How Computers Automatically Detect and Act on Data Like Phone Numbers

Apple's 1999 patent describing how software can automatically recognize patterns like phone numbers or dates in text and offer relevant actions like calling or scheduling.

What it covers

This patent describes a system that scans text in real-time to identify specific structures, such as email addresses, dates, or phone numbers. Once identified, the system highlights these items and provides a menu of relevant actions, like opening a calendar or dialing a number. It uses an analyzer server that works alongside other applications to parse data and link it to specific functional tasks. For example, if you receive an email containing a date, the system recognizes the date structure and lets you click it to immediately create a calendar event.

What it doesn't cover

• —Does not cover manual selection of text where the computer performs no automated pattern recognition.
• —Does not cover data structures that are not defined by grammars or string libraries within the system.
• —Does not cover actions that are not explicitly linked to a detected structure by the analyzer server.

The clever bit

The innovation lies in the 'analyzer server' architecture that runs concurrently with other apps, allowing the system to bridge the gap between passive text display and active, context-aware software functionality.

Why it matters

This technology is the foundation for the 'data detectors' found in almost every modern operating system. It transformed static text into interactive objects, significantly improving user productivity by removing the need to copy-paste information between different applications.

Real-world examples

• 1.iOS Data Detectors
• 2.macOS Data Detectors
• 3.Android Smart Text Selection