Providing Voice Messages To An Intended Recipient

• US 20090117880A1
• Filed: 12/15/2008
• Published: 05/07/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/21/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pinger Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Pinger Incorporated
• Inventors: Sipher, Joseph K.
• Granted Patent: US 8,194,828 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/412.200
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72433 for voice messaging, e.g. dictaphones for answering incoming calls H04M1/64
• 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 voice messaging system associates each stored voice message with a unique combination of a retrieval telephone number and a recipient identifier such as a recipient telephone number. When a voice message is received, the system sends a notification message containing the retrieval telephone number to the intended recipient. Upon receiving the notification message, the intended recipient can access the voice message directly by calling the message retrieval telephone number. The system detects the recipient identifier, for example, via caller identification of the recipient telephone number. Using the unique combination of retrieval telephone number and recipient identifier, the system retrieves and plays the appropriate voice message. In one embodiment, the access point for retrieving messages is different from the access point for leaving voice messages.

Claims

1. At a voice message provider, a method of delivering voice messages to an intended recipient, comprising:

receiving a voice message from a sender directed to an intended recipient;

storing the voice message in a database;

assigning a retrieval telephone number to the received voice message;

correlating the retrieval telephone number and the received voice message to one or more recipient telephone numbers for identifying the intended recipient;

preparing a notification message including at least the retrieval telephone number assigned to the received voice message; and

sending the notification message to the intended recipient that, when selected by the intended recipient, causes the voice message to be retrieved from the database.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the notification message, when selected by the intended recipient, automatically retrieves the voice message from the database by automatically dialing the phone number assigned to the received voice message.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein assigning a phone number to the received voice message further comprises selecting the phone number from a predefined list of message retrieval phone numbers.

4. The method as recited in claim 3, wherein selecting the phone number from a predefined list of message retrieval phone numbers further comprises selecting one of the message retrieval phone numbers that has not already been assigned to another voice message for the intended recipient.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein correlating the retrieval telephone number and the received voice message to one or more recipient telephone numbers for identifying the intended recipient further comprises storing the correlation between the retrieval telephone number, received voice message, and recipient telephone numbers in a searchable index.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein preparing a notification message including at least the retrieval telephone number assigned to the received voice message further comprises including thread information for the voice message within the notification message.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein preparing a notification message including at least the retrieval telephone number assigned to the received voice message further comprises preparing at least one of a short messaging system (“

SMS”

) message, a multimedia messaging system (“

MMS”

) message, an instant message (“

IM”

), and an email.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a telephone call from the intended recipient, the telephone call being initiated by intended recipient'"'"'s selection of the notification message causing dialing of the retrieval telephone number included in the notification message;

identifying the voice message correlated to the retrieval telephone number and to the recipient telephone numbers; and

sending the voice message to the intended recipient.

9. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein receiving a voice message from a sender directed to an intended recipient further comprises receiving the voice message from the sender via a first access point, and wherein receiving a telephone call from the intended recipient further comprises receiving the telephone call from the intended recipient via a second access point, wherein the first access point is distinct from the second access point.

10. At a voice message provider, a method of delivering voice messages to an intended recipient, comprising:

receiving a voice message from a sender directed to an intended recipient;

storing the voice message in a database;

assigning a retrieval telephone number to the received voice message;

correlating the retrieval telephone number and the received voice message to one or more recipient identifiers for identifying the intended recipient, wherein the combination of the retrieval telephone number and the recipient identifier uniquely identifies the received voice message among a set of pending received voice messages;

preparing a notification message including at least the retrieval telephone number assigned to the received voice message; and

sending the notification message to the intended recipient that, when selected by the intended recipient, causes the voice message to be retrieved from the database.

11. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein the notification message, when selected by the intended recipient, automatically retrieves the voice message from the database by automatically dialing the phone number assigned to the received voice message.

12. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein preparing a notification message including at least the retrieval telephone number assigned to the received voice message further comprises preparing at least one of a short messaging system (“

SMS”

) message, a multimedia messaging system (“

MMS”

) message, an instant message (“

IM”

), and an email.

13. At a voice message provider, a method of delivering voice messages to an intended recipient, comprising:

receiving a voice message from a sender directed to an intended recipient;

storing the voice message in a database;

assigning a retrieval telephone number to the received voice message;

correlating the retrieval telephone number and the received voice message to one or more recipient identifiers for identifying the intended recipient;

preparing a notification message including at least the retrieval telephone number assigned to the received voice message;

sending the notification message to the intended recipient;

receiving a telephone call from the intended recipient, the telephone call being initiated by the intended recipient dialing the retrieval telephone number included in the notification message;

identifying the voice message correlated to the retrieval telephone number and to the recipient identifier; and

sending the voice message to the intended recipient.

14. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein preparing a notification message including at least the retrieval telephone number assigned to the received voice message further comprises preparing at least one of a short messaging system (“

SMS”

) message, a multimedia messaging system (“

MMS”

) message, an instant message (“

IM”

), and an email.

15. At a device of an intended recipient, the device being associated with a telephone number, a method of retrieving voice messages, comprising:

receiving a notification message from a voice message provider, the notification message notifying an intended recipient of a voice message stored at a central storage location and addressed to the intended recipient, the notification message including a retrieval telephone number, wherein the combination of the retrieval telephone number and the telephone number associated with the device uniquely identifies the received voice message among a set of pending received voice messages;

receiving input from the intended recipient indicating that the voice message is to be retrieved;

calling the retrieval telephone number included in the voice message to access the voice message.

16. The method as recited in claim 15, wherein receiving a notification message from a voice message provider further comprises receiving at least one of a short messaging system (“

SMS”

) message, a multimedia messaging system (“

MMS”

) message, an instant message (“

IM”

), and an email.

17. The method as recited in claim 15, further comprising receiving the voice message and audibly playing the voice message.

18. The method as recited in claim 15, wherein calling the retrieval telephone number included in the voice message further comprises calling the voice message provider through a first access point that is different from a second access point used by voice message senders to send messages to the voice message provider.

19. The method as recited in claim 15, wherein receiving input from the intended recipient indicating that the voice message is to be retrieved further comprises detecting the selection of the notification message by the intended recipient.

20. A voice messaging system, comprising:

a first access point configured to receive a voice message from a voice message sender directed to an intended recipient;

a storage device configured to store the voice message received from the voice message sender;

an index configured to correlate a message retrieval telephone number to the voice message and to one or more recipient telephone numbers, wherein each combination of a given message retrieval telephone number and recipient telephone number is unique;

a notification module configured to send a notification message to the intended recipient, wherein the notification message includes the message retrieval number correlated to the voice message, that when dialed, enables the intended recipient to access the voice message; and

a second access point configured to receive a call initiated by the intended recipient by dialing the message retrieval telephone number contained in the notification message, and further configured to detect the recipient telephone number and to return the voice message correlated with the recipient telephone number and the retrieval message retrieval telephone number.

21. The system as recited in claim 20, wherein the notification message sent by the notification module comprises at least one of a short messaging system (“

SMS”

) message, a multimedia messaging system (“

MMS”

) message, an instant message (“

IM”

), and an email.