INDICATORS FOR VOICEMAILS

• US 20110222673A1
• Filed: 03/12/2010
• Published: 09/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Piemonte, Patrick
• Granted Patent: US 8,705,708 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/88.12
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/656 for recording conversations
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/18 Comparators
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/303 Marking
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5335 Message type or catagory, e.g. priority, indication
• 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

Methods and systems to examine, in one embodiment, content of a voicemail to determine whether the voicemail is message-less. An indicator that indicates the voicemail is message-less can be presented in response to determining that the voicemail is message-less. A method in an embodiment can be performed on either a client system or on a voicemail server. In another embodiment, a method can determine whether a length of the content of a voicemail is less than a period of time and can display an indicator that the voicemail has either no content or is very short.

Claims

1. A machine readable non-transitory storage medium storing executable program instructions which when executed by a data processing system cause the data processing system to perform a method comprising:

receiving data representing content of a voicemail;

examining the content to determine whether the voicemail is message-less;

presenting an indicator that the voicemail is message-less in response to determining that the voicemail is message-less.

2. The medium as in claim 1 wherein the presenting comprises at least one of displaying the indicator on a display device or generating an audible message.

3. The medium as in claim 2 wherein the method further comprises:

presenting a list of voicemails without showing, in the list, a length of each of the voicemails in the list;

receiving a selection of one of the voicemails in the list and in response to the selection, displaying a length of the voicemail selected by the selection, and wherein the indicator, if the selected voicemail is message-less, is displayed in the list before receiving the selection.

4. The medium as in claim 2 wherein the examining comprises determining whether the content includes a non-periodic variation of at least one of pitch and amplitude of the content.

5. The medium as in claim 2 wherein the examining comprises determining a zero-crossing count and determining a rate of zero-crossings over a period of time.

6. The medium as in claim 4 wherein the method further comprises:

storing at least one parameter associated with content of at least one voicemail from a particular phone number, the at least one parameter for use in examining the content of a new voicemail from the particular phone number.

7. A machine implemented method comprising:

receiving data representing content of a voicemail;

examining the content to determine whether the voicemail is message-less;

presenting an indicator that the voicemail is message-less in response to determining that the voicemail is message-less.

8. The method as in claim 7 wherein the presenting comprises at least one of displaying the indicator on a display device or generating an audible message.

9. The method as in claim 8 wherein the method further comprises:

presenting a list of voicemails without showing, in the list, a length of each of the voicemails in the list;

receiving a selection of one of the voicemails in the list and in response to the selection, displaying a length of the voicemail selected by the selection, and wherein the indicator, if the selected voicemail is message-less, is displayed in the list before receiving the selection.

10. The method as in claim 8 wherein the examining comprises determining whether the content includes a non-periodic variation of at least one of pitch and amplitude of the content.

11. The method as in claim 8 wherein the examining comprises determining a zero-crossing count and determining a rate of zero-crossings over a period of time.

12. The method as in claim 10 wherein the method further comprises:

storing at least one parameter associated with content of at least one voicemail from a particular phone number, the at least one parameter for use in examining the content of a new voicemail from the particular phone number.

13. A data processing system comprising:

a processing system;

a memory coupled to the processing system;

a network interface coupled to the processing system, the network interface configured to receive voicemails and wherein the memory is configured to store data representing content of a voicemail and wherein the processing system is configured to examine the content of the voicemail to determine whether the voicemail is message-less and wherein the processing system is configured to present an indicator that the voicemail is message-less in response to determining that the voicemail is message-less.

14. The data processing system as in claim 13 wherein the data processing system is a wireless cellular telephone that comprises a display device and wherein the indicator is presented to a user by displaying an icon, indicating that the voicemail is message-less on the display device.

15. The data processing system as in claim 14 wherein the network interface comprises a wireless transceiver and wherein the processing system is configured to examine the content by determining whether the content includes a non-periodic variation in at least one of pitch and amplitude.

16. The data processing system as in claim 14 wherein the processing system is configured to determine a zero-crossing count and the processing system is configured to determine a rate of zero-crossings over a period of time.

17. A machine readable non-transitory storage medium storing executable program instructions which when executed by a data processing system cause the system to perform a method comprising:

receiving data representing content of a voicemail;

examining the content to determine whether the voicemail is message-less;

transmitting data to enable an indicator to be presented on a client device, the indicator indicating that the voicemail is message-less in response to determining that the voicemail is message-less.

18. The medium as in claim 17, wherein the examining comprises determining whether the content includes a non-periodic variation of at least one of pitch and amplitude of the content.

19. The medium as in claim 17 wherein the examining comprises determining a zero-crossing count and determining a rate of zero-crossings over a period of time.

20. The medium as in claim 17 wherein the method further comprises:

storing at least one value associated with audio content of at least one voicemail from a particular phone number, the at least one value used in examining the content of a new voicemail from the particular phone number.

21. A machine implemented method comprising:

receiving data representing content of a voicemail;

determining whether a length of the content is less than a period of time;

displaying an indicator that the voicemail has either no content or is very short if, in response to the determining, the content is less that the period of time.

22. The method as in claim 21 further comprising:

presenting a list of voicemails without showing, in the list, a length of each of the voicemails in the list, wherein the indicator is displayed in the list.

23. The method as in claim 21 further comprising:

displaying a junk voicemail indicator.

24. The method as in claim 23 wherein the junk voicemail indicator is displayed in response to comparing data about the phone number of a voicemail to a list.