System and method for recognizing and storing information and associated context

• US 8,056,007 B2
• Filed: 11/15/2006
• Issued: 11/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Rupp, Jason, Khan, Mohammad Rafiushan
• Primary Examiner(s): Hutton, Jr.; Doug
• Assistant Examiner(s): DYER, ANDREW R
• Application Number:
  US11/600,667
• Publication Number:
  US 20080115086A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,819 Days
• Field of Search: 715230-233, 715/254
• US Class Current: 715/255
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/302 where the computing system component is a software system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3072 where the reporting involves data filtering, e.g. pattern matching, time or event triggered, adaptive or policy-based reporting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3438 monitoring of user actions tracking the activity of the user H04L67/535
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/86 Event-based monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/865 Monitoring of software
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

The present disclosure provides a system and method of collecting information and associated context. Information and associated context are collected by monitoring at least one application program executable using the computing system, so as to detect one or more events associated with the at least one application program; identifying contextual information corresponding to the detected one or more events; and storing information associated with the at least one detected event, the stored information including the identified contextual information.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

monitoring, by a computing system, a plurality of applications being executed by the computing system, to detect one or more events that occur with the applications of the plurality, each of the detected one or more events having a context;

identifying, by the computing system, the context and contextual information corresponding to the context of each one of the detected one or more events;

receiving, by the computing system, a notice in connection with a first application of the plurality that an anticipated event that is yet to occur with a second application of the plurality is expected, detecting a second event occurring with the second application, identifying the second event as the anticipated event noticed in connection with the first application, and making an association between the second event that occurred with the second application and identified as the anticipated event and a first event of the one or more detected events, the first event occurring with the first application; and

storing, by the computing system, information associated with each detected event, the stored information including the identified contextual information of the identified context of each detected event, the stored information identifying the association between the first and second events.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of monitoring is transparent to the applications.

3. The method of claim 1, said step of storing information further comprising:

building, by the computing system, a searchable index, the index for use in retrieving the stored information associated with the detected events and the corresponding contextual information.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

creating, by the computing system, a context graph comprising a node corresponding to each of the detected events.

5. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

creating, by the computing system in response to receiving the notice in connection with the first application, an entry in an event waiting list for the anticipated event, the entry for use in identifying the second event as the anticipated event;

determining, by the computing system and using the entry in the event waiting list, that the second event is the anticipated event;

storing, by the computing system, as part of the contextual information an association between the first event that occurred with the first application and the second event that occurred with the second application.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein one or more detected events occur between occurrence of the first and second events.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of identifying contextual information further comprises:

examining, by the computing system, information associated with a detected event to identify at least one pattern; and

extracting, by the computing system and from the information, at least one information item corresponding to an identified pattern.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

associating, by the computing system, two or more detected events based on a time of occurrence associated with each of the two or more detected events.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

associating, by the computing system, two or more detected events based on at least one pattern identified in connection with the information associated with the two or more detected events.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the at least one pattern is one of a time, date, universal resource locator, postal address and phone number.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the at least one pattern is defined using a regular expression.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein each of the detected events has associated information identifying an application of the plurality, a time of the detected event and at least one identified pattern from information associated with detected event.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

identifying, by the computing system, relationships between two or more detected events using at least a portion of the information identifying an application of the plurality, a time of the detected event and at least one identified pattern from information associated with the two or more detected events.

14. The method of claim 13, the step of identifying relationships between two or more detected events further using a predetermined time span.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein identifying relationships between two or more detected events using the information associated with the detected events and a predetermined time span further comprising:

identifying, by the computing system, a relationship between the two or more detected events using the contextual information associated with the detected events and the predetermined time span, the identifying being based at least in part on a determination whether the time of the two or more detected events falls within the predetermined time span.

16. A system comprising:

at least one computing system configured to execute;

a plurality of clients corresponding to a plurality of applications being executed by the computer system, each client corresponding to one application in the plurality of applications and being separate from the corresponding application, each client being operative to monitor the corresponding application to detect one or more events associated with the corresponding application, each of the detected one or more events having a context, the client being further operative to provide notice to a context engine that an anticipated event that is yet to occur with an application of the plurality is expected;

the context engine operative to identify the context and context information corresponding to the context of each one of the detected one or more events, the context engine further operative to receive, from a first application'"'"'s client, a notice that an anticipated event that is yet to occur is expected with a second application of the plurality, receive, from the second application'"'"'s client, a notice that a second event occurred with the second application, identify the second event as the anticipated event noticed by the first application'"'"'s client, and make an association between the second event as the anticipated event noticed by the first application'"'"'s client and a first event of the one or more detected events, the first event occurring with the first application;

an index and search engine operative to store information associated with each detected event, the stored information including the identified contextual information of the identified context of each detected event the stored information identifying the association between the first and second events.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein each client is operative to monitor its corresponding application in a manner transparent to its corresponding application.

18. The system of claim 16, said index and search engine is further operative to build a searchable index, the index for use to retrieve the stored information associated with the detected events and the corresponding contextual information.

19. The system of claim 16, said context engine further operative to create a context graph comprising a node corresponding to each of the detected events.

20. The system of claim 16, the context engine further operative to:

create, in response to receipt of the notice from the first application'"'"'s client, an entry in an event waiting list for the anticipated event, the entry for use in identifying the second event as the anticipated event;

determine, using the entry in the event waiting list, that the second event is the anticipated event;

store as part of the contextual information an association between the first event that occurred with the first application and the second event that occurred with the second application.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein one or more detected events occur between occurrence of the first and second events.

22. The system of claim 16, further comprising a pattern matcher operative to examine information associated with a detected event to identify at least one pattern, said context engine is further operative to extract from the information at least one information item corresponding to an identified pattern.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein said context engine is further operative to associate two or more detected events based on a time of occurrence associated with each of the two or more detected events.

24. The system of claim 22, wherein said context engine is further operative to associate two or more detected events based on at least one pattern identified in connection with the information associated with the two or more detected events.

25. The system of claim 22, wherein the at least one pattern is one of a time, date, universal resource locator, postal address and phone number.

26. The system of claim 22, wherein the at least one pattern is defined using a regular expression.

27. The system of claim 22, wherein each of the detected events has associated information identifying an application of the plurality, a time of the detected event and at least one identified pattern from information associated with detected event.

28. The system of claim 27, said context engine is further operative to identify relationships between two or more detected events using at least a portion of the information identifying an application of the plurality, a time of the detected event and at least one identified pattern from information associated with detected event.

29. The system of claim 27, wherein said context engine is further operative to identify a relationship between two or more detected events using the information associated with the detected events and a predetermined time span.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein said context engine operative to identify a relationship between two or more detected events using the information associated with the detected events and the predetermined time span is further operative to identify the relationship between two or more detected events based at least in part on the time of the two or more detected events falling within the predetermined time span.