Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US20090138460A1/en
Timestamp: 2018-12-12 18:59:20
Document Index: 476524348

Matched Legal Cases: ['arty 102', 'arty 112', 'arty 102', 'arty 102', 'arty 112', 'arty 102', 'arty 112', 'arty 102', 'arty 112', 'arty 102', 'arty 112', 'arty 102', 'arty 112', 'arty 102', 'arty 112']

US20090138460A1 - System and Method of Determining Relationship Information - Google Patents
System and Method of Determining Relationship Information Download PDF
US20090138460A1
US20090138460A1 US11945792 US94579207A US2009138460A1 US 20090138460 A1 US20090138460 A1 US 20090138460A1 US 11945792 US11945792 US 11945792 US 94579207 A US94579207 A US 94579207A US 2009138460 A1 US2009138460 A1 US 2009138460A1
US11945792
US8180807B2 (en )
The present disclosure is generally related to determining relationship information.
Social networking sites have become increasingly popular on the Internet. Sites such as Facebook (www.facebook.com) and Linkedin (www.linkedin.com) allow users to build networks of contacts. However, typically such networks are relatively siloed. For example, Facebook tends to be used for social networks involving personal relationships, whereas Linkedin tends to be used for social networks involving business relationships. Additionally, users of these sites are usually left to build the networks themselves. Hence, there is a need for an improved system and method of determining relationship information.
FIG. 1 is a diagram of an embodiment of a system to determine relationship information;
FIG. 2 is a flow chart of a first embodiment of a method of determining relationship information;
FIG. 3 is a flow chart of a second embodiment of a method of determining relationship information; and
FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an illustrative computing system.
Systems and methods of determining relationship information are provided. In a particular embodiment, a system may include processing logic and memory accessible to the processing logic. The memory may include instructions executable by the processing logic to access communication data associated with at least one first party. For example, the communication data may include at least a call log and an email log. The memory may also include instructions executable by the processing logic to analyze a plurality of communications between the at least one first party and at least one second party to automatically determine relationship information descriptive of a relationship between the at least one first party and the at least one second party. In an illustrative embodiment, the plurality of communications may include at least one call and at least one email message.
In a particular embodiment, a method of determining relationship information includes accessing communication data associated with at least one first party. For example, the communication data may include at least a call log and an email log. The method may also include analyzing a plurality of communications between the at least one first party and at least one second party to automatically determine relationship information descriptive of a relationship between the at least one first party and the at least one second party. The plurality of communications may include at least one call and at least one email message.
In a particular embodiment, a method of determining relationship information may include accessing communication data associated with a plurality of communications of at least one first party. The method may also include accessing location data associated with the at least one first party. The location data may include information about where the at least one first party was located at one or more times. The method may also include analyzing the communication data and the location data to automatically determine relationship information descriptive of a relationship between the at least one first party and at least one second party.
In another particular embodiment, a method of determining relationship information may include accessing communication data associated with at least one first party. The method may also include analyzing a plurality of communications between the at least one first party and at least one second party to automatically determine relationship information descriptive of a relationship between the at least one first party and the at least one second party. The relationship information may include a directionality of the relationship.
Other particular embodiments may include systems or computer readable media including instructions executable by a processor to implement any one or more of the methods of determining relationship information.
FIG. 1 depicts an embodiment of a system to determine relationship information, the system generally designated 100. The system 100 includes a first party 102 and a second party 112. Each party 102 and 112 is associated with one or more communication devices such as a mobile communication device 104 and 114, a landline communication device 106, and a computing device 108. The particular communication devices are depicted as non-limiting examples of various types of communication devices to illustrate generally that various types of communication devices and various types of communications may be available to the parties 102 and 112.
The communication devices 104, 10, 108, 114 may be adapted to communicate with one another via one or more communication networks, such as a communication network 110. In a particular embodiment, the communication network 110 may be associated with a “triple-play” service provider that provides voice, data and video communications. In another embodiment, the communication network 110 may be associated with a communication service provider that provides wireless and landline communication services. In another embodiment the communication network 110 may include communication networks associated with various communication service providers that together provide various communication services, such as wireless, landline, voice, multimedia, data, other types of real-time or time-delayed communication, or any combination thereof.
The system 100 may also include a communication data server 118. The communication data server 118 may include processing logic and memory accessible to the processing logic. The memory may include instructions executable by the processing logic to maintain or access communication data associated with communication services subscribers, which may include the first party 102, the second party 112, or both. For example, the communication data server 118 may maintain call logs, email logs, voicemail logs, other communication logs, or any combination thereof, associated with one or more communication service subscribers at a data store 120.
In a particular embodiment, the memory may include instructions executable by the processing logic to analyze the communication data to determine relationship information associated with the first party 102, the second party 112 or both. In an illustrative embodiment, the communication data server 118 may access data related to communications between the first party 102 and the second party 112 over a period of time, e.g., a period of days, weeks, months or years. The communication data server 118 may infer relationship information descriptive of a relationship between the first party 102 and the second party 112 based on the communication data. Additionally, the communication data server 118 may access location data associated with the first party 102, the second party 112 or both. The communication data server 118 may analyze the communication data and the location data to determine relationship information descriptive of a relationship between the first party 102 and the second party 112.
FIG. 2 depicts a first particular embodiment of a method of determining relationship information. The method is generally designated 200. The method 200 includes, at 202, accessing communication data associated with at least one first party. The communication data may include logs of communications to or from the at least one first party. The communication data may relate to various types of communications. For example, the communication data may relate to telephone calls, multimedia calls (e.g., video conferences), electronic data messages, such as electronic mail (“email”) messages, short messaging service (SMS) messages, multimedia messaging service (MMS) messages, voicemail messages, other types of voice or data communications, or any combination thereof. The communication data may related to real-time communications (i.e., communications between two parties with little or no perceptible lag, such as a two-way telephone conversation or video conference), or time-delayed communications (i.e., non-real-time communications, e.g., messages sent from one party to a receiving device of another party, such as voice mail or email messages). Additionally, the communication data may relate to communications from various locations, such as a residence, a business or a location of a mobile communication device. In a particular illustrative embodiment, the communication data may be maintained by a service provider that provides mobile and landline voice and data communication services. The service provider may maintain the communication data for a variety of purposes, including to provide additional services to subscribers, such as automatic contact list management, or to provide marketing and service analysis.
In a particular illustrative embodiment, the communication data may include a call log. The call log may include information about one or more telephone calls made by or received by the first party. The call log may include information such as a duration of a call, a time of day of the call, a date of the call, a directionality of the call (e.g., who initiated the call), one or more locations associated with the call (e.g., where was the call initiated or received), other information about the call, or any combination thereof. The location associated with the call may relate to a coordinate position of a party during the call, or a more general location designation such as, office, home, or mobile. In another particular illustrative embodiment, the communication data may include an email log. An email log may include information about one or more emails received by or sent by the first party. For example, the email log may include information such as a size of an email message, a time of day associated with the email message, a date associated with the email message, a directionality of the email message, other information about the email message, or any combination thereof. In other particular illustrative embodiments, the communication data may include a log of other types of communications, such as a chat log, an SMS log, an MMS log, a voice mail log, a log associated with any other type of communication, or any combination thereof.
The method 200 also includes, at 204, analyzing a plurality of communications between at least one first party and at least one second party and, at 206, determining relationship information descriptive of a relationship between the at least one first party and the at least one second party. In an illustrative embodiment, the relationship information may relate to a strength of the relationship, a length of the relationship, a nature of the relationship (e.g., whether the relationship is a business or personal relationship), a directionality of the relationship (e.g., whether the relationship is symmetric or asymmetric), or any combination thereof.
FIG. 3 depicts a second particular embodiment of a method of determining relationship information. The method is generally designated 300. The method 300 includes, at 302, accessing communication data 304 associated with at least one first party. The communication data 304 may include information related to any form of communication, such as data messages, voice messages, multimedia messages, real-time data communications, real-time voice communications, real-time multimedia communications, other types of communication, or any combination thereof. For example, the communication data 304 may include one or more communication logs associated with a communication service subscriber.
In a particular embodiment, the method 300 may also include, at 306, accessing location data 308. The location data 308 may be associated with the at least one first party, with one or more second parties, or with any combination thereof. For example, the location data 308 may include coordinate position information received from a global positioning system (GPS) receiver of a mobile communication device associated with the at least one first party. In a particular illustrative embodiment, the mobile communication device may send location data to a communication network when a communication is initiated or received. In another particular illustrative embodiment, the mobile communication device may send location data to the communication network periodically or occasionally. The communication network may include a location data store to maintain a location data log associated with the mobile communication device or the at least one first party. In another example, the location data 308 may include relative location information associated with the at least one first party and at least one second party. To illustrate, a first mobile communication device associated with the first party may include a short range transmitter, such as a Bluetooth transceiver, and a second mobile communication device associated with the second party may include a compatible receiver. Thus, when the first party and the second party are near one another, the first mobile communication device and the second mobile communication device may communicate directly with one another, e.g., in an ad-hoc peer-to-peer network. The first communication device, the second communication device, or both, may send information to the communication network indicating that the devices are proximate one another for some period of time.
In a particular embodiment, the location data 308 may used, at 310, to estimate a proximity of the parties. The proximity of the parties may be determined during a communication or while no communication is occurring via a communication network. That is, the proximity may indicate that the parties were near each other, even when they are communicating in person, or are not communicating at all. For example, the proximity may be used to determine when the parties spent time in close proximity to one another. Such proximity information may indicate that the parties work near one another, reside near one another, or spend social time near one another. The location data 308 may also be used in conjunction with the communication data 304 to determine a location of one of the parties when a communication between the parties occurred.
The method 300 may also include, at 312, analyzing a plurality of communications between the at least one first party and the at least one second party. The communications may be analyzed to determine relationship information descriptive of a relationship between the at least one first party and the at least one second party, at 316. The analysis of the communications may include, at 314, determining one or more parameters related to the strength, length, directionality, or nature of the relationship. The parameters may include, for example, one or more of a type of communication, a time between a message and a response, how a party responded to notification of receipt of a communication, a location associated with a communication device, a location associated with a party, a type of a communication device, a number of communications between parties, a frequency of communications between parties, other information indicative of a relationship between the parties, or any combination thereof. A plurality of rules may relate the parameters individually, or in combination, to relationship information.
In a particular embodiment, a type of each communication or communication device used may indicate information about a relationship of the parties to a communication. To illustrate, the type of communication used may indicate a perceived urgency of the communication. For example, use of a more expensive form of communication, such as a mobile telephone, may indicate greater urgency than use of a less expensive form of communication, such as a landline telephone. Similarly, use of a real-time form of communication, such as may indicate greater urgency than use of a time-delayed form of communication. The urgency of the communication, especially in combination with information about the communication, may be related to the strength, nature or directionality of the relationship between the parties. For example, during a business day, an urgent communication may indicate that the communication is to an important client or coworker, thus, the time and type of communication together may indicate that the nature of the relationship between the parties is a business relationship. In another example, the urgency of the communication may indicate a strong relationship or an asymmetric relationship. In a particular embodiment, a plurality of communications may be analyzed to determine a pattern or trend of communications between the parties. To illustrate, a single urgent call during a business day may indicate a family emergency rather than an important business call. Therefore, analyzing a plurality of communications between the parties may more accurately determine the relationship information. In a particular illustrative embodiment, communications between the parties may be analyzed over a period of time, such as six months or more, to determine the relationship information. Additionally, analyzing the communications over a period of time may yield information about the length of the relationship.
In a particular embodiment, a time between message and response may indicate information about a relationship of the parties. For example, if a first party receives an email from a second party and waits several days before responding to the email, this may be an indication that the communication is not considered particularly urgent. In contrast, if the first party receives a voicemail from a second party and immediately places a call or sends an email to the second party, this may be an indication that the communication is somewhat urgent. The time between a message and a response may also be related to the directionality of the relationship. For example, an analysis of a plurality of communications between the parties may indicate that when the first party receives a message from the second party, the first party returns the communication relatively quickly, but there is a much longer delay when the second party receives a communication from the first party. Such communication data may indicate that the relationship between the first party and the second party is asymmetric. For example, the first party may be more reliant upon or subordinate to the second party. Additionally, the time between a message and response may be indicative of the nature of the relationship when considered in light of other parameters. For example, the communication data may indicate that even if a message is received during the business day, the first party usually waits to respond until after business hours. This may indicate that the relationship is a personal rather than a business relationship. Similarly, if the first party typically responds to messages from the second party during business hours, even if the message is received outside normal business hours, this may indicate that the relationship is a business rather than a personal relationship.
In a particular embodiment, how a party responds to notification of receipt of communication may indicate information about the relationship of the parties. For example, if the first party frequently rejects or defers incoming communications from the second party, this may be indicative of the strength or directionality of the relationship. To illustrate, if the first party regularly sends incoming calls from the second party to voicemail, this may indicate that the second party is more reliant upon or subordinate to the first party, or that the relationship is not very important to the first party. Information about how a party responds to notification of receipt of communications may also include the type of communication used by the party to respond to the communication. For example, if the second party sends an email to the first party, and the first party responds by making a telephone call to the second party, this may indicate that the first party places a higher priority on the communication, which may be indicative of the directionality or strength of the relationship.
In a particular embodiment, a location associated with a communication device or party may indicate information about a relationship of the parties. To illustrate, location data may be associated with a first party or a communication device of the first party. If the location data indicates that the first party primarily communicates with a second party from home, this may indicate information about the nature or strength of the relationship. For example, this may indicate that the relationship is a personal relationship rather than a business relationship. In another example, the location data may include information about the location of the second user during the communication. If the location data indicate that the first user communicates from home with the second user while the second user is at a work place associated with the first user, the communication may indicate a business rather than a personal relationship.
In a particular embodiment, location data may be used to determine information about the relative locations of the parties. To illustrate, the location data may include information about the proximity of the parties to one another during a communication or when no communication is occurring over a communication network (that is, face to face communication or communication of another communication network may be occurring). The proximity information may indicate information about the relationship of the parties. For example, if the parties spend a significant time in proximity to one another outside normal business hours, this may be an indication of a personal rather than a business relationship.
In a particular embodiment, a number of communications between parties or a frequency of communications between the parties may indicate information about a relationship of the parties to the communication. To illustrate, the communication data for a particular period of time, such as the previous six months may be analyzed to determine the relationship information. The communication data may indicate that communications between the first party and the second party have only occur during the last two months. This may indicate information about the length of the relationship. In another example, a greater frequency of communication may indicate a stronger relationship. Additionally, in combination with other parameters, such as the directionality of the communications, other information about the relationship may be inferred. For example, if the first party calls the second party multiple times each day, but the second party rarely calls the first party, this may indicate an asymmetric relationship.
The relationship information may be used to determine information about an individual or a group. For example, a representation of a social network of an individual may be generated based on the relationship information. The representation of the social network or the relationship information may be used assist the individual with contact management. In an illustrative embodiment, the representation of the social network or the relationship information may be used to modify a contact list associated with the individual, at 318. In another illustrative embodiment, a contact list may be modified to sort the contacts (e.g., according to the strength, directionality, length or nature of the relationship), to categorize contacts (e.g., as personal or business), or to add or delete contacts (e.g., to add frequently contacted parties or delete infrequently contacted parties).
In a particular embodiment, the relationship information may be aggregated with relationship information for other people of a group to generate a representation of a social network for the entire group of people, at 320. The representation of the social network may be used to assist with providing communication services, to market or design additional services, or for other marketing or communication service provisioning purposes.
Particular embodiments of the systems and methods disclose herein include automatic determination of relationship information based on historical communication data. The relationship information may be used to automatically manage contact information, such as generating or maintaining contact groups or lists.
Referring to FIG. 4, an illustrative embodiment of a general computer system is shown and is designated 400. The computer system 400 can include a set of instructions that can be executed to cause the computer system 400 to perform any one or more of the methods or computer based functions disclosed herein. The computer system 400 may operate as a standalone device or may be connected, e.g., using a network, to other computer systems or peripheral devices. For example, the computer system may include or be included within any one or more of the communication devices, the communication data server, or the data store depicted in FIG. 1.
As illustrated in FIG. 4, the computer system 400 may include a processor 402, e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), or both. Moreover, the computer system 400 can include a main memory 404 and a static memory 406, that can communicate with each other via a bus 408. As shown, the computer system 400 may further include a video display unit 410, such as a liquid crystal display (LCD), an organic light emitting diode (OLED), a flat panel display, a solid state display, or a cathode ray tube (CRT). Additionally, the computer system 400 may include an input device 412, such as a keyboard, and a cursor control device 414, such as a mouse or remote control. The computer system 400 can also include a disk drive unit 416, a signal generation device 418, such as a speaker, and a network interface device 420.
1. A method of determining relationship information, the method comprising:
accessing communication data associated with at least one first party, wherein the communication data includes at least a call log and an email log; and
analyzing a plurality of communications, including at least one call and at least one email message, between the at least one first party and at least one second party to automatically determine relationship information descriptive of a relationship between the at least one first party and the at least one second party.
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising modifying a contact list of the at least one first party based on the relationship information.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein a call log entry for the at least one call includes a duration of the call, a time of day of the call, a date of the call, a directionality of the call, and a location associated with the at least one first party when the call was made.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein an email log entry for the at least one email message includes a size of the email message, a time of day associated with the email message, a date associated with the email message, and a directionality of the email message.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein analyzing the plurality of communications comprises determining a type of communication used by the at least one first party to respond to a particular communication from the at least one second party.
6. The method of claim 5, wherein the type of communication includes at least one of a data message, a voice message, a multimedia message, a real-time data communication, a real-time voice communication, and a real-time multimedia communication.
7. A method of determining relationship information, the method comprising:
accessing communication data associated with a plurality of communications of at least one first party;
accessing location data associated with the at least one first party, wherein the location data includes information about where the at least one first party was located at one or more times; and
analyzing the communication data and the location data to automatically determine relationship information descriptive of a relationship between the at least one first party and at least one second party.
8. The method of claim 7, wherein the relationship information includes an estimate of a strength of the relationship
9. The method of claim 7, wherein the relationship information includes a directionality of the relationship.
10. The method of claim 7, wherein the relationship information includes a nature of the relationship.
11. The method of claim 10, wherein the nature of the relationship includes at least one of personal relationship and a business relationship,
12. The method of claim 7, wherein the location data includes coordinate position information received from a device associated with the at least one first party.
13. The method of claim 7, wherein the location data includes proximity information determined based on a peer-to-peer communication between a first device associated with the at least one first party and a second device associated with the at least one second party.
accessing location information associated with the at least one second party, and
estimating a proximity of the at least one first party to the at least one second party when that at least one first party and the at least one second party are not communicating via a communication network.
15. The method of claim 7, further comprising aggregating the relationship information with relationship information related to a plurality of parties to determine social network information related to the plurality of parties.
16. A method of determining relationship information, the method comprising
accessing communication data associated with at least one first party; and
analyzing a plurality of communications between the at least one first party and at least one second party to automatically determine relationship information descriptive of a relationship between the at least one first party and the at least one second party, wherein the relationship information includes a directionality of the relationship.
17. The method of claim 16, wherein analyzing the plurality of communications comprises determining an elapsed time between receipt of a message from the at least one second party and a subsequent communication to the at least one second party.
18. The method of claim 17, wherein the message includes a first type of communication and the subsequent communication includes a second type of communication.
19. The method of claim 16, wherein analyzing the plurality of communications comprises determining a behavior of the at least one first party in response a communication from the at least one second party.
20. The method of claim 19, wherein determining the behavior of the at least one first party comprises determining whether the at least one first party answered a call from the at least one second party.
21. The method of claim 19, wherein determining the behavior of the at least one first party comprises determining an elapsed time between the at least one first party receiving a message from the at least one second party and the first party sending a subsequent communication to the at least one second party.
22. The method of claim 16, wherein analyzing the plurality of communications comprises determining, for a particular communication of the plurality of communications, a location associated with a communication device of the at least one first party.
memory accessible to the processing logic, the memory including:
instructions executable by the processing logic to access communication data associated with at least one first party, wherein the communication data includes at least a call log and an email log; and
instructions executable by the processing logic to analyze a plurality of communications, including at least one call and at least one email message, between the at least one first party and at least one second party to automatically determine relationship information descriptive of a relationship between the at least one first party and the at least one second party.
24. The system of claim 23, wherein analyzing the plurality of communications comprises determining a number of communications or a frequency of communications between the at least one first party and the at least one second party.
25. A computer readable medium including computer executable instructions to cause a processor to:
access communication data associated with a plurality of communications of at least one first party;
access location data associated with the at least one first party, wherein the location data includes information about where the at least one first party was located at one or more times; and
analyze the communication data and the location data to automatically determine relationship information descriptive of a relationship between the at least one first party and at least one second party.
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US13443080 US8429119B2 (en) 2007-11-27 2012-04-10 System and method of determining relationship information
US13850352 US8751440B2 (en) 2007-11-27 2013-03-26 System and method of determining relationship information
US13443080 Continuation US8429119B2 (en) 2007-11-27 2012-04-10 System and method of determining relationship information
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US13850352 Active US8751440B2 (en) 2007-11-27 2013-03-26 System and method of determining relationship information
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US8429119B2 (en) 2013-04-23 grant
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