Short voice message (SVM) service method, apparatus and system
First Claim
1. A voice message system including a plurality of terminals and a voice message service center, said service center comprising:
- means for receiving a voice message from a first user terminal;
means for storing the received voice message from the first terminal;
a presence service for checking availability of an intended second user at a second terminal; and
means for sending the stored received message from the first terminal to the second terminal if the second terminal is available, wherein one or more of said plurality of terminals comprises;
means for receiving said voice message at said first user terminal spoken by a first user for providing said voice message from said first user terminal to said means for receiving said voice message at said service center;
means for storing voice messages including said voice message spoken by said first user;
means for receiving a designation signal from said first user designating a second user as an intended recipient;
means for retrieving the stored voice message in response to the designation signal for providing the voice message retrieved from storage and the designation signal; and
means for sending the voice message retrieved from storage and the designation signal to the second user of the voice message system as an outgoing voice message.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Tiresome entry of numerous letters of the alphabet into a hand-held device for assembling a short text message for transmission via a short message service (SMS) to a second terminal is avoided by the sending of a short voice message (SVM). The SVM is recorded in the sending terminal and sent to a SVM service center (SVMSC). The SVMSC may notify the intended recipient of the arrival of the SVM and await acceptance before sending it. The second terminal may then commence a bidirectional communication so that an instant voice message session can be established. Alternatively, the problem can be overcome by converting the spoken SVM to text in the user terminal by means of voice recognition software and sending the converted text to the recipient by means of the traditional SMS infrastructure for display as text or for playback as text converted to voice.
96 Citations
32 Claims
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1. A voice message system including a plurality of terminals and a voice message service center, said service center comprising:
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means for receiving a voice message from a first user terminal;
means for storing the received voice message from the first terminal;
a presence service for checking availability of an intended second user at a second terminal; and
means for sending the stored received message from the first terminal to the second terminal if the second terminal is available, wherein one or more of said plurality of terminals comprises;
means for receiving said voice message at said first user terminal spoken by a first user for providing said voice message from said first user terminal to said means for receiving said voice message at said service center;
means for storing voice messages including said voice message spoken by said first user;
means for receiving a designation signal from said first user designating a second user as an intended recipient;
means for retrieving the stored voice message in response to the designation signal for providing the voice message retrieved from storage and the designation signal; and
means for sending the voice message retrieved from storage and the designation signal to the second user of the voice message system as an outgoing voice message. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. User equipment for use in a voice message system, comprising:
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means for receiving a short voice message (SVM) spoken by a first user;
means for storing SVMs including said SVM spoken by said first user;
means for receiving a designation signal from the first user designating a second user as an intended recipient;
means for retrieving the stored SVM in response to the designation signal for providing the SVM retrieved from storage and the designation signal; and
means for sending the SVM retrieved from storage and the designation signal to the second user of the voice message system as an outgoing SVM. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. Method for use in a telecommunications network for providing messages between users, comprising
receiving a voice message transmitted from a first terminal for forwarding to a second user at a second terminal, checking availability of said second terminal or said second user using a presence service, and sending the voice message only if available, wherein said checking availability is a checking of a status marker (298) of a presence tuple (292) among a plurality of presence tuples of presence information (290) maintained by a presence service (248), wherein said sending the received voice message is carried out by a service (270, 310) sending the received voice message to an inbox (274) having an inbox address (314) associated with said presence tuple (292).
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21. Apparatus for use in a telecommunications network for providing messages between users, comprising:
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means for receiving a voice message from a first terminal spoken by a first user for a second user at a second terminal;
means for checking availability of said second terminal or said second user using a presence service; and
means for sending the received voice message to the second terminal if available, wherein said means for checking availability is carried out by a presence service (248) checking a status marker (298) of a presence tuple (292) among a plurality of presence tuples of presence information (290) maintained by a presence service (248), wherein said means for sending is carried out by a service (270, 310) sending the received voice message to an inbox (274) having an inbox address (314) associated with said presence tuple (292). - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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28. A voice message system including a plurality of terminals and a voice message service center, said service center comprising:
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means for receiving a voice message from a first user terminal;
means for storing the received voice message from the first terminal;
a presence service for checking availability of an intended second user at a second terminal; and
means for sending the stored received message from the first terminal to the second terminal if the second terminal is available, wherein said presence service is for checking availability by checking a status marker (298) of a presence tuple (292) among a plurality of presence tuples of presence information (290) maintained by a presence service (248), wherein said means for sending is carried out by a service (270, 310) sending the received voice message to an inbox (274) having an inbox address (314) associated with said presence tuple (292).
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29. A messaging system comprising at least one terminal and a server, wherein
the terminal comprises means for transmitting presence information to the server and means for receiving presence information from the server, and the server comprises means for maintaining presence information characterized in that said presence information includes presence tuples, each tuple comprising a status marker and a communication address identifying at least one of a short voice message (SVM) service and an SVM inbox address, and in that said system includes an SVM service, responsive to an instant voice message from a sending principal addressed to an SVM inbox, for checking said status marker of said SVM inbox and for delivering said instant voice message if said status marker indicates availability for receipt thereof.
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30. Terminal for accessing an instant messaging service for receiving instant messages from senders of instant messages and for providing instant messages to inboxes, said service associated with a presence service for receiving presence information about presentities and for providing said presence information to watchers, said terminal comprising:
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a short voice message (SVM) watcher user agent (278) for receiving presence information about an SVM presentity (254); and
an SVM sender user agent (280) for providing an SVM to an SVM server (270) for delivery if said presence information indicates availability. - View Dependent Claims (31)
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32. A data structure embodied in a computer-readable medium for storage in a physical device, characterized in that
the data structure is a short voice message (SVM) presence information (290) database for storing SVM presence tuples (292, 294, 296, . . . , n), each tuple having a status marker (298) indicative of availability for receipt of short voice messages, and a communication address (302, 304, . . . , n) indicative of at least one of an SVM service (310, 312, . . . , n) and an SVM inbox address (314, 316, . . . , n).
Specification