Confidentiality-smart voice delivery of text-based incoming messages

• US 10,609,203 B2
• Filed: 11/21/2018
• Issued: 03/31/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Adderly, Darryl M., Jackson, Jonathan W., Jariwala, Ajit, Libow, Eric B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Perez, Julio R
• Application Number:
  US16/198,444
• Publication Number:
  US 20190098125A1
• Time in Patent Office: 496 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/00 Speech synthesis; Text to speech systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/104 Grouping of entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/67 by electronic means
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72433 for voice messaging, e.g. dictaphones for answering incoming calls H04M1/64
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72436 for text messaging, e.g. short messaging services [SMS] or e-mails
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72454 according to context-related or environment-related conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/033 of the user plane, e.g. user's traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]

Abstract

Methods, computer program products, and systems are presented. The methods include, for instance: a voice delivery application, running on a mobile device of a user, receives a text message from a user; by use of sensor inputs of the mobile device, the mobile device stores data regarding environment of the mobile device including external audio equipment, speed of the user, and bystanders within a hearing range of the environment; various data describing a sender of the text message and the bystanders are analyzed for respective relationships with the user and with each other to determine a confidentiality group dictating whether or not the text message may be heard by the bystander; the text message may be scanned for content screening, then according to configuration of the voice delivery application, the text message is securely delivered to the user by voice.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method comprising:

determining that at least one bystander is present within a hearing distance from a user of a user mobile device;

recording that a bystander and a sender of a text-based message sent to the user are in a same confidentiality group;

scanning content of the text-based message for confidentiality restriction based on predefined keywords;

ascertaining that the user wants the text-based message to be read to the user; and

delivering the text-based message by voice such that the user hears the text-based message.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising receiving by a user mobile device running a voice delivery application, the text-based message sent from the sender using a sender device to the user using the user mobile device via a mobile services network;

and storing device environment data comprising inputs from at least one sensor of the user mobile device.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the recording that the sender and the bystander are in the same confidentiality group includes recording that the sender and the bystander are in the same confidentiality group based on data comprising communication service subscription data of the user, contacts stored in the user mobile device, and social media data for each of the user, the sender, and the bystander, respectively.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the recording that the sender and the bystander are in the same confidentiality group includes recording that the sender and the bystander are in the same confidentiality group based on one or more of the following selected from the group consisting of communication service subscription data of the user, contacts stored in the user mobile device, social media data of the user, social media data of the sender, and social media data of the bystander.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 1, said determining comprising:

discovering that the user mobile device is coupled to an external speaker; and

discovering that the bystander is present within a range of the external speaker.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 1, said determining comprising:

discovering that the user mobile device is not coupled to an external speaker;

discovering that the user mobile device is moving slower than a threshold speed set for delivering the text-based message by voice; and

discovering that the bystander is present within a range of an embedded speaker of the user mobile device.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 1, said recording comprising:

discovering that the user shares a subscription plan with the sender and the bystander; and

recording that the sender and the bystander are in the same confidentiality group.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 1, said recording comprising:

discovering that the user does not share a subscription plan with the sender and the bystander;

discovering that the sender and the bystander have respective entries in contacts of the user mobile device and that the sender and the bystander are in a same group of the contacts; and

recording that the sender and the bystander are in the same confidentiality group.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 1, said recording comprising:

discovering that the user does not share a subscription plan with the sender and the bystander;

discovering that the sender and the bystander are not in a same group of contacts of the user mobile device;

discovering that the sender, the user, and the bystander are related in at least one social media and have interactions more than a minimum set of the same confidentiality group; and

recording that the sender and the bystander are in the same confidentiality group.

10. The computer implemented method of claim 1, said delivering comprising:

playing an audio stream corresponding to the text-based message on a speaker, wherein the speaker is either embedded in the user mobile device or external and coupled to the user mobile device;

storing a responding speech from the user via a recording device coupled to the user mobile device, wherein the responding speech is enabled by a configuration of a voice delivery application;

converting the responding speech to a response text message; and

sending the response text message to the sender.

11. A computer program product comprising:

a computer readable storage medium readable by one or more processor and storing instructions for execution by the one or more processor for performing a method for confidentially delivering a text-based message by voice, comprising;

receiving, by a user mobile device running a voice delivery application, the text-based message sent from a sender using a sender device via a mobile services network to a user using the user mobile device;

determining that the user mobile device is enabled to read the text-based message out for the user, and that at least one bystander is present within a hearing distance from the user;

recording that the sender and the bystander are in a same confidentiality group;

scanning content of the text-based message for confidentiality restriction based on predefined keywords appearing in envelope data of the text-based message; and

ascertaining that the user wants the text-based message to be read to the user, according to configuration of the voice delivery application or a response to read the text-based message from the user upon being prompted; and

delivering the text-based message by voice such that the user hears the text-based message.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the recording that the sender and the bystander are in the same confidentiality group includes recording that the sender and the bystander are in the same confidentiality group based on data that includes one or more of the following selected from the group consisting of communication service subscription data of the user, contacts stored in the user mobile device, social media data of the user, social media data of the sender, and social media data of the bystander.

13. The computer program product of claim 11, said determining comprising:

discovering that the user mobile device is coupled to an external speaker; and

discovering that the bystander is present within a range of the external speaker.

14. The computer program product of claim 11, said determining comprising:

discovering that the user mobile device is not coupled to an external speaker;

discovering that the user mobile device is moving slower than a threshold speed set for delivering the text-based message by voice; and

discovering that the bystander is present within a range of an embedded speaker of the user mobile device.

15. The computer program product of claim 11, said delivering comprising:

playing an audio stream corresponding to the text-based message on a speaker, wherein the speaker is either embedded in the user mobile device or external and coupled to the user mobile device; and

storing a responding speech from the user via a recording device coupled to the user mobile device.

16. The computer program product of claim 11, said delivering comprising:

playing an audio stream corresponding to the text-based message on a speaker, wherein the speaker is either embedded in the user mobile device or external and coupled to the user mobile device; and

storing a responding speech from the user via a recording device coupled to the user mobile device, wherein the responding speech is enabled by the configuration of the voice delivery application.

17. The computer program product of claim 11, said recording comprising:

discovering that the user does not share a subscription plan with the sender and the bystander;

discovering that the sender and the bystander are not in a same group of contacts of the user mobile device;

discovering that the sender, the user, and the bystander are related in at least one social media and have interactions more than a minimum set of the same confidentiality group; and

recording that the sender and the bystander are in the same confidentiality group.

18. The computer program product of claim 11, said delivering comprising:

playing an audio stream corresponding to the text-based message on a speaker, wherein the speaker is either embedded in the user mobile device or external and coupled to the user mobile device;

storing a responding speech from the user via a recording device coupled to the user mobile device, wherein the responding speech is enabled by the configuration of the voice delivery application;

converting the responding speech to a response text message; and

sending the response text message to the sender by use of the envelope data of the text-based message.

19. A system comprising:

a memory;

one or more processor in communication with the memory; and

program instructions executable by the one or more processor via the memory to perform a method for confidentially delivering a text-based message by voice, comprising;

receiving by a user mobile device running a voice delivery application, the text-based message sent from a sender using a sender device via a mobile services network to a user using the user mobile device;

determining that the user mobile device is enabled to read the text-based message out for the user, and that at least one bystander is present within a hearing distance from the user;

recording that the sender and the bystander are in a same confidentiality group;

scanning content of the text-based message for confidentiality restriction based on predefined keywords appearing in envelope data of the text-based message; and

ascertaining that the user wants the text-based message to be read to the user, according to configuration of the voice delivery application or a response to read the text-based message from the user upon being prompted; and

delivering the text-based message by voice such that the user hears the text-based message.

20. The system of claim 19, said recording comprising:

discovering that the user does not share a subscription plan with the sender and the bystander;

discovering that the sender and the bystander are not in a same group of contacts of the user mobile device;

discovering that the sender, the user, and the bystander are related in at least one social media and have interactions more than a minimum set of the same confidentiality group; and

recording that the sender and the bystander are in the same confidentiality group.