Wireless Server Based Text to Speech Email
First Claim
1. An email system, comprising:
- a server communicably connectable to a mobile device, the server including a text-to-speech engine,wherein the server is operative;
to receive, from the mobile device, information in text format pertaining to at least one email message;
to convert, using the text-to-speech engine, at least some of the received information from the text format to an audio file of recorded speech; and
to store the audio file in a storage medium for subsequent retrieval by the mobile device.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
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.
15 Citations
20 Claims
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1. An email system, comprising:
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a server communicably connectable to a mobile device, the server including a text-to-speech engine, wherein the server is operative; to receive, from the mobile device, information in text format pertaining to at least one email message; to convert, using the text-to-speech engine, at least some of the received information from the text format to an audio file of recorded speech; and to store the audio file in a storage medium for subsequent retrieval by the mobile device. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. An email system, comprising:
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a mobile device communicably connectable to a server, wherein the mobile device is operative; to transmit, to the server, information in text format pertaining to at least one email message; to receive a notification from the server that an audio file is available for retrieval, the audio file containing at least some of the transmitted information converted from the text format to recorded speech; and in response to the notification, to retrieve the audio file from the server. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A method of operating an email system, the email system including a mobile device communicably connectable to a server, comprising the steps of:
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transmitting, by the mobile device to the server, information in text format pertaining to at least one email message; converting, by the server using a text-to-speech engine, at least some of the information from the text format to an audio file of recorded speech; and storing, by the server, the audio file in a storage medium for subsequent retrieval by the mobile device. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20)
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Specification