METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING AN INTERFACE FOR A MESSAGING MAILBOX

• US 20100169449A1
• Filed: 03/11/2010
• Published: 07/01/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lin Lin, Ping Lin
• Original Assignee: Lin Lin, Ping Lin
• Inventors: LIN, Ping, Lin, Lin
• Granted Patent: US 8,055,799 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/533 Voice mail systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/006 Networks other than PSTN/ISDN providing telephone service, e.g. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) , including next generation networks with a packet-switched transport layer H04L65/00 takes precedence; aspects not specific to the type of network H04M3/00; special services in those networks H04M3/42

Abstract

A method and apparatus for accessing messages from a message server. Messages are stored on the message server in their current format without transcoding. When a client opens a session with the message server, a data transfer rate is determined for the client. In response to a message retrieve request, the bit rate of the message is compared to the data transfer rate, and if less than the data transfer rate, the message is downloaded to the user terminal without transcoding. If the bit rate is greater than the data transfer rate, then the message is transcoded to a lower bit rate according to a codec supported by the user. The codec may be selected from a set of codecs supported by the user terminal. The user is provided with the capability to override the system selected codec, for example, to pick a codec for secure encoding or encryption.

Claims

1. An email server for a communication system, said email server comprising:

a component for storing messages in the email server, said messages being stored without transcoding;

a component for receiving an access request from a communication terminal;

a component for determining a type for said communication terminal making said access request;

a component for retrieving a message corresponding to said access request;

a component for formatting said retrieved message according to the type for said communication terminal.

2. The email server as claimed in claim 1, further including a component for determining a data transfer rate in response to said communication terminal opening a session with the email server;

a component for determining one or more codecs supported the communication terminal for said opened session;

a component for determining a bit rate for each of the messages associated with the communication terminal for said opened session;

a component for comparing said bit rate for said requested message to said data transfer rate;

a component for transmitting the message without transcoding if said bit rate is less than said data transfer rate;

a component for transcoding the message prior to transmitting to the communication if said bit rate is greater than said data transfer rate, wherein the message is transcoded according to one of said codecs supported by the communication terminal.