Video Greetings for Voicemail Systems

• US 20100159890A1
• Filed: 06/20/2008
• Published: 06/24/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Rainer, Brian Keith, Zubas, Michael Robert, Sigmund, William Joseph
• Granted Patent: US 8,478,239 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/413
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/58 Use of machine translation, e.g. for multi-lingual retrieval, for server-side translation for client devices or for real-time translation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/50 Telephonic communication in combination with video communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/4518 Attachments to voicemail
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/4545 Message forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/02 Calling substations, e.g. by ringing selective calling H04Q
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42017 Customized ring-back tones
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42051 where the notification is included in the ringing tone
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42153 by subscriber
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/533 Voice mail systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/53325 Interconnection arrangements between voice mail systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/53383 Message registering commands or announcements; Greetings
• 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: H04W 12/06 Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/068 using credential vaults, e.g. password manager applications or one time password [OTP] applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 Access security
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/16 Communication-related supplementary services, e.g. call-transfer or call-hold

Abstract

A method for operating a voicemail system (110) can include receiving a call (302, 502) at the voicemail system (110), wherein the call originates from a calling party device (106), determining if the calling party device (106) is compatible with a video greeting feature (306, 506), sending a video greeting (308, 510) to the called party device (106) if it is determined that the calling party device (106) is compatible with the video greeting feature, and recording a voicemail message (314) received in response to the video greeting being played on the called party device (106). Another method can include sending a video greeting identifier to the called party device (106), the video greeting identifier being used to identify a video greeting stored on the calling party device (106). Methods for operating a mobile device (200) and a voicemail system (110) are also disclosed.

Claims

1. A method for operating a voicemail system (110), the method comprising:

receiving a call (302, 502) at the voicemail system (110);

sending a video greeting (308, 510) to the called party device (106); and

recording a voicemail message (314).

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining if the calling party device (106) is compatible with a video greeting feature (306, 506).

3. The method of claim 2, wherein determining if the calling party device (106) is compatible with the video greeting feature (306) comprises determining if the calling party device (106) is compatible with the video greeting feature based upon information stored within the voicemail system (110).

4. The method of claim 2, wherein determining if the calling party device (106) is compatible with the video greeting feature (306) comprises determining if the calling party device (106) is compatible with the video greeting feature based upon information stored within a network entity in communication with the voicemail system (110).

5. The method of claim 2, wherein, if it is determined that the calling party device (106) is not compatible with the video greeting feature, the voicemail system (110) plays an audio greeting and records a voicemail message.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein sending the video greeting (308, 510) to the called party device (106) comprises sending the video greeting (308, 510) to the called party device (106), if it is determined that the calling party device (106) is compatible with the video greeting feature.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein recording the voicemail message (314) comprises recording the voicemail message (314) received in response to the video greeting being played on the called party device (106).

8. The method of claim 6, wherein recording the voicemail message (314) received in response to the video greeting being played on the called party device (106) comprises recording the voicemail message (314) in response to the video greeting being played on the called party device (106)

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining if the video greeting feature is enabled for a voicemail account associated with a called party (304).

10. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the video greeting (308) to the calling party device (106) comprises sending the video greeting to the calling party device (106) via a data session established between the calling party device (106) and the voicemail system (110).

11. The method of the claim 1, wherein sending the video greeting (308) to the calling party device (106) comprises sending the video greeting to the calling party device (106) as a video stream.

12. A method for operating a voicemail system (110), the method comprising:

receiving a call (402) at the voicemail system (110), the call originating from a calling party device (106);

determining if a video greeting is stored (410) on the calling party device (106);

sending a video greeting identifier (420) to the calling party device (106), the video greeting identifier being used to identify the video greeting stored on the calling party device (106); and

recording a voicemail message (408).

13. The method of claim 12, wherein recording the voicemail message (408), comprises recording the voicemail message (408) received in response to the video greeting being played on the called party device (106).

14. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

determining if the video greeting feature is enabled (404) for a voicemail account associated with a called party.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein determining if the video greeting is stored (410) on the calling party device (106) comprises determining if the video greeting is available based upon video greeting information comprising an MSISDN of one or more calling parties and an indication as to whether the video greeting has been saved on the corresponding calling party device (106).

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the video greeting information is retrieved from at least one of the voicemail system (110), a subscriber database (118), a database, a server, and a network entity.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein determining if the video greeting is stored (410) on the calling party device (106) comprises querying the calling party device (106) to determine if the video greeting is available.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein if it is determined that the calling party device (106) is not compatible with the video greeting feature, the voicemail system (110) plays an audio greeting.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the voicemail system (110) records a voicemail message received in response to the audio greeting.

20. The method of claim 12, wherein, if it is determined that the video greeting is not available on the calling party device (106), the voicemail system (110) sends the video greeting to the calling party device (106) and the video greeting is played on the calling party device (106).

21. A method for operating a mobile device (200), the method comprising:

receiving a selection (602) of one of a saved video greeting and an option to record a new video greeting;

recording a new video greeting (606) if the option to record a new video greeting is selected; and

sending (608) one of the saved video greeting and the new video greeting to a voicemail system (110).

22. A method for operating a mobile device (200), the method comprising:

receiving at least one of a video greeting and a video greeting identifier (310, 422);

playing the video greeting (312) if the video greeting is received (308);

determining which of one or more stored video greetings is identified by the video greeting identifier if the video greeting identifier is received (422); and

playing the stored video greeting corresponding to the video greeting identifier (418).

23. A voicemail system (110), the voicemail system comprising:

a telephony server (112) configured to handle calls received at the voicemail system; and

a storage server (116) configured to store at least one voicemail account and at least one of one or more video greetings and one or more video greeting identifiers associated with the at least one voicemail account.