Personal media storage and retrieval for visual voice mail

• US 9,119,041 B2
• Filed: 11/15/2010
• Issued: 08/25/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Shaw, Venson M., Rahsaz, Gholam-Reza
• Primary Examiner(s): Hua, Quan M
• Application Number:
  US12/946,454
• Publication Number:
  US 20120122427A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,744 Days
• Field of Search: 455/412.2, 455/413, 455/414.1, 455/466
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/6505 storing speech in digital form
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/724 User interfaces specially adapted for cordless or mobile telephones
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/253 where a visual mode is used instead of a voice mode
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5307 for recording messages comprising any combination of audio and non-audio components
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements

Abstract

A personal media storage system within a visual voicemail system may be implemented. A visual voicemail server may receive and store multimedia content on a personal media storage system and associate such content with a voicemail. A visual voicemail server may obtain such content if provided with location data for the content rather than the actual content. A visual voicemail client on a wireless device may transmit a request for content to the visual voicemail server, which may retrieve the content and send to the visual voicemail client using the communications link between the visual voicemail client and the visual voicemail server. The visual voicemail client may render the content within the client.

Claims

1. A visual voicemail system comprising:

a memory comprising executable instructions; and

a processor coupled to the memory that, when executing the instructions, effectuates operations comprising;

receiving multimedia content location data for indirectly provided multimedia content associated with a visual voicemail message;

determining a user preference has been set for obtaining, without additional input from the user, indirectly provided multimedia content associated with visual voicemail messages;

responsive to determining the user preference for obtaining, without additional input from the user, indirectly provided multimedia content associated with visual voicemail messages has been set, automatically obtaining the indirectly provided multimedia content associated with the visual voicemail message from a remote device based on the multimedia content location data;

transmitting the indirectly provided multimedia content associated with the visual voicemail message to a personal media storage system;

receiving a request for the indirectly provided multimedia content associated with the visual voicemail message from a visual voicemail client on a recipient device;

retrieving the indirectly provided multimedia content associated with the visual voicemail message from the personal media storage system; and

transmitting the indirectly provided multimedia content associated with the visual voicemail message to the visual voicemail client on the recipient device.

2. The visual voicemail system of claim 1, wherein the request for the multimedia content associated with the visual voicemail message is generated by a selection of an indicator of the multimedia content associated with the visual voicemail message presented in the visual voicemail client on the recipient device.

3. The visual voicemail system of claim 1, wherein the operation of transmitting the multimedia content associated with the visual voicemail message to the visual voicemail client on the recipient device comprises transmitting a portion of the multimedia content associated with the visual voicemail message to the visual voicemail client on the recipient device.

4. The visual voicemail system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

receive a second request for second multimedia content associated with the visual voicemail message from a visual voicemail client on a recipient device;

retrieve second multimedia content location data from the personal media storage system; and

obtain the second multimedia content associated with the visual voicemail message from a remote device based on the second multimedia content location data.

5. The visual voicemail system of claim 1, wherein the operation of transmitting the multimedia content associated with the visual voicemail message to the personal media storage system comprises transmitting an instruction to the personal media storage system to associate the multimedia content associated with the visual voicemail message with the visual voicemail message.

6. The visual voicemail system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise transmitting a notification of the visual voicemail message to the visual voicemail client on the recipient device.

7. The visual voicemail system of claim 1, wherein the multimedia content comprises at least one of audio content, text content, or video content.

8. The visual voicemail system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving a request from the recipient device to transmit the multimedia content associated with the visual voicemail message to a second device;

retrieving the multimedia content associated with the visual voicemail message from the personal media storage system; and

transmitting the multimedia content associated with the visual voicemail message to the second device.

9. A method comprising:

receiving multimedia content location data for indirectly provided multimedia content associated with a visual voicemail message at a visual voicemail server communicatively connected to a personal media storage system;

determining a user preference has been set for proactively obtaining, without additional input from the user, indirectly provided multimedia content associated with visual voicemail messages;

responsive to determining the user preference for proactively obtaining, without additional input from the user, indirectly provided multimedia content associated with visual voicemail messages has been set, automatically obtaining the indirectly provided multimedia content associated with the visual voicemail message from a remote device based on the multimedia content location data;

storing the indirectly provided multimedia content associated with the visual voicemail message at the personal media storage system;

receiving a request for the indirectly provided multimedia content associated with the visual voicemail message from a visual voicemail client on a recipient device;

retrieving the indirectly provided multimedia content associated with the visual voicemail message from the personal media storage system; and

transmitting the indirectly provided multimedia content associated with the visual voicemail message to the visual voicemail client on the recipient device.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the request for the multimedia content associated with the visual voicemail message is generated by a selection of an indicator of the multimedia content associated with the visual voicemail message presented in the visual voicemail client on the recipient device.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein transmitting the multimedia content associated with the visual voicemail message to the visual voicemail client on the recipient device comprises transmitting a portion of the multimedia content associated with the visual voicemail message to the visual voicemail client on the recipient device.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving a second request for second multimedia content associated with the visual voicemail message from a visual voicemail client on a recipient device;

retrieving second multimedia content location data from the personal media storage system; and

obtaining the second multimedia content associated with the visual voicemail message from a remote device based on the second multimedia content location data.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein storing the multimedia content associated with the visual voicemail message at the personal media storage system comprises associating the multimedia content associated with the visual voicemail message with the visual voicemail message.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising transmitting a notification of the visual voicemail message to the visual voicemail client on the recipient device.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein the multimedia content comprises at least one of audio content, text content, or video content.

16. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving a request from the recipient device to transmit the multimedia content associated with the visual voicemail message to a second device;

retrieving the multimedia content associated with the visual voicemail message from the personal media storage system; and

transmitting the multimedia content associated with the visual voicemail message to the second device.

17. A tangible computer-readable memory device having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, effectuate operations comprising:

receiving multimedia content location data for indirectly provided multimedia content associated with a visual voicemail message at a visual voicemail server communicatively connected to a personal media storage system;

determining a user preference has been set for proactively obtaining, without additional input from the user, indirectly provided multimedia content associated with visual voicemail messages;

responsive to determining the user preference for proactively obtaining, without additional input from the user, indirectly provided multimedia content associated with visual voicemail messages has been set, automatically obtaining the indirectly provided multimedia content associated with the visual voicemail message from a remote device based on the multimedia content location data;

storing the indirectly provided multimedia content associated with the visual voicemail message at the personal media storage system;

receiving a request for the indirectly provided multimedia content associated with the visual voicemail message from a visual voicemail client on a recipient device;

retrieving the indirectly provided multimedia content associated with the visual voicemail message from the personal media storage system; and

transmitting the indirectly provided multimedia content associated with the visual voicemail message to the visual voicemail client on the recipient device.

18. The tangible computer-readable memory device of claim 17, wherein transmitting the multimedia content associated with the visual voicemail message to the visual voicemail client on the recipient device comprises transmitting a portion of the multimedia content associated with the visual voicemail message to the visual voicemail client on the recipient device.

19. The tangible computer-readable memory device of claim 17, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving a second request for second multimedia content associated with the visual voicemail message from a visual voicemail client on a recipient device;

retrieving second multimedia content location data from the personal media storage system; and

obtaining the second multimedia content associated with the visual voicemail message from a remote device based on the second multimedia content location data.

20. The tangible computer-readable memory device of claim 17, wherein the operations further comprise transmitting a notification of the visual voicemail message to the visual voicemail client on the recipient device.