Statistical language-model based system for detection of missing attachments
First Claim
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1. A method for processing electronic mail comprising:
- computing a probability that a text string in an electronic mail message refers to an attachment as a function of a stored probability value for each of a plurality of sequences of words within the text string, the computing of the probability including computing a first probability that the text string refers to an attachment using a first set of stored probability values and, where the first probability exceeds a predetermined value, computing a second probability that the text string does not refer to an attachment using a second set of stored probability values, the probability that a text string in an electronic mail message refers to an attachment being computed as a function of the first and second probabilities; and
where the electronic mail message lacks an attachment, prompting a user if the computed probability indicates that the text string refers to an attachment.
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Abstract
A method for processing electronic mail includes computing a probability that a text string in an electronic mail message refers to an attachment as a function of a stored probability value for each of a plurality of sequences of words within the text string. Where the email message lacks an attachment, the method includes prompting a user if the computed probability indicates that the text string refers to an attachment.
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Citations
18 Claims
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1. A method for processing electronic mail comprising:
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computing a probability that a text string in an electronic mail message refers to an attachment as a function of a stored probability value for each of a plurality of sequences of words within the text string, the computing of the probability including computing a first probability that the text string refers to an attachment using a first set of stored probability values and, where the first probability exceeds a predetermined value, computing a second probability that the text string does not refer to an attachment using a second set of stored probability values, the probability that a text string in an electronic mail message refers to an attachment being computed as a function of the first and second probabilities; and where the electronic mail message lacks an attachment, prompting a user if the computed probability indicates that the text string refers to an attachment. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A system for processing electronic mail comprising:
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a statistical language model which stores probability values for a plurality of text sequences, the statistical language model including a first statistical language model component which models the probability that a text sequence of an electronic mail message refers to an attachment and a second statistical language model component which models the probability that a text sequence of an electronic mail message does not refer to an attachment; and a processor which executes instructions for retrieving stored probability values from the statistical language model for a plurality of text sequences in the electronic mail message and computing a probability that that the electronic mail message refers to an attachment as a function of the retrieved probability values, the instructions including instructions for computing a first probability for each of the text sequences using the first statistical language model component and instructions for computing a second probability for each text sequence using the second statistical language model component, the instructions for computing the probability that the electronic mail message refers to an attachment including instructions for computing a function of the first and second probabilities. - View Dependent Claims (16)
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17. A method for processing electronic mail comprising:
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analyzing words of text strings of an electronic mail message with a statistical language model to determine whether one of the string has at least a threshold probability of referring to an attachment, each text string comprising an N-gram having a fixed number N of words, the probability of the text string being computed as a function of the individual probability of each word in the text string, the individual probability of said each word being the probability of said word in combination with the words history, the history comprising previous words to said word in the electronic mail message, where present; and where the electronic mail message lacks an attachment and the text string is determined to have at least the threshold probability that the text string refers to an attachment, prompting a user.
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18. A method for processing electronic mail comprising:
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stepwise moving a sliding window of a string K of words along a text string of an electronic mail message and at each sliding step; computing a probability for the window including using a first statistical language model component which models the probability that a text sequence of an electronic mail message refers to an attachment, optionally, if the probability exceeds a threshold, computing a probability for the window using a second statistical language model component which models the probability that a text sequence of an electronic mail message does not refer to an attachment; and where the electronic mail message lacks an attachment, prompting a user if a computed probability for at least one window indicates that the text string refers to an attachment, the computed probability being based on the probability computed using the first statistical language model component and optionally on the probability computed using the second statistical language model component.
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Specification