Information Entity Linking in Electronic Documents
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users face inconvenience in accessing additional information related to entities mentioned in electronic documents, such as email messages or web pages, as they need to manually copy and paste information to take further actions, which is tedious and error-prone.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that identifies information entities in electronic documents and generates links to relevant information, allowing users to access additional details directly within the document, by connecting to information services and servers that provide targeted information.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If users manually copy and paste information to access additional details, then they can obtain relevant information, but the process becomes tedious and error-prone
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically identifies information entities in the document and generates corresponding links without requiring user intervention. The server autonomously extracts entities, queries information services, and inserts hyperlinks into the document, allowing the system to serve itself rather than relying on manual user actions.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs information entity identification and link generation in advance before the user views the document. By pre-processing the document to identify entities and create hyperlinks ahead of time, the system eliminates the need for users to manually copy and paste information during the viewing process.
2Ease of operation
If the system automatically retrieves and displays related information, then user convenience is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an information server as an intermediary component that acts as a mediator between the document server and information services. This intermediary handles the complexity of entity identification, information querying, and link generation, while presenting a simple interface to both the document server and end users, thereby isolating and managing system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The information server is designed as a universal component that can handle multiple types of information entities (people, places, organizations, products) and interact with various information services through standardized protocols. This multi-functionality allows a single system component to perform diverse tasks, reducing the need for separate specialized systems for each entity type.
3Loss of information
If the system processes and extracts information entities from documents, then relevant information can be linked, but processing time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies partial action by selectively processing only the most relevant information entities in a document rather than attempting to identify and link all possible entities. This selective approach reduces processing time while still providing comprehensive information access for the most important entities, avoiding the time cost of exhaustive processing.
Data Source
AI summary
A method of serving an electronic document in response to a client request includes identifying an electronic document requested by a client. At least one information entity matching at least one predetermined information entity type is extracted from the electronic document. One or more links are then generated for each extracted information entity and are served to the requesting client in connection with other information corresponding to the at least one information entity and the electronic document. In some embodiments the electronic document is an email message, SMS message, transcribed voice message, or a combination of such messages. In some embodiments the extracted information entity is a physical address, an email address, a phone number, an object identification number, a product name, a company name, a stock symbol, a movie title, a book title, a calendar entry, an individual's name, a city name, a URL, or event information.