Structured voicemail messages

• US 6,459,774 B1
• Filed: 05/25/1999
• Issued: 10/01/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 05/25/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Nokia of America Corporation (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Lucent Technologies, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Ball, Thomas J., Benedikt, Michael Abraham, Mataga, Peter Andrew, Rehor, Kenneth G., Tuckey, Curtis Duane, Puchol, Carlos Miguel
• Primary Examiner(s): Hoosain, Allan
• Application Number:
  US09/318,441
• Time in Patent Office: 1,225 Days
• Field of Search: 379/67.1, 379/68, 379/88.13, 379/88.17, 379/88.18, 379/93.01, 379/102.03, 379/900, 379/908, 379/88.22, 379/88.25, 379/88.27
• US Class Current: 379/67.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/60 Medium conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/493 Interactive information services, e.g. directory enquiries ; Arrangements therefor, e.g. interactive voice response [IVR] systems or voice portals
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/533 Voice mail systems
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 379/908 Multimedia

Abstract

A sender (101) creates a voicemail message that includes a plurality of messaging elements that include embedded instructions that define a structure of the message. Other messaging elements may include textual fragments, audio fragments that refer to audio data files that are associated with the message, and/or references to textual fragments and/or audio fragments that are stored at specified locations. The instructions may define a hierarchical menu structure which, when the message is presented to the recipient (106) by a messaging system (104), offers the recipient different navigational choices from which the recipient may select and thus effect the information content of what is presented. The structured message is sent by the sender to the recipient at an address on a messaging system that stores the message and is capable of interpreting and assembling the messaging elements in accordance with the embedded instruction and playing-out the message to the recipient when the recipient accesses the system and retrieves the message from storage. The structured message may also include links to a specific destination, to which the messaging system establishes a connection if the link is selected by the recipient during play-out of the message. Further, the messaging system can gather information from the recipient during play-out and forward that information to a specified destination, which may respond with another structured message. In the described embodiment, a phone markup language is used to define the structure and the inherent embedded instructions associated with the structure of the message.

Claims

1. An electronic message comprising:

a plurality of messaging elements, at least some of the messaging elements being content-related that are each associated with a portion of the content of the message and at least one of the messaging elements comprising instructions that define a structure of the message from which at least some of the content-related messaging elements can be sequentially combined for presentation to a recipient as a unified message; and

an address of the recipient of the message on a messaging system that stores the message and is capable of interpreting the instructions, assembling and combining at least some of the content-related messaging elements in accordance with the instructions, and sequentially presenting the assembled and combined content-related messaging elements to the recipient as a unified message when the recipient retrieves the message from storage.

2. The electronic message of claim 1 wherein the message is a voicemail message.

3. The electronic message of claim 1 wherein the message is a multimedia message.

4. The electronic message of claim 2 wherein the content-related messaging elements comprise at least one from a group including:

textual fragments, speech fragments, and references to speech and/or textual fragments stored at specified locations.

5. The electronic message of claim 4 wherein the speech fragments comprise references to audio data files associated with the message.

6. The electronic message of claim 4 wherein the instructions are embedded in the message using a phone markup language.

7. The electronic message of claim 1 wherein the instructions define a hierarchical menu structure which, when the message is retrieved by the recipient and at least some of the content-related messaging elements are assembled and combined by the messaging system and sequentially presented to the recipient, offers a plurality of navigational choices within the message to the recipient, at least one previously non-presented content-related messaging element next presented to the recipient being determined by a selection by the recipient of at least one of the navigational choices.

8. The electronic message of claim 1 wherein a link to a destination is associated with at least one of the content-related messaging elements presented to the recipient.

9. The electronic message of claim 8 wherein the link defines an address for establishing a telephony connection.

10. The electronic message of claim 9 wherein the address for establishing the telephony connection is a telephone number on the PSTN.

11. The electronic message of claim 9 wherein the address for establishing the telephony connection is an IP telephony address.

12. The electronic message of claim 8 wherein the link defines an address for delivering a message.

13. The electronic message of claim 12 wherein the address for delivering a message is an email address.

14. The electronic message of claim 12 wherein the address for delivering a message is a Web address.

15. The electronic message of claim 8 wherein the link defines an address for retrieving a second electronic message.

16. The electronic message of claim 15 wherein the second electronic message comprises a plurality of its own messaging elements, at least some of the messaging elements in the second message being content-related that are each associated with a portion of the content of the second message, and at least one of the messaging elements in the second message comprising instructions that define a structure of the second message from which at least some of the content-related messaging elements in the second message can be sequentially combined for presentation to the recipient as a unified message.

17. The electronic message of claim 1 wherein the instructions define a message structure which, when the message is retrieved and at least some of the content-related messaging elements are assembled and combined and sequentially presented to the recipient, input of information from the recipient is requested and collected by the messaging system and sent to a destination indicated in the message.

18. The electronic message of claim 17 wherein the information from the recipient includes recipient'"'"'s keypad entries.

19. The electronic message of claim 17 wherein the information from the recipient includes recipient'"'"'s audio input.

20. An electronic message comprising:

a plurality of message fragments, each associated with at least a portion of the content of the message;

a plurality of instructions embedded within the message that together define a structure of the message, said instructions including information indicating how at least some of the message fragments are to be sequentially combined for presentation to a recipient as a unified message; and

an address of the recipient on a messaging system that stores the message and is capable of interpreting the instructions, assembling and combining at least some of the message fragments in accordance with the instructions, and sequentially presenting the assembled and combined message fragments to the recipient as a unified message when the recipient retrieves the message from storage.

21. The electronic message of claim 20 wherein the message is a voicemail message.

22. The electronic message of claim 21 wherein the message fragments comprise at least one from a group including:

textual fragments, speech fragments, and references to speech and/or textual fragments stored at specified locations.

23. The electronic message of claim 22 wherein the speech fragments comprise references to audio data files.

24. The electronic message of claim 22 wherein the instructions are embedded in the message using a phone markup language.

25. The electronic message of claim 20 wherein the message is a multimedia message.

26. The electronic message of claim 20 wherein the instructions define a hierarchical menu structure which, when the message is retrieved by the recipient and at least some of the message fragments are assembled and combined by the messaging system and sequentially presented to the recipient, offers a plurality of navigational choices within the stored message to the recipient, at least one previously non-presented message fragment next presented to the recipient being determined by a selection by the recipient of at least one of the navigational choices.

27. The electronic message of claim 20 wherein a link to a destination is associated with at least one of the message fragments presented to the recipient.

28. The electronic message of claim 27 wherein the link defines an address for messaging.

29. The electronic message of claim 28 wherein the address for messaging is an email address.

30. The electronic message of claim 28 wherein the address for messaging is a Web address.

31. The electronic message of claim 27 wherein the link defines an address for a telephony connection.

32. The electronic message of claim 31 wherein the address for the telephony connection is a telephone number on the PSTN.

33. The electronic message of claim 31 wherein the address for the telephony connection is an IP telephony address.

34. The electronic message of claim 27 wherein the link defines an address for retrieving a second electronic message.

35. The electronic message of claim 34, wherein the second electronic message comprises a plurality of its own message fragments, each associated with at least a portion of the content of the second message;

and a plurality of instructions embedded within the second message that together define a structure of the second message, said instructions for the second message including information indicating how at least some of the message fragments in the second message are to be sequentially combined for presentation to the recipient as a unified message.

36. The electronic message of claim 20 wherein the instructions define a structure which, when the message is retrieved and at least some of the message fragments are combined and sequentially presented to the recipient, input of information from the recipient is requested and collected by the messaging system and sent to a destination indicated in the message.

37. The electronic message of claim 36 wherein the information from the recipient includes recipient'"'"'s keypad entries.

38. The electronic message of claim 36 wherein the information from the recipient includes recipient'"'"'s audio input.