correspondence between advisories stored at said consumer computer with advisories located at said advice provider computer, by gathering new advisories that have been added at said advice provider computer since the most recent prior synchronization, and by deleting advisories from said consumer computer that have been removed from said advice provider computer since said most recent prior synchronization; and
a reader application associated with said consumer computer for parsing each of said relevance clauses of said stored gathered advisories into a tree of subexpressions, and automatically determining relevance of said stored gathered advisories to any of said consumer computer and said associated advice consumer, wherein said determined relevance is at least partially based on an automatic evaluation of each subexpression of said tree of subexpressions by said reader application;
wherein said associated advice consumer is advised of said stored gathered advisories that are determined to be relevant by said reader application.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The invention disclosed herein enables a collection of computers and associated communications infrastructure to offer a new communications process which allows information providers to broadcast information to a population of information consumers. The information may be targeted to those consumers who have a precisely formulated need for the information. This targeting may be based on information which is inaccessible to other communications protocols. The targeting also includes a time element. Information can be brought to the attention of the consumer precisely when it has become applicable, which may occur immediately upon receipt of the message, but may also occur long after the message arrives. The communications process may operate without intruding on consumers who do not exhibit the precisely-specified need for the information, and it may operate without compromising the security or privacy of the consumers who participate.
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Citations
19 Claims
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1. A communications system, comprising:
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an advice provider computer associated with an advice provider, wherein said advice provider computer provides advisories for a plurality of consumer computers associated with advice consumers, irrespective of actual relevance of said advisories to any of said plurality of consumer computers and said advice consumers, each of said advisories comprising a relevance clause comprising criteria defined by said advice provider wherein said respective advisory is potentially relevant to a recipient; a consumer computer of said plurality of consumer computers for gathering said advisories from said advice provider computer over a communications medium, said consumer computer having an associated advice consumer; a mechanism for synchronizing said advisories between said advice provider computer and said consumer computer, wherein said synchronization is performed through said consumer computer any of continuously, automatically and manually, and wherein said synchronization comprises maintaining a one-to-one correspondence between advisories stored at said consumer computer with advisories located at said advice provider computer, by gathering new advisories that have been added at said advice provider computer since the most recent prior synchronization, and by deleting advisories from said consumer computer that have been removed from said advice provider computer since said most recent prior synchronization; and a reader application associated with said consumer computer for parsing each of said relevance clauses of said stored gathered advisories into a tree of subexpressions, and automatically determining relevance of said stored gathered advisories to any of said consumer computer and said associated advice consumer, wherein said determined relevance is at least partially based on an automatic evaluation of each subexpression of said tree of subexpressions by said reader application; wherein said associated advice consumer is advised of said stored gathered advisories that are determined to be relevant by said reader application. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A communications method, comprising the steps of:
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storing at least one advisory at an advice provider computer associated with an advice provider, each of said advisories comprising a relevance clause comprising conditions under which said respective advisory is potentially relevant to any of potential consumer computers and associated advice consumers; synchronizing said advisories between said advice provider computer and said potential consumer computers anonymously using a network, wherein said synchronization comprises maintaining a one-to-one correspondence between advisories stored at said potential advice consumer computers with advisories located at said advice provider computer, by gathering new advisories that have been added at said advice provider computer since the most recent prior synchronization, and by deleting advisories from said potential consumer computers that have been removed from said advice provider computer since said most recent prior synchronization, wherein said synchronization is performed any of continuously, automatically and manually through said potential consumer computers, without requiring that any of said consumer computers and said advice consumers divulge their identity or attributes or message-related relevance information to said advice provider computer; storing said synchronized advisories at a consumer computer; automatically parsing each of said relevance clauses of said stored synchronized advisories into a tree of subexpressions; and automatically determining at said consumer computer whether said stored synchronized advisories are relevant to any of said consumer computer and said associated advice consumer, wherein said determined relevance is at least partially based on an automatic evaluation of each subexpression of said tree of subexpressions for each of said relevance clauses at said consumer computer. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11)
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12. In a system including computational devices connected by a communications network, a communications apparatus, comprising:
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specific units of advice to be shared; digital documents conveying said advice; an advice provider computer for providing said advice in the form of advisories for a plurality of consumer computers, wherein each said advisory further comprises a relevance clause comprising criteria defined by an advice provider wherein said advisory is potentially relevant to a recipient; a consumer computer of said plurality of consumer computers for gathering said advisories from said advice provider computer over said communications network, said consumer computer having an associated advice consumer; a mechanism for anonymously synchronizing said advisories over said communications network between said advice provider computer and said consumer computer, wherein said advisories are potentially relevant to any of said consumer computer and said associated advice consumer, wherein said advice consumer is not required to divulge to said advice provider computer any of their identity, attributes and message-related relevance information, wherein said synchronization is performed through said consumer computer any of continuously, automatically and manually, and wherein the synchronization comprises maintaining a one-to-one correspondence between advisories stored at the consumer computer with advisories located at the advice provider, by gathering new advisories that have been added to said advice provider computer since the most recent prior synchronization, and by deleting advisories from said consumer computer that have been removed from said advice provider computer since said most recent prior synchronization; and a communications protocol for narrowly-focused targeting of said stored synchronized advisories to said advice consumer by parsing each of said relevance clauses of said stored synchronized advisories into a tree of subexpressions, and by automatically matching said stored synchronized advisories at said consumer computer for whom said stored synchronized advisories are potentially relevant, wherein said automatic matching is at least partially based on evaluating each subexpression of said tree of subexpressions for each of said relevance clauses at said consumer computer. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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Specification