Method and apparatus for summarization of threads in electronic mail
US7849147B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Mar 16, 2008 |
| Grant date | Dec 7, 2010 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jan 2, 2029 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L51/216
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
The present invention discloses a pre-processing summarization technique that makes use of knowledge specific to the electronic mail domain to pre-process an electronic mail message so that commercially-available document summarization software can subsequently generate a more useful summary from the message. The summarization technique removes extraneous headers, quoted text, forward information, and electronic signatures, leaving more useful text to be summarized. If an enclosing electronic mail thread exists, the summarization technique uses the electronic mail message's ancestors to provide additional context for summarizing the electronic mail message. The disclosed system can be used with IBM Lotus Notes and Domino infrastructure, along with existing single-document summarizer software, to generate a summary of the discourse activity in an electronic mail thread dynamically. The summary may be further augmented to list any names, dates, and names of companies that are present in the electronic mail message being summarized.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.