# US 8,751,588 B2 · Message thread clustering

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- Number: US 8,751,588 B2
- Document ID: US8751588B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 12/969,550
- Filed: 2010-12-15
- Published: 2012-06-21
- Granted: 2014-06-10
- Earliest claimed: 2010-12-15
- Assignees: Apple Inc.
- Applicants: Wayne Loofbourrow
- Inventors: Wayne Loofbourrow
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US8751588B2

## CPC

- G06Q 10/00: Administration; Management
- G06Q: INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR

## Abstract

A method and apparatus of a device that clusters threads of messages is described. In an exemplary method, the device receives multiple message threads, where each message thread includes one or more messages that are related to each message in that thread. For each of the message threads, the device computes a thread signature using affinity groups, where each affinity group is a group of messages that are related to each other. Furthermore, the device creates a group of related messages using the thread signatures.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A non-transitory machine-readable medium having executable instructions to cause one or more processing units to perform a method comprising:
receiving a plurality of message threads, wherein each of the plurality of threads includes one or more messages that are related to each of the messages in that thread and a message includes a message header with a plurality of message addresses;
for each of the message threads, computing a thread signature using an affinity group, wherein the affinity group is a group of message addresses that represent entities that communicate with each other for a particular common purpose, the thread signature for each of the message threads is based on a plurality of distance vectors between the group message addresses in the affinity group and the message addresses of the one or more messages in that message thread, and the thread signature is a vector with a plurality of values, wherein each of the plurality of values is based on a corresponding one of the plurality of distance vectors; and
creating a group of related message threads using the plurality of thread signatures.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein a message is of a type selected from the group consisting of email, Short Message Service, Multimedia Message Service, Enhanced Message Service, TWITTER, FACEBOOK, telephone message log, and instant messaging.

### Claim 3 (depends on 2)

The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 2, wherein the plurality of message threads includes a plurality of message types.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the computing the thread signature comprises:
computing a message signature for each of the one or more messages in the message thread, wherein the message signature is distance vector between the plurality of message addresses of that message and the affinity group.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the entities communicate above a minimum frequency regarding the particular common purpose.

### Claim 6

A method comprising:
receiving a plurality of message threads, wherein each of the plurality of threads includes one or more messages that are related to each of the messages in that thread and a message includes a message header with a plurality of message addresses;
for each of the message threads, computing a thread signature using an affinity group, wherein the affinity group is a group of message addresses that are related to each other and the thread signature for each of the message threads is based on a plurality of distance vectors between the group message addresses in the affinity group and the message addresses of the one or more messages in that message thread, and the thread signature is a vector with a plurality of values, wherein each of the plurality of values is based on a corresponding one of the plurality of distance vectors; and
creating a group of related message threads using the plurality of thread signatures.

### Claim 7 (depends on 6)

The method of claim 6, wherein the plurality of message threads includes a plurality of message types.

### Claim 8 (depends on 6)

The method of claim 6, wherein the computing the thread signature comprises:
computing a message signature for each of the one or more messages in the message thread, wherein the message signature is distance vector between the plurality of message addresses of that message and the affinity group.

### Claim 9

An apparatus comprising:
means for receiving a plurality of message threads, wherein each of the plurality of threads includes one or more messages that are related to each of the messages in that thread and a message includes a message header with a plurality of message addresses;
for each of the message threads, means for computing a thread signature using an affinity group, wherein the affinity group is a group of message addresses that are related to each other and the thread signature for each of the message threads is based on a plurality of distance vectors between the group message addresses in the affinity group and the message addresses of the one or more messages in that message thread, and the thread signature is a vector with a plurality of values, wherein each of the plurality of values is based on a corresponding one of the plurality of distance vectors; and
means for creating a group of related message threads using the plurality of thread signatures.

### Claim 10 (depends on 9)

The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the plurality of message threads includes a plurality of message types.

### Claim 11 (depends on 9)

The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the means for computing the thread signature comprises:
means for computing a message signature for each of the one or more messages in the message thread, wherein the message signature is distance vector between the plurality of message addresses of that message and the affinity group.

### Claim 12 (depends on 1)

The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the creating a group comprises:
computing a plurality of thread similarities between pairs of message threads from the plurality of message threads; and
clustering the plurality of message threads using the plurality of thread similarities.

### Claim 13 (depends on 4)

The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 4, wherein the computing a thread signature comprises further comprises:
averaging the one or more message signatures to arrive at the thread signature.

### Claim 14 (depends on 6)

The method of claim 6, wherein the creating a group comprises:
computing a plurality of thread similarities between pairs of message threads from the plurality of message threads; and
clustering the plurality of message threads using the plurality of thread similarities.

### Claim 15 (depends on 8)

The method of claim 8, wherein the computing a thread signature comprises further comprises:
averaging the one or more message signatures to arrive at the thread signature.

### Claim 16 (depends on 9)

The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the creating a group comprises:
means for computing a plurality of thread similarities between pairs of message threads from the plurality of message threads; and
means for clustering the plurality of message threads using the plurality of thread similarities.

### Claim 17 (depends on 11)

The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the computing a thread signature comprises further comprises:
means for averaging the one or more message signatures to arrive at the thread signature.