Automated parsing of e-mail messages
US8527436B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Aug 30, 2010 |
| Grant date | Sep 3, 2013 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Oct 1, 2031 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L51/212
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
An automated parser for e-mail messages identifies component parts such as header, body, signature, and disclaimer. The parser uses a hidden Markov model (HMM) in which the lines making up an e mail are treated as a sequence of observations of a system that evolves according to a Markov chain having states corresponding to the component parts. The HMM is trained using a manually-annotated set of e-mail messages, then applied to parse other e-mail messages. HMM-based parsing can be further refined or expanded using heuristic post-processing techniques that exploit redundancy of some component parts (e.g., signatures, disclaimers) across a corpus of e-mail messages.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.