Method and apparatus to process an incoming message

• US 20070081636A1
• Filed: 09/28/2005
• Published: 04/12/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Jain, Mukul, Patel, Labhesh, Shaffer, Shmuel, Gatzke, Alan
• Granted Patent: US 8,503,624 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/80
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72436 for text messaging, e.g. short messaging services [SMS] or e-mails
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/18 Comparators
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/301 Management of recordings
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/4536 Voicemail combined with text-based messaging
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/74 with voice recognition means
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4211 where the identifier is used to access a profile
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/53333 Message receiving aspects
• 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

Abstract

A method and apparatus to process an incoming message is described. The method may comprise, at a recipient system, receiving an incoming message from a message communicator and automatically analyzing message content to identify a keyword included in the message content. Thereafter, a predefined action associated with the keyword may be identified and the action may be performed. In an example embodiment, the predefined action may be a priority with the message, alerting an intended recipient of the message, routing the message to the intended recipient, paging the intended recipient, emailing the message to the intended recipient, sending an SMS message to the intended recipient, or the like. In an example embodiment, a user/owner of a mailbox may search a message database to identify incoming messages which includes the search term in the message content.

Claims

1. A method of processing an incoming voice message, the method comprising:

at a recipient system,

receiving an incoming voice message from a message communicator;

automatically analyzing message content of the incoming voice message to identify at least one keyword included in the message content;

identifying a predefined action associated with the at least one keyword; and

performing the predefined action when the at least one keyword is identified in the message content.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the predefined action is selected from the group consisting of associating a priority with the incoming voice message, alerting an intended recipient of the incoming voice message, routing the incoming voice message to the intended recipient, paging the intended recipient, emailing the incoming voice message to the intended recipient, and sending an SMS message to the intended recipient.

3. The method of claim 1, in which analyzing the message content comprises:

performing speech recognition on the message content to obtain text message content; and

parsing the text message content to identify the at least one keyword.

4. The method of claim 1, in which analyzing the message content includes identifying in an audio domain if at least one keyword is included within the message content.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the predefined action comprises investigating a keyword database including a plurality of keywords and at least one predefined action associated with each keyword.

6. The method of claim 1, which comprises:

identifying a spoken language associated with the incoming voice message;

identifying a keyword list associated with the identified spoken language; and

identifying the predefined action associated with a keyword provided in the keyword list.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the incoming voice message is a telephone call and the spoken language is identified from caller identification data that accompanies the message content, the caller identification data and the message content being included within a message communication envelope.

8. The method of claim 7, which comprises:

identifying the keyword list from the caller identification data; and

identifying the predefined action associated with a keyword provided in the keyword list.

9. The method of claim 1, which comprises allowing a recipient user of the recipient system to define the at least one keyword and its associated predefined action.

10. The method of claim 9, in which allowing the recipient user of the recipient system to define the at least one keyword and its associated predefined action comprises:

presenting a keyword user interface to the recipient user;

receiving a new keyword from the recipient user via the recipient user interface;

receiving a new action associated with the new keyword; and

storing the new keyword and the new action as the at least one keyword and the predefined action in a profile associated with the recipient user.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the user interface is at least one of an email interface and a voice interface.

12. A machine-readable medium embodying instructions which, when executed by a machine, causes the machine to perform the method of claim 1.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein incoming voice messages are stored in a message database, the method comprising:

receiving a search query from a user including a search term;

searching the message database to identify at least one incoming voice message which includes the search term in the message content; and

presenting the at least one message to the user.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the search term includes at least one keyword.

15. The method of claim 13, in which receiving the search query comprises:

receiving a voice query including a spoken search term;

performing speech recognition on the spoken search term to obtain a equivalent textual search term; and

searching the database of incoming voice messages with the textual equivalent search term to identify any incoming voice messages including the spoken search term.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein analyzing the message content includes identifying in an audio domain if at least one keyword is included within the message content.

17. The method of claim 13, in which receiving the search query comprises:

receiving a textual query including a textual search term; and

searching the database of incoming voice messages with the textual search term to identify any incoming voice messages including the textual search term.

18. Apparatus to process an incoming voice message, the apparatus comprising:

a communication interface to receive the incoming voice message; and

a processing module to;

automatically analyze message content of the incoming voice message to identify at least one keyword included in the message content;

identify a predefined action associated with the at least one keyword; and

perform the predefined action when the at least one keyword is identified in the message content.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the predefined action is selected from the group consisting of associating a priority with the incoming voice message, alerting an intended recipient of the incoming voice message, routing the incoming voice message to the intended recipient, paging the intended recipient, emailing the incoming voice message to the intended recipient, and sending an SMS message to the intended recipient.

20. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the content is analyzed by performing speech recognition on the incoming voice message to obtain an equivalent text message and parsing the text message to identify the at least one keyword.

21. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein analyzing the message content includes identifying in an audio domain if at least one keyword is included within the message content.

22. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein identifying the predefined action comprises investigating a keyword database including a plurality of keywords and at least one predefined action associated with each keyword.

23. The apparatus of claim 18, which comprises a search module to:

receive a search query from a user including a search term; and

search incoming voice messages to identify at least one incoming voice message which includes the search term in the message content, the at least one message being presented to the user.

24. Apparatus to process an incoming message, the apparatus comprising:

means for receiving an incoming message from a message communicator;

means for automatically analyzing message content of the message to identify at least one keyword included in the message content;

means for identifying a predefined action associated with the at least one keyword; and

means for performing the predefined action when the at least one keyword is identified in the message.

25. A method of processing an incoming email message, the method comprising:

at a recipient system,

receiving a plurality of incoming email messages from a message communicator, each including message content; and

automatically analyzing the message content of each email message to identify at least one keyword included in the message content; and

prioritizing the email messages based on the at least one keyword associated with each email to identify a download priority associated with each email; and

selectively downloading an email message with a higher priority before downloading an email message with a lower priority.

26. A machine-readable medium embodying instructions which, when executed by a machine, causes the machine to perform the method of claim 25.

27. A method of processing an incoming Instant Message, the method comprising:

at a recipient system,

receiving an Instant Message from a message communicator, the Instant Message including instant message content;

automatically analyzing the instant message content of the Instant Message to identify at least one keyword included in the instant message content; and

identifying a predefined action associated with the at least one keyword, the action defining processing of the Instant Message by the Instant Message client.

28. The method of claim 27, in which the predefined action comprises displaying the incoming Instant Message to the user even though the recipient user'"'"'s Instant Messaging client indicates to a sender of the Instant Message that the recipient user is unavailable.

29. The method of claim 28, in which the predefined action comprises sending the incoming Instant Message to an Instant Message mailbox when the keyword is not found in the message content.

30. A machine-readable medium embodying instructions which, when executed by a machine, causes the machine to perform the method of claim 27.