Automatic extraction of commitments and requests from communications and content

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016337295-A1
Application number	US-201514714137-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	May 15, 2015
Priority date	May 15, 2015
Publication date	Nov 17, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A system that analyses content of electronic communications may automatically extract requests or commitments from the electronic communications. In one example process, a processing component may analyze the content to determine one or more meanings of the content; query content of one or more data sources that is related to the electronic communications; and based, at least in part, on (i) the one or more meanings of the content and (ii) the content of the one or more data sources, automatically identify and extract a request or commitment from the content. Multiple actions may follow from initial recognition and extraction, including confirmation and refinement of the description of the request or commitment, and actions that assist one or more of the senders, recipients, or others to track and address the request or commitment, including the creation of additional messages, reminders, appointments, or to-do lists.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A system comprising:
a receiver port to receive content of an electronic communication; and an extraction module to:
analyze the content to determine one or more meanings of the content of the electronic communication;
query content of one or more data sources that is related to the electronic communication; and
extract automatically a request or commitment from the content based, at least in part, on (i) the one or more meanings of the content and (ii) the content of the one or more data sources.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the content of the one or more data sources comprises personal data of one or more authors of the content of the electronic communication.

3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the electronic communication comprises audio, an image, or video, and further comprising:
a conversion module to:
convert the audio, the image, or the video to corresponding text to generate the content of the electronic communication; and
provide the content of the electronic communication to the extraction module.

4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the extraction module is configured to analyze the content of the electronic communication by applying statistical models to the content of the electronic communication.

5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the extraction module is configured to augment the extracted request or commitment with identification of people and one or more locations associated with the extracted request or commitment.

6 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a machine learning module configured to use the content of the electronic communication and/or the content of the one or more data sources as training data.

7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the extraction module is configured to (i) analyze the content of the electronic communication and (ii) automatically extract the request or commitment from the content of the electronic communication in real time.

8 . A method comprising:
receiving a message; applying language analysis to the message to automatically transform the message into machine language features; searching sources of data for information related to the message; receiving the information related to the message from the sources of data; and identifying automatically a request or commitment among the machine language features based, at least in part, on the received information.

9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the message comprises audio, an image, or a video, and wherein applying the language analysis to the message further comprises:
determining text that corresponds to the audio, the image, or the video; and applying the language analysis to the text that corresponds to the audio, the image, or the video.

10 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the sources of data related to the message comprise other messages.

11 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the sources of data related to the message comprise one or more aspects of an author of the message.

12 . The method of claim 8 , wherein receiving the message further comprises:
sequentially receiving portions of the message during a time span; and during the time span, applying the language analysis to the received portions of the message.

13 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
flagging and/or annotating the message as containing the request or the commitment.

14 . A computing device comprising:
a transceiver port to receive and to transmit data; and a processor to:
analyze an electronic message that is entered by a user via a user interface;
search the data for content related to the electronic message; and
extract, from the electronic message, text corresponding to a request or to a commitment based, at least in part, on the content related to the electronic message.

15 . The computing device of claim 14 , wherein the processor is configured to:
determine importance of the request or the commitment based, at least in part, on the content related to the electronic message.

16 . The computing device of claim 14 , wherein the processor is configured to:
apply the electronic message or the data as training data for a machine learning process.

17 . The computing device of claim 16 , wherein analyzing the electronic message is performed by the machine learning process.

18 . The computing device of claim 14 , further comprising:
an electronic display, and wherein the processor is further configured to generate an image to be displayed on the electronic display, wherein the image includes a prompt for the user to confirm whether the text corresponding to the request or to the commitment is accurate or true.

19 . The computing device of claim 14 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
analyze parameters of the electronic message, wherein the parameters include one or more of: number of recipients, length, date and time, and subject header of the individual electronic message.

20 . The computing device of claim 14 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
analyze information about the user while the user enters the electronic message.

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Bennett Paul Nathan
• Chandrasekaran Nirupama
• Gamon Michael
• Ghotbi Nikrouz
• Horvitz Eric Joel
• Hughes Richard L
• Singh Prabhdeep
• White Ryen William

Classifications

• H04L51/04

  Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM] · CPC title

• H04L51/10

  Multimedia information · CPC title

• G06Q10/10

  Office automation; Time management · CPC title

• G06Q10/103

  Workflow collaboration or project management · CPC title

• G06Q10/107

  Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing] · CPC title