Information processing apparatus for obtaining information related to a keyword in an email message

• US 9,501,520 B2
• Filed: 02/28/2013
• Issued: 11/22/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/21/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Saito, Mari, Yamamoto, Noriyuki, Hourin, Hiroyuki, Ohmura, Kazunori
• Primary Examiner(s): SOMERS, MARC S
• Application Number:
  US13/780,517
• Publication Number:
  US 20130173660A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,363 Days
• Field of Search: 707/738, 707/740, 707/755, 715/706
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/245 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/30 of unstructured textual data document management systems G06F16/93
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/94 Hypermedia Hyperlinking G06F40/134
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9558 Details of hyperlinks; Management of linked annotations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/284 Lexical analysis, e.g. tokenisation or collocates
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/289 Phrasal analysis, e.g. finite state techniques or chunking

Abstract

Disclosed is an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a program storage medium which can present associated information related to a document to be processed to a user. An accumulation block accumulates a database of associated information. A presentation block presents to the user the associated information corresponding to the document to be processed at occurrence of an event. An agent control block controls the manner of displaying an agent for example.

Claims

1. An information processing apparatus, comprising:

a processing circuit configured to

detect receipt of electronic mail from a client terminal,

extract a keyword from the received electronic mail,

perform a search using the extracted keyword to retrieve associated information,

provide, to the client terminal via an animated agent, a query inquiring whether the retrieved associated information should be output, the query including reason information that includes a statement indicating why the associated information was retrieved, prior to outputting the retrieved information, and

control output of the associated information via the animated agent using at least one of text, image data, and audio, when receiving an indication that the retrieved associated information should be output.

2. The information processing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to extract the keyword from a plurality of keywords in the received electronic mail based on a time-dependent transition.

3. The information processing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to extract the keyword from a plurality of keywords when both a corresponding keyword weight of the keyword was less than a first predetermined threshold at any time during a first predetermined time period prior to a time of the extraction, and the corresponding keyword weight was also greater than a second predetermined threshold at any time during a second predetermined time period, longer than the first predetermined time period, prior to the time of the extraction.

4. The information processing apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a display configured to display the associated information and the reason information indicating why the associated information was retrieved.

5. The information processing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to extract attribute information from the received electronic mail, and search a database using the extracted attribute information and the extracted keyword.

6. The information processing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to acquire a title and a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of a Web page containing the keyword as the associated information.

7. An information processing method, comprising:

detecting receipt of electronic mail from a client terminal;

extracting a keyword from the received electronic mail;

performing a search using the extracted keyword to retrieve associated information;

providing, to the client terminal via an animated agent, a query inquiring whether the retrieved associated information should be output, the query including reason information that includes a statement indicating why the associated information was retrieved, prior to outputting the retrieved information; and

controlling output of the associated information via the animated agent using at least one of text, image data, and audio, when receiving an indication that the retrieved associated information should be output.

8. The information processing method of claim 7, wherein the extracting step comprises extracting the keyword from a plurality of keywords in the received electronic mail based on a time-dependent transition.

9. The information processing method of claim 7, wherein the extracting step further comprises extracting the keyword from a plurality of keywords when both a corresponding keyword weight of the keyword was less than a first predetermined threshold at any time during a first predetermined time period prior to a time of the extraction, and the corresponding keyword weight was also greater than a second predetermined threshold at any time during a second predetermined time period, longer than the first predetermined time period, prior to the time of the extraction.

10. The information processing method of claim 7, wherein the displaying step further comprises displaying the associated information and the reason information indicating why the associated information was retrieved.

11. The information processing method of claim 7, wherein the extracting step further comprises extracting attribute information from the received electronic mail;

and

the searching step further comprises searching a database using the extracted attribute information and the extracted keyword.

12. The information processing method of claim 7, wherein the searching step further comprises acquiring a title and a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of a Web page containing the keyword as the associated information.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a program that, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to perform an information processing method, comprising:

detecting receipt of electronic mail from a client terminal;

extracting a keyword from the received electronic mail;

performing a search using the extracted keyword to retrieve associated information;

providing, to the client terminal via an animated agent, a query inquiring whether the retrieved associated information should be output, the query including reason information that includes a statement indicating why the associated information was retrieved, prior to outputting the retrieved information; and

controlling output of the associated information via the animated agent using at least one of text, image data, and audio, when receiving an indication that the retrieved associated information should be output.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the extracting step comprises extracting the keyword from a plurality of keywords in the received electronic mail based on a time-dependent transition.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the extracting step further comprises extracting the keyword from a plurality of keywords when both a corresponding keyword weight of the keyword was less than a first predetermined threshold at any time during a first predetermined time period prior to a time of the extraction, and the corresponding keyword weight was also greater than a second predetermined threshold at any time during a second predetermined time period, longer than the first predetermined time period, prior to the time of the extraction.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the displaying step further comprises displaying the associated information and the reason information indicating why the associated information was retrieved.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the extracting step further comprises extracting attribute information from the received electronic mail;

and

the searching step further comprises searching a database using the extracted attribute information and the extracted keyword.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the searching step further comprises acquiring a title and a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of a Web page containing the keyword as the associated information.

19. An information processing apparatus, comprising:

a processing circuit configured to

detect receipt of electronic mail from a client terminal,

extract a keyword from the received electronic mail, and

perform a search using the extracted keyword to retrieve associated information; and

a display configured to display the associated information,

wherein the processing circuit is further configured to extract the keyword from a plurality of keywords when a corresponding keyword weight of the extracted keyword is determined to be less than a predetermined threshold for an entire predetermined time period immediately prior to and including a time of extraction of the keyword.

20. A client terminal, comprising:

a processing circuit configured to

transmit an electronic mail to an information processing apparatus; and

receive, via an animated agent, a query inquiring whether information associated with a keyword extracted from the electronic mail transmitted to the information processing apparatus should be output, the query including reason information that includes a statement indicating why the associated information was retrieved, prior to outputting the retrieved information.