Patent Grant
8161125
With the growth of computer and information systems and related network technologies such as wireless and Internet communications, ever increasing amounts of electronic information are communicated, transferred and subsequently processed by users and/or systems. As an example, electronic mail, text messaging, facsimile transmission, and voice mail are all popular methods for communicating such information. In particular, with the advent of the Internet, exchanging email has become an important factor influencing why many people acquire computers. Within many corporate environments, email has become almost a de facto standard by which co-workers exchange information. However, with the heightened popularity of email and other information transfer systems, efficiency problems have begun to appear with regard to managing and processing increasing amounts of information from a plurality of sources.
One such problem involves redundant data entry. In other words, it is common for users to re-key, or re-enter, the same message data when transferring specific business function data through email. For example, a bank customer and bank loan representative can use email applications to define and communicate information regarding the terms and/or approval status of a loan application. After loan approval the bank loan representative is often required to enter the application information into a separate application used to initiate the actual loan process. Another problem many users face is the deluge of email and/or other information from which to sort through and/or respond, such that the capability of being able to send, receive, and process information has almost become a hindrance to being productive. For example, it is not uncommon for some users to receive more than one hundred email messages a day. With such large amounts of email and other electronic information, it has become difficult to manage information according to what is important and what is not as important without substantially expending valuable time to make personal determinations as to the importance. As an example of these determinations, users may have to decide whether messages should be responded to immediately, passed over to be read at a later time, or simply deleted due to non-importance (e.g., junk mail). This is particularly true because message traffic represents a wide range of content (i.e., personal, calendar, business function specific, and the like) and cannot be controlled with appropriate granularity.
Attempts have been directed at resolving information management problems. For example, attempts have been made to curtail the amount of junk or promotional email (e.g., spam) that users receive. Additionally, some electronic mail applications provide for the generation of rules that govern how email is managed within the program. For example, a rule providing, “all emails from address X” are to be placed in a special folder. Such attempts generally are not directed at the basic problem behind email and other information transfer/reception systems. That is, conventional systems often cause users to manually peruse and check at least a portion of some if not all of their received messages in order to determine which messages should be reviewed and/or contain data that requires further processing. As described above, this takes time from more productive activities. Thus, with the large quantities of information being received, there is a need for a systems and methodologies to facilitate efficient processing of electronic information while mitigating the costs of manual interventions associated therewith.
Aspects of the invention allow users to selectively transfer message data to one or more applications for processing and archiving. One aspect of the invention provides a user interface that allows users to view and designate one or more applications for processing the message data. Other aspects of the invention involve analyzing message data to identify the one or more applications for processing the message data. Accordingly, the need to manually reenter received message data into an application, in which processing of the data is desired, is effectively eliminated. In addition, messages can be categorized to a specific application and, thus, reduce inbox triage load.
Computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions for transferring message data embody further aspects of the invention. Alternatively, embodiments of the invention may comprise various other methods and apparatuses.
This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.
Other features will be in part apparent and in part pointed out hereinafter.
Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding parts throughout the drawings.
Referring first to
The originating computer 102 is coupled to the destination computer 104 via a data communication network 108. In this example, the communication network 108 is the Internet (or the World Wide Web). However, the teachings of the invention can be applied to any data communication network.
In turn, the originating computer 102 communicates with one or more remote destination computers 104 (e.g., sends email) or accesses the one or more servers 105 via network 108. The originating and destination computers 102, 104 execute email applications 110, 111, respectively, for sending and receiving message data 106, respectively, via the communication network 108. In this example, server 105, originating computer 102 and destination computers 104 communicate data among themselves using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), a protocol commonly used on the Internet to exchange information between clients and servers, or the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) commonly used for sending email from an originating client to a destination computer 104. A user of the originating computer 102 executes the email application 110 to compose an email message for delivery to a particular recipient. The server 105 includes an email server application 109 that receives the email message and stores the email message until the addressee (e.g., recipient) retrieves it via the destination computer 104. The email application 111 is responsive to user input (e.g., recipient) to display message data 106 received from the originating computer 102 via a graphical display 112 linked to the destination computer 104. For example, a user can enter commands and information into the computing device through an input device 114 such as a keyboard (e.g., wired or wireless) or a pointing device (e.g., a mouse, trackball, pen, or touch pad) to interact with the email application 111 to view the contents of a particular email message. As described above, the email message can include message data 106 that the user would like to process via another application.
Referring briefly to
Referring now back to
In one aspect of the invention, the WMA 116 is responsive to user input to transfer received message data 106 to one or more target applications 118 for processing. A target application 118 can be a word processing application, scheduling application (e.g., electronic calendar), a database management application or any other application or file in which processing of the received message data 106 is desired. The target application 118 can be executed from a computer readable medium (CRM) 119 of the destination computer 104 or located on a remote CRM 120 linked to the destination computer 104. After viewing the received message data 106 via the graphical display 112, the user uses the input device 114 (e.g., mouse) to interact with a user interface 122 on the display 112 to transfer the received message data 106 to a particular target application 118, or target applications, for processing.
According to another aspect of the invention, the WMA 116 automatically analyzes received message data 106 and compares the analyzed message data 106 to, for example, training data stored in a memory 124 to determine an intent of the received message data 106, and further identifies one or more target applications 118 for processing the received message data 106 as a function of the determined intent. By allowing a user to transfer received message data 106 to a target application 118 with, for example, a click of a mouse, or automatically transferring received message data 106 based on a determined intent, aspects of the invention effectively eliminate the need for a user to manually reenter such message data 106 into a desired application for processing. Although the WMA 116 application is described herein as being executed on the destination computer 104, it is contemplated that the WMA 116 can be executed on the originating computer 102 to transfer message data 106 to one or more target applications 118.
The exemplary operating environment illustrated in
Although described in connection with an exemplary computing system environment, aspects of the invention are operational with numerous other general purpose or special purpose computing system environments or configurations. The computing system environment is not intended to suggest any limitation as to the scope of use or functionality of aspects of the invention. Moreover, the computing system environment should not be interpreted as having any dependency or requirement relating to any one or combination of components illustrated in the exemplary operating environment. Examples of well known computing systems, environments, and/or configurations that may be suitable for use in embodiments of the invention include, but are not limited to, personal computers, server computers, hand-held or laptop devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based systems, set top boxes, programmable consumer electronics, mobile telephones, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers, distributed computing environments that include any of the above systems or devices, and the like.
Referring now to
In this example, a customer, John Smith, sends an email message to the dealer, Jane's Autos, that includes structured data defining desired specifications for a new vehicle. The dealer views the specification information included in the email via the UI 122. After viewing the desired specifications, the dealer may interact with the UI 122 to select an internal manufacturing database file as the target application 118. The transfer component 304 is responsive to the dealer's input selecting the internal database file to query the structured data to identify the data type and corresponding content, and to transfer the identified content to corresponding data fields in the internal manufacturing database file for storage and/or processing.
A tracking component 308 identifies email threads 216 based on unstructured message data included the received email message data 106. For example, the tracking component 308 can identify an email thread 216 based on subject data included in the header 206 of the email message data 106. When composing an email message 200, the original sender generally defines a subject or a topic for the email in a subject line field (e.g., Manufacturing Specs for Vehicle). When the email message is sent to the recipient, the defined subject or topic is included as message data in the header (e.g., header 206). However, when replying, the recipient generally does not define subject data. Rather, the SMTP protocol inserts an indication that the email is a reply email message (e.g., reply email message 218) by, for example, inserting a “RE:” prefix to the subject data (e.g., RE: Manufacturing Specs for Vehicle). Notably, the tracking component can identify email threads 216 from other unstructured data included in the email message. By identifying email threads 216, the WMA 300 also allows a user to transfer any updated message data to the target application 118 for processing. The tracking component 308 creates and updates a thread tracking log that is stored in a memory (e.g., memory 124). The thread tracking log identifies the name of the target application 118 defined by the user via a graphical user interface (e.g., GUI122), or automatically defined by the WMA (See
In this example, the thread number column refers to the transmission sequence of each email in an email thread regarding the desired manufacturing specifications. That is, each thread number corresponds to the chronological order in which the corresponding email message in the email thread 216 was transmitted. For example, the first thread (i.e., thread number 1) is an original email message from John Smith to Jane's Autos, the second thread (i.e., thread number 2) is a first reply email from Jane's Autos to John Smith, and the third thread (i.e., thread number 3) is a second reply email from John Smith to Jane's Autos. In this particular example, the same target application was defined for each thread.
The tracking component 308 also compares structured data associated with the most recent email message in an email thread (e.g., thread number 3 in Table I) with a version of structured data associated with the next most recent email message in the email thread (e.g., thread number 2 in Table I) to determine if the structured data associated with the most recent email message has been updated or modified.
The interface component 302 is responsive to updated or modified structured data to display graphical user interface (e.g., UI 122) that allows the user to view the received message data 106 and the name of the target application 118 previously defined for processing the received message data 106. The interface component 302 is responsive to user input selecting, for example, an OK control displayed via the graphical user interface to define the previously defined target application as the current target application 118 for processing modified structured data included in the email thread 216. The transfer component 304 is responsive the defined target application to transfer the modified structured message data to the target application 118 for processing.
Referring again to the example of a customer interested in purchasing a particular vehicle from a dealer described above, assume the dealership (original recipient) sends a reply email message to the customer (original sender) that a particular color of red must be specified from “Forest Red”, “Pearl Red”, or “Crimson” for the exterior color of the vehicle. The customer again interacts with the order form to define “Forest Red” as the desired exterior color. After revising the form, the customer submits the form to the dealer as an attachment in a reply email message to the dealer's reply email message. The following is an example of structured data corresponding to customer information and manufacturing specifications for a new vehicle included in the revised order form:
In this case, the only modification to the structured data is the exterior color of the vehicle. The interface component 302 is responsive to the modified structured message data 106 to display a graphical user interface that allows the user to view the received message data 106 and the previously defined target application (e.g., the internal manufacturing database file) for processing the structured data. If the dealer accepts (e.g., clicks an OK control), the internal manufacturing database file is defined as the current target application 118. The transfer component 304 is responsive to defined target application to query the structured message data to identify the data type and corresponding content of updated structured data, and to transfer the updated content to corresponding data fields in the internal manufacturing database file for storage and/or processing.
Referring now to
The target application menu 404 is responsive to user input to display applications stored on the computer (e.g., destination computer 104) executing the workflow manager application 200 or stored on a remote computer readable medium. For example, the target application menu 404 includes a browse control 406 that allows the user to search a local computer readable medium (e.g., CRM 119) or a remote computer readable medium (e.g., CRM 120) to identify one or more target applications 118 for processing the received message data 106. The target application menu 404 includes a drop down list box 408 for displaying application file names in response to the user selecting the browse control 406, and a list box 410 for displaying selected target applications 118. Thereafter, the user uses the input device 114 (e.g., mouse) to select (e.g., double click) one or more of the application file names in the drop down list box 408 to add to the list box 410. Alternatively, the user uses the input device 114 to highlight (e.g., single mouse click) one or more of the application file names displayed in the drop down list box 408, and then uses the input device 114 to select an OK control 411 to add the highlighted one or more application file names to the list box 410. If the user has previously defined a target application for processing structured data (e.g., structured data associated with an email thread), the target application menu 404 will display the previously defined target application in the list box 410. A transfer control 412 is responsive to user input (e.g., mouse click) to transfer the received message data 106 to the one or more target applications 118 in the list box 408. Notably, as described above, the WMA 200 may be integrated with an email application (e.g., email applications 110, 111) such that the user selects a workflow manager icon (not show) displayed in a tool bar (not shown) of the email message window to view the target application menu 404.
According to another aspect of the invention, the transfer control 412 corresponds to a predetermined target application 118. That is, the transfer control 412 includes parameter data, or property data, that defines a target application 118 for processing the received message data 106. The interface component 202 is responsive to a user selecting the transfer control 412 to transfer the received message data 106 the predetermined target application 118 to perform a particular business function using the received message data 106. For example, the target application can schedule a meeting based on the received data, prepare contracts based on the received message data 106, transfer the received message data 106 to a database for storage, and/or notify a next approval level of the message data 106.
Referring back to
Referring now to
A storage component 504 stores the received message data 106 in a memory (e.g., memory 124). The message data 106 can be utilized to generate statistics and/or training sets, and to facilitate data error checking and error recovery. Moreover, upon determining the intent of the message data, the storage component 504 stores the determined intent (e.g., calculated transfer probability) to memory 124.
A decision component 506 determines whether the determined intent corresponds to a desire to transfer message data 106 to a particular target application (e.g., default application). For example, the decision component 506 determines whether to transfer message data 106 to one or more applications by comparing a calculated transfer probability (e.g., intent) for each of a plurality of applications stored in memory 124 to a corresponding threshold probability value stored in memory 124 for each of the plurality of applications. In other words, if the determined probability exceeds a particular stored threshold value, the decision component 506 defines the corresponding application as a target application 118. The threshold value can be user defined, default and/or automatically set based on past user responses. In addition, the threshold value can be manually and/or automatically adjusted in real-time (dynamically) to adapt to various users and/or circumstances. Moreover, the threshold value can be set based on inferences, predictions, probabilities, etc.
If all the determined probabilities are less than the corresponding threshold values, no further action is taken by the WMA 500. However, if at least one of the determined probabilities for an application is greater than a corresponding threshold value, the decision component 506 defines that application as the target application 118. The transfer component 508 is responsive to the defined target application 118 to transfer the received message data 106 to the target application 118 for processing.
Referring now to
A parser 604 scrutinizes the categorized data and separates the data into logical structures such as strings, words, sentences, paragraphs. Similar to the analyzer 602, the parser 604 utilizes information such as metadata, location of the set of data within the data, content, context, keywords, history, heuristics, inferences, rules, demarcations, and/or day of week the data was transmitted and/or refine decision granularity.
An extractor 606 extracts features from the categorized data. The extracted features are conveyed to a classifier 608 to determine intent. Extracted features can be links and URLs, key words, file name extensions, structured data, etc. As described above, the intent can be intent to do something or nothing. For example, if the message data includes a document having a file name. The extractor 606 may extract extension portion of the file name and the classifier 608 may determine that the intent is to transfer the message data to an application that processes and/or creates files with the same extension. As another example, if the extractor extracts message data such as “schedule,” “meeting,” and “available,” the classifier 608 may determine that the intent is to transfer the message data to a scheduling or appointment application. The classifier 608 compares extracted features to training set data to determine the intent of such extracted features. Training sets can be manually and/or automatically generated and utilized during training-time to train the classifier 608. In addition, the classifier 608 can be dynamically updated during run-time. In one aspect of the invention, the training sets at least include information related to data properties and linguistic structure. Thereafter, the determined intent is provided to the decision component 506 (see
The WMA 708 includes a tracking component 714 that identifies email threads based on unstructured message data included the received email message 200. For example, the tracking component 714 operates the same as the tracking component 308 described above in reference to
Referring now to
Referring now to
The order of execution or performance of the operations in embodiments of the invention illustrated and described herein is not essential, unless otherwise specified. That is, the operations may be performed in any order, unless otherwise specified, and embodiments of the invention may include additional or fewer operations than those disclosed herein. For example, it is contemplated that executing or performing a particular operation before, contemporaneously with, or after another operation is within the scope of aspects of the invention.
Embodiments of the invention may be implemented with computer-executable instructions. The computer-executable instructions may be organized into one or more computer-executable components or modules. Aspects of the invention may be implemented with any number and organization of such components or modules. For example, aspects of the invention are not limited to the specific computer-executable instructions or the specific components or modules illustrated in the figures and described herein. Other embodiments of the invention may include different computer-executable instructions or components having more or less functionality than illustrated and described herein.
When introducing elements of aspects of the invention or the embodiments thereof, the articles “a,” “an,” “the,” and “said” are intended to mean that there are one or more of the elements. The terms “comprising,” “including,” and “having” are intended to be inclusive and mean that there may be additional elements other than the listed elements.
As various changes could be made in the above constructions, products, and methods without departing from the scope of aspects of the invention, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description and shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.
This application is a continuation of commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/354,368, filed Feb. 15, 2006, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/867,626, filed Jun. 15, 2004, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/549,075, filed Mar. 1, 2004, the entire disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
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