Electronic message sorting and notification system
Contents
1. 9S EI f eipeuriinu cc o peeJun ou 1 8 4594 PB0 091 56 21 99 261 1 zy LIBUUSI ama tus ttu s auum dus SSS A n o rm t UD A SY t qos rm aro 7 7 2 404 woo jyeyouseseuguo OST 909 S6 Z1 90 05 e jBuM uoo jje uoJeeseJglleqs 1 BBIZB GI S6 Z1 90 Burpying wooyjeyurseoedgofe ostu TFIBEICT S6 Zl 90 PUIU Bi olio e LO Puus eu 1180 rm US 6 396 513 B1 Sheet 5 of 8 May 28 2002 U S Patent i Sg jovss3W 0319334 Hs JAIHOuV OL YSSN MOTIV i VINdOsddv SV SSIVY NV SNOLLIQNOO WYVIV 393H9 SWYV TV 135 3SN MOTIV S3XOQ TIVW 3ZILIMOIMd ONY ANVY GALSSN0SY SV SOVSSAW ONY XO TIVW 3ONVHO LN3W3AOM 393H9 Su3l Td OL ONIQHOOOV S3XOW OLNI TIVW 1805 43 10095 WOY S IVW 3 H9133 S3XO8 JO AYVWWNS 901 ONOYHO E XOW TVW 30 SYSOVSH C 39vSS3W I SMOQONIM AV 1dSIO ONINNAY SI TIVWHSI YSHLONV 33S OL 1 TIOYLNOD 303H2 US 6 396 513 B1 Sheet 6 of 8 May 28 2002 U S Patent 06 1 1119 ONDNVM S3OVSS3W ON 5397553 195304 S3OVSSSM avaan 195904 ONIOND S 3Xx08 TIVA IQ lt itm US 6 396 513 B1 Sheet 7 of 8 May 28 2002 U S Patent S39VSS3N ON2. OTHER PUBLICATIONS Hespe Mary B Universal Inbox Where PC Voice Mail Converge short takes Computer Reseller News n 592 p 59 reprinted as 1 2 Aug 22 1994 Applied Voice Technology Voice Processing Applied Voice Technologiy s Automated Agent Paves the Way for More Sophisticated Applications of Interactive Voice Response press release Edge v 10 n 352 p 18 reprinted as 1 2 Apr 13 1995 Kalman Steve CTI and the Marketplace Integrated Tech nology s CompuPhone Rochell Communications Caller Profile and Wildfire Communications Wildfire Computer telephony Products Network VAR v 3 n 9 pp 49 53 reprinted as pp 1 5 Sep 1995 Business Wire Applied Voice Tech Applied Voice Tech nology Adds Call Center Module to Automated Agent Version 3 0 Business Editors 778 words reprinted as pp 1 2 Sep 20 1995 Business Wire Applied Voice Tech 2 Applied Voice Tech nology to Demonstrate Two New Computer Telephony Products for Microsoft Users Business Editors 771 words reprinted as pp 1 2 Sep 20 1995 Wolf Jim et al An Open Windows on Voice and Fax PC Magazine Network Edition v 13 n 17 pp NE44 48 reprinted as pp 1 3 Oct 11 1994 Kalman Steve Networking on the Phones Local Area Network LAN Magazine pp 177 182 reprinted as 1 6 Oct 1995 Anonymous Call Processing App Gen Roundup Tele connect v
3. Window 33 contains the headers of the messages stored in the mailbox currently selected A mailbox is selected in window 40 and the selection procedure is discussed below FIG 2 illustrates an exemplary header 18 In window 33 the entries of column 39 correspond to the entries of field 18D in FIG 2 the subject field If no subject field exists as when the sender of the message did not create a subject field then the first line of the message is treated as the subject field In window 33 the entries of column 36 correspond either to a the entries of field 18A in FIG 2 if the message was received from a remote location or b to the entries of field 18B if the message was sent by the user The entries in column 36 in FIG 3 designated by the word to indicate mailboxes containing outgoing messages However outgo ing and incoming mailboxes can both be sorted into the same mailbox if desired The user can highlight a message header in window 33 by moving a cursor 39 to the desired message causing the message to be highlighted by bar 41 The user can then select the highlighted message as by clicking the pointing device used to move the cursor 39 Upon selection in window 33 the invention displays the selected message in window 30 Thus header window 33 represents a table of contents of the currently selected mailbox and allows the user to select and display in window 30 any message listed in the table Window 40 lists t
4. 13 n 12 pp 56 64 reprinted as 1 11 Dec 1995 Business Wire Applied Voice Technology Announces Major New Release of Interactive Voice Response IVR Platform Automated Agent Supports any ODBC complient Database Management System p 3120120 reprinted as pp 1 2 Mar 12 1996 cited by examiner U S Patent May 28 2002 Sheet 1 of 8 US 6 396 513 B1 PIG 1 rg US 6 396 513 B1 Sheet 2 of 8 May 28 2002 U S Patent 51015 ueeJgos eulos juTud o fem Asee ue reuusr Buluunj oueds euryoew fiu jo sious uejos OM Jo euo 6 PINOM I UOOuJe1j8 5 puejuodwg fiueA je lI8uusI peeu I ast 15 jueDun jeuweuos 81 uoo e uoJeeseJg eqs 22 ger Uuoo je yjJeeseJguof uBuuoeJg uoy uoo je uoJBeeseJgq J eee tet s SI 8l US 6 396 513 B1 Sheet 3 of 8 May 28 2002 U S Patent ele Diel e s d uyeG6e uopsenb 1lguus 1851 18451 uejqoud BuTATuoJ8 jueBun j8uMeulos suopsebDDns FeWYST I eir Burs
5. and upon characteristics of new incoming mail The sorting and ranking procedures are perhaps best illustrated by example US 6 396 513 B1 3 EXAMPLE Sorting of Mail In this Example the user wishes to collect all e mail messages originating from the user s supervisor in a single mailbox and all other messages in another mailbox Accordingly the user establishes two different mailboxes within the user s local computer 9 one of which is entitled Boss and the other of which is entitled General The details of establishing these mailboxes are explained in APPENDIX A which is a copy of a user s manual for operating the Ishmail program However the general steps in establishing a mailbox are the following 1 The user assigns a name to the mailboxes and General in this example 2 The user specifies the fields in the incoming messages which are to be searched for sorting the messages into their respective mailboxes For the Boss mailbox the field identifying the sender namely sub field 18A in FIG 2 is specified For the General mailbox no field is specified because all messsages which are not sorted into the Boss mailbox are sorted into the General mailbox by default 3 The user specifies a search string which is the sequence of characters sought in the fields specified in step 2 In this example the search string indicates supervisor s name After t
6. estab US 6 396 513 B1 9 lished by the user Block 67 describes the interface display shown in FIG 3 Block 68 describes movement of the cursor by the user in windows 33 and 40 in FIG 3 wherein a mailbox is selected and a message within the mailbox is also selected Block 73 refers to setting the alarms shown in column 55 in window 40 in FIG 3 Block 75 refers to archiving a message by the user The logic repeats as indicated by the arrow running from block 75 to block 63 Numerous substitutions and modifications can be under taken without departing from the true spirit and scope of the invention What is desired to be secured by Letters Patent is the invention as defined in the following claims We claim 1 Asystem for processing e mail messages comprising a means for receiving messages from an e mail server b means for sorting messages addressed to a single user into different mailboxes c means for defining a state for at least one mailbox based on user input d means for i displaying indicators of mailboxes currently in the state ii displaying indicators of mailboxes currently outside the state and iii changing the displayed indicators as a user causes mailboxes to enter and leave the state wherein display of e mail messages stored in a mailbox causes the mailbox to leave the state 2 A method for processing e mail messages comprising a receiving messages from an e mail server b sorting
7. mailbox contains no messages 7 An electronic mail system comprising a means for receiving e mail messages from an e mail server b means for 1 associating a search criterion with each of several mailboxes ii examining each e mail message for search criteria and iii sorting e mail messages meeting a criterion into the mailbox assiciated with that criterion c display means for 1 displaying mailboxes containing unread messages in a first group ii displaying mailboxes containing messages in a sec ond group iii displaying mailboxes containing no messages in a third group iv displaying the mailboxes in the first group in a first order based on a first set of priority criteria v displaying the mailboxes in the second group in a second order based on a second set of priority criteria c means for establishing the first and second sets of priority criteria based on user input 10 25 30 35 40 45
8. messages addressed to a single user into dif ferent mailboxes c defining an alarm state for at least one mailbox based on user input d displaying indicators of mailboxes currently in the alarm state e displaying indicators of mailboxes currently outside the alarm state and f changing the displayed indicators as a user causes mailboxes to enter and leave the alarm state wherein the user causes the mailboxes to enter and leave the alarm state by displaying e mail messages stored in the mailboxes 10 3 An electronic mail system comprising a means for sorting incoming e mail messages for a single user into a plurality of mailboxes b display means for 5 i displaying mailboxes having a first characteristic in a first group ii displaying mailboxes having a second characteristic in a second group iii displaying the mailboxes in the first group in a first order based on a first set of priority criteria iv displaying the mailboxes in the second group in a second order based on a second set of priority criteria c means for establishing the first and second sets of priority criteria based on user input 4 System according to claim 3 wherein the first charac teristic is that a mailbox contain at least one unread message 5 System according to claim 3 wherein the first charac teristic is that a mailbox contain at least one message 6 System according to claim 3 wherein the first charac teristic is that a
9. LN3S3ud S39VSS3N 1AN3S3 d S39VSS3M OVAYNN ONIONTY SWYV TV S39VSSdW ON 86 INASSYd 5397553 1435343 S39VSS3N OVAYNN ONIONIM SWHV TV GSLSSNOSY JI LNVLYOdWI ANSA SV YSTIVO GSANVY SSOVSSAW AV ld S39VSS3MW LSSHOIH AV ld US 6 396 513 B1 Sheet 8 of 8 May 28 2002 U S Patent SZI Z Sls YSNMO X08 TIIVW TIVO 14399 EZI ONDINVY S MZNMO 30 NI S39VSS3A 1911 YSTIVO AJILN3GI 39 553 H0V3 891 043 0 38 OL ANVY NMO SYSATIVO YSHLSHM 3 AJA AYOLOSYIC 3NOHd3 TAL NI S3WVN 30 SNDNV AMOIOSMIG 3NOHd3 19 X08 TIVW SIHL Ld309V JOVSSAW SLVIOOSSV ONY 300030 097 SOVSSAW 30 SONVLYCdWI Ol YSTIVO LdWOMd AOVSSAW TIVW SOIOA 092111910 lI ALVIOOSSV YSEWNN 300030 YSEWNN ONIASILNACI Ol MNJTIVO LdWOMd JOVSS3MW IYW svi 032111910 31015 US 6 396 513 B1 1 ELECTRONIC MESSAGE SORTING AND NOTIFICATION SYSTEM BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION type of electronic mail e mail system takes the form of one or more computer programs running on a server which also runs other application programs such as word processing spreadsheet high level language compilers etc When a user logs onto the server to use one of the application programs the e mail system may exami
10. a United States Patent Helfman et al US006396513B1 US 6 396 513 B1 May 28 2002 10 Patent No 45 Date of Patent 54 ELECTRONIC MESSAGE SORTING AND NOTIFICATION SYSTEM 75 Inventors Jonathan Isaac Helfman Gillette NJ US Charles Lee Isbell Cambridge MA US 73 Assignee AT amp T Corp New York NY US Notice Subject to any disclaimer the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U S C 154 b by 0 days 21 Appl No 08 645 740 22 Filed May 14 1996 51 Int o S eroe eer G06F 15 173 52 U S CL sees 345 752 709 206 709 207 58 Field of Search 395 200 34 200 37 345 347 340 356 752 379 88 709 206 207 56 References Cited U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 5 283 818 A 2 1994 Klausner et al 379 88 25 5 400 393 A 3 1995 Knuth et al 379 88 27 5 557 659 A 9 1996 Hyde Thompson 379 88 13 5 627 764 A 5 1997 Schutzman et al 709 207 5 630 042 5 1997 McIntosh et 345 744 5 687 220 A 11 1997 Finnigan wee 379 88 22 5 694 616 A 12 1997 Johnson et al 709 207 5 699 089 A 12 1997 Murray wee 345 823 5 778 356 A 7 1998 Heiny ee 707 2 5 796 394 A 8 1998 Wicks et al 709 206 5 877 746 A 3 1999 Parks et al 345 835 FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS JP 6 133043 5 1994 H04M 3 42 OTHER PUBLICATIONS Applied Voice Tec
11. acters which includes wild cards For example if the character represents a wild card a search can be made for the name James Wilson irrespective of the middle initial by the search string James Wilson D Boolean key word searching can be done For example a search can be done for the word James but only if it occurs within ten words preceding or following the word Wilson E A search can be done for a specific word located at a specific position within a field For example the search can inquire whether the name Wilson occurs in the third position of a given field F A search can be done for a message having a given length such as 1 000 characters In the general case a search can be viewed as a pattern matching process wherein a search is done for any definable pattern of characters contained within the messages Of course the pattern need not be explicitly set forth but can be defined by a rule or a mathematical definition Also searching can be done upon the contents of any mailbox The contents of a mailbox can be viewed as a collection of messages as defined above This collection can be searched for any measurable parameters such as content of fields by pattern matching lengths of messages or of individual fields dates of arrival and so on APPENDIX C provides details as to establishing searches 6 Application to voice mail Voice mail systems are commercial
12. age and ii later plays the messages to the owner category by category meaning that messages in one category are played then messages in another cat egory are played and so on Within each category the messages are played in the order in which the callers were ranked in block 165 As a result the invention allows an owner of a voice mailbox to i assign ranking to expected callers ii allow callers to assign their messages to categories iii assign ranking to the categories and iv play messages to the owner category by category according to the caller rankings within the categories In effect the owner ranks messages as to importance to the owner and the invention presents the messages in that order Flow Chart FIG 4 illustrates a flow chart undertaken by logic imple mented by the computer code attached to this Specification After a user invokes the Ishmail program the inquiry of block 60 asks whether the user is running another copy of Ishmail The inquiry looks for a control file which is generated by Ishmail when it initiates If a control file of a running Ishmail program is found the user is notified and asked if he wants to take control If the response is Yes then the first IShmail program copies its changes out to disc and is caused to terminate and control is taken over by the new Ishmail program In block 63 the Ishmail downloads the user s e mail which is sorted in block 66 according to the filters
13. al messages contained in the mailbox ii number of unread messages in the mailbox iii number of messages to which the user has not responded in the mailbox iv total characters contained in the mailbox V date of oldest unread message in the mailbox and so on When a parameter for a mailbox exceeds the respective threshold an alarm is triggered b As another type of condition the user can in effect specify that when a particular character string is found in a particular field of a message an alarm is triggered To implement this condition the user would take two steps 1 create a mailbox into which messages are sorted if they contain the character string and 2 set the threshold for this mailbox to zero so that an alarm is triggered whenever a message reaches this mailbox c In the general case as explained in Appendices A and B the condition can be set by any measurable search able characteristic of the e mail messages contained in the mailbox Interface It is expected that a user who receives a large volume of e mail will create multiple mailboxes and that as time progresses they will accumulate a significant supply of messages In order to allow the user to manipulate the messages the invention provides the interface shown in FIG 3 The interface contains four windows Window 30 displays the current message selected by the user This message is analogous to the message shown in FIG 2 US 6 396 513 B1 5
14. arbon copy and the subject matter 18D of the message If data is appended to the message such as a file 21 the appended data can be treated as another field In addition a summary or abstract 23 may accompany the message and represent a brief description of the contents of the message The summary is created by the sender of the message The summary can be treated as another field and additional fields can be defined In the general case other fields are possible In a particu lar case the entire message itself can be considered a single field The e mail program 3 in FIG 1 stores the messages in a spool not shown When a user fetches e mail using a computer 12A in FIG 1 which is equipped with the Ishmail program the Ishmail program downloads the user s mes sages which are spooled in the server 6 via data link 25 After downloading the data packets corresponding to the users messages become available locally at the user s computer 12A for the Ishmail program to process A sig nificant processing feature of the invention allows users to establish at their local computers 12 multiple different mailboxes having different names The Ishmail program sorts the messages into these mailboxes based on informa tion contained in the various fields of the messages In addition the Ishmail program allows the user to rank the mailboxes and the ranking changes dynamically based on the user s interaction with the mail messages
15. d namely the age in days of the oldest unread message When the oldest unread message reaches this age another alarm is triggered Window 50 contains a chronological log of incoming messages The messages are listed in order of their arrival times Each entry or row contains the time date stamp time the mailbox to which the message has been assigned the origin of the message or the destination if sent by the user and the subject of the message or the first line of the message if there is no subject The origin and the subject correspond to the sub fields 18A and 18D in FIG 2 respectively The user can select any line corresponding to a mailbox in either of windows 40 or 50 and the invention will update 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 6 the remaining two windows in response by displaying in window 33 a list of messages contained in the selected mailbox and in window 30 the full text of the first unread message on the list Additional Considerations 1 Mailbox definitions The term mailbox refers to a virtual entity No physical boxes exist nor does paper mail exist One definition of electronic mailbox is a collection of messages usually implemented as a file capable of containing a concatenation of one or more messages Another definition is a storage location capable of receiv ing and storing concatenations of messages which is assigned to a s
16. ge and c a ranking of the message by way of the caller s own statement of its category eg family matters etc The voice mail message can now be processed in a manner similar to the e mail messages described above Block 170 indicates that the messages are ranked in the order specified by the mailbox owner in block 165 The mailbox owner can call the invention by telephone as indicated in block 173 The invention responds by stating in human understandable language the numbers of unread messages within each category starting with the highest ranked category as by saying You have 3 unread messages in the school related category 2 unread messages in the work related category and so on Then as indicated in block 175 beginning with the highest ranked category the invention for each unread message in the category plays the caller s name which was ascertained in block 168 and then waits briefly for a signal from the owner as to whether to play the full message If no signal is received the invention proceeds to the next unread message When the supply of unread messages becomes exhausted in one category the invention repeats the process for each lesser ranked category This embodiment allows an owner of a voice mailbox to retrieve by telephone only the messages which are consid ered most important and to ignore the others This embodi ment i allows callers who leave messages to assign a category to each mess
17. he existing mailboxes and selected data about them This list is somewhat analogous to that of header window 33 Header window 33 lists the messages contained in the currently selected mailbox together with selected data about the messages Window 44 lists the mailboxes contained within the system which were defined by the user and lists selected data about them Window 40 contains 1 a column 47 indicating the names of the mailboxes 2 a column 49 indicating both the number of unread messages and the total number of messages within each mailbox 3 a column 52 indicating the time date stamp of the oldest unread message 4 two columns labeled 55 Within the latter the left column refers to the maximum number of unread messages which are allowed to accumu late in the mailbox before an alarm is triggered One way to signal an alarm is to cause a specific icon to appear on the user s computer display such as one stating The Boss mailbox is now full Of course if the threshold is zero then the alarm is triggered whenever a new message is received The user specifies the threshold in the manner indicated in APPENDIX A In a preferred embodiment in FIG 3 window 40 a textual character such as an asterisk or plus sign is placed into the column labeled Alarms adjacent the name of a mailbox to signal an alarm s having been triggered for that mailbox The right column represents another type of threshol
18. he messages are downloaded into the user s local computer 12A in FIG 1 the Ishmail program 9 examines the field 18A in FIG 2 of all the messages in pursuit of the specified search string namely the name of the supervisor When the supervisor s name is found in sub field 18A of any message that message is sorted into the mailbox labeled Boss The remaining messages are sorted into the Gen eral mailbox This example illustrates four features of the invention One the user is able to create multiple mailboxes and to assign a different name to each Two the user generates a search string or filter and assigns the filter to a specific field within the messages Three the Ishmail program searches the specified fields for the specified search string and when a match is found stores the message having the matching string in the mailbox assigned to the filter Significantly if the same search string exists in another field of the message that same search string is ignored The search is limited to the specified field For purposes of searching the entire message may be considered a field Four the Ishmail program does not interfere with normal interaction between a computer and the e mail program 3 in FIG 1 That is computer 12C can interact with the e mail program 3 as usual using a commercially available mail reader program such as one supplied by the developer of the e mail program 3 Further computer 12A wh
19. hnology Inc Unified Messaging Solu tions Dallas Computer Telephony Expo Mar 7 1995 Hasting Bryan The Complete PC Offers Voice Data and Fax Messaging on Your PC PC World p 88 May 1993 CHECK CONTROL FILE TO SEE WHETHER ANOTHER ISHMAIL IS RUNNING x FETCH E MAIL FROM SPOOLER SORT MAIL INTO MAILBOXES ACCORDING TO FILTERS RANK AND PRIORITIZE MAILBOXES T ALLOW USER TO ARCHIVE SELECTED MESSAGE 68 Applied Voice Technology Applied Voice Technology Announces Proprietary Digital Integration Between CallX press3 and Northern Telecom Northstar Key Systems News Release 441 words reprinted as pp 1 2 Aug 18 1992 Anonymous Fruits of LANned Phones Will You Ever Go Back to Your PBX Teleconnect v 12 n 3 pp 44 51 Mar 1994 Business Wire Applied Voice Tech AVT Opens CallX press3 to Third party Developers CallXpress3 Access SDK Voice Mail Enables Applications Business Editors 565 words reprinted as pp 1 2 Jun 22 1994 Business Wire Applied Voice Tech AVT Ships New ROLM CBX 8004 Integration Offering Significant Com petative Advantages Business Editors 461 words reprinted as 1 2 Jul 14 1994 Business Wire Applied Voice Tech AVT Products Help Arizona School District Develop Classroom Information Line Business Editors 519 words reprinted as pp 1 2 Aug 8 1994 List cont
20. ich is equipped with Ishmail is not required to invoke Ishmail but can also interact with the e mail program 3 in the same manner as computer 12C if equipped with ANOTHER a mail reader program Prioritizing and Ranking In addition to these features the Ishmail program allows prioritizing and ranking of the mailboxes When the user creates mailboxes initially the user assigns a priority to each mailbox In the preferred embodiment MULTIPLE priori ties are available such as first highest second and third FIG 5 illustrates six mailboxes on the left side and their assigned priorities indicated by numbers Mailboxes 1A and 1B are assigned first priority Mailboxes 2A and 2B are assigned second priority and so on In addition the invention establishes a ranking system indicated on the right side of FIG 5 Four ranking criteria 90 Un um Un 35 40 45 50 60 65 4 are indicated with ALARMS RINGING as the highest rank and NO MESSAGES as the lowest rank The invention groups each mailbox into one of the ranks Then within each rank the invention lists the mailboxes in order of priority FIG 6 provides an example On the left side of FIG 6 mailboxes 1A and 2A are grouped into the ALARMS RINGING rank Then since mailbox 1A has a higher priority than mailbox 2A mailbox 1A is listed first within this rank Mailboxes 2B and 3A are grouped into the UNREAD MESSAGES PRESENT rank Then si
21. inued on next page Primary Examiner Joseph H Feild Assistant Examiner Jeffrey A Rossi 57 ABSTRACT The invention concerns an improved electronic mail system wherein incoming mail is automatically sorted into mailboxes based on criteria defined by the user In addition the user can rank the mailboxes in order of importance and the mailboxes are presented to the user in the order of rank The user can also establish thresholds for any measurable characteristic of a mailbox For example one measurable characteristic may be the total number of unread messages The user may choose to be informed when the total number of unread messages exceeds a threshold If the threshold is set to ten for example then when the eleventh message is received the system triggers an alarm notifying the user The system also includes an interface which displays mul tiple windows to the user simultaneously showing not only the contents of mail messages but also other information about the user s mail such as the ranking of the mailboxes and the criteria for triggering alarms 7 Claims 8 Drawing Sheets DISPLAY 4 WINDOWS D CURRENT MESSAGE 2 HEADERS OF CURRENT MAILBOX 3 CHRONO LOG 4 SUMMARY OF MAILBOXES CHECK FOR CURSOR MOVEMENT CHANGE MAILBOX AND MESSAGE AS REQUESTED ALLOW USER TO SET ALARMS CHECK ALARM CONDITIONS 73 AND RAISE ALARMS AS APPROPRIATE US 6 396 513 B1 Page 2
22. livery to another server contain ing another e mail program which receives and holds the messages for the message recipients 3 accepting incoming e mail messages from the distri bution service for its own users 4 holding or spooling the incoming e mail messages for its users and 5 delivering the spooled e mail messages to its users upon request Another program termed Ishmail herein and indicated by phantom boxes 9 runs on one or more of the computers 12 served by the server 6 The Ishmail program can be classified as a type of e mail reading system Use of the Ishmail program is optional on the computers 12 as indicated by the absence signified by the X of a phantom box 9 on computer 12C The presence or absence of an Ishmail program in a computer 12 does not affect the computer s normal interaction with the e mail program 3 running on the server 6 In order to describe the major features of the Ishmail program it is desirable to first examine the basic structure of e mail messages generally An electronic mail message can be viewed as a packet of digital data which is divided into fields FIG 2 illustrates an example The content 15 of the message represents one field The header 18 represents another field The header 18 can be divided into sub fields These sub fields include the identity 18A of the sender of the message the destination 18B the distribution list 18C the symbol CC means c
23. ly and the invention converts the touch tones to an ASCII code as indicated by block 160 The voice mail system associates these responses by the caller with the digitized voice mail message left by the caller as indicated by blocks 153 and 160 As indicated by block 165 the voice mail system stores a telephone directory which is generated by the mailbox owners and which correlates telephone numbers with the names of the owners of the numbers This telephone direc tory allows the invention to ascertain the identity of a caller by looking up the caller s name based on the telephone number left by the caller in response to the prompt 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 8 In addition as indicated by block 165 the voice mail system allows 1 the owner to rank the names in the telephone directory thereby associating a priority with each expected caller 2 the owner to specify a key number which indicates how many messages are to be played in a step later described and 3 the owner to assign rankings to the categories family matters etc In block 168 the invention identifies the caller of each message based on the telephone directory of block 165 Now by analogy to an e mail message the invention is in possession of a information corresponding to field 18A in FIG 2 by way of ascertaining the callers identities b a message field 15 in the form of the digitized voice mail messa
24. ly available wherein incoming telephone mes sages are received digitized and stored as digital files One voice mail system is sold under the trade name AUDIX and is available from AT amp T Corporation Indianapolis Ind The invention adds the following features to a standard voice mail system After a caller leaves a voice mail message as indicated by block 145 in FIG 7 the invention plays an audible prompt to the caller indicated by block 150 such as If you wish please identify yourself by entering your home telephone number into your touch pad If the caller enters the number the voice mail system receives the sequence of touch tones and converts them into an an ASCII character string using a tone decoder as in block 153 As an alternate to prompting the caller for a telephone number a service such as caller ID offered by many telephone companies can be used to obtain the caller s telephone number In addition a second audible prompt is played to the caller indicated by block 155 such as If you wish please identify the category of your message by pressing 1 if your message involves family matters 2 if your message involves work related matters or 3 if your message involves school related matters This step allows the caller to assign a category to the message The particular catego ries ie family matters etc are created by the voice mailbox owner The caller responds appropriate
25. nce mailbox 2B has a higher priority than mailbox 3A mailbox 2B is listed first within this rank and so on After prioritizing and ranking when the invention dis plays the list of these MAILBOXES to the user the inven tion presents the list in the exemplary order shown on the left side of FIG 6 That is mailbox 1A is listed first mailbox 2A next and mailbox 3B last Now the user may take action with respect to the list For example the user may read the messages in mailbox 3A After the user reads these messages the invention changes the rank of mailbox 3A as indicated by arrow 98 because that mailbox no longer contains unread messages Now the presentation of the user s list of mailboxes is made accord ing to the ranking shown on the right side of FIG 6 The ranks identified by dashed box 95 in FIG 5 are based on pre defined criteria namely whether a given mailbox contains 1 unread messages 2 messages or 3 no messages However the highest rank ALARMS RINGING is not based on pre defined criteria but on criteria under control of the user That is the user establishes conditions under which alarms are triggered When an alarm is triggered the cor responding mailbox is grouped into this highest rank Sev eral examples of alarm triggering conditions are the follow ing a As one type of condition the user can set a threshold number for a mailbox based on any of the following exemplary parameters 1 tot
26. ne the queue of e mail messages held in the user s mailbox If messages are found stored in the mailbox the system may notify the user as by a notice stating You have mail Alternately if new messages are found which the user has not accessed previously the notice may instead read You have NEW mail When the user calls for the mail the system presents a list of the messages stored in the mailbox on the user s display screen together with selected information about each such as the identity of the sender the date and time of dispatch and so on When the user selects a message from the list the system erases the list from the screen and displays the selected message instead For a person receiving large quantities of e mail this procedure can be cumbersome The person is required to 1 select a message from the list 2 jump in effect to a new screen which shows the selected message 3 jump to the list again to select another message and repeat the previous seteps Other types of e mail systems eliminate some of these cumbersome features by maintaining the list of the mes sages in one region of the display screen and displaying the selected message in another region However even this improvement is seen as lacking in optimality for intensive users of e mail SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In one form of the invention a recipient of e mail messages creates multiple mailboxes into which incoming mail is aut
27. omatically sorted based on criteria established by the user The user can define conditions for each mailbox which trigger alarms when the conditions are met BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG 1 illustrates a server 6 which provides electronic mail service to remote computers 12 FIG 2 illustrates an exemplary electronic mail message FIG 3 illustrates a display used as an interface by one form of the invention FIG 4 is a flow chart illustrating selected steps under taken by the invention FIG 5 illustrates prioritizing of mailboxes and ranking criteria for ranking MAILBOXES FIG 6 illustrates dynamic re ordering of MAILBOXES in response to user activity FIG 7 illustrates a flow chart representing logic under taken by one form of the invention DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION In one form of the invention an electronic mail transfer and delivery program indicated by phantom box 3 in FIG 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 2 1 runs on a server 6 This program will be termed an e mail program herein This type of program is commercially available One such program is that marketed under the name SENDMAIL and available from Universty of California located in Berkeley Calif The e mail program 3 handles tasks such as 1 accepting outgoing e mail messages from users 2 delivering the outgoing e mail messages to a distri bution service for de
28. pecific individual and which is thus distin guishable from other similar storage locations 2 Checking for running of second program As discussed in Appendix B in greater detail upon initiation of an Ishmail program the invention checks whether the initiating user is running another Ishmail program This checking is done because it is considered undesirable to run two programs or processes which maintain access to common files For example the user may have run the Ishmail program at the user s office but have left the office without termi nating the program It is possible that the office Ishmail program holds an e mail message which has been modified or has instructions to delete an e mail message If the user generates or modifies the same e mail message using an Ishmail program at the user s home it is possible that the office Ishmail program may later unexpectedly impose its modifications or deletion upon the e mail message The invention prevents this problem by establishing a control file when Ishmail is initiated The control file can be viewed as a flag which is set indicating that an Ishmail program has been launched Using a control file has the advantage that it is detectable by the second Ishmail pro gram The home Ishmail program notices control file and inquires whether the user wishes to take control If not then the home Ismail program exits leaving the messages undisturbed If
29. sTu 5851 5 suo ppe TBUJ TIVWHSI TIVWHSI e Oils uoo e uJeeseJgepr 069 9 01 uoo j g uyoJuBeeseuJgern oeQg ec ERT uoo j g uoJeeseJgernnf 2 0 0 201 uoo e uoJeeseJgernf 2 0 6 10 uoo j e uoJeeseJgernnf oeg ec Bal oo Lje uoeeseuger n o 969 67 66 uoo e uoJeeseJgq J 86 woo sje youReseugdiu 8 J 960 12 96 Uuoo j e uoJeeseJgq J 200 00 S6 980 82 6 woo jpe youReseugdiu UO2 LB uo 48eseJgu p 200 01 oe G 16 nsyjsessfjnjyoueeses ON 8T 06 woo e 6tqahefues AON 68 AON Z 88 g 913 ve Jd 6E E US 6 396 513 B1 Sheet 4 of 8 May 28 2002 U S Patent WE Os S3augu 5 op nofi sje jeu uym Buluieuos j4noqe nofi eougBuo ey uo nofi Dupoo we I se Jjeuj sig s3ueu 51015 ueeJos euos ew oj fisee ue eJeul BE SI uus Burpuuna oueds fiu jo soys ueeuos JO euo 1986 pinom I uoouJgejje stu juB4Jodug AueA 4e jpBuusi uoliueu ol peeu I 45 8 jueDBun yeymewos joe qns uoo LLe uoJeeseJgal eqs 199 uoo Lje uoJeeseJguo SAAN peeJun ou 66 09 OSIU peeuun ou 82 9 uellou peeuun 162 9 6b ennf 9 e peeuun ou df gr 8er 0181 96 91 99
30. the user does wish to take control the office Ishmail program is ordered to exit and takes all actions as if manually terminated 3 Sorting of current messages During operation of Ishmail by a user new messages may arrive in the spool of the e mail program 3 in FIG 1 The Ishmail program checks for new messages downloads them and then sorts them into the proper mailboxes 4 Sorting of outgoing mail The Ishmail program offers the option of allowing the user to treat the user s own outgoing mail as incoming mail That is the outgoing mail is sorted using the pre established filters into the pre defined mailboxes which are ranked and prioritized as described above 5 Searching The invention provides two types of searching upon two different types of entities The first type of searching examines the fields of the messages and sorts the messages into mailboxes based on field content as described above The second type searches the messages once classified in a mailbox and can be used to trigger alarms The invention can search for any detectable characteristic of a character sequence Some exemplary searches are the following A A search for a particular name such as Wilson in a particular field or in all fields B A search for a particular sequence of characters such as James A Wilson in a particular field or in all fields US 6 396 513 B1 7 C Asearch for a particular sequence of char
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