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`US007428702Bl
`
`c12) United States Patent
`Cervantes et al.
`
`(10) Patent No.:
`(45) Date of Patent:
`
`US 7,428,702 Bl
`Sep.23,2008
`
`(54) METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DYNAMIC
`MESSAGE CORRECTION
`
`(75)
`
`Inventors: Ezequiel Cervantes, Tucson, AZ (US);
`Paul Anthony Jennas, Tucson, AZ (US);
`Mario Francisco Acedo, Tucson, AZ
`(US); Matthew J. Ward, Vail, AZ (US);
`Jason L. Peipelman, Vail, AZ (US)
`
`(73) Assignee: International Business Machines
`Corporation, Armonk, NY (US)
`
`( *) Notice:
`
`Subject to any disclaimer, the term ofthis
`patent is extended or adjusted under 35
`U.S.C. 154(b) by 0 days.
`
`(21) Appl. No.: 12/020,543
`
`(22) Filed:
`
`Jan.27,2008
`
`(51)
`
`Int. Cl.
`(2006.01)
`G06F 17100
`(52) U.S. Cl. ....................................... 715/255; 715/243
`(58) Field of Classification Search ................. 715/255,
`715/243, 246
`See application file for complete search history.
`
`(56)
`
`References Cited
`
`U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS
`
`6,895,257 B2
`7,024,213 B2
`
`512005 Boman et al.
`412006 Cleary
`
`7,032,174 B2
`412006 Montero et al.
`212007 Van Dok et al.
`7,185,285 B2
`12/2007 Tannenbaum
`7,305,627 B2
`2004/0260780 Al
`12/2004 Eisen
`2005/0081057 Al
`412005 Cohen et al.
`2006/0041848 Al*
`212006 Lira ........................... 715/805
`2006/0161631 Al
`712006 Lira
`2007 /0005707 Al *
`1/2007 Teodosiu et al.
`2007/0124387 Al
`5/2007 Galloway
`FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS
`
`............ 709/206
`
`12/2001
`4/2007
`
`W00193515
`WO
`W02007040525
`WO
`* cited by examiner
`Primary Examiner-Laurie Ries
`(74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm-MaxValueIP, LLC
`
`(57)
`
`ABSTRACT
`
`A system is presented to allow users in an instant messaging
`environment to edit already-exchanged messages dynami(cid:173)
`cally, and resend the edited version of the message to the
`target users, as an example. The newly edited message
`received by the second user is clearly understandable because
`the corrected parts of the message have been tagged. Depend(cid:173)
`ing on the implementation, either a new complete and cor(cid:173)
`rected message is sent, or the sent message indicates the
`recent editions. The advantage of this solution is that all that
`the altering user should do is to go over the communication
`text, change or edit the text, and press ENTER.
`
`1 Claim, 3 Drawing Sheets
`
`I Menu bar I
`
`User1
`
`In todays meeting we covered a lot of
`topics. We discussed the new test
`plan, and the new high priority items.
`will be sending the meeting minutes
`and I need you to go over them.
`Please do ~ fOrget to ~this
`
`Ecjff
`
`330/V-
`
`310
`
`320
`
`320
`
`Communicated message pane
`
`Typing pane
`
`Ultratec Exhibit 1006
`Ultratec v Sorenson IP Holdings Page 1 of 6
`
`

`

`U.S. Patent
`
`Sep.23,2008
`
`Sheet 1of3
`
`US 7,428,702 Bl
`
`I Menu bar I
`In todays meeting we covered a lot of
`User1
`topics. We discussed the new test
`'
`plan, and the new high priority items. I
`will be sending the meeting minutes
`and I need to go over them. Please do
`forget to this.
`
`I
`110
`
`Communicated message pane
`
`I """
`Cursor
`
`Typing pane
`
`FIG 1
`
`Ultratec Exhibit 1006
`Ultratec v Sorenson IP Holdings Page 2 of 6
`
`

`

`U.S. Patent
`
`Sep.23,2008
`
`Sheet 2 of 3
`
`US 7,428,702 Bl
`
`PRIOR ART
`
`I Menu bar I
`In todays meeting we covered a lot of
`User1
`topics. We discussed the new test
`plan, and the new high priority items. I
`will be sending the meeting minutes
`and I need to go over them. Please do
`forget to this.
`
`Thanks!
`
`Oops! I made several mistakes.
`meant "I need YOU to go over them.
`Also, "please do NOT forget to DO this"
`
`Typing pane
`
`FIG 2
`
`Ultratec Exhibit 1006
`Ultratec v Sorenson IP Holdings Page 3 of 6
`
`

`

`U.S. Patent
`
`Sep.23,2008
`
`Sheet 3 of 3
`
`US 7,428,702 Bl
`
`I Menu bar I
`In todays meeting we covered a lot of
`User 1
`topics. We discussed the new test
`plan, and the new high priority items. I
`will be sending the meeting minutes
`and I need you to go over them.
`
`Please do 1 forget to~ this.
`
`...____
`Edit
`
`330/V.___
`
`310
`
`320
`
`320
`
`Communicated message pane
`
`Typing pane
`
`FIG 3
`
`Ultratec Exhibit 1006
`Ultratec v Sorenson IP Holdings Page 4 of 6
`
`

`

`1
`METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DYNAMIC
`MESSAGE CORRECTION
`
`2
`DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED
`EMBODIMENTS
`
`US 7,428,702 Bl
`
`20
`
`BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
`
`In the today's busy lifestyle, the role of electronic commu(cid:173)
`nication is becoming more and more important. The volume
`of email communications has exceeded the extent of tele(cid:173)
`phone usage within corporations. Furthermore, instant mes(cid:173)
`saging, as a form of electronic communication, has begun to
`expand during recent years. Initially, instant messaging was a
`tool used mainly in the chat rooms and for entertainment
`purposes, but now its applications are being extended to inter(cid:173)
`nal communications of corporations. Instant messaging has
`all of the advantages of email messaging compared to using
`the phone service, while not having many of its disadvantages
`of the email communication, namely its offline nature. It is
`also less intrusive than phone service. It can easily be
`recorded and archived, and storing such an archive does not
`require a large memory space.
`Instant messaging technique, to be used as a serious
`method of communication, however, needs to be improved.
`For instance, in a chat session amongst users of an instant
`messaging application, it is quite common to misspell or
`forget words when exchanging messages with other users.
`Currently, the only known solutions are: (1) to ignore the
`problem and assume the other user understands what you
`meant; (2) to type another message explaining what words
`were initially misspelled, forgot, or added; or (3) to turn on
`the spell check option. The drawbacks to these solutions are
`that it takes extra time to re-write what is meant to say in the
`first place, or to explain where a mistake was made. In addi(cid:173)
`tion, the spell checker option can help with misspelled words,
`but it does not help ifa user forgets words or adds extra words.
`Then, the chat partner receiving the corrections must go back,
`re-read the previous message, and add the corrections. One of
`the embodiments ofthis invention will solve this problem by
`making it easy and convenient for both users to understand the
`mistake and the correction.
`
`SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
`
`One of the embodiments of this invention allows users in an
`instant messaging environment to dynamically edit previous
`messages that have been exchanged, and resend the edited
`version of the message to the target users. Upon receipt of the
`edited version of the message, the target user would clearly
`see the corrections made on the previously received message,
`or depending on implementation, they could see a new edited
`message. The advantage of this solution is that the altering
`user now does not have to explain the correction. All that this
`user needs to do after sending the wrong message, is that it
`goes over the communicated text, change or edit the text, and
`press ENTER. By pressing ENTER, either a new corrected
`message is sent to the second user, or the already-sent mes(cid:173)
`sage shows the edited part by color or other formatting indi(cid:173)
`cations.
`
`BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
`
`30
`
`35
`
`A novel method to improve the efficiency of instant mes(cid:173)
`saging is presented, as an example. One of the embodiments
`of this invention allows users in an instant messaging envi(cid:173)
`ronment to dynamically edit previous messages that have
`been exchanged, and resend the edited version of the message
`to the target users. Upon receipt of the edited version of the
`10 message, the target user would clearly see the corrections
`made on the previously received message, or depending on
`implementation, they could see a new edited message. The
`advantage of this solution is that the altering user now does
`not have to explain where the correction has occurred. The
`15 recipient can see the whole message with the edited parts
`clearly shown.
`In a typical conversation in an instant messaging system,
`one user sends a message to another user. Assume that the
`screen shown in FIG. 1 represents this interaction.
`The messaging starts when the first user (110) sends a
`message to the second user. As soon as the first user (110)
`sends the message, the first user (110) notices several mis(cid:173)
`takes with the message, and tries to send a correction in a rush,
`and as soon as possible. (FIG. 1) Assuming that such a rush
`25 for correction does not contribute to making more mistakes,
`the attempt to correction is shown in FIG. 2 as currently done
`in prior art.
`At this point, the second user needs to return to the original
`message it received, and read it again along with the newly
`given corrections. The corrections are supposed to help fully
`understand what was meant by the first message. Note that
`turning on the spell checking would not have solved the issue
`in this scenario. This is because the words do not necessarily
`have to be spelled incorrectly in order for a sentence to be
`completely meaningless. Grammar checking is also not a
`problem-free solution as the incorrect sentence can be gram(cid:173)
`matically correct while still being meaningless.
`In one embodiment, this invention solves this problem by
`40 allowing the original and/or target user to modify the chat
`message, which has already been communicated, when a
`mistake has been made. As shown in FIG. 3, in our example,
`when the first user notices the mistake, it puts the cursor over
`the previously sent message, edits it, and once the revision is
`45 made, presses ENTER. The corrected words can be high(cid:173)
`lighted, colored, underlined (320), or otherwise re-formatted
`for the purpose of notification. There can be other ways of
`notification as to which sections of the instant message has
`been edited such as adding tags such as "edited (330)" or
`50 another indication such as a vertical line (310).
`An implementation of this invention can track changes
`using a color scheme, for example, blue to denote words that
`were added, red and strikeout for words that were removed
`(not shown in the figures). There would also be visual notifi-
`55 cation to allow a user change the sentence, and/or notify the
`recipients that a sentence was just edited. The other chat users
`would automatically see these changes in a new message with
`the edited changes, or the previous message they had
`received, would dynamically change to a new edited version
`60 with the same color scheme.
`In one embodiment, the implementation of this invention
`would require modification to the user interface and the
`instant messaging software, to allow editing previously sent
`messages. Once the changes are made, the new message is
`sent to the target clients. The message would be tagged as an
`edited message and the target client would then add logic to
`redisplay the new message at the position where the old
`
`FIG. 1 illustrates the instant messaging environment when
`the first message containing some mistakes is sent.
`FIG. 2 shows the second instant message by the first user in
`an attempt to fix the mistakes in the first message, as currently
`done in the prior art.
`FIG. 3 depicts the way this invention proposes to resolve 65
`the problem by editing the incorrect parts of the original
`message, as an example.
`
`Ultratec Exhibit 1006
`Ultratec v Sorenson IP Holdings Page 5 of 6
`
`

`

`US 7,428,702 Bl
`
`3
`message was displayed. It is carefully done by handling the
`new size of the message accordingly, and adapting the user
`interface appropriately.
`Therefore, in one embodiment, such instant messaging
`sessions can have a sending and one or more recipient user
`clients. The sending user edits the previously sent message on
`its client by changing, adding, and/or deleting words. Then
`the changed message is sent to the recipients and is tagged as
`"edited," for instance.
`The changed message is displayed with change tracking on 10
`both sending and receiving clients, either as a newly-received
`message or as an edited previously-received message (by
`resizing and adjusting the display and content as designed in
`the software or by user-customization).
`In this embodiment, as mentioned above, edit tracking
`comprises of visual notifications, such as color scheme (blue
`for "new" and red for "deleted"), underline for "new", and
`strike-through for "deleted". It can also include other visual
`notifications such as vertical track line and edit mark.
`In one embodiment, a method for dynamic correction of a
`message in an instant message system is presented. The
`method comprises the steps of: a first user sending an instant
`message to a second user; the first user dynamically editing
`the content of the instant message; the first user resending the 25
`dynamically edited instant message to the second user; tag(cid:173)
`ging the dynamically edited instant message as an edited
`instant message; displaying the dynamically edited instant
`message, with a change tracking highlighted, for both the first
`user and the second user; and identifying deletion, addition, 30
`cut, paste, and editing of the dynamically edited instant mes(cid:173)
`sage by resizing, changing fonts, adjusting display, adjusting
`content, visual notification, color coding, vertical track mark,
`and edit mark.
`
`20
`
`15
`
`4
`A system, apparatus, or device comprising one of the fol(cid:173)
`lowing items is an example of the invention: social web site,
`meeting organizer, IM, email server, server, client device,
`PDA, mobile device, cell phone, storage to store the mes(cid:173)
`sages, router, switches, network, communication media,
`cables, fiber optics, physical layer, buffer, nodes, packet
`switches, computer monitor, or any display device, applying
`the method mentioned above, for purpose of invitation, mes(cid:173)
`saging, or meeting management.
`Any variations of the above teaching are also intended to be
`covered by this patent application.
`The invention claimed is:
`1. A method for dynamic correction of a message in an
`instant message system, said method comprising the steps of:
`a first user sending an instant message to a second user;
`said first user dynamically editing the content of said
`instant message;
`said first user resending said dynamically edited instant
`message to said second user;
`tagging said dynamically edited instant message as an
`edited instant message;
`displaying said dynamically edited instant message, with a
`change tracking highlighted, for both said first user and
`said second user; and
`identifying deletion, addition, cut, paste, and editing of
`said dynamically edited instant message by resizing,
`changing fonts, adjusting display, adjusting content,
`visual notification, color coding, vertical track mark, and
`editmark;
`wherein the dynamically edited instant message is redis(cid:173)
`played at the position where the unedited instant mes(cid:173)
`sage was displayed.
`
`* * * * *
`
`Ultratec Exhibit 1006
`Ultratec v Sorenson IP Holdings Page 6 of 6
`
`