System and method for providing a universal and automatic communication access point

• US 7,457,798 B2
• Filed: 02/13/2001
• Issued: 11/25/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/13/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Capps, Stephan P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Corrielus; Jean M
• Application Number:
  US09/681,183
• Publication Number:
  US 20020111813A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,842 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/6, 707/9, 707/1, 707/4, 707/10, 715/500.1, 715/513, 715/208, 714/1
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3334 Selection or weighting of terms from queries, including natural language queries
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

The present invention involves a new system and process for automatically scanning or parsing an electronic document or information displayed on a computer display device to find any data that represents at least one person. Once data representing a person has been found, the person is automatically identified. Next, data or information relevant to that person is automatically retrieved from at least one electronic database. Finally, once the relevant data for the person has been retrieved, a user is automatically notified, via a visible or audible alert, that the person has been identified, and that information relevant to that person is available. Further, in one embodiment, one or more links to the retrieved information are automatically provided to the user along with the audible or visual alert. In addition, in a further embodiment, the present invention provides the user with at least one access point for initiating communication with the identified person.

Claims

1. A system for automatically alerting a user to available information comprising a computing device having a memory and a processor for:

automatically interpreting and parsing information recovered from an electronic document being displayed on a display device coupled to the computing device to identify data representing an entity;

automatically identifying at least one entity represented by the identified data, by comparing the identified data to information contained in at least one local or remote electronic database to identify each entity associated with the identified data;

automatically retrieving information relating to each identified entity from at least one electronic database;

automatically notifying the user that the retrieved information is available via a visual or audible alert;

automatically modifying an appearance of the electronic document being rendered on the computer display device by editing the electronic document to insert at least one graphical presence indicator into the electronic document in a location adjacent to the data representing each identified entity; and

using at least a portion of the retrieved information relating to one or more of the identified entity to automatically provide the user with at least one textual or graphical links to at least one communications account for initiating communication with each identified entity via a user interface.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one presence indicator is an icon representing at least one communication access point related to the retrieved information.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one electronic interface for initiating communication with one or more of the identified entity includes any of an email address, an instant messaging account, a telephone number, a fax number, and an Internet address for communicating with the identified entity.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein parsing the recovered electronic information to identify data representing the entity comprises identifying textual data associated with the entity.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the textual data associated with the entity includes any of:

a name, an email address, a telephone number, a fax number, and a social security number.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein parsing the recovered electronic information to identify data representing the entity comprises identifying graphical data associated with any entity.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein the graphical data associated with the entity includes any image for representing at least one entity.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein dynamically modifying the appearance of the electronic document comprises changing the appearance of the identified data.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein dynamically modifying the appearance of the electronic information being displayed on the display device further comprises automatically associating at least one hyperlink with the identified data.

10. The system of claim 1 further comprising automatically determining an online status for each identified entity by querying at least one messaging account server for each identified entity.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein each presence indicator graphically represents the online status of each identified entity.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the graphical representation of the online status of each identified entity is automatically updated by re-querying the at least one messaging account server for each identified entity.

13. The system of claim 1 further comprising a graphical user interface for interacting with the retrieved information.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the graphical user interface comprises at least one pop-up window for displaying the retrieved information for each identified entity.

15. The system of claim 13 wherein the graphical user interface comprises at least one context-sensitive menu for interacting with the retrieved information for each identified entity.

16. The system of claim 13 wherein the graphical user interface comprises at least one hyperlink for accessing the retrieved information for each identified entity via a computer pointing device.

17. A computer-implemented process for automatically providing information on a computer display device, comprising:

automatically interpreting and scanning electronic data retrieved from an electronic document being rendered on the computer display device to identify information within the retrieved electronic data that represents at least one entity;

automatically identifying at least one entity represented by the identified data, by comparing the data to information contained in at least one local or remote electronic database;

automatically retrieving information relating to each identified entity from at least one electronic database;

automatically notifying the user that the retrieved information is available via a visual or audible alert;

automatically providing to the user along with the audible or visual alert one or more textual or graphical links to the retrieved information;

automatically modifying an appearance of the electronic document being rendered on the computer display device by editing the electronic document to insert at least one graphical presence indicator into the electronic document in a location adjacent to the data representing each identified entity; and

using at least a portion of the retrieved information relating to one or more of the identified entity to automatically provide a user interface for initiating communication with the identified entity via at least one electronic communication access point.

18. The computer-implemented process of claim 17 wherein the user interface provides a user access for viewing the retrieved information.

19. The computer-implemented process of claim 17 wherein dynamically modifying the electronic data rendered on the computer display device comprises automatically changing the appearance of textual information representing the identified information.

20. The computer-implemented process of claim 19 wherein dynamically modifying the electronic data rendered on the computer display device further comprises automatically associating at least one hyperlink with the textual information.

21. The computer-implemented process of claim 17 wherein dynamically modifying the electronic data rendered on the computer display device comprises automatically changing the appearance of graphical information representing the identified information.

22. The computer-implemented process of claim 21 wherein dynamically modifying the electronic data rendered on the computer display device further comprises automatically associating at least one hyperlink with the graphical information.

23. The computer-implemented process of claim 17 wherein each presence indicator comprises an associated pop-up window for providing the retrieved information to a user.

24. The computer-implemented process of claim 17 wherein each presence indicator comprises an associated context-sensitive menu for providing the retrieved information to a user.

25. The computer-implemented process of claim 17 wherein each presence indicator comprises automatically indicating an online status of each identified entity.

26. The computer-implemented process of claim 17 wherein the at least one communication access point includes one or more of an email address, an instant messaging account, a telephone number, a fax number, and an Internet address.

27. A computer-readable medium having computer executable instructions for dynamically modifying an electronic document rendered on a computer display device, said computer executable instructions comprising:

automatically evaluating electronic information of an electronic document being rendered on a display device coupled to the computing device for detecting any information in the electronic document that represents at least one entity;

automatically identifying each entity based on a comparison of the detected information to data in at least one electronic database;

automatically retrieving data related to each identified entity from at least one electronic database;

dynamically modifying the rendered display of the electronic document by changing an appearance of the electronic document on the display device for alerting a user that data related to each identified entity has been retrieved by editing that document to insert at least one presence indicator into the electronic document, each said presence indicator being inserted into the electronic document in a location adjacent to the detected information representing the at least one entity; and

using at least a portion of the retrieved information relating to one or more of the identified entity to automatically provide a user interface for initiating communication with the identified entity via at least one electronic communication access point.

28. The computer-readable medium of claim 27 wherein detecting any information in the electronic document that represents at least one entity comprises identifying any data associated with any entity.

29. The computer-readable medium of claim 28 wherein identifying any data associated with any entity comprises identifying characteristics of at least one image within the electronic document using at least one image recognition technique.

30. The computer-readable medium of claim 27 wherein retrieving data related to each identified entity from at least one electronic database comprises retrieving any of entity data and contact information from the at least one electronic database.

31. The computer-readable medium of claim 27 wherein dynamically modifying the rendered display of the electronic document further comprises changing the appearance of any text associated with the detected information.

32. The computer-readable medium of claim 31 wherein changing the appearance of any text associated with the detected information further comprises associating at least one hyperlink with the text associated with the detected information.

33. The computer-readable medium of claim 32 wherein the at least one hyperlink includes at least one link to the retrieved data.

34. The computer-readable medium of claim 33 wherein the at least one link to the retrieved data includes at least one communication access point for initiating at least one communication with each identified entity, said communication access points including via one or more of an email address, an instant messaging account, a telephone number, a fax number, and an Internet address.

35. The computer-readable medium of claim 27 wherein dynamically modifying the rendered display of the electronic document further comprises changing the appearance of any image associated with the detected information and associating at least one hyperlink with each image.

36. The computer-readable medium of claim 27 wherein each presence indicator further comprises an associated pop-up window for providing the retrieved information to a user.

37. The computer-readable medium of claim 27 wherein each presence indicator further comprises an associated context-sensitive menu for providing the retrieved information to a user.

38. The computer-readable medium of claim 27 wherein each presence indicator further comprises automatically indicating an online status of each identified entity.

39. The computer-readable medium of claim 27 further comprising a user interface for interacting with the retrieved data.