Social network mapping

• US 9,245,300 B2
• Filed: 09/13/2012
• Issued: 01/26/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/13/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Comcast Cable Communications LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Comcast Cable Communications LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Inventors: Budin, Eric
• Primary Examiner(s): Gillis, Brian J
• Assistant Examiner(s): GRIJALVA LOBOS, BORIS D
• Application Number:
  US13/613,066
• Publication Number:
  US 20140074925A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,230 Days
• Field of Search: 709201-204, 709/226, 709/248
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/00 Interconnection of, or transfer of information or other signals between, memories, input/output devices or central processing units interface circuits for specific input/output devices G06F3/00 ; multiprogram control therefor G06F9/46; multiprocessor systems G06F15/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/16 Combinations of two or more digital computers each having at least an arithmetic unit, a program unit and a register, e.g. for a simultaneous processing of several programs coordinating program control therefor G06F9/52; in regulating and control system G05B
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• 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 7/00 Arrangements for synchronising receiver with transmitter synchronisation of generators of electric oscillations or pulses H03L7/00

Abstract

Methods and systems are disclosed that may retrieve and filter a call history log or related data, select users based on the results of filtering, and provide proposed contacts to a communication service. The filtering may comprise a variety of criteria and the criteria may be assigned different weights.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

retrieving, by a device and from a first communication service, data representing communications of a first user made using the first communication service;

filtering, by the device, the data using one or more criteria, wherein the filtering comprises computing a first filtering score associated with each communication participant in a plurality of communication participants, resulting in first filtering scores;

selecting a first group of users of the first communication service other than the first user, wherein the selecting comprises comparing the first filtering scores with a threshold and determining that a number of communication instances in the data between the first user and each user in the first group of users exceeds a threshold value;

selecting a second group of users of the first communication service other than the first user and the first group of users, wherein the selecting comprises determining that communications between the first user and each user in the second group of users satisfy a criterion other than the number of communication instances exceeding the threshold value;

providing information to a second communication service, different from the first communication service, identifying the first group of users as proposed contacts for the first user in the second communication service.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more criteria are two different

criteria selected from among a call frequency, a call duration, an area code, a call type, a call device, a call time, and a call date.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the filtering comprises using two or more criteria and assigning a first combination of weights to the two or more criteria.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

filtering a second time, comprising assigning a second combination of weights, different from the first combination of weights, to the one or more criteria and computing a second filtering score.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the proposed contacts are provided as a proposed update to an existing contact list for the first user in the second communication service.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the retrieving of the data is performed by the device in response to a request for the proposed contacts from the second communication service.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the first group of users comprises selecting a predetermined number of call participants from a call history log.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the information identifying the selected first group of users in a database.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

comparing the selected first group of users to a list of previously selected one or more users;

detecting users included in the list of previously selected one or more users but not in the selected first group of users; and

providing information to the second communication service identifying the detected users as proposed contacts for the first user in the second communication service.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the retrieving of the data from the first communication service is performed periodically.

18. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

providing information to a third communication service, different from the first communication service and the second communication service, identifying the first group of users and the second group of users as proposed contacts for the first user in the third communication service.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the criterion is selected from among a call duration, an area code, a call type, a call device, a call time, and a call date.

11. A method comprising:

filtering, by one or more computing devices, communications data representing communications of a first user made using a first communication service, wherein the filtering comprises computing a filtering score associated with each communication participant in a plurality of communication participants, resulting in filtering scores;

determining, by the one or more computing devices, a first plurality of users of a second communication service to be proposed as contacts for the first user in the second communication service, the first plurality of users selected based on the filtering scores and on determining that a number of communication instances between the first user and each user in the first plurality of users exceeds a threshold value;

determining, by the one or more computing devices, a second plurality of users of the second communication service, different from the first plurality of users, to be proposed as contacts for the first user in the second communication service, the second plurality of users selected based on determining that communications between the first user and each user in the second plurality of users satisfy a criterion other than the number of communication instances exceeds the threshold value; and

generating a contact list comprising the first plurality of users and the second plurality of users for the first user.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

transferring the contact list to a user device associated with the first user when the first user logs-in to the second communication service using the user device.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein

computing the filtering scores comprises using two or more criteria and a combination of different weights for the two or more criteria.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the two or more criteria are two different criteria selected from among a call frequency, a call duration, an area code, a call type, a call device, a call time, and a call date.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising receiving the combination of different weights from the first user via a web portal.

16. A method comprising:

retrieving, by a device, communication data related to one or more communications between a first user and a second user;

filtering the communication data using one or more criteria, wherein the filtering comprises computation of a filtering score associated with the second user;

selecting the second user for a first group of proposed contacts for the first user in a communication service based on the filtering score and if a number of communications instances between the first user and the second user exceeds a threshold value;

if the number of communication instances between the first user and the second user does not exceed the threshold value, selecting the second user for a second group of proposed contacts for the first user in the communication service if communications between the first user and the second user satisfy a criterion other than the number of communication instances exceeding the threshold value; and

retrieving information identifying the second user from a source other than the communication data when the second user is selected.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein selecting the second user for the first group of proposed contacts comprises comparing the filtering score associated with the second user to at least one of a score associated with another user and a threshold score.