System and method for advanced communication thread analysis

• US 9,026,591 B2
• Filed: 05/25/2011
• Issued: 05/05/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Arlington Technologies, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Edamadaka, Rajeshwari, Krishnaswamy, Venkatesh, Wu, Xiaotao
• Primary Examiner(s): Cho, Un C
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lou, Peian
• Application Number:
  US13/115,704
• Publication Number:
  US 20120221638A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,441 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204, 709/206, 709/207, 709/217, 709/224, 706/45, 706/55, 707/722, 707/723, 707737-739, 707748-755, 715736-739, 4554121-419
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/56 Unified messaging, e.g. interactions between e-mail, instant messaging or converged IP messaging [CPM]

Abstract

Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for forming communication threads. A system configured to practice the method receives a first log of first communications in a first modality and receives a second log of second communications in a second modality. Then, the system analyzes the first log and the second log to determine relationships between the first communications and the second communications. The system identifies, based on the relationships, sets of communications having a relationship strength above a threshold, and can form communication threads based on the sets of communications. The system can form communication threads by adding a meta-data tag to a communication unit. Example modalities include short message service (SMS), text, instant messages, phone calls, video calls, emails, events, social networking, and voicemail. The system can further rank the importance of communications threads based on user actions, to yield an importance value.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, at a first time, a first log of first communications in a first modality;

receiving, at a second time, a second log of second communications in a second modality different from the first modality;

analyzing, via a processor at a third time later than the first time and the second time, the first log and the second log to determine, based on temporal dispositions of the first communications and the second communications, a temporal communication relationship between the first communications and the second communications, the temporal communication relationship indicating one of a reply, a forward, a trigger, a continuation, or a containment;

identifying, based on the temporal communication relationship, a set of communications from the first communications and the second communications, the set of communications being associated with a communication relationship strength above a threshold; and

forming, via the processor at a fourth time later than the third time, a communication thread based on the set of communications.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein forming the communication thread is performed by adding a meta-data tag to a communication unit.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first modality and the second modality comprise two modalities of:

short message service, text, instant messaging, phone calls, video calls, emails, events, social networking, and voicemail.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

forming a plurality of communication threads based on the set of communications; and

ranking importance of the plurality of communications threads to a user based on a user action.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

displaying to the user a communication thread of the plurality of communication threads, the communication thread calculated to be most relevant to the user based on an importance value yielded from the ranking.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

forming a plurality of communication threads based on the set of communications;

assigning, to a project, closely related communication threads from the plurality of communication threads;

analyzing which people relate to the project; and

assigning people into teams based on how closely they relate to the project.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein a user can modify parameters affecting the communication relationship strength.

8. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a computer-readable storage device storing instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising;

receiving, at a first time, a first log of first communications in a first modality;

receiving, at a second time, a second log of second communications in a second modality different from the first modality;

analyzing, at a third time later than the first time and the second time, the first log and the second log to determine, based on temporal dispositions of the first communications and the second communications, a temporal communication relationship between the first communications and the second communications, the temporal communication relationship indicating one of a reply, a forward, a trigger, a continuation, or a containment;

identifying, based on the temporal communication relationship, a set of communications from the first communications and the second communications, the set of communications being associated with a communication relationship strength above a threshold; and

forming, at a fourth time after the third time, a communication thread based on the set of communications.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein forming a communication thread comprises adding a meta-data tag to a communication unit.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the computer-readable storage device stores additional instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform the operations further comprising:

forming a plurality of communication threads based on the set of communications; and

ranking relevance of the plurality of communications threads to a user based on a user action.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the computer-readable storage device stores additional instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform the operations further comprising:

displaying to the user one of a top n communication threads of the plurality of communication threads and a top n communication threads communication units, where n is a natural number, and the top n communication threads is based on a relevance value yielded from the ranking.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the first modality and the second modality comprise two modalities of:

short message service, text, instant messaging, phone calls, video calls, emails, events, social networking, and voicemail.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the computer-readable storage device stores additional instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform the operations further comprising:

forming a plurality of communication threads based on the set of communications;

assigning, to a project, closely related communication threads from the plurality of communication threads;

analyzing which people relate to the project; and

assigning people into teams based on how closely they relate to the project.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein assigning the closely related communication threads further comprises:

determining a topical distance between threads and merging threads having a close topical distance.

15. A computer-readable device storing instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

receiving, at a first time, a first log of first communications in a first modality;

receiving, at a second time, a second log of second communications in a second modality different from the first modality;

analyzing, at a third time later than the first time and the second time, the first log and the second log to determine, based on temporal dispositions of the first communications and the second communications, a temporal communication relationship between the first communications and the second communications, the temporal communication relationship indicating one of a reply, a forward, a trigger, a continuation, or a containment;

identifying, based on the temporal communication relationship, a set of communications from the first communications and the second communications, the set of communications being associated with a communication relationship strength above a threshold; and

forming, at a fourth time later than the third time, a communication thread based on the set of communications.

16. The computer-readable device of claim 15, storing additional instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform the operations further comprising:

forming a plurality of communication threads based on the set of communications;

assigning, to a project, closely related communication threads from the plurality of communication threads;

analyzing which people relate to the project; and

assigning people into teams based on how closely they relate to the project.

17. The computer-readable device of claim 16, storing yet additional instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform the operations further comprising:

analyzing a similarity between more than one communication thread of the plurality of communication threads; and

when the more than one communication thread is sufficiently similar, merging the more than one communication thread into a single communication thread.

18. The computer-readable device of claim 15, storing additional instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform the operations further comprising:

forming a plurality of communication threads based on the set of communications;

analyzing, based on a user action and current context, relevancy of each communication thread of the plurality of communication threads to a user; and

displaying to the user one of communication threads or communication thread components having a sufficiently high relevancy value.

19. The computer-readable device of claim 15, wherein the first modality and second modality comprise two modalities of:

short message service, text, instant messenger, phone calls, video calls, emails, events, social networking, and voicemail.

20. The computer-readable device of claim 19, storing additional instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform the operations further comprising utilizing a speech-to-text converter when a communication unit has a speech component.