Method and apparatus for organizing information in a computer system

• US 7,991,720 B2
• Filed: 06/25/2003
• Issued: 08/02/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/1992
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Rose, Daniel E., Houde, Stephanie, Salomon, Gitta, Oren, Timothy, Booker, Susan, Mander, Richard, Wong, Yin Yin
• Primary Examiner(s): Griffin; Jeffrey A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kennedy; Adrian L
• Application Number:
  US10/607,085
• Publication Number:
  US 20040128277A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,960 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 706/45
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3334 Selection or weighting of terms from queries, including natural language queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/34 Browsing; Visualisation therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0483 Interaction with page-structured environments, e.g. book metaphor

Abstract

A method and apparatus for organizing information in a computer filing system. The method and apparatus include the creation of a pile comprising a collection of documents and displaying a graphical representation of the collection of documents. The method and apparatus further include browsing the collection of documents by pointing a cursor at a particular item in the collection of documents to reveal an indicia for the particular item in the collection of documents. The filing system can automatically divide a pile (e.g. a collection of documents from an electronic mail network) into subpiles on the basis of the content of each document in the pile, and the filing system, at the user'"'"'s request can automatically file away documents into existing piles in the computer system on the basis of a similarity match between the content (or other internal representation) of the document and the content (or other internal representation) of existing piles in the computer system. The filing system can also create a pile from a sample document by using the internal representation of the document as the internal representation of the new pile. The computer filing system provides various interfaces in connection with piles to the user of the system to provide feedback and other information to the user, including information concerning the documents and piles in the computer'"'"'s filing system.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

determining a mathematical representation of a document, wherein the document is an electronic mail received through an electronic mail system, wherein said document is not part of a collection of documents;

comparing said mathematical representation of said document to a collective mathematical representation of the collection of documents; and

categorizing, by a data processing system, said document as being associated with said collection based on said comparing, wherein the content of said document is not known to a user of said data processing system upon said categorizing.

2. A method as in claim 1, wherein said mathematical representation of said document comprises a document vector.

3. A method as in claim 2, wherein said document vector comprises term frequencies of a plurality of words of said document.

4. A method as in claim 1, wherein said mathematical representation is based on term frequencies of a plurality of words of said document.

5. A method as in claim 1, wherein said comparing comprises:

determining a similarity indicator from said mathematical representation of said document and said collective mathematical presentation.

6. A method as in claim 5, wherein said mathematical representation of said document and said collective mathematical presentation are vectors;

and, said similarity indicator is based on a dot product of said vectors.

7. A method as in claim 1, wherein said determining comprises:

determining statistical data for non-stop words in said document;

wherein said mathematical representation of a document is determined based on said statistical data.

8. A method as in claim 1, further comprising:

updating said collective mathematical representation according to a selected document in response to input indicating that said selected document is associated with said collection.

9. A method as in claim 8, wherein said collective mathematical representation is based on term frequencies of a plurality of words;

and said updating comprises;

modifying one of the term frequencies.

10. A method as in claim 9, wherein said updating further comprises:

adding a word for said collective mathematical representation.

11. A method as in claim 8, further comprising:

displaying a user interface for confirmation of said updating.

12. A method as in claim 11, wherein said user interface allows manual modification to said collective mathematical representation.

13. A non-transitory machine readable medium containing executable computer program instructions which when executed by a data processing system cause said system to perform a method to organize information in the data processing system, the method comprising:

determining a mathematical representation of a document, wherein the document is an electronic mail received through an electronic mail system, wherein said document is not part of a collection of documents;

comparing said mathematical representation of said document to a collective mathematical representation of the collection of documents; and

categorizing said document as being associated with said collection based on said comparing, wherein the content of said document is not known to a user of said data processing system upon said categorizing.

14. A medium as in claim 13, wherein said mathematical representation of said document comprises a document vector.

15. A medium as in claim 14, wherein said document vector comprises term frequencies of a plurality of words of said document.

16. A medium as in claim 13, wherein said mathematical representation is based on term frequencies of a plurality of words of said document.

17. A medium as in claim 13, wherein said comparing comprises:

determining a similarity indicator from said mathematical representation of said document and said collective mathematical presentation.

18. A medium as in claim 17, wherein said mathematical representation of said document and said collective mathematical presentation are vectors;

and, said similarity indicator is based on a dot product of said vectors.

19. A medium as in claim 13, wherein said determining comprises:

determining statistical data for non-stop words in said document;

wherein said mathematical representation of a document is determined based on said statistical data.

20. A medium as in claim 13, wherein the method further comprises:

updating said collective mathematical representation according to a selected document in response to input indicating that said selected document is associated with said collection.

21. A medium as in claim 20, wherein said collective mathematical representation is based on term frequencies of a plurality of words;

and said updating comprises;

modifying one of the term frequencies.

22. A medium as in claim 21, wherein said updating further comprises:

adding a word for said collective mathematical representation.

23. A medium as in claim 20, wherein the method further comprises:

displaying a user interface for confirmation of said updating.

24. A medium as in claim 23, wherein said user interface allows manual modification to said collective mathematical representation.

25. A data processing system to organize information, the data processing system comprising:

means for determining a mathematical representation of a document, wherein the document is an electronic mail received through an electronic mail system, wherein said document is not part of a collection of documents;

means for comparing said mathematical representation of said document to a collective mathematical representation of the collection of documents; and

means for categorizing said document as being associated with said collection based on comparing said mathematical representation of said document to said collective mathematical representation, wherein the content of said document is not known to a user of said data processing system upon said document is categorized.

26. A data processing system as in claim 25, wherein said mathematical representation of said document comprises a document vector.

27. A data processing system as in claim 26, wherein said document vector comprises term frequencies of a plurality of words of said document.

28. A data processing system as in claim 25, wherein said mathematical representation is based on term frequencies of a plurality of words of said document.

29. A data processing system as in claim 25, wherein said means for comparing comprises:

means for determining a similarity indicator from said mathematical representation of said document and said collective mathematical presentation.

30. A data processing system as in claim 29, wherein said mathematical representation of said document and said collective mathematical presentation are vectors;

and, said similarity indicator is based on a dot product of said vectors.

31. A data processing system as in claim 25, wherein said means for determining comprises:

means for determining statistical data for non-stop words in said document;

wherein said mathematical representation of a document is determined based on said statistical data.

32. A data processing system as in claim 25, further comprising:

means for updating said collective mathematical representation according to a selected document in response to input indicating that said selected document is associated with said collection.

33. A data processing system as in claim 32, wherein said collective mathematical representation is based on term frequencies of a plurality of words;

and said means for updating comprises;

means for modifying one of the term frequencies.

34. A data processing system as in claim 33, wherein said means for updating further comprises:

means for adding a word for said collective mathematical representation.

35. A data processing system as in claim 32, further comprising:

means for displaying a user interface for confirmation of updating said collective mathematical representation.

36. A data processing system as in claim 35, wherein said user interface allows manual modification to said collective mathematical representation.