Automated conversion of contact names and locations in incoming messages into action links

• US 9,092,400 B1
• Filed: 09/13/2011
• Issued: 07/28/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/13/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cellco Partnership, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cellco Partnership, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Lin, Zhijian (Jeff), Pasetes, Eliezer
• Primary Examiner(s): Azad, Abul
• Application Number:
  US13/231,574
• Time in Patent Office: 1,414 Days
• Field of Search: 455/466, 704/9
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/117 Tagging; Marking up details of markup languages G06F40/143; Designating a block; Setting of attributes style sheets, e.g. eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformation [XSLT], G06F40/154
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/134 Hyperlinking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/295 Named entity recognition

Abstract

The text of an incoming message may be scanned for language that matches in whole or in part the name of a stored contact and/or information indicative of a stored location. Each identified instance of language may be converted into a link. When actuated, the link may initiate an action relating to the information to which the identified language was matched, such as to call or send an email to a matching contact or to show a map of or navigating instructions to the location indicated by matching location language. When the identified language matches multiple contacts or is indicative of multiple locations, actuation of the link may result in the display of a menu of all of the matches so that the desired one can be selected. A list of possible actions may also be provided.

Claims

1. A user terminal, comprising:

a processor;

a messaging system configured to receive messages, each message being of a type selected from the list of;

an email, an instant message, a short message service (SMS) message, and a multimedia service (MMS) message;

a contact identification system configured to identify language in the text of a message that matches a contact name in a contact storage system; and

a link conversion system configured to convert each respective identified instance of language into a link that, when actuated, initiates an action relating to the contact name that matched the respective identified instance of language,

wherein at least one of the links is configured to cause a list of selectable actions for the matched contact name to be displayed when actuated.

2. The user terminal of claim 1 wherein the contact identification system is configured to identify words with at least one space between them as an instance of language that matches a contact name.

3. The user terminal of claim 1 wherein the contact identification system is configured to identify a word as matching a contact name if the word only matches part of the contact name.

4. The user terminal of claim 3 wherein the contact identification system is configured to identify a single word as matching a contact name if it matches part of the contact name.

5. The user terminal of claim 1 wherein the contact identification system is configured to check whether a word in the message matches a first name of a contact name in the contact storage system and, if so, whether the next word matches a last name of the contact name.

6. The user terminal of claim 1 wherein the contact identification system is configured to identify language that matches contact names using fuzzy logic.

7. The user terminal of claim 1 wherein each link is configured to cause a list of selectable matching contacts in the contact storage system to be displayed when actuated, when the language that is converted into the link matches more than one contact name in the contact storage system.

8. The user terminal of claim 1 wherein the list of selectable actions includes an action that calls the contact name, an action that generates an instant message addressed to the contact name, and an action that generates an email message addressed to the contact name.

9. The user terminal of claim 1 wherein the text of the message includes a subject and a body and the contact identification system is configured to identify matching language in both the subject and the body of the message.

10. The user terminal of claim 1 further comprising:

a location storage system configured to store information indicative of a plurality of locations; and

a location identification system configured to identify language in the text of the message that matches information indicative of one of the locations stored in the location storage system, even when the language in the text of the message does not include either a street address or geographic coordinates,

wherein the link conversion system is configured to convert each identified instance of language matching information indicative of one of the locations into a link that, when actuated, initiates an action relating to the one location indicated by the matched information.

11. The user terminal of claim 10 wherein the language in the text of the message that matches information indicative of a location is a name associated with the location.

12. The user terminal of claim 10 wherein the language in the text of the message that matches information indicative of a location is an event scheduled to take place at the location.

13. The user terminal of claim 1 further comprising:

a location identification system configured to identify language in the text of the message that matches information indicative of one of a plurality of locations stored in a location storage system contained within a computer server system separate from the user terminal and configured to provide information indicative of the plurality of locations to multiple user terminals,

wherein the link conversion system is configured to convert each identified instance of language matching information indicative of one of the locations into a link that, when actuated, initiates an action relating to the one location indicated by the matched information.

14. A non-transitory, tangible, computer-readable medium containing a program of instructions configured to cause a user terminal running the program of instructions to:

receive, from a network communication system, a plurality of messages, each message being of a type selected from the list of;

an email, an instant message, a short message service (SMS) message, and a multimedia service (MMS) message; and

for each respective message;

identify language in the text of the respective message that matches a contact name in a contact storage system;

convert each respective identified instance of language into a corresponding link that, when actuated, initiates an action relating to the contact name that matched the respective identified instance of language; and

display the respective message, including each respective identified instance of language converted into each corresponding link, via a user interface of the user terminal,

wherein at least one of the links is configured to cause a list of selectable actions for the matched contact name to be displayed when actuated.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 14 wherein the text of each message includes a subject and a body, and the program of instructions is configured to identify matching language in both the subject and the body of each message.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 14 wherein the program of instructions is configured to identify language consisting of only a single word in the text of each received message as matching a contact name when it only matches a part of the contact name.

17. A user terminal, comprising:

a messaging system configured to receive messages, each message being of a type selected from the list of;

an email, an instant message, a short message service (SMS) message, and a multimedia service (MMS) message;

a location identification system configured to identify language in the text of each message that matches information indicative of one of a plurality of locations stored in a location storage system, even when the language in the text of the message does not include either a street address or geographic coordinates; and

a link conversion system configured to convert each identified instance of language matching information indicative of one of the locations into a link that, when actuated, initiates an action relating to the one location indicated by the matched information.

18. The user terminal of claim 17 wherein at least one identified instance of language is the name of a place of interest.

19. The user terminal of claim 17 wherein at least one identified instance of the language is the name of an event.

20. The user terminal of claim 19 wherein the name of the event matches multiple instances of information indicative of location in the location storage system and wherein the location identification system is configured to match the event to the location that is closest to the computer system.

21. The user terminal of claim 17 wherein the location storage system is part of a computer server system separate from the user terminal configured to be accessed by multiple different user terminals.

22. A system, comprising:

a computer server system that;

contains a location storage system configured to store information indicative of a plurality of locations; and

is configured to provide the information to multiple different user terminals; and

a user terminal that is separate from the computer server system and that includes;

a messaging system configured to receive messages, each message being of a type selected from the list of;

an email, an instant message, a short message service (SMS) message, and a multimedia service (MMS) message;

a location identification system configured to identify language in the text of each message that matches information indicative of one of the locations stored in the location storage system; and

a link conversion system configured to convert each identified instance of language matching information indicative of one of the locations into a link that, when actuated, initiates an action relating to the one location indicated by the matched information.