Internet based personal information manager

• US 20030182391A1
• Filed: 03/19/2002
• Published: 09/25/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Hurricane Electric LLC
• Original Assignee: Hurricane Electric LLC
• Inventors: Ng, Benny B., Leber, Mike
• Application Number:
  US10/100,080
• Publication Number:
  US 20030182391A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/953 Querying, e.g. by the use of web search engines

Abstract

A system and a method for providing a remotely accessible Personal Information Manager. The method involves using natural language sentences to send personal information and inquiries through an instant messaging agent, from a user'"'"'s computer connected to an electronic communications network, to a chat-bot software application running on a remote computer. The chat-bot sends queries to and retrieves information from a database connected to the remote computer. The chat-bot builds a natural language sentence with an output from the database, and sends it back to the user'"'"'s computer through the instant messaging agent.

Claims

1. A personal information management system for remote storage, management and retrieval of personal information comprising, in combination:

a computer apparatus connected to a communications network;

a chat-bot software application (chat-bot) operational with said computer apparatus;

a database stored on a computer storage medium connected to said computer apparatus and directly accessible to said chat-bot;

a “

Contacts Manager”

module operational with said computer apparatus and directly accessible to said chat-bot for storage, management and retrieval of personal contacts information stored on said database; and

an instant messaging agent using said communications network, said instant messaging agent allowing a user to communicate with said chat-bot and interact with said chat-bot in a way identical to the way the user would interact with a human person using the instant messaging agent.

2. A personal information management system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said computer apparatus is a conventional personal computer.

3. A personal information management system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said computer apparatus is a conventional Unix workstation.

4. A personal information management system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said computer apparatus is a conventional mainframe computer.

5. A personal information management system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said chat-bot receives and sends natural language text messages through said instant messaging agent.

6. A personal information management system as claimed in claim 5 wherein said chat-bot parses said natural language text messages and converts them into structured query language calls to be sent to the database.

7. A personal information management system as claimed in claim 6 wherein said chat-bot builds natural language text responses back to the user through the communications network.

8. A personal information management system as claimed in claim 7 wherein said chat-bot comprises an “

Appointment Manager”

module adapted for storage, management and retrieval of personal appointments information stored on said database.

9. A personal information management system as claimed in claim 8 wherein said chat-bot further comprises a “

Reminder Manager”

module adapted for storage, management and retrieval of personal reminders information stored on said database.

10. A personal information management system as claimed in claim 9 wherein said chat-bot further comprises a set of utility modules for retrieval of publicly available information remotely accessible through the communications network.

11. A personal information management system as claimed in claim 10 wherein said set of utility modules comprises a “

Weather Reports”

module which searches a weather database that is accessible through the communications network and a “

Web Search”

module which performs a word-based search in a world wide web of computers connected to the communications network.

12. A personal information management system as claimed in claim 10 wherein said set of utility modules comprises a “

Countries Information”

module which searches a web site containing demographic, geographic, cultural and political information about a set of countries and a “

cities Information”

module which searches a database containing demographic, geographic and postal information about a set of cities.

13. A personal information management system for remote storage, management and retrieval of personal information comprising, in combination:

a communications network;

a computer server apparatus connected to the communications network;

a computer readable database connected to the computer apparatus;

a personal electronic communications device connected to the communications network;

a database management system accessible to said computer server apparatus;

a first instant messaging software application (IM1) stored in the computer server apparatus and executable by said computer server apparatus;

a second instant messaging software application (IM2) stored in the personal electronic communications device and executable by said personal electronic communications device; and

a chat-bot software application which receives and sends natural language text messages through IM1, said chat-bot software application being stored in the computer server apparatus and executable by said computer server apparatus, said chat-bot software application comprised of a module which parses said natural language text messages and converts them into structured query language calls useable with the database management system, and a module which builds natural language text responses and sends said natural language text responses back to the personal electronic communications device through IM1; and

wherein said personal electronic communications device communicates with said server computer apparatus over a link established between IM1 and IM2 through the communications network.

14. A personal information management system as claimed in claim 13 wherein said chat-bot software application is further comprised of a module which identifies a first word in a message received from said personal communication device with a user'"'"'s screen-name and compares said user'"'"'s screen-name with a list of screen-names of known users directly accessible to said computer server apparatus.

15. A personal information management system as claimed in claim 14 wherein said chat-bot software application is further comprised of a module which spell-checks an input sentence received from said personal communication device and builds a list of alternative input sentences.

16. A personal information management system as claimed in claim 15 wherein said chat-bot software application is further comprised of a module which checks said list of alternative input sentences against a list of predetermined templates and identifies a matching predetermined template and a type of query associated with said matching predetermined template.

17. A personal information management system as claimed in claim 16 wherein said chat-bot software application is further comprised of a module which identifies variables in the input sentence.

18. A personal information management system as claimed in claim 17 wherein said chat-bot software application is further comprised of a module which uses said variables and an identified type of query to build a formal database query that is sent to the database management system.

19. A method for storing, managing and retrieving personal information using a remote database connected to a network of computers and accessible through an instant messaging agent wherein a user provides and retrieves personal information from the remote database by sending natural language statements and queries through said instant messaging agent, said method comprising:

using a chat-bot software application for receiving, storing, managing and returning personal information to and from said user through said instant messaging agent;

using a communication link through said network using the instant messaging agent;

receiving a natural language message sent by the user through the instant messaging agent;

parsing the natural language message to identify the user and determine a type of message and corresponding input variables in the message;

constructing a formal database query according to the type of message and using the input variables;

sending the formal database query to the remote database;

receiving an output back from the remote database;

constructing a natural language sentence based on the type of message and using the output received from the database; and

sending the natural language sentence to the user through the network using the instant messaging agent.

20. A method of providing a remotely accessible personal information manager, said method combining the steps of:

running an instant messaging agent on a computer connected to a communications network and to a computer accessible database;

running a chat-bot software application (chat-bot), said chat-bot being able to use the instant messaging agent to send and receive messages from one or more user'"'"'s computers connected to the network and running an instant messaging agent;

said chat-bot being able to send queries to, and to retrieve information from the database; and

said chat-bot being able to use an output from the database to build a natural language response and send it back to the user'"'"'s computer through the instant messaging agent.

21. The method as claimed in claim 20 further comprising the step of receiving a natural language message through the instant messaging agent from one of a user'"'"'s computer.

22. The method as claimed in claim 21 further comprising the step of identifying a first word in said natural language message with a user'"'"'s screen-name and comparing said user'"'"'s screen-name with a list of screen-names of known users directly accessible to the chat-bot, thereby determining whether the user is an already known user or a new user.

23. The method as claimed in claim 22 further comprising the step of creating a new entry in the database if the user is a new user.

24. The method as claimed in claim 23 further comprising the step of spell-checking a sentence or set of words contained in the message sent by the user and determining alternately-spelled words corresponding to words of the sentence that are misspelled.

25. The method as claimed in claim 24 further comprising the step of building a set of alternative sentences using combinations of alternately-spelled words.

26. The method as claimed in claim 25 further comprising the step of checking said set of alternative sentences against a list of predetermined templates and identifying a matching predetermined template and a type of query associated with said matching predetermined template.

27. The method as claimed in claim 26 further comprising the step of identifying variables in the sentence sent the user.

28. The method as claimed in claim 27 further comprising the step of using said variables and an identified type of query to build a formal database query and sending said formal database query to the database management system.

29. The method as claimed in claim 28 further comprising the step of combining an output from the database and an appropriate predetermined template to build a natural language response.

30. The method as claimed in claim 29 further comprising the step of sending said natural language response back to the user'"'"'s computer through the instant messaging agent.

31. A method of maintaining a personal information manager, said method combining the steps of:

using a personal computer apparatus running an instant messaging agent and having access to a communications network to communicate with a remote computer apparatus running a chat-bot application and connected to a database;

sending a natural language sentence to said chat-bot through said instant messaging agent, said sentence containing a request message to said chat-bot to retrieve information from said database or providing information to said chat-bot for storing said information into said database;

receiving a natural language response from said chat-bot through said instant messaging agent, said response being a construction by said chat-bot of a natural language sentence built using information provided to said chat-bot in said request message, information provided by said database, and an appropriate predetermined template.