System for the remote notification and retrieval of electronically stored messages

• US 20030095642A1
• Filed: 11/15/2002
• Published: 05/22/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Allen E. Milewski, David Millen, Jocelyn Cloutier
• Original Assignee: Allen E. Milewski, David Millen, Jocelyn Cloutier
• Inventors: Milewski, Allen E., Millen, David, Cloutier, Jocelyn
• Granted Patent: US 7,006,609 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/88.13
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/652 Means for playing back the recorded messages by remote control over a telephone line H04M1/658 takes precedence

Abstract

The present invention provides a method and system to generate a unique code for a message and then allows easy and direct access to the content of that specific message. The unique code is transmitted in a message alert, which may be implemented for a variety of media. In particular, according to one embodiment, the present invention provides a method and system for enhanced messaging services incorporating the capability of alerting a message service subscriber to the receipt of high priority messages according to a defined set of filter criteria. The present invention is highly flexible and can be designed to work with any type of electronic message including e-mail, voice mail, facsimile etc. Furthermore, the enhanced messaging services are transparent to the typical messaging services in use today so that subscribers are not required to change messaging services or learn a new system.

Claims

1. A method for operating a messaging system comprising:

filtering messages addressed to a message recipient, said filtering being based upon at least one filter criterion previously received from said message recipient, said at least one filter criterion being indicative of messages that said message recipient wishes to be alerted to;

generating a code signature corresponding to a particular message meeting said at least one filter criterion;

transmitting said code signature to said message recipient;

receiving said code signature during a communication session initiated thereafter by said message recipient;

retrieving the message corresponding to the received code signature; and

transmitting the retrieved message to said message recipient during said communication session.

2. The invention of claim 1 wherein said code signature transmitting is carried out over a first network and wherein said communication session initiated by said message recipient is carried out over a second, different network.

3. The invention of claim 2 wherein said second network is one of:

a wireless network, the Internet, a private network, and the public switched telephone network.

4. The invention of claim 3 wherein said first network is one of:

a wireless network, the Internet, a private network, and the public switched telephone network.

5. The invention of claim 3 wherein said second network is a dial-up telephone network and wherein said receiving said code signature comprises receiving a sequence of DTMF (dual-tone multi-frequency) signals identifying said code signature.

6. The invention of claim 1 wherein said particular message comprises one of:

an electronic mail (e-mail) message, a voice mail message and a facsimile message.

7. The invention of claim 1 wherein said code signature generating includes applying a hashing function to at least a portion of said particular message.

8. The invention of claim 1 wherein said retrieving comprises sequentially searching a directory of said messages addressed to said message recipient messages until a message is found with hashing function output matching said received code signature.

9. The invention of claim 1 wherein said receiving comprises receiving a sequence of IP (Internetwork Protocol) data packets over the Internet.

10. The invention of claim 1 further comprising converting said particular message to speech output using text-to-speech processing prior to said message transmitting.

11. The invention of claim 1 wherein said retrieving comprises said messaging system retrieving said particular message from a remote server over a network using an e-mail message retrieval protocol.

12. The invention of claim 1 wherein said code signature transmitting comprises transmitting said code signature to a wireless device.

13. The invention of claim 1 further comprising periodically accessing a mailbox in which said messages addressed to said message recipient are stored and performing said filtering for each message in said mailbox.

14. The invention of claim 13 wherein said mailbox is maintained on a message server that said messaging system accesses over a communication network.

15. The invention of claim 1 wherein said retrieving is carried out independent of the receipt of a login or of a password during said communication session initiated by said message recipient.

16. A message system apparatus comprising a computer system adapted to:

filter messages addressed to a message recipient based upon at least one filter criterion previously specified by said message recipient, said at least one filter criterion being indicative of messages that said message recipient wishes to be alerted to;

generate a different code signature for each message meeting said at least one filter criterion;

transmit each generated code signature to said message recipient;

receive previously transmitted code signatures during respective communication sessions initiated by said message recipient;

retrieve the particular messages that correspond to said received code signatures; and

transmit each said retrieved message to said message recipient during the respective communication session.

17. The invention of claim 16 wherein said computer system is further adapted to transmit said each code signature over a first network and wherein said communication sessions initiated by said message recipient are carried out over a second, different network.

18. The invention of claim 17 wherein said second network is one of:

a wireless network, the Internet, a private network, and the public switched telephone network.

19. The invention of claim 18 wherein said first network is one of:

a wireless network, the Internet, a private network, and the public switched telephone network.

20. The invention of claim 18 wherein said second network is a dial-up telephone network and wherein said computer system is further adapted to receive said previously transmitted code signatures in the form of DTMF (dual-tone multi-frequency) signals.

21. The invention of claim 20 wherein said computer system is further adapted to convert said retrieved messages to speech output using a text-to-speech (TTS) device prior to those messages being transmitted.

22. The invention of claim 16 wherein each of said messages addressed to said message recipient is one of:

an electronic mail (e-mail) message, a voice mail message and a facsimile message.

23. The invention of claim 16 wherein said code signatures are generated by applying a hashing function to at least a portion of the corresponding messages.

24. The invention of claim 23 wherein said computer system is further adapted to retrieve said particular messages by searching stored messages addressed to said message recipient until a message is found with hashing function output matching previously transmitted code signatures.

25. The invention of claim 16 wherein said messages addressed to said message recipient are stored on a server that is remote from said message system and said computer system is adapted to retrieve said particular messages from said server over a network using an e-mail message retrieval protocol.

26. The invention of claim 16 wherein said each code signature is transmitted to a wireless device.

27. The invention of claim 16 wherein said computer system is further adapted to periodically access a mailbox into which have been stored said messages addressed to said message recipient.

28. The invention of claim 27 wherein said mailbox is maintained on a message server that said computer system accesses over a communication network.

29. The invention of claim 16 wherein said computer system is further adapted to retrieve said particular messages without having received either a login or a password during said communication sessions initiated by said message recipient.

30. A method performed by a message recipient comprising

providing to a messaging system at least one filter criterion indicative of messages that said message recipient wishes to be alerted to;

receiving from said messaging system a code signature for a message meeting said at least one filter criterion;

initiating a communication session with said messaging system;

transmitting said code signature to said messaging system during said communication session;

receiving said message from said messaging system during said communication session.

31. The invention of claim 30 wherein said message recipient receives said code signature over a first network and wherein said message recipient initiates said communication session over a second, different network.

32. The invention of claim 31 wherein said second network is one of:

a wireless network, the Internet, a private network, and the public switched telephone network.

33. The invention of claim 32 wherein said first network is one of:

a wireless network, the Internet, a private network, and the public switched telephone network.

34. The invention of claim 32 wherein said second network is a dial-up telephone network and wherein said code signature transmitting comprises generating, using a telephone set, a sequence of DTMF (dual-tone multi-frequency) signals identifying said code signature.

35. The invention of claim 34 wherein said message is received in the form of speech.

36. The invention of claim 30 wherein said message recipient receives said code signature at a wireless device.

37. The invention of claim 30 wherein said message recipient receives said message independent of having entered a login or a password during said communication session.