Electronic mail duplicate detection

• US 8,788,500 B2
• Filed: 09/10/2010
• Issued: 07/22/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/10/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Breakwater Solutions LLC
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Contractor, Danish, Hosurmath, Manjula Golla, Joshi, Sachindra, Ng, Kenney
• Primary Examiner(s): Corrielus, Jean M
• Application Number:
  US12/879,478
• Publication Number:
  US 20120066209A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,411 Days
• Field of Search: 707/723, 707/741, 707/755, 707/769, 707/737, 707/740, 709/206, 715/752
• US Class Current: 707/737
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1748 De-duplication implemented within the file system, e.g. based on file segments de-duplication techniques in storage systems for the management of data blocks G06F3/0641
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3331 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3344 using natural language analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/38 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention are related to a method and system for identifying linked electronic mails by receiving a query from a user, wherein the query comprises at least a segment of an electronic mail; and based on the segment received, rendering to the user at least one of related subsets or a related supersets of electronic mails related to the received segment, wherein the related subsets and related supersets are threads of the segment received and arranged in a hierarchical manner.

Claims

1. A method for identifying linked electronic mails, the method comprising:

receiving a query from a user, wherein the query comprises at least a segment of an electronic mail;

based on the segment received, identifying linked electronic mails via rendering to the user at least one of related subsets or related supersets of electronic mails related to the received segment, wherein the related subsets and related supersets are threads of the segment received and arranged in hierarchy;

said rendering comprising;

detecting at least one match between a query root segment signature of one the received segment and a root segment signature index, the root segment signature index comprising at least one of a word index and a metadata index, wherein the word index comprises at least one of a keyword and, and wherein the metadata index comprises at least one of temporal information and navigation information;

said detecting comprising;

receiving a pre-defined token match threshold;

identifying a set of root segment signatures of the root segment signature index;

comparing the query root segment signature with each root segment signature of the set of root segment signatures of the root segment signature index;

identifying a subset of the root segment signature index, wherein a match between the root segment signature and the query root segment signature is at least the pre-defined token match threshold; and

building an electronic mail thread hierarchy based on the at least one detected match.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the hierarchy is presented as a visual representation.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the hierarchy is determined by at least one of near duplicate detection or similarity measure.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprises locating other emails having similar segments using near duplicate detection.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the received segment is a root node.

6. The method as claimed in claim 5, wherein the thread hierarchy comprises at least one child node.

7. The method as claimed in claim 6, wherein said building further comprises assigning weights to each of the root node and at least one child node;

and

creating a thread hierarchy based on the weights assigned to each of the child node.

8. The method as claimed in claim 6, wherein the repository comprise at least one of structured data and unstructured data.

9. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the electronic mail and the segments are stored in a repository.

10. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein each electronic mail comprises at least a plurality of segments, and each segment of the electronic mail created has a unique signature.

11. A data processing system comprising at least a processor and a memory, the data processing system configured for identifying linked electronic mails, the system configured to perform:

receiving a query from a user, wherein the query comprises at least a segment of an electronic mail;

based on the segment received, identifying linked electronic mails via rendering to the user at least one of related subsets or related supersets of electronic mails related to the received segment, wherein the related subsets and related supersets are threads of the segment received and arranged in hierarchy;

said rendering comprising;

detecting at least one match between a query root segment signature of the received segment and a root segment signature index, the root segment signature index comprising at least one of a word index and a metadata index, wherein the word index comprises at least one of a keyword and subject information, and wherein the metadata index comprises at least one of temporal information and navigation information;

said detecting comprising;

receiving a pre-defined token match threshold;

identifying a set of root segment signatures of the root segment signature index;

comparing the query root segment signature with each root segment signature of the set of root segment signatures of the root segment signature index;

identifying a subset of the root segment signature index, wherein a match between the root segment signature and the query root segment signature is at least the pre-defined token match threshold; and

building an electronic mail thread hierarchy based on the at least one detected match.

12. The system as claimed in claim 11, wherein the hierarchy is presented as a visual representation.

13. The system as claimed in claim 11, wherein the hierarchy is determined by at least one of near duplicate detection or similarity measure.

14. The system as claimed in claim 11, wherein each electronic mail comprises at least a plurality of segments.

15. The system as claimed in claim 14, wherein each segments of the electronic mall created has a unique signature.

16. The system as claimed in claim 11, wherein the system is further configured to locate other emails having similar segments using near duplicate detection.

17. The system as claimed in claim 11, wherein the received segment is a root node.

18. The system as claimed in claim 17, wherein the thread hierarchy comprises at least one child node.

19. The system as claimed in claim 18, wherein said building further comprises

assigning weights to each of the root node and at least one child node;

and

creating a thread hierarchy based on the weights assigned to each of the child node.

20. The system as claimed in claim 11, wherein the electronic mail and the segments are stored in a repository.

21. The system as claimed in claim 20, wherein the repository comprise at least one of structured data and unstructured data.