Instant messaging via telephone interfaces
First Claim
1. A system for supporting access to an instant messaging service from a telephone over a network, the network supporting the instant messaging service, the system comprising:
- a telephone interface, the telephone interface supporting transmission and receipt of audio from a telephone;
a computer system, the computer system coupled in communication with the telephone interface and the network, the computer system including;
a first program code for searching an availability list for a user requested by a telephone user, the availability list including users currently accessing the instant messaging service;
a second program code for verbally indicating to the telephone user whether a requested user is available;
a third program code for generating a first instant message from the telephone user to an available requested user;
a fourth program code for presenting content over the telephone interface to the telephone user;
a fifth program code for receiving a second instant message from a user over the network, wherein the user is one of the available requested user and another user on the availability list, and notifying the telephone user with an audio signal over the telephone interface of receipt of the second instant message during the presenting content; and
a sixth program code for allowing the telephone user to respond to the second instant message over the telephone interface to the instant messaging service via the network.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus for enabling users of a phone based speech activated system such as a voice portal to communicate with users of an Internet based instant messenger (IM) service is described. Phone based users are able to send and receive IMs. Incoming messages can cause an asynchronous notification in the user'"'"'s current voice application and the user can (if they desire) switch contexts to hear the IM and respond. Sent messages may be expeditiously sent to users of the GUI as a hypertext link to a recorded audio. Other sending formats are also possible; similarly, buddy lists can be supported.
-
Citations
7 Claims
-
1. A system for supporting access to an instant messaging service from a telephone over a network, the network supporting the instant messaging service, the system comprising:
-
a telephone interface, the telephone interface supporting transmission and receipt of audio from a telephone;
a computer system, the computer system coupled in communication with the telephone interface and the network, the computer system including;
a first program code for searching an availability list for a user requested by a telephone user, the availability list including users currently accessing the instant messaging service;
a second program code for verbally indicating to the telephone user whether a requested user is available;
a third program code for generating a first instant message from the telephone user to an available requested user;
a fourth program code for presenting content over the telephone interface to the telephone user;
a fifth program code for receiving a second instant message from a user over the network, wherein the user is one of the available requested user and another user on the availability list, and notifying the telephone user with an audio signal over the telephone interface of receipt of the second instant message during the presenting content; and
a sixth program code for allowing the telephone user to respond to the second instant message over the telephone interface to the instant messaging service via the network. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 5)
-
-
4. A system for supporting access to an instant messaging service from a telephone over a network, the network supporting the instant messaging service, the system comprising:
-
a telephone interface, the telephone interface supporting transmission and receipt of audio from a telephone;
a computer system, the computer system coupled in communication with the telephone interface and the network, the computer system including;
a first program code for presenting content over the telephone interface to a telephone user;
a second program code for receiving an instant message from a sender over the network and notifying the telephone user with an audio signal over the telephone interface of receipt of the instant message during the presenting content;
a third program code for allowing the telephone user to respond to the instant message from the sender over the telephone interface to the instant messaging service via the network; and
a fourth program code for presenting the instant message as audio over the telephone interface in response to an audio signal received over the telephone interface, and further supporting receipt of a second audio signal over the telephone interface and translation of the second audio signal into a format suitable for transmission to the sender over the network using the instant messaging service, wherein the format comprises text including a uniform resource locator (URL), the URL identifying a location where the second audio signal can be retrieved.
-
-
6. A method of sending an instant message to an instant messaging service using a telephone interface, a computer system and a packet switched network, the method comprising:
-
receiving the instant message as an audio signal over the telephone interface on the computer system;
converting the instant message into a first format selected from the set of formats supported by the instant messenger service; and
sending the instant message in the first format from the computer system to an instant messaging server over the packet switched network, wherein the first format includes a textual representation of the instant message generated from applying one or more speech recognition programs to the audio signal, further wherein the first format includes a uniform resource locator (URL), the URL corresponding to a location where the audio signal can be retrieved. - View Dependent Claims (7)
a second instant message from the requested user to the telephone caller, the second instant message including a textual message; and
playing back the textual message to the telephone caller as an audio signal over the telephone interface using a text-to-speech process on the computer system.
-
Specification