METHOD TO ENABLE INSTANT COLLABORATION VIA USE OF PERVASIVE MESSAGING

• US 20080043940A1
• Filed: 09/15/2007
• Published: 02/21/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/24/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Snap, Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Davis, Brent, Jaiswal, Peeyush, Mansey, Pradeep
• Granted Patent: US 7,463,723 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/88.16
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/60 Medium conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/4536 Voicemail combined with text-based messaging
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42374 where the information is provided to a monitoring entity such as a potential calling party or a call processing server
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/53308 Message originator indirectly connected to the message centre, e.g. after detection of busy or absent state of a called party

Abstract

A system (10) and method (50) to enable instant collaboration via the use of pervasive messaging can include the steps of receiving (52) a call from a caller to a callee, transferring (54) the call to a voicemail system when the callee is unavailable, determining (56) if the callee is available via instant messaging, and querying (58) the caller if they want to leave one among a voice message and an instant message. In another aspect, a system and method (70) enables instant collaboration by receiving (72) a text message having a designation for text-to-speech conversion via an instant messaging network (14) where the text message is intended for a phone (16 or 18) coupled to a voicemail system (20), recognizing (74) the designation, converting (76) the text message to a voice message, calling (78) the phone, and delivering (86) the voice message to the voicemail system.

Claims

1. A method to enable instant collaboration, comprising the steps of:

receiving a text message having a designation for text-to-speech conversion via an instant messaging server, wherein the text message is intended for a phone coupled to a voicemail system;

recognizing the designation;

converting the text message to a voice message;

calling the phone; and

delivering the voice message to the voicemail system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises the step of enabling a scheduled delivery of the voice message to a user.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises the step of delivering the voice message to a user.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises the step of delivering the voice message to the voicemail system.

5. A system enabling instant collaboration, comprising:

a voicemail system;

an instant messaging system coupled to the voicemail system;

a processor in the system programmed to;

receive a text message having a designation for text-to-speech conversion via the instant messaging system, wherein the text message is intended for a phone coupled to the voicemail system;

recognize the designation;

convert the text message to a voice message;

call the phone;

deliver the voice message to the voicemail system.

6. The system of claim 6, wherein the processor resides within the voicemail system.

7. A machine-readable storage, having stored thereon a computer program having a plurality of code sections executable by a machine for causing the machine to perform the steps of:

receiving a text message having a designation for text-to-speech conversion via an instant messaging server, wherein the text message is intended for a phone coupled to a voicemail system;

recognizing the designation;

converting the text message to a voice message;

calling the phone;

delivering the voice message to the voicemail system.