Methods and apparatus to determine context relevant information

• US 7,509,320 B2
• Filed: 12/14/2005
• Issued: 03/24/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RingCentral Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Siemens AG
• Inventors: Hess, Christopher K., Wynblatt, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Breene, John E
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sweeney, Patrick E
• Application Number:
  US11/304,917
• Publication Number:
  US 20070136267A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,196 Days
• Field of Search: 707/5, 707/2, 707/6, 707/104.1
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24575 using context
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 Access augmentation or optimizing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 Pattern matching access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided to facilitate a user'"'"'s access to data objects. According to some embodiments, information associated with use of data objects is automatically collected. The collected information may be analyzed to determine relevance evidence between data objects, and the relevance evidence may be stored. A first data object of interest is determined, and, based on the stored relevance evidence, a second data object associated with the first data object is selected. An indication of the second data object may then be provided.

Claims

1. A method of facilitating access to data objects, comprising:

automatically collecting information associated with use of data objects by a user, the collected information including a toggle count representing a number of times the user has activated an application in connection with a first data object before activating an application in connection with a second data object;

analyzing the collected information to determine relevance evidence between pairs of data objects;

storing the relevance evidence in a table indexed by identifiers associated with data object pairs;

determining that the first data object has become of interest to the user;

based on the stored relevance evidence, selecting the second data object associated with the first data object in accordance with the toggle count and a pre-determined rule; and

providing an indication of the second data object to the user.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

analyzing content of data objects to determine additional relevance evidence between pairs of data objects; and

storing the additional relevance evidence, wherein the selection of the second data object is further based on the stored additional relevance evidence.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the additional relevance information is associated with a relative frequency of words within pairs of data objects in accordance with a term frequency-inverse document frequency algorithm.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein at least some of the data objects comprise at least one of:

(i) an information file, (ii) an information folder, (iii) an email message, (iv) a database record, (v) an application specific data object, (vi) a web page, (vii) a telephone call, (viii) a calendar entry, (xiv) an instant message, or (xv) a media object.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said collecting information comprises collecting events associated with an operating system graphical user interface.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said collecting information further comprises collecting events associated with an operating system file system driver.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said collecting information comprises collecting information associated with locations of data objects in connection with at least one of an operating system file system driver or an application specific index.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein a plurality of data objects are selected and presented to the user as a list of data object names.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

receiving from the user a selection of one of the data object names in the list; and

activating the data object selected by the user.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said collecting, analyzing, and storing are performed at least one of:

(i) on a substantially real-time basis, (ii) as a background task, (iii) on a periodic basis, or (iv) on a continuous basis.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein said collecting further comprises:

comparing physical storage locations of data objects; and

determining relevance evidence when a pair of data objects are stored substantially co-located.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the relevance information table is stored in an evidence store, and further comprising:

receiving an indication from the user; and

based on the received indication, adding, deleting, or adjusting information in the evidence store.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the relevance information table is stored in an evidence store, and further comprising:

automatically deleting or adjusting evidence in the evidence store based on at least one of;

(i) an amount of time the evidence has been in the store, (ii) a change in data object content, or (iii) a degree of connectedness between a pair of data objects.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the relevance information table is stored in an evidence store, and further comprising:

updating information in the evidence store when a name or location associated with a data object changes.

15. A computer-readable medium storing instructions adapted to be executed by a processor to perform a method, said method comprising:

automatically collecting information associated with use of data objects by a user, the collected information including a toggle count representing a number of times the user has activated an application in connection with a second data object before while an application in connection with a first data object is active;

analyzing the collected information to determine relevance evidence between pairs of data objects;

storing the relevance evidence in a table indexed by identifiers associated with data object pairs;

determining that the first data object has become of interest to the user;

based on the stored relevance evidence and additional relevance evidence, selecting a set data object in accordance with the toggle count and a pre-determined rule, the set including the second data object; and

presenting to the user a list of the set of selected data objects.

16. An apparatus, comprising:

an input device to receive indications from a user;

an evidence store to contain evidence entries indicating associations between pairs of data objects, the evidence entries being indexed in a table by identifiers associated with data object pairs and including;

(i) usage evidence, (ii) storage evidence, and (iii) content evidence, wherein the usage evidence includes a value indicating an amount of time at lease one of the data objects in the pair was active while opened by the user;

a selection engine, coupled to the evidence store, to select a set of data objects associated with a data object being accessed by the user; and

an output device to display the set of selected data objects to the user.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein an association between a pair of data objects is increased when those data objects are accessed at substantially the same time.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein an association between a pair of data objects is increased when those data objects are accessed in sequence.

19. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein an association between a pair of data objects is increased when those data objects are stored on a computer-readable medium substantially close to each other.

20. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein an association between a pair of data objects is increased when those data objects contain similar content.

21. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein an association between a pair of data objects is increased when one of the data objects is an email message and the other data object is an attachment to the email message.

22. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein an association between a pair of data objects is increased when both data objects are part of the same communications thread.

23. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein an association between a pair of data objects is increased when both data objects are communications and have been sent/received within a certain time proximity.

24. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein an association between a pair of data objects is increased when those data objects have similar names.

25. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein an association between a pair of data objects is increased when information is exchanged between those data objects.

26. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein an association between a pair of data objects is increased when those data objects are versions of one another.

27. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein an association between a pair of data objects is increased when a copy of one data object is made to another data object.

28. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein an association between a pair of data objects is increased when (i) one of the data objects is an email message and the other data object is an attachment to the email message that is saved to a store and (ii) one of the data objects is an email message and the other data object is loaded from a store as an attachment to the email message.

29. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein an association between a pair of data objects is increased when a hyperlink in one data object is clicked where the hyperlink points to the other data object.

30. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the importance of a data object is increased the longer it remains activated.

31. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the importance of a data object is increased when it is printed.

32. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein data objects with some specific relationship are automatically grouped together and represented to the user by a single data object, wherein said grouping is controlled by a user-configurable setting.