Method of providing voicemails to a wireless information device

• US 8,509,825 B2
• Filed: 11/21/2008
• Issued: 08/13/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/22/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Doulton, Daniel Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Appiah, Charles
• Assistant Examiner(s): NGUYEN, KHAI MINH
• Application Number:
  US12/275,235
• Publication Number:
  US 20090170478A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,726 Days
• Field of Search: 455/413, 455/412.1, 455/403, 379/67.1, 379/71, 379/88.22, 379/88.25
• US Class Current: 455/466
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/066 Format adaptation, e.g. format conversion or compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/7243 with interactive means for internal management of messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72436 for text messaging, e.g. short messaging services [SMS] or e-mails
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/60 Medium conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/253 where a visual mode is used instead of a voice mode
• 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 3/42204 Arrangements at the exchange for service or number selection by voice at the terminal H04M1/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4228 in networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/53 Centralised arrangements for recording incoming messages , i.e. mailbox systems
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/16 Communication-related supplementary services, e.g. call-transfer or call-hold
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup

Abstract

Voicemail is received at a voicemail server and converted to an audio file format; it is then sent or streamed over a wide area network to a voice to text transcription system comprising a network of computers. One of the networked computers plays back the voice message to an operator and the operator intelligently transcribes the actual message from the original voice message by entering the corresponding text message (actually a succinct version of the original voice message, not a verbose word-for-word conversion) into the computer to generate a transcribed text message. The transcribed text message is then sent to the wireless information device from the computer. Because human operators are used instead of machine transcription, voicemails are converted accurately, intelligently, appropriately and succinctly into text messages (SMS/MMS).

Claims

1. A method of providing a voicemail message to a device comprising the steps of:

storing a plurality of voicemail messages on a voicemail server;

generating an i/d;

associating the i/d to at least one of the plurality of stored voicemail messages;

embedding the i/d in a text message;

storing the text message;

sending the text message to a device that plays voicemail messages;

synchronizing a status of the at least one of the plurality stored voicemail message associated with the i/d and the stored text message containing the i/d upon the delivery of the text message containing the i/d to the device;

retrieving the voicemail message associated with the i/d; and

sending the voicemail message to the device.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the text message is a SMS message.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the SMS message is stored on a SMS server.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the SMS server and the voicemail server synchronize the SMS message with the embedded i/d and at least one voicemail message associated with the i/d as being sent when the SMS message is sent to the device that plays voicemail messages.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein the email message is stored on an email server.

6. The method of claim 3 wherein the email server and the voicemail server synchronize the email message with the embedded i/d and at least one voicemail message associated with the i/d as being sent when the email message is sent to the device that plays voicemail messages.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the text message is an email message.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the text message is a MMS message.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the i/d is derived from the time and date of the creation of the audio file.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the i/d is derived from a value representing the device that originated the voicemail message.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the value is a telephone number.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the i/d is derived from a value representing the device that is able to play the voicemail message.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the value is a telephone number.

14. A device for transmitting text messages and voice messages comprising:

a storage device capable of storing a plurality of voicemail messages; and

at least one processor coupled to the storage device, the at least one processor configured to;

associating an i/d to at least one of the plurality of stored voicemail messages;

including the i/d in a text message;

storing the text message;

sending the text message to a remote device;

synchronizing a status of the at least one of the plurality stored voicemail message associated with the i/d and the stored text message containing the i/d upon the delivery of the text message containing the i/d to the remote device;

receiving the i/d from the remote device;

retrieving the voicemail message associated with the i/d; and

sending the voicemail message to the remote device.

15. The device of claim 14 wherein the text message is a transcript of the identified stored voicemail message.

16. The device of claim 14 wherein the text message is a summarized transcript of the identified stored voicemail message.

17. The device of claim 14 wherein the summarized transcript is less than 160 characters in length.

18. The device of claim 14 wherein the text message is a SMS message.

19. The device of claim 14 wherein the text message is a SMS message.

20. The device of claim 14 wherein the text message is an e-mail message.