Abstract: An enterprise system includes a plurality of artifacts (e.g., persons, objects, databases, autonomous elements, intelligent agents, information systems, etc), and a smart distance (e.g., a distance which may optimize the performance of the enterprise system) between the plurality of artifacts.

Abstract: Hyperchain information management techniques are provided for use in applications such as on-demand business collaboration. In accordance with such techniques, a hyperchain annotation methodology is provided. Such an annotation methodology enables interaction between loosely-coupled business processes or interacting partners and business entities. Annotated information components and process components for collaboration may be expressed as links. Further, techniques for realizing an on-demand message exchange, embedded status/state information, flexible collaborative business message exchange patterns, and a collaborative directory are provided.

Abstract: This patent describes a novel system, method, and program product that are used in interactive natural language dialog. One or more presentation managers operating on a computer system present information from the computer system to one or more users over network interface(s) and accept queries from the users using one or more known input/output modalities (e.g. Speech, typed in text, pointing devices, etc.). A natural language parser parses one or more natural language phrases received over one or more of the network interfaces by one or more of the presentation managers into one or more logical forms (parsed user input), each logical form having a grammatical and structural organization. A dialog manager module maintains and directs interactive sessions between each of the users and the computer system.

Abstract: A system and method for supporting offline Web browsing. A user interests profile comprising content and attribute preferences of Web pages the user may be interested in is provided. Based on that user's profile, there is generated an interestingness values for each of candidate Web pages. From a hoard request initiated by a user, received one or more Web pages are selected and downloaded based on their respective interestingness values. These Web pages are stored for later viewing by the user when offline. The candidate Web pages include base Web pages which are supplied by the user in the hoard request, and linked Web pages which are reachable from the base pages. Thus, an interestingness value may be computed as the interestingness of a hyperlink associated with a Web page reachable from a base Web page, the interestingness value of a hyperlink being based upon the similarity of a linked Web page to the base Web page and/or to that user's interests profile.

Abstract: A system and method for prioritizing information items embedded in documents, for example, web-based documents such as HTML, XML, and the like. One or more feature vectors for the embedding document are first constructed. The feature vectors include: a content feature vector and an attribute feature vector, or both, with the content feature vector characterizing content of the document, the attribute feature vector characterizing attributes of the document. One or more feature vectors are also constructed for an embedded item in the document, the feature vectors also including: a content feature vector and an attribute feature vector, or both. Then, a similarity measure is computed between the item embedded in the document and the embedding document, the similarity measure based on a comparison of either the respective content feature vector and an attribute feature vector, or both, for each embedded item and embedding document.

Abstract: Communication channels among users in a collaborative computing system are automatically adjusted based on users' current states detected by various sensing devices. The collaboration system that includes an awareness system for evaluating, monitoring, and controlling, in real-time, the collaboration environment by having events and occurrences with properties. The awareness monitoring system includes (1) receiving and analyzing real time data from input sensors and (2) an elastic spring energy model for automatically adjusting a distance according to a level of privacy desired by individual users, the requirement of the organization, and a need of the collaborative project to have some shared information about individual user activities. When a spring energy model is difficult to obtain, a matrix looks up model is used to automatically adjust a distance according to a level of privacy desired by individual users, the requirement of the organization, and the need of the collaborative project.

Abstract: An intelligent screen saver utility that is less obtrusive than conventional screen savers is based on the absence of an operator rather than a predetermined time period for activation and detects the presence of the operator for deactivation. The screen saver is totally transparent in use to the operator and requires no touching of the keyboard or mouse movement to either prevent activation or deactivation of the screen saver. The screen saver requires a camera that can grab images. The images are grabbed and temporarily stored in the computer memory. When the difference between successively grabbed images is big enough, a person's presence is detected. When there is no big difference between successive images during a given time period, a person's absence is detected. The presence status is used to control the status of the screen saver.