Method and system for communicating a data file over a network

• US 20050020250A1
• Filed: 05/24/2004
• Published: 01/27/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/23/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aawaaz Inc.
• Original Assignee: Kirusa Inc.
• Inventors: Kuwadekar, Sanjeev, Desai, Adesh, Chaddha, Navin, Sodhi, Dan
• Granted Patent: US 8,161,116 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/414.100
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1818 Conference organisation arrangements, e.g. handling schedules, setting up parameters needed by nodes to attend a conference, booking network resources, notifying involved parties
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/066 Format adaptation, e.g. format conversion or compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/224 providing notification on incoming messages, e.g. pushed notifications of received messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/56 Unified messaging, e.g. interactions between e-mail, instant messaging or converged IP messaging [CPM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/60 Medium conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/4509 Unified messaging with single point of access to voicemail and other mail or messaging systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/4536 Voicemail combined with text-based messaging
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/5054 Meet-me conference, i.e. participants dial-in
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/382 using authorisation codes or passwords
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42204 Arrangements at the exchange for service or number selection by voice at the terminal H04M1/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5307 for recording messages comprising any combination of audio and non-audio components
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5322 for recording text messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/537 Arrangements for indicating the presence of a recorded message , whereby the presence information might include a preview or summary of the message
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/56 Arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities video conference systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/565 relating to time schedule aspects

Abstract

A method and system for forwarding information such as data files to a recipient across disparate or incompatible communication networks, which are not constrained by incompatible user devices. The sender sends information such as a data file to an intended recipient via a messaging server. The messaging server communicates with the intended recipient using basic communication tools that are generally compatible regardless of the network that the recipient is subscribed to. The messaging server stores the information, creates and sends a notification message to the intended recipient that she has information to be retrieved. The notification message includes a unique access address associated with the message, at which the recipient can retrieve the information. Different unique access addresses are associated with different messages.

Claims

1. A method for transmitting a data file from a sender to a recipient comprising the steps of:

sender sending said data file to a messaging server;

said messaging server associating said data file with a unique access address;

said messaging server associating said unique access address with a notification message;

said messaging server sending said notification message to said recipient;

said recipient accessing said unique access address to retrieve said data file;

said messaging server identifying the unique access address used by the recipient; and

said messaging server sending said data file corresponding to the unique access address to said recipient.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said unique access address comprises at least one of a phone number and a web address.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said notification message is sent within at least one of a text message, a voice message and an electronic mail.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein said data file comprises at least one of a text message, a voice message, an audio file, a video file, a text file, an image file, an executable file, and a multimedia file.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of said sender sending said data file comprises the steps of:

speaking a voice message into a sender device; and

converting said voice message to text using speech-to-text processing.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of said sender sending said data file comprises the steps of:

inputting a text message into a sender device; and

converting said text message to a voice message using text-to-speech processing.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the sender sends said data file over a communication network subscribed by the sender, and the messaging server sends the notification message to the recipient over a different network subscribed by the recipient.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein more than one data file is sent, and wherein a different unique access address is associated with a different data file.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of said messaging server identifying the unique access address comprises the steps of:

messaging server determining a dialed access phone number with a dialed number identification service (DNIS); and

messaging server determining a data file associated with said dialed access phone number.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein said step of said recipient accessing said unique access address to retrieve said data file further comprises the step of authenticating the recipient.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising the step of the sender designating a recipient device address to which the notification message is to be sent to the recipient, and the step of authenticating the recipient includes the step of determining the recipient device address.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the data file is transmitted over a cellular network, wherein the sender has a sender cellular device and the recipient has a recipient cellular device, and wherein the sender sends the data file using the sender cellular device, and the recipient access the unique access address to retrieve the data file using the recipient cellular device.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the notification message is sent via text messaging to the recipient cellular device.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the sender cellular device communicates with a first cellular network to which the sender subscribes, and the recipient cellular device communicates with a second cellular network to which the recipient subscribes.

19. The method of claim 4, wherein at least one of the audio file, video file and multimedia file is captured using a sender device, and said data is sent to the messaging server using at least one of store-and forward and streaming.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein said at least one of the audio file, video file and multimedia file is send by the messaging server to the recipient using at least one of store-and-forward and streaming.

15. A messaging server for transmitting a data file from a sender device to a recipient device comprising:

a data receiver receiving said data file from said sender device;

a notification message transmitter associating said data file with a unique access address and associating said unique access address with a notification message, and sending said notification message to said recipient device; and

a data file transmitter providing access to the recipient using said unique access address, and sending said data file from said messaging server to said recipient device.

16. A network system for transmitting a data file from a sender device to a recipient device comprising:

one or more nodes to provide access for said sender device;

one or more nodes to provide access for said recipient device;

one or more nodes to provide access by a messaging server as in claim 15.

17. The network system of claim 16 wherein said network comprises at least one of a cellular network, a wide area network, a telephony network, an IP network and a data network.

18. A machine-readable medium for programming a computer to forward a data file from a sender to a recipient, said medium including processor executable instructions comprising:

a program module receiving said data file from said sender device;

a program module associating said data file with a unique access address and associating said unique access address with a notification message, and sending said notification message to said recipient device; and

a data file transmitter module providing access to the recipient using said unique access address, and sending said data file from said messaging server to said recipient device.