Monitoring a communication and retrieving information relevant to the communication

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9288000-B2
Application number	US-73684803-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 17, 2003
Priority date	Dec 17, 2003
Publication date	Mar 15, 2016
Grant date	Mar 15, 2016

Abstract

A system, method, and computer readable medium for monitoring a communication, and providing users with information retrieved from one or more data sources that may be relevant to the communication. An information module monitors a communication associated with at least one remote client by receiving either all (or a portion of) the communication as input. The information module then analyzes the communication to filter out and produce a running list of words that may define the context or key topics of the communication. One or more of the topic words are then used as search terms in a search executed against one or more data sources. The search results may then be forwarded to the remote client in real-time, according to one or more specified parameters. In this regard, a user of a remote client does not have to formulate their own search terms, or even activate the search, while engaged in a communication. By coupling the information module to one or more data sources, a user of a remote client may be presented with access to knowledge reports of experts, various documents, information, or other resources relevant to the context of the communication to which they may currently be associated. This empowers the user with knowledge and expertise sources that match the evolution of the topic(s) of the communication.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for monitoring a communication between human individuals and retrieving information relevant to the communication, comprising:
in a system comprising a network, a server connected to the network and hosting an information module, a first interface to a communications link for connecting the server to a remote client, and a second interface for connecting the server to at least one data source:
automatically monitoring, via the first interface, a communication between a user associated with the remote client and at least one other individual;
automatically determining from the monitored communication, in real-time, one or more topic words associated with the monitored communication;
automatically searching the at least one data source in real-time during the communication for the one or more topic words appearing in the monitored communication to generate search results for documents relevant to the context or the one or more key topics of the communication, wherein
the monitored communication is a type of communication selected from a plurality of types of communication,
the at least one data source to be searched is selected from a plurality of data sources, and
the searching is performed using a predefined frequency
determining the one or more topic words comprises determining one or more likely active topics by filtering one or more topic words appearing in the communication; and
outputting the search results to the remote client.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the network comprises at least one of the Internet, an intranet or a virtual private network.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the communications link comprises at least one of a digital subscriber line (DSL) connection, a digital data services (DDS) connection, an Ethernet connection, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) line, wireless connection, or an analog modem connection.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the remote client comprises at least one of a personal computer, personal digital assistant, or a wireless terminal device.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one data source comprises at least one database or knowledge management (KM) repository.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the information module comprises an Internet web site or software application.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the monitoring further comprises receiving the communication as input in real time.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the communication comprises at least one text message.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the at least one text message comprises an electronic mail message.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the at least one text message comprises a plurality of text messages comprising a web chat.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the communication comprises a voice communication.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the voice communication comprises at least one of a telephone conference, or live conversation.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the monitoring further comprises receiving the voice communication as input in real time and converting it to text.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the filtering further comprises applying the weighted averaging algorithm to the communication at a predetermined frequency.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising enabling a user associated with the remote client to specify the frequency.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein the information module designates a default frequency.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein providing search results to said user comprises outputting hypertext links to the search results, so that the user associated with the remote client may select the hypertext links to access the search results.

18. The method of claim 1 , further comprising enabling the user associated with the remote client to specify one or more parameters.

19. The method of claim 18 , further comprising enabling the user to specify the format of the search results.

20. The method of claim 18 , further comprising enabling the user to specify the types of communication to be monitored.

21. The method of claim 18 , further comprising enabling the user to specify the at least one data source to be searched.

22. The method of claim 1 , wherein information relevant to the context or one or more key topics of the communication comprises one or more knowledge reports by experts, documents, or other resources associated with a context or one or more key topics of the communication.

23. The method of claim 1 , wherein providing search results to said user comprises providing full text or a brief synopsis of each search result.

24. The method of claim 1 , further comprising providing the user with the one or more topic words that were searched.

25. The method of claim 1 , wherein providing search results comprises one or more of: sending the search results in an electronic mail message; presenting the search results on a designated intranet or Internet site; displaying the search results in a pop-up window on a display device; or presenting the search results to at least one other individual.

26. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the one or more topic words comprises:
generating a topic vector comprising a list of several potential matches for a word; and
refining the topic vector by comparing the topic vector with other topic vectors for a predetermined time interval or number of characters to determine if they share a similar context or one or more key topics.

27. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the one or more topic words comprises filtering by activity context, user context, taxonomy-parent or synonym word look-up, involved-participant context, or topical urgency context.

28. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the one or more topic words comprises:
generating a topic vector comprising a list of several potential matches for a word; and
applying at least one tunable decay parameter curve to a topic vector; and
deriving a re-factored vector based on the occurrence of parameters from some predetermined time interval or number of characters in prior topic vectors.

29. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more topic words associated with the monitored communication define a context or one or more key topics of the communication.

30. The method of claim 1 , further comprising automatically providing search results to said user in real-time during the communication.

31. A method monitoring a communication between human individuals and retrieving information relevant to the communication, the method comprising:
automatically monitoring a communication between a user and at least one other individual;
automatically determining from the monitored communication, in real-time, one or more topic words associated with the monitored communication;
automatically searching the at least one data source in real-time during the communication for the one or more topic words appearing in the monitored communication to generate search results for documents relevant to the context or the one or more key topics of the communication, wherein
the monitored communication is a type of communication selected from a plurality of types of communication,
the at least one data source to be searched is selected f

Assignees

• Kraenzel Carl Joseph
• IBM

Inventors

• Kraenzel Carl Joseph

Classifications

• G06F40/295

  Named entity recognition · CPC title

• G10L15/1815

  Semantic context, e.g. disambiguation of the recognition hypotheses based on word meaning · CPC title

• G10L2015/088

  Word spotting · CPC title

• H04H60/48 Primary

  for recognising items expressed in broadcast information · CPC title

• G06F16/93

  Document management systems · CPC title