System and method for read-ahead enhancements

• US 8,296,678 B2
• Filed: 01/04/2005
• Issued: 10/23/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/04/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Kyndryl Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Boss, Gregory J., Hamilton, Rick A. II, McConnell, Kevin C., Seaman, James W.
• Primary Examiner(s): England, Sara
• Application Number:
  US11/029,756
• Publication Number:
  US 20060165289A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,849 Days
• Field of Search: 715/816
• US Class Current: 715/816
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/313 Selection or weighting of terms for indexing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/328 Management therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/337 Profile generation, learning or modification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/274 Converting codes to words; Guess-ahead of partial word inputs
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads

Abstract

A method and system is provided for analyzing potential repeatable values for placement into a data field based on user-defined criteria and includes analyzing relationships between documents for the purpose of correlating sender and receiver information into a context to more accurately populate type-ahead functions in repeatable data fields. Threaded messages are typically limited to those messages that are responses to responses or responses to an original message and are usually denoted by terms such as, for example, “forwarded” or “reply to” and where the history of the previous related message is included in the most recent message. However, the invention now expands correlation into non-thread related documents to achieve a higher correlation rate. The expanded documents may be any previous email or associated documents of a sender or receiver, including any documents defined by user criteria. In the case of stand-alone applications such as word processors, any user associated document, as defined by user criteria may be included in a contextual association for purposes of type-ahead analysis.

Claims

1. A method of identifying type-ahead candidates, comprising the steps of:

analyzing past non-threaded emails or documents for words or phrases, wherein the emails or documents are in files and folders associated with an application;

generating a database of the words or phrases and corresponding addressee information within the past non-threaded emails or documents having matching subject matter;

receiving in a current email or document of the application one or more characters to provide a basis to determine a match;

analyzing the current email or document for current words or phrases;

determining matches between the current words or phrases within the current email or document and one or more words or phrases in the database;

identifying, based on the determined matches, one or more of the corresponding addressee information of the past non-threaded emails or documents;

matching the identified corresponding addressee information with the one or more received characters to identify one or more candidate words;

presenting the one or more candidate words to a user on a personal computer as type-ahead choices;

providing the one or more candidate words based on the results of the matching step; and

presenting and including a selected one of the one or more candidate words in the current email or document,

wherein the analyzing the past non-threaded emails or documents comprises;

creating the database, which is a running log of messages sent, a record of to whom the messages were sent, messages received, and a record of from whom the messages were received, the database comprising a correlation table comprising;

corresponding addressee information for the messages sent and the messages received that are considered matching in subject matter; and

one or more uncommon words that appear within the messages sent and the messages received; and

wherein the method further comprises;

assigning a first weight to the one or more candidate words based on the match with the corresponding addressee information, assigning a second weight to the one or more candidate words based on a frequency match, assigning a third weight to the one or more candidate words based on a time based time proximity match, assigning a fourth weight to the one or more candidate words based on inclusive references, and assigning a fifth weight to the one or more candidate words based on associative matches;

creating a preferences profile that defines;

(i) preferred contacts or names, (ii) preferred words, and (iii) preferred phrases for use in prioritizing the one or more candidate words; and

assigning a sixth weight to the one or more candidate words based on the preferences profile, and

wherein analyzing the current email or document comprises;

analyzing the past non-threaded emails or documents for context by identifying matching keywords or phrases between the past non-threaded emails or documents and the current email or document;

associating the corresponding addressee information for the matched past non-threaded emails or documents with the identified matching keywords or phrases; and

creating a context index of the corresponding addressee information for use by the matching step,

wherein;

the corresponding addressee information are contacts listed as senders or receivers of the matched past non-threaded emails or documents; and

the presenting step includes presenting the one or more candidate words based at least in part on the assigned weights.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

creating a preferences profile that defines preferred words or phrases for use in prioritizing the one or more candidate words; and

prioritizing the one or more candidate words based on the preferences profile.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising analyzing at least any one of a threaded document and the non-threaded document.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the non-threaded document is at least any one of a current email, a stored email, an attachment to an email, short message service (SMS) message, a stored document, and an instant message (IM).

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising prioritizing the one or more candidate words based at least in part on the context index.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising prioritizing the one or more candidate words at least in part on the past non-threaded emails or documents wherein the past non-threaded emails or documents are an existing email or document.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the contacts are derived from at least any one of a “

From;

”

address field, a “

To;

”

address field, a “

Cc;

”

address field and a “

Bcc;

”

address field in the at least one stored document.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving at least one additional character when more than one match occurs and repeating the matching step.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising making one of the one or more candidate words a permanent word in the current email or document.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the current email or document is in response to or related to one or more previous communications, and further comprising the steps of:

creating a list of contacts from the one or more previous communications;

creating a list of any contacts in a body of the one or more previous communications; and

creating a list of contacts included in any past non-threaded emails or documents involving any contacts associated in any address field in any of the one or more previous communications.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the selecting step selects based on any of the lists.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the database is derived by a combination of (i) pre-set list of the one or more uncommon words that are known and (ii) a real-time analysis of the messages and a related frequency of words in the messages in which a threshold percentage of usage defines targets for comparison.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising displaying a list of addresses and names from a virtual address book, the list including one or more filters that show only the addresses and the names that are received, sent to, received from, shared thread with, or participated in thread with.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the corresponding addressee information are people or entities that are common between the past non-threaded emails or documents that are considered to comprise matching subject matter; and

the analyzing the current email or document comprises correlating words or phrases within the current email or document to matching words and phrases in the past non-threaded documents to give the people or entities who were part of the past non-threaded documents that are considered to comprise matching subject matter a heavier-weight as choices for the presenting step.

15. A computer program product comprising a computer usable storage medium having readable program code embodied in the storage medium, the computer program product includes a first component and a second parallel component, wherein

the first component, when executed by a computer processor, controls a computer to:

analyze past non-threaded emails or documents for words or phrases, wherein the emails or documents are in files and folders associated with an application,

generate a context index correlating the words or phrases and corresponding addressee information within the past non-threaded emails or documents having matching subject matter;

the second parallel component, when executed in parallel to the first component by the computer processor, controls the computer to;

receive in a current email or document of the application one or more characters to provide a basis to determine a match;

analyze the current email or document for current words or phrases;

determine correlations between the current words or phrases within the current email or document and matching words or phrases in the context index;

identify, based on the determined correlations, the corresponding addressee information of the matched past non-threaded emails or documents

match the identified corresponding addressee information with the one or more received characters to identify one or more candidate addresses;

assign a first weight to the one or more candidate addresses based on the match with the corresponding addressee information, assign a second weight to the one or more candidate addresses based on a frequency match, assign a third weight to the one or more candidate addresses based on a time based time proximity match, assign a fourth weight to the one or more candidate addresses based on inclusive references, and assign a fifth weight to the one or more candidate addresses based on associative matches;

create a preferences profile that defines;

(i) preferred contacts or names, (ii) preferred words, and (iii) preferred phrases for use in prioritizing the one or more candidate addresses;

assign a sixth weight to the one or more candidate addresses based on the preferences profile;

present, for selection, the one or more candidate addresses to a user as type-ahead choices based on the results of the analyzing for presentation and inclusion into the current email or document,

wherein the presenting step includes presenting the one or more candidate addresses based at least in part on the assigned weights.