Recorded voice message summary

• US 6,449,342 B1
• Filed: 05/05/1999
• Issued: 09/10/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 05/05/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Agere Systems Guardian Corp. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Johanson, James A.
• Primary Examiner(s): WEAVER, SCOTT LOUIS
• Application Number:
  US09/305,207
• Time in Patent Office: 1,224 Days
• Field of Search: 379/67.1, 379/88.11, 379/88.12, 379/88.13, 379/88.14, 379/88.19, 379/88.2, 379/88.22, 379/88.23
• US Class Current: 379/88.11
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/57 Arrangements for indicating or recording the number of the calling subscriber at the called subscriber's set at the operator set in a manual exchange H04M5/20
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/6505 storing speech in digital form
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/652 Means for playing back the recorded messages by remote control over a telephone line H04M1/658 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/60 Medium conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/53366 Message disposing or creating aspects

Abstract

Apparatus and method to record a verbal or textual summary for a particular voice message in a voice message system such as a telephone answering device. A message summary memory allows storage of either verbal or textual voice message summaries recorded by the calling party and/or by the user. The voice message summaries are retrievable by the user for playback or display before or during playback of the voice message.

Claims

1. A voice messaging system, comprising:

a controller;

a voice message memory;

a message summary memory adapted to store a summary of a voice message stored in said voice message memory;

a control activatable by a user to save a summary message into said message summary memory.

2. The voice messaging system according to claim 1, wherein:

said message summary module directs storage of a summary message regarding a voice message stored in said voice message memory into said message summary memory.

3. The voice messaging system according to claim 1, wherein:

said summary message is retrievable by a user of said voice messaging system.

4. The voice messaging system according to claim 1, wherein:

said summary message is stored in said message summary memory in a verbal format.

5. The voice messaging system according to claim 1, wherein:

said message summary is tagged to an associated recorded voice message.

6. A voice messaging system, comprising:

a controller;

a voice message memory;

a message summary memory adapted to store a summary of a voice message stored in said voice message memory; and

a voice-to-text module adapted to convert a verbal message summary into textual information.

7. The voice message system according to claim 6, wherein:

said summary message is stored in said message summary memory in a textual format.

8. The voice messaging system according to claim 6, further comprising:

a display adapted to display said textual information.

9. The voice messaging system according to claim 6, wherein:

said textual information includes a summary of content of an underlying recorded voice message.

10. The voice messaging system according to claim 9, further comprising:

a call related information detector/receiver to detect and receive at least one of a telephone number and a name of a calling party.

11. A method for recording a summary relating to content of an associated voice message recorded on a voice messaging system, comprising:

recording a voice message;

recording a message summary corresponding to content of said voice message; and

associating said message summary with said voice message.

12. The method for recording a summary relating to content of an associated voice message recorded on a voice messaging system according to claim 11, further comprising:

prompting a caller to record said message summary.

13. The method for recording a summary relating to content of an associated voice message recorded on a voice messaging system according to claim 11, further comprising:

converting said message summary into a textual message summary.

14. The method for recording a summary relating to content of an associated voice message recorded on a voice messaging system according to claim 13, further comprising:

displaying said textual message summary on a display.

15. The method for recording a summary relating to content of an associated voice message recorded on a voice messaging system according to claim 11, further comprising:

storing said message summary in a message summary memory.

16. The method for recording a summary relating to content of an associated voice message recorded on a voice messaging system according to claim 11, wherein:

said message summary is a verbal message summary.

17. The method for recording a summary relating to content of an associated voice message recorded on a voice messaging system according to claim 11, further comprising:

retrieving said message summary separate from said voice message.

18. The method for recording a summary relating to content of an associated voice message recorded on a voice messaging system according to claim 11, further comprising:

retrieving said message summary in association with at least one other message summary.

19. The method for recording a summary relating to content of an associated voice message recorded on a voice messaging system according to claim 11, further comprising:

retrieving said message summary prior to retrieving said voice message.

20. The method for recording a summary relating to content of an associated voice message recorded on a voice messaging system according to claim 11, further comprising:

viewing said message summary on a display.

21. Apparatus for providing a message summary to a voice message, comprising:

means for retrieving a recorded message summary including content corresponding to a recorded voice message; and

means for subsequently and separately retrieving said recorded voice message.

22. Apparatus for recording a summary relating to content of an associated voice message recorded on a voice messaging system, comprising:

means for recording a voice message;

means for recording a message summary corresponding to content of said voice message;

means for associating said message summary with said voice message; and

means for prompting a caller to record said message summary.