VOICE DIRECTED SYSTEM AND METHOD CONFIGURED FOR ASSURED MESSAGING TO MULTIPLE RECIPIENTS

• US 20100004933A1
• Filed: 09/17/2009
• Published: 01/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/14/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vocollect, Inc. (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Vocollect, Inc. (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Inventors: Astorri, Claudine, Sweeney, Lawrence R., Boyle, Linda, Maloy, James D.
• Granted Patent: US 7,996,002 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/260
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1868 Measures taken after transmission, e.g. acknowledgments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/189 in combination with wireless systems selective distribution or broadcast in wireless communication networks H04W4/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/06 Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services

Abstract

A communications system transmits messages via a wireless network to multiple users nearly simultaneously in real-time. Each user has a terminal that receives a message and plays the message for the user. The terminal may also wait for the user to verbally acknowledge the arrival of the message before continuing with its normally executing application. The sender of the message may track, for each intended recipient, the delivery of the message, the accessing of the message by the user, and the acknowledgement by the user that the message was understood.

Claims

1. A method for sending a message to more than one recipient, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving at a server a textual message to be forwarded;

transmitting the textual message from the server over a wireless network to a plurality of wireless terminals;

receiving from one or more of the plurality of wireless terminals a respective first acknowledgement message indicating that the message was successfully received by the terminal;

receiving from at least some of the one or more wireless terminals a respective second acknowledgement message indicating that an operator of that terminal handled the message; and

maintaining a respective record for each of the plurality of wireless terminals indicative of any respective first and second acknowledgement messages.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of receiving from a subset of the plurality of wireless terminals a respective third acknowledgement message indicating that the operator of that terminal understood the message.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the respective first and second acknowledgment messages includes a respective first and second timestamp.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of determining from the respective records which of the plurality of terminals have not provided the respective second acknowledgement message.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of selecting at the server an identity of each of the plurality of wireless terminals to receive the textual message.

6. A method for delivering a message, comprising the steps of:

transmitting the message to a set of recipients via a communications network;

receiving a first respective acknowledgement, from one or more of the set of recipients, that the message that the message was successfully received by the recipient;

receiving a second respective acknowledgement from at least some of the set of recipients that the message was handled by the recipients; and

maintaining a respective record for each of the set of recipients indicative of the second respective acknowledgement.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the communications network is a wireless network.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein each of the set of recipients includes a respective terminal configured to receive the message and send the first and second respective acknowledgements.

9. The method of claim 6, further comprising the steps of:

receiving the message as textual input; and

converting the message to an audio output format;

playing the audio output for the recipients.

10. The method of claim 6, further comprising the step of receiving a third respective acknowledgement from at least some of the set of recipients that the message was understood.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the respective record for each of the set of recipients includes an indication of receipt of at least one of the first and third respective acknowledgements.

12. The method of claim 6, further comprising the step of identifying which of the set of recipients have not successfully received the message.

13. The method of claim 6, further comprising the step of identifying which of the set of recipients have not acknowledged handling the message.

14. The method of claim 6, wherein the set of recipients includes more than one recipient.

15. The method of claim 6, wherein the respective record includes a timestamp of when the second respective acknowledgement is received.

16. The method of claim 6, further comprising the step of graphically displaying the respective record for each of the set of recipients.

17. The method of claim 6 wherein the message is associated with one of an event reminder or an emergency message for the terminal operator.

18. The method of claim 6 further comprising running an application and interrupting the application upon receiving said first acknowledgement.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising resuming the application upon receipt by the server of the second acknowledgement.

20. A wireless voice-enabled system comprising:

a server;

a plurality of client devices worn by or associated with individual users and in communication with the server;

the system being configured to send a message to a predetermined group of users operating an associated predetermined group of devices;

the system further configured to provide assurance of message delivery to a terminal in the predetermined group of users by requiring from said terminal a first acknowledgement that the message has been received by the terminal and by requiring a second acknowledgement that the message has been handled by the associated user.

21. The system of claim 20 wherein the second acknowledgment indicates that the message was opened by a user.

22. The system of claim 20 wherein said message is sent as text and wherein said terminals have text-to-speech conversion capability to play the message audibly for a user.

23. The system of claim 20 wherein said message is converted to speech by said terminal and is opened by the associated user by initiating an audible reproduction of the message.

24. The system of claim 20 wherein said message is sent as text and wherein said terminals have a display and text-to-speech conversion capability.

25. The system of claim 24 wherein said message is opened by the associated user by initiating an audible reproduction of speech converted by the terminal from text or by initiating presentation of the message on the display.

29. The system of claim 20 wherein a client configured to run an application, said system being further configured for interrupting the application upon receiving said first acknowledgement.

30. The system of claim 29 wherein said system is configured to resume the application upon receipt by the server of the second acknowledgement.

26. The system of 20 wherein a terminal upon receiving a message transmits a visual alert to the associated user indicating that a message is available for user.

27. The system of claim 26 wherein said terminal is adapted to receive a reply in the form of speech from the user, in response to the alert.

28. The system of claim 26 wherein the reply may comprise an indication of readiness to receive the message, a request not to send the message, or an indication to send the message at a later time.

31. The system of claim 26 wherein the messages received by the terminal are of varying types, the alert configured to indicate the type of message.