ANDREW D JACOBS, MD
Osteopathic Medicine at 9 Ave, Seattle, WA

6505167, Jan 7, 2003

Apr 20, 1999

09/295146

Eric Horvitz - Kirkland WA
Andrew W. Jacobs - Seattle WA

Microsoft Corp. - Redmond WA

G06F 1760

705 9

Directing automated services for messaging and scheduling. In one embodiment, a computer-implemented method first determines a message to analyze. The method then determines the probability that the user would like to review a calendar or to schedule an appointment based on information in the message, based on the message, and based on the scheduling probability, selects one of the following options: (1) inaction, (2) automatic action, or (3) suggested action with user approval. Upon the method selecting either the (1) automatic action option or the (2) suggested action with user approval option—the latter also in conjunction with receiving actual user approval—the method performs a scheduling action based on the message in a manner that takes into consideration the precision and confidence of the scheduling action.

6581050, Jun 17, 2003

Apr 20, 1999

09/295077

Eric Horvitz - Kirkland WA
Andrew W. Jacobs - Seattle WA

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

G06N 500

706 45, 434350, 706 12

Learning by observing a users activity for enhancing the provision of automated services. In one embodiment, a computer-implemented method first determines a text to analyze. The method then determines the probabilities of a users goals associated with the text based on features observed in the text, related materials, or user actions, and based on the probabilities of a users goals, selects one of the following options: (1) inaction, (2) automatic action, or (3) dialog with users about potential actions to seek a users approval. Upon the method selecting either the (1) automatic action option or the (2) dialog with user about suggested action—the latter also in conjunction with receiving actual user approval—the method performs an action based on the text. In one embodiment, the method waits a predetermined time prior to action, determined by performing a statistical regression as to the predetermined time that should be waited based on a length of each text. Furthermore, in one embodiment the action probability is determined by a text classification system, such that the system is continually trained based on each text inputted thereinto.

6601012, Jul 29, 2003

Jun 17, 2000

09/596364

Eric J. Horvitz - Kirkland WA
David O. Hovel - Bellevue WA
Andrew W. Jacobs - Seattle WA
Carl M. Kadie - Bellevue WA

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

G06F 300

702150, 707500, 709223, 345337

Determination of the current context of the user, such as the users current location and attentional state, is disclosed. The determined context can be used to assist determination as to whether, when and how notifications intended for the user should be conveyed to him or her. In varying embodiments of the invention, the context is determined via one or more of: direct specification by the user; direct measurement using one or more sensors; a user-modifiable profile indicating context; one or more potentially user-modifiable rules that indicate context; and, and inferential analysis utilizing a model, such as a Bayesian network or other statistical model.

7305437, Dec 4, 2007

Jan 31, 2005

11/047128

Eric J. Horvitz - Kirkland WA, US
Carl M. Kadie - Bellevue WA, US
Andrew W. Jacobs - Seattle WA, US

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

G06F 15/16

709204, 709205, 709206, 706 21

A system and method are provided to learn and infer the time until a user will be available for communications, collaboration, or information access, given evidence about such observations as time of day, calendar, location, presence, and activity. The methods can be harnessed to coordinate communications between parties via particular modalities of interaction. The system includes a user state identifier that determines a user's state from background knowledge, the flow of time, or one or more context information sources. A data log can be employed to store information about user state changes and observational evidence to accumulate statistics and build inferential models of the availability and unavailability of users for different kinds of communication, collaboration, and information access. A forecaster is constructed from the accumulated statistics and/or learned models to enable a determination of a user's likely return, or, more generally, the probability distribution over a user's likely return to particular states of availability. The forecaster can be employed to cache information for offline access, drive displays of availability and unavailability, to send messages that include availability forecasts, and to automatically perform scheduling or rescheduling of communications.

7409423, Aug 5, 2008

Jun 28, 2001

09/894087

Eric J. Horvitz - Kirkland WA, US
Carl M. Kadie - Bellevue WA, US
Andrew W. Jacobs - Seattle WA, US

G06F 15/16

709206, 709204, 709205, 706 21, 706 46, 706 52

A system and methods are provided to learn and infer the time until a user will be available for communications, collaboration, or information access, given evidence about such observations as time of day, calendar, location, presence, and activity. The methods can be harnessed to coordinate communications between parties via particular modalities of interaction. The system includes a user state identifier that determines a user's state from background knowledge, the flow of time, or one or more context information sources. A data log can be employed to store information about user state changes and observational evidence to accumulate statistics and build inferential models of the availability and unavailability of users for different kinds of communication, collaboration, and information access. A forecaster is constructed from the accumulated statistics and/or learned models to enable a determination of a user's likely return, or, more generally, the probability distribution over a user's likely return to particular states of availability. The forecaster can be employed to cache information for offline access, drive displays of availability and unavailability, to send messages that include availability forecasts, and to automatically perform scheduling or rescheduling of communications.

8024415, Sep 20, 2011

Mar 16, 2001

10/220550

Eric I. Horvitz - Kirkland WA, US
David O. Hovel - Bellevue WA, US
Andrew W. Jacobs - Seattle WA, US
Carl M. Kadie - Bellevue WA, US

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

G06F 15/16, G06F 3/00

709207, 709206, 715752

The present invention relates to a system () and methodology () to enable a plurality of information associated with electronic messages, for example, to be automatically prioritized by a priorities system () for transmittal to a user or system. The priorities system () can employ classifiers () that can be explicitly and/or implicitly trained to prioritize one or more received messages () according to a learned importance to the user. As an example, messages () can be classified as high, medium, low or other degrees of importance via a training set of examples () or types of messages having similar degrees of importance. A background monitor () can be provided to monitor a user's activities regarding message processing to further refine or tune the classifier () according to the user's personal decisions relating to message importance. Other priorities classifications can involve determinations relating to a loss associated with a time for delayed review or processing of the message.

2007009, Apr 26, 2007

Sep 30, 2005

11/239822

Andrew Jacobs - Seattle WA, US

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

H04M 15/06, H04M 1/56

379142060

The sender of a telephone call or an e-mail message is represented by an incoming contact identifier, such as the originating phone number or e-mail address, respectively. The recipient of the telephone call or e-mail message can identify the contact corresponding to the incoming identifier by matching the identifier with an entry in a data store. The data store comprises of an alphabetized index of contact/translated contact identifier pairs for efficient lookup. The incoming identifier is translated in order to match an entry in the index. The position in the index of the translated identifier is determined and if a sufficient match is found, the corresponding contact is indicated. Otherwise, the closest matches are noted or a message indicating that no conclusive match was found is communicated.

6999721, Feb 14, 2006

Jan 17, 2002

10/051528

Joseph K. Ollis - Bellevue WA, US
Andrew W. Jacobs - Seattle WA, US

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

H04B 5/00, H04B 7/00, H04M 1/00

455 412, 4555521, 4555531, 455556, 455557

A source wireless device is capable of transmitting items over a wireless network using a number of different wireless transfer mechanism such as, for example, Infra-Red (IR) or Bluetooth. Several potential destination wireless devices may be capable of receiving the item using at least one of the different wireless transfer mechanisms. The user selects one or more destination wireless devices to send items to using a unified user interface that lists the various potential destination wireless devices. After a user selects items to transfer as well as the destination wireless device(s), the wireless transfer mechanism appropriate for transfer to each device is then automatically identified without requiring user selection of the particular wireless transfer mechanism.

7975015, Jul 5, 2011

May 16, 2007

11/749508

Eric J. Horvitz - Kirkland WA, US
David O. Hovel - Bellevue WA, US
Andrew W. Jacobs - Seattle WA, US
Carl M. Kadie - Bellevue WA, US

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

G06F 15/16

709207, 709203, 709219, 709223, 709224

The present invention relates to a system and methodology to enable a variety of information associated with one or more notification sources to be directed to one or more notification sinks via a notification platform architecture. The architecture includes a context analyzer for determining a user's state such as location and attentional focus, wherein the user's state is employed by a notification manager to make decisions regarding what, when and how information generated by the notification sources should be forwarded to the notification sinks, for example. These decisions can include a cost benefit analysis wherein considerations are given as to whether the benefits of notifying the user are outweighed by the costs of disrupting the user. Decision-theoretic policies and/or somewhat less formal heuristic policies can be employed to enable the decision-making process within the notification manager.