Wireless server based text to speech email

• US 8,744,857 B2
• Filed: 11/15/2012
• Issued: 06/03/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/05/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Burns, Stephen S., Kowitz, Mickey W.
• Primary Examiner(s): AZAD, ABUL K
• Application Number:
  US13/677,404
• Publication Number:
  US 20130073288A1
• Time in Patent Office: 565 Days
• Field of Search: 704/260, 704/270.1
• US Class Current: 704/270.1
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/08 Text analysis or generation of parameters for speech synthesis out of text, e.g. grapheme to phoneme translation, prosody generation or stress or intonation determination
• 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: 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

Abstract

An email system for mobile devices, such as cellular phones and PDAs, is disclosed which allows email messages to be played back on the mobile device as voice messages on demand by way of a media player, thus eliminating the need for a unified messaging system. Email messages are received by the mobile device in a known manner. In accordance with an important aspect of the invention, the email messages are identified by the mobile device as they are received. After the message is identified, the mobile device sends the email message in text format to a server for conversion to speech or voice format. After the message is converted to speech format, the server sends the messages back to the user'"'"'s mobile device and notifies the user of the email message and then plays the message back to the user through a media player upon demand.

Claims

1. An email system, comprising:

a server communicably connectable to a mobile device over a wireless link, the server being operative;

to receive an email directed to the mobile device, the email having a message body and header information, the message body including text suitable for audio conversion;

to forward the email to the mobile device, wherein the mobile device executes a listening application for identifying the email, retrieves the message body and the header information from the email, retrieves a device specific identifier indicative of the mobile device, and sends the message body, the header information, and the device specific identifier to the server;

to perform a text-to-speech conversion on the text in the email to generate audio data corresponding to the message body;

to load the audio data into an audio file, the audio file having an audio file format recognizable by the mobile device; and

to store the audio file in a storage medium for subsequent retrieval by the mobile device.

2. The email system of claim 1 wherein the server is further operative to transmit a notification to the mobile device indicating that the audio file is available for retrieval.

3. The email system of claim 1 wherein the server is further operative to transmit the audio file to the mobile device.

4. The email system of claim 1 wherein the server is further operative to receive a request from a client application running on the mobile device, and to convert the received information from the text format to the audio file of recorded speech.

5. The email system of claim 4 wherein the server is further operative to run a data listener application, and to receive, from the client application using the data listener application, the information in text format pertaining to the email message.

6. The email system of claim 1 wherein the server includes a context engine, and wherein the server is further operative, using the context engine, to normalize the information in text format pertaining to the email message.

7. The email system of claim 6 wherein the server is further operative, using the context engine, to remove one or more of email address text and previous reply text from the audio file.

8. The email system of claim 6 wherein the server is further operative, using the context engine, to filter the information in text format pertaining to the email message before converting the information from the text format to the audio file of recorded speech.

9. The email system of claim 6 wherein the server is further operative, using the context engine, to convert the normalized information from a first natural language to a second natural language.

10. The email system of claim 9 wherein the server is further operative to convert, using the text-to-speech engine, the normalized information in the second natural language to the audio file of recorded speech.

11. The email system of claim 1 wherein the server is further operative to convert, using the text-to-speech engine, the received information from the text format to an audio file of recorded speech in accordance with a predetermined selection of gender of voice.

12. The email system of claim 11 wherein the server is further operative to receive the predetermined selection of gender of voice from the mobile device.

13. A method of operating an email system, the email system including a mobile device communicably connectable to a server, comprising the steps of:

receiving, at the server, and email directed to the mobile device, the email having a message body and header information, the message body including text suitable for audio conversion;

forwarding, by the server, the email to the mobile device, wherein the mobile device executes a listening application for identifying the email, retrieves the message body and the header information from the email, retrieves a device specific identifier indicative of the mobile device, and sends the message body, the header information, and the device specific identifier to the server;

performing, by the server, a text-to-speech conversion of the text in the email to generate audio data corresponding to the message body;

loading, by the server, the audio data into an audio file, the audio file having an audio file format recognizable by the mobile device; and

storing, by the server, the audio file in a storage medium for subsequent retrieval by the mobile device.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

transmitting, by the server, a notification to the mobile device that the audio file is available for retrieval.

15. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

transmitting, by the server, the audio file to the mobile device.