Systems and methods for determining communication chains based on messages
US7664821B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jan 26, 2007 |
| Grant date | Feb 16, 2010 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Oct 28, 2027 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L51/234
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A pool of messages, e.g., e-mails and/or other electronic documents that each correspond to a communication from a sender to a recipient, is analyzed to identify communication chains between a source and a target. Sender and recipient identifiers extracted from the messages are used to detect communication links between pairs of entities. Indirect chains of any desired length can be found by iteratively tracing a communication path one step forward from the source, then one step backward from the target, and so on; at each new step, entities at end points of the forward paths and backward paths are compared to detect any entities that complete a communication chain from source to target. Information related to the identified communication chains can be presented to a user via an interactive report that supports iterative analysis of the communication-chain data.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.