Abstract:
A communications system ( 10 ). The system comprises circuitry ( 12 ) for receiving a communication. The system also comprises circuitry ( 16, 20 ), responsive to the communication, and for selectively locating elaborating information corresponding to content in the communication. The system also comprises circuitry ( 14 ) for presenting to a user a form of the elaboration.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
       [0001]     Not Applicable.  
       STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT  
       [0002]     Not Applicable.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0003]     The present embodiments relate to electronic communications and are more particularly directed to an automated assistant for elaborating on communicated content.  
         [0004]     Electronic communication of information has vastly affected society and will likely continue to do so in the future. One key example is the convergence of telephony and computing, another is the global Internet, and still others are portable wireless devices, such as mobile telephones, personal digital assistants (“PDAs”), and hybrids of these two devices. With these and other manners of communicating, mechanisms such as voice calls, voice-over-IP (“VoIP”), email, instant messaging (“IM”), text messaging, and others are now tools for a person to communicate with one or more other persons. Thus, information is much more readily available for all sorts of uses, whether they are business, personal, institutional, or others. As a result, perhaps information is more extensive and more rapidly presented to a person as opposed to that which occurred just a handful of years ago.  
         [0005]     With the amount of information available to a person, certain electronic tools are in the marketplace to further explore or decipher such information. Thus, if someone needs to find information on a topic, that person may manually input search terms into a separate internet search engine application or may look them up in an on-line or standalone dictionary or acronym search tool. Accordingly, with these tools, a person may more readily acquaint themselves with additional detail pertaining to an acronym, word, or subject matter.  
         [0006]     While the preceding technologies have advanced the state of the art for information exchange and elaboration, the present inventors have recognized that still further developments may improve such advancements. Such developments are discussed below in connection with the preferred embodiments.  
       BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0007]     In one preferred embodiment, there is a communications system. The system comprises circuitry for receiving a communication. The system also comprises circuitry, responsive to the communication, and for selectively locating elaborating information corresponding to content in the communication. The system also comprises circuitry for presenting to a user a form of the elaboration.  
         [0008]     Other aspects are also described and claimed.  
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING  
       [0009]      FIG. 1  illustrates a block diagram of a system  10  according to the preferred embodiments.  
         [0010]      FIG. 2  illustrates a flowchart method  30  depicting the general operation of system  10  of  FIG. 1 .  
         [0011]      FIG. 3  illustrates an example of the application of method  30 .  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0012]      FIG. 1  illustrates a block diagram of a system  10  according to the preferred embodiments. By way of introduction, each block of system  10  is shown to represent certain respective functionality described below, with certain connectivity also shown to depict the interrelationship of such functionalities. However, these illustrations are not intended to be limiting as one skilled in the art will appreciate that each described function may be embodied in various fashions, such as in hardware, software, or a combination thereof, and certain functions may be combined or separated in manners other than that shown. Moreover, various aspects of the blocks of system  10  may exist in certain devices, where those aspects may be supplemented so as to achieve the full functionality provided below.  
         [0013]     System  10  of  FIG. 1  works in response to receiving a communication as shown generally in the Figure. For reasons appreciated later, such a communication is intended to be any one of various types of communications that may be communicated in electronic format, either analog or digital, and therefore including by ways of example, voice and data communications via telephone as well as network and other electronic communications (e.g.,local networks and larger scale networks including the global Internet). The network communications may take various forms, including voice-over-IP (“VoIP”), email, instant messaging (“IM”), text messaging, as well as custom communications solutions. Indeed, by way of example to the latter, reference is made to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/962,792, filed Oct. 12, 2004, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/962,773, also filed Oct. 12, 2004, both of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference. In any event, the communication is received by a receiver/controller  12  via an appropriate interface (e.g., wired or wireless), where receiver/controller  12  is part of system  10 , which is anticipated as included in a device for a user to receive such a communication such as in the form of a telephone, PDA, hybrid, terminal, computer, computing device, electronic handheld device, or the like, as further appreciated below.  
         [0014]     Looking to the connectivity and blocks within system  10 , receiver/controller  12  has an output  12   OUT1  connected to a display  14  and to a vocabulary filter  16 , and an output  12   OUT2  connected to a speech recognizer  18 . Speech recognizer  18  has an output  18   OUT  connected to display  14  and to vocabulary filter  16 . Vocabulary filter  16  has an output  16   OUT  connected to a knowledge engine  20 , and knowledge engine  20  has an output  20   OUT  connected to display  14 .  
         [0015]     An introduction is now provided to the functionality of the various blocks of system  10 , with additional detail provided later in connection with the preferred embodiment methodology of the operation of system  10 . Receiver/controller  12  operates to receive a communication and to process it consistent with the signal type of communication, such as whether the signal is in analog or digital format. In a traditional manner known in the art, if the signal is already in, or processed to create, a digital form that may be translated to a visual counterpart (e.g., text received in the communication), then receiver/controller  12  provides that form via output  12   OUT  to display  14 , and display  14  then displays the communication in visual form to the user of system  10 ; at the same time, the information of that form is provided to vocabulary filter  16 . If the received information is a signal, such as a voice signal, that does not immediately lend itself to being displayed, then such a signal is communicated via output  12   OUT2  to speech recognizer  18 , which converts that signal to a displayable format, and that format is provided via output  18   OUT  to display  14 , for display of the converted communication in a visual form to the user of system  10 , and that form is also provided to vocabulary filter  16 . Looking to vocabulary filter  16 , therefore, it receives either directly recognizable digital data from output  12   OUT1  or converted data from speech recognizer  18  via output  18   OUT . In either case, therefore, it is anticipated that a signal received by vocabulary filter  16  is in a form whereby it represents an alphanumeric communication, meaning a word, words, alphanumeric characters, acronyms, and the like. With this input, vocabulary filter  16  evaluates, from preprogramming detailed later, whether the particular alphanumeric communication is one in which the user of system  10  desires, or would benefit from, further elaboration pertaining to that alphanumeric communication; if so, then filter  16  issues a control signal and the communication, via output  160   OUT , to knowledge engine  20 . Knowledge engine  20  represents either or both a data store and a search engine (or engines) that is able to elaborate on the alphanumeric communication, either by already having access to that information or by electronically obtaning it. Once such information is available to knowledge engine  20 , it communicates it to display  14 , where the elaboration is then displayed to the user of system  10 . Various of these aspects are further explored below.  
         [0016]      FIG. 2  illustrates a flowchart method  30  depicting the general operation of system  10  of  FIG. 1 , and  FIG. 3  illustrates an example of the application of method  30 . By way of introduction, note that method  30  in the preferred embodiment may be disabled, so that a recipient as described below may disable the method and conduct communications per the prior art should such a person not desire the assistance of method  30 . However, assuming that person has elected to enable method  30  of system  10 , then method  30  proceeds as follows. In the example of  FIG. 3 , assume that person P 1  is sending an alphanumeric communication via a computing device  200  to person P 2 , where in the example of  FIG. 3  that communication is email across the Internet and to a computing device  210  used by person P 2 . Moreover, assume in the  FIG. 3  example that computing device  210  includes sufficient hardware and/or software to implement system  10  and to perform the steps of method  30  (which is enabled in the example), and such hardware and/or software may be readily ascertained by one skilled in the art given the teachings of this document. Lastly,  FIG. 3  includes an expanded view of display  14  from system  10 , which is understood to correspond to the display device  14  (e.g., monitor or display) of computing device  210 .  
         [0017]     Looking now to  FIGS. 2 and 3 , in  FIG. 2  and step  40 , receiver/controller  12  of computing device  210  awaits and then receives the communication from person P 1  via the Internet. In the present example, person P 1  communicates that communication, an email, via computing device  200 , which is capable of transmitting such a communication. Next, method  30  continues from step  40  to step  50 .  
         [0018]     In step  50  of  FIG. 2 , receiver/controller  12  determines whether the received communication is in a form that is capable of display, such as an image or alphanumeric data, which then can be passed though a proper interface and processed by a video card, if needed, or the display itself. In the example of  FIG. 3 , the communication is an e-mail and therefore, using known principles, the email is a digitally transmitted alphanumeric representation which is readily presentable to a display. As such, step  50  is answered in the affirmative and method  30  continues from step  50  to step  70 . Note, however, had the communication not been readily presentable to a display, such as in the case of a voice communication, then method  30  would continue from step  50  to step  60 , in which case that communication is converted to a displayable form. To achieve this in the case of a voice communication, speech recognizer  18  converts the speech to alphanumeric form, thereby rendering it presentable to a display. Thereafter, therefore, method  30  continues from step  60  to step  70 .  
         [0019]     In step  70 , display  14  displays the communication, and in the example of  FIG. 3  the communication is displayed to person P 2 . Note that the display may be of only part or all of the communication as issued by person P 1 . For example, in connection with the above-incorporated patent applications, the transmitted communication may be an entire message along with a subject matter line, and initially only the subject matter line might be displayed. Similarly, in an email environment, a viewing pane might display only a portion of a larger email communication or just a subject line corresponding to the email communication. In any event, following the step  70  display operation, method  30  continues from step  70  to step  80 .  
         [0020]     In step  80 , vocabulary filter  16  determines whether elaboration is desired for any part of the received communication. In this regard, in the preferred embodiment, vocabulary filter  16  is used to examine received content such that, either: (i) vocabulary filter  16  includes a listing of content for which elaboration is not desired, thereby excluding such content from provoking a further elaboration of that content; or (ii) vocabulary filter  16  includes a listing of content for which elaboration is desired, thereby including content for which further elaboration of that content is desired. These. two options are further appreciated below. In any case, if step  80  is answered in the affirmative, that is, elaboration is desired, then method  30  continues from step  80  to step  90 . On the other hand, if step  80  is answered in the negative, that is, elaboration is not desired, then method  30  returns from step  80  to step  40 .  
         [0021]     In step  90 , having been reached because further elaboration is desired with respect to certain content of the communication, then such elaboration is obtained from knowledge engine  20 . In this regard, recall that knowledge engine  20  represents either or both a data store and a search engine (or engines) that is able to elaborate on the communication, either by already having access to that information or by electronically obtaining it. To first demonstrate this operation, looking to  FIG. 3 , display  14  is shown to display, to person P 2 , two windows  300  and  400 . Window  300  is a typical email program window, with an options line  300   1  as well a “From” field  300   2 , a “Subject” field  300   3 , and a “Date received” field  300   4 ; of course, such fields are only by ways of example and various alterations may exist or be used. In any event, in the  FIG. 3  example, it may be seen that person P 2  has received, from person P 1 , a message pertaining to the subject of what is represented in the present example by an acronym, “RFID.” Returning briefly to step  80 , then, in the present example it is assumed that vocabulary filter  16  determined that this communication, including the content of “RFID,” is a subject matter for which person P 2  desired additional elaboration. For example, assume that vocabulary filter  16  is a filter by exclusion, meaning that matters it lists are not further elaborated upon, and assume further that “RFID” was not in the filter; as a result, then the flow continued to step  90  such that elaboration was sought. As a result, in step  90 , knowledge engine  20  is consulted by searching on part of the content in the communication to determine if it contains elaboration on that content, which in the present example would be a search based on “RFID” to determine if such an elaboration is already immediately available in computing device  210  used by person P 2 , such as being stored in a local table or database. For example, computing device  210  may include some type of indexing software that periodically or constantly updates the subject matter knowledge within knowledge engine  20 . Moreover, if the elaboration on the meaning of “RFID” is not immediately available in computing device  210 , then step  90  performs an automatic search using content from the communication for such an elaboration, where the search is to resources not locally stored in computing device  210 , but instead via a network to other resources external from computing device  210 . For example, this search may be achieved using one or more of the various available Internet search engines (e.g., Google, Yahoo) or with a proprietary search engine. In any event, by the conclusion of step  90 , the elaboration on the content at issue (e.g., “RFID”) is available to knowledge engine  20 . Next, method  30  continues from step  90  to step  100 .  
         [0022]     In step  100 , method  30  displays the content elaboration identified in step  100 . As an example, in  FIG. 3 , display  14  also depicts, consistent with the preferred embodiments, window  400  which displays in at least alphanumeric form the elaboration information identified in step  90 . In the present example, therefore, additional details are provided to person P 2  as to the meaning of “RFID,” where that acronym was identified by system  10  from the Subject field  3003  of person P 1 &#39;s email to person P 2 . As a result, person P 2  is automatically apprised of additional information pertaining to certain subject matter, which in the present example is the meaning of “RFID.” 
         [0023]     From the preceding, one skilled in the art should appreciate that the preferred embodiments operate to provide an automated and real-time content elaboration system  10 . With these demonstrations, various observations are noteworthy. As one observation, consider again the preferred programmability of vocabulary filter  16 . Specifically, in the preferred embodiment, periodically a user of system  10  may update that filter so as to adjust the subject matters on which future elaboration is desired. Thus, if filter  16  works on exclusion, then as person P 2  becomes familiar with certain subject matters, he or she may program those subject matters into filter  16  so that in future instances, when that subject matter is received by system  10 , such subject matter will not provoke a display of elaboration on that subject matter. As another observation, note that filter  16  may be adjusted real-time, such as by having the user of system  10  single click on a received subject matter, whereby that subject matter is then added to filter  16 . As still another observation, system  10  may be applied to numerous types of communications. While the example of  FIG. 3  illustrates system  10  as applied to email, system  10  may apply to other communications, including but not limited to telephony where displays are able to display the content communicated via the telephony, and also VoIP, IM, and text messaging. Thus, in any environment where a person receives a communication having a corresponding aspect that may be displayed, such as text, symbols, acronyms, words, phrases, or other subject matters, the preferred embodiment may operate to determine whether additional elaboration is desired with respect to any part or whole of the communication. If elaboration is desired, the preferred embodiments provide such elaboration very quickly to the recipient person and without that person having to take numerous steps to manually seek such elaboration. Thus, the recipient person is more readily familiarized with the content of the communication, thereby facilitating an improved level of response from the recipient.  
         [0024]     The preceding teachings demonstrate various benefits of the preferred embodiments to one skilled in the art. For example, the preferred embodiments provide improvements of the state of the art for communicating information and seeking additional elaboration on such information. As another example, the preferred embodiments may be readily implemented into various devices in contemporary and future technology. As still another example, the preferred embodiments may apply to numerous different types of electronically communicated communications. Indeed, as final example, while the present embodiments have been described in detail, various substitutions, modifications or alterations could be made to the descriptions set forth above without departing from the inventive scope which is defined by the following claims.