MOBILE DEVICE FOR SENDING TEXT MESSAGES

• US 20080051120A1
• Filed: 09/20/2007
• Published: 02/28/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/22/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Vieri, Flavio, VIERI, RICCARDO
• Granted Patent: US 7,649,877 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/466
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/00 Speech synthesis; Text to speech systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/00 Substation equipment, e.g. for use by subscribers subscriber services or facilities provided at exchanges H04M3/00; prepayment telephone coin boxes H04M17/00; current supply arrangements H04M19/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/60 Medium conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/2016 Call initiation by network rather than by subscriber
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5322 for recording text messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0024 Services and arrangements where telephone services are combined with data services arrangements which combine a telephonic equipment and a computer H04M7/0012
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0048 where the text-based messaging service is a Short Message Service
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/128 Details of addressing, directories or routing tables
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/1295 Details of dual tone multiple frequency signalling
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]

Abstract

A mobile device includes a display device, a modem interface to communicate with a network, an input interface to receive data, and processing logic responsive to the input interface. The mobile device also includes a memory accessible to the processing logic. The memory includes a plurality of instructions executable by the processing logic to provide a user interface to the display device. The user interface includes a first area to receive a text message and a second area to receive an identifier associated with an addressee device. The memory also includes instructions executable by the processing logic to receive the text message and to submit the text message for conversion into an audio message and for transmission of the audio message to the addressee destination device.

Claims

1. A mobile device comprising:

a display device;

a modem interface to communicate with a network;

an input interface to receive data;

processing logic responsive to the input interface; and

memory accessible to the processing logic, the memory comprising a plurality of instructions executable by the processing logic to;

provide a user interface to the display device, the user interface including a first area to receive a text message and a second area to receive an identifier associated with an addressee device;

receive the text message and the identifier; and

submit the text message for conversion into an audio message and for transmission of the audio message to the addressee destination device associated with the identifier.

2. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of instructions executable by the processing logic include an instruction to receive a confirmation that the audio message was sent to the addressee device.

3. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the user interface comprises a hypertext markup language (HTML) form.

4. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the user interface comprises a graphical user interface of a software application.

5. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the second area is adapted to receive multiple identifiers and wherein the audio message is transmitted to multiple destination devices associated with the multiple identifiers.

6. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the text message comprises a short message service message.

7. The mobile device of claim 1 the text message is submitted by submitting data related to an hyper-text markup language (HTML) form.

8. The mobile device of claim 1, further comprising a transceiver to transmit and receive data via one of an Internet Protocol (IP) connection, an analog connection, or a digital connection.

9. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the input interface comprises a telephone keypad.

10. A method comprising:

receiving an input comprising a text message and one or more destination addresses associated with a respective one or more destination devices at a user interface of a device;

converting the text message into a voice message;

transmitting the voice message to the respective one or more destination devices identified by the one or more destination addresses via a network; and

receiving a confirmation after the voice message is delivered to the one or more destination devices.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the input further comprises scheduling data, and wherein the voice message is transmitted at a time according to the scheduling data.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein receiving the confirmation comprises receiving an audio response from at least one of the one or more destination devices.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the input further comprises a language identifier specifying a language to which the text message is to be translated, and wherein the method farther comprises translating the text message from a first language to a second language before the text message is converted into the voice message.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the input further comprises schedule data including a date, a time, or any combination thereof.

15. A method comprising:

providing a user interface to a display device, the user interface including a first area to receive a text message and a second area to receive an identifier associated with an addressee device;

receiving the text message and the identifier;

converting the text message into an audio message; and

sending the audio message to the addressee device.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the identifier comprises an alias related to one or more telephone numbers.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the user interface further comprises a third area to receive a language indicator specifying a desired language, and wherein the method further comprises translating the text message into the desired language before converting the text message into the audio message.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the user interface further comprises a fourth area to receive schedule data specifying when the audio message is to be sent.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the user interface further comprises a selectable input to specify a tone of voice.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein the identifier comprises a telephone number, and wherein the second area is adapted to receive one or more telephone numbers.

21. The method of claim 15, wherein the identifier comprises an alias, and wherein the alias is associated with multiple telephone numbers.

22. The method of claim 15, wherein the user interface further comprises a repeat input to specify an option to automatically repeat an attempted transmission that is not delivered to the addressee device.

23. The method of claim 15, further comprising receiving an acknowledgement of receipt of the audio message.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the acknowledgment of receipt is received via an email message or a voice message.

25. The method of claim 15, wherein the user interface further comprises a third area to receive a selection related to a pre-recorded audio message, and wherein sending the audio message further comprises sending the prerecorded audio message with the audio message.