Method and apparatus to process an incoming message

• US 8,503,624 B2
• Filed: 09/28/2005
• Issued: 08/06/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Shaffer, Shmuel, Gatzke, Alan D., Patel, Labhesh, Jain, Mukul
• Primary Examiner(s): Phan, Joseph T
• Application Number:
  US11/237,081
• Publication Number:
  US 20070081636A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,869 Days
• Field of Search: 379/88.01, 379/88.08, 379/88.13
• US Class Current: 379/88.22
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72436 for text messaging, e.g. short messaging services [SMS] or e-mails
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/18 Comparators
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/301 Management of recordings
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/4536 Voicemail combined with text-based messaging
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/74 with voice recognition means voice activated dialling H04M1/271; voice recognition algorithms G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4211 where the identifier is used to access a profile
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/53333 Message receiving aspects
• 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

A method and apparatus to process an incoming message is described. The method may comprise, at a recipient system, receiving an incoming message from a message communicator and automatically analyzing message content to identify a keyword included in the message content. Thereafter, a predefined action associated with the keyword may be identified and the action may be performed. In an example embodiment, the predefined action may be a priority with the message, alerting an intended recipient of the message, routing the message to the intended recipient, paging the intended recipient, emailing the message to the intended recipient, sending an SMS message to the intended recipient, or the like. In an example embodiment, a user/owner of a mailbox may search a message database to identify incoming messages which includes the search term in the message content.

Claims

1. A method of processing an incoming voice message, the method comprising:

at a recipient system,

receiving an incoming voice message from a message communicator;

using a processor to automatically analyze message content of the incoming voice message to identity at least one keyword included in the message content, the message content analysis being performed while a caller is connected with the message communicator;

identifying a predefined action associated with the at least one keyword, the predefined action including associating a priority with the incoming voice message; and

performing the predefined action when the at least one keyword is identified in the message content, the predefined action including a search action wherein the message content includes a spoken search term used to obtain an equivalent textual search term which is used to search a database of stored incoming voice messages for the textual equivalent search term to identify any stored incoming voice messages including the spoken search term.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the predefined action is selected from the group consisting of alerting an intended recipient of the incoming voice message, routing the incoming voice message to the intended recipient, paging the intended recipient, entailing the incoming voice message to the intended recipient, and sending an SMS message to the intended recipient.

3. The method of claim 1, in which analyzing the message content comprises:

performing speech recognition on the message content to obtain text message content; and

parsing the text message content to identify the at least one keyword.

4. The method of claim 1, in which analyzing the message content includes identifying in an audio domain if at least one keyword is included within the message content.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the predefined action comprises investigating a keyword database including a plurality of keywords and at least one predefined action associated with each keyword.

6. The method of claim 1, which comprises:

identifying a spoken language associated with the incoming voice message;

identifying a keyword list associated with the identified spoken language; and

identifying the predefined action associated with a keyword provided in the keyword list.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the incoming voice message is a telephone call and the spoken language is identified from caller identification data that accompanies the message content, the caller identification data and the message content being included within a message communication envelope.

8. The method of claim 7, which comprises:

identifying the keyword list from the caller identification data; and

identifying the predefined action associated with a keyword provided in the keyword list.

9. The method of claim 1, which comprises allowing a recipient user of the recipient system to define the at least one keyword and its associated predefined action.

10. The method of claim 9, in which allowing the recipient user of the recipient system to define the at least one keyword and its associated predefined action comprises:

presenting a keyword user interface to the recipient user;

receiving a new keyword from the recipient user via the recipient user interface;

receiving a new action associated with the new keyword; and

storing the new keyword and the new action as the at least one keyword and the predefined action in a profile associated with the recipient user.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the user interface is at least one of an email interface and a voice interface.

12. A non-transitory machine-readable medium embodying instructions which, when executed by a machine, causes the machine to perform the method of claim 1.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein incoming voice messages are stored in a message database, the method comprising:

receiving a search query from a user including a search term;

using a processor to search the message database to identify at least one incoming voice message which includes the search term in the message content; and

presenting the at least one message to the user.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the search term includes at least one keyword.

15. The method of claim 13, in which receiving the search query comprises:

receiving a voice query including a plurality of spoken search terms;

performing speech recognition on the spoken search terms to obtain equivalent textual search terms; and

searching the database of incoming voice messages with the textual equivalent search terms to identify any incoming voice messages including the spoken search terms.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein analyzing the message content includes identifying in an audio domain if at least one keyword is included within the message content.

17. The method of claim 13, in which receiving the search query comprises:

receiving a textual query including a textual al search term; and

searching the database of incoming voice messages with the textual search term to identify any incoming voice messages including the textual search term.

18. Apparatus to process an incoming voice message, the apparatus comprising:

a communication interface to receive the incoming voice message; and

a processing module to;

automatically analyze message content of the incoming voice message to identify at least one keyword included in the message content, the message content analysis being performed while a caller is connected with the communication interface;

identify a predefined action associated with the at least one keyword, the predefined action including associating a priority with the incoming voice message; and

perform the predefined action when the at least one keyword is identified in the message content, the predefined action including a search action wherein the message content includes a spoken search term used to obtain an equivalent textual search term which is used to search a database of stored incoming voice messages for the textual equivalent search term to identify any stored incoming voice messages including the spoken search term.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the predefined action is selected from the group consisting of alerting an intended recipient of the incoming voice message, routing the incoming voice message to the intended recipient, paging the intended recipient, emailing the incoming voice message to the intended recipient, and sending an SMS message to the intended recipient.

20. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the content is analyzed by performing speech recognition on the incoming voice message to obtain an equivalent text message and parsing the text message to identify the at least one keyword.

21. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein analyzing the message content includes identifying in an audio domain if at least one keyword is included within the message content.

22. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein identifying the predefined action comprises investigating a keyword database including a plurality of keywords and at least one predefined action associated with each keyword.

23. The apparatus of claim 18, which comprises a search module to:

receive a search query from a user including a search term; and

search incoming voice messages to identify at least one incoming voice message which includes the search term in the message content, the at least one message being presented to the user.

24. Apparatus to process an incoming message, the apparatus comprising:

means for receiving an incoming message from a message communicator;

means for automatically analyzing message content of the message to identify at least one keyword included in the message content, the message content analysis being performed while a caller is connected with the message communicator;

means for identifying a predefined action associated with the at least one keyword, the predefined action including associating a priority with the incoming voice message; and

means for performing the predefined action when the at least one keyword is identified in the message, the predefined action including a search action wherein the message content includes a spoken search term used to obtain an equivalent textual search term which is used to search a database of stored incoming voice messages for the textual equivalent search term to identify any stored incoming voice messages including the spoken search term.