Association of email message with voice message

• US 7,995,716 B2
• Filed: 09/15/2006
• Issued: 08/09/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RingCentral Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Siemens Enterprise Communications, Inc. (Atos SE)
• Inventors: Narang, Nidhi, Iyer, Radha, Sahasrabudhe, Manisha
• Primary Examiner(s): Sing, Simon
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mohammed, Assad
• Application Number:
  US11/522,044
• Publication Number:
  US 20080069312A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,789 Days
• Field of Search: 379 8813- 8814, 379/88.25, 455/413, 709206-245, 705 1453- 1461
• US Class Current: 379/88.13
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/4509 Unified messaging with single point of access to voicemail and other mail or messaging systems unified messaging in packet switching networks H04L51/56
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/53 Centralised arrangements for recording incoming messages , i.e. mailbox systems

Abstract

Some embodiments provide reception of a call from a calling party to a called party, acquisition of a voice message form the calling party to the called party, reception from the calling party a selection of an email message sent to the called party, and association of the voice message with the email message.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving a call from a calling party to a called party;

acquiring a voice message from the calling party to the called party;

selectively retrieving a plurality of stored email messages sent to said called party; and

in response to the retrieving of the stored email messages;

receiving from the calling party a selection of an email message from said retrieved stored email messages; and

associating the voice message with the selected email message.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the retrieved stored email messages are email messages that were previously sent to the called party, the method further comprising:

presenting to the calling party the retrieved said stored email messages previously sent to the called party.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein at least one of the plurality of retrieved stored email messages was sent to the called party from a third party.

4. The method according to claim 2, further comprising:

determining an identity of the calling party; and

retrieving the plurality of stored email messages based on the determined identity.

5. The method according to claim 2, wherein presenting the plurality of retrieved email messages comprises:

converting text associated with each of the plurality of retrieved email messages to speech signals; and

transmitting the speech signals to the calling party.

6. The method according to claim 2, further comprising:

receiving search criteria from the calling party; and

wherein the retrieving of the plurality of stored email messages is based on the search criteria.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein associating the voice message with the email message comprises:

creating a new email message to the called party; and

attaching the voice message and the selected email message to the new email message.

8. The method according to claim 7, further comprising:

transmitting the new email message to the called party.

9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

presenting the voice message to the called party;

converting text associated with the selected email message to speech signals; and

transmitting the speech signals to the called party.

10. A The method according to claim 1, wherein if the calling party selects not to retrieve stored email messages the method comprises:

creating a new email message to the called party; and

attaching the voice message to the new email message.

11. The method according to claim 10, further comprising:

sending the new email message to the called party.

12. A communications system comprising an apparatus having a non-transitory medium storing program code, the program code comprising:

code to receive a call from a calling party to a called party;

code to acquire a voice message from the calling party to the called party;

code to selectively retrieve stored email messages sent to said called party;

code to receive from the calling party a selection of an email message from said retrieved stored email messages; and

code to associate the voice message with the selected email message.

13. The communications system according to claim 12 wherein the program code further comprising:

code to present to the calling party a plurality of retrieved said email messages sent to the called party.

14. The communications system according to claim 13, wherein at least one of the plurality of retrieved email messages was sent to the called party from a third party.

15. The communications system according to claim 13, wherein the program code further comprising:

code to determine an identity of the calling party; and

code to retrieve the plurality of email messages based on the determined identity.

16. The communications system according to claim 13, wherein the program code to present the plurality of retrieved email messages comprises:

code to convert text associated with each of the plurality of retrieved email messages to speech signals; and

code to transmit the speech signals to the calling party.

17. The communications system according to claim 13, wherein the program code further comprising:

code to receive search criteria from the calling party; and

code to retrieve the plurality of email messages based on the search criteria.

18. The communications system according to claim 12, wherein the program code to associate the voice message with the email message comprises:

code to create a new email message to the called party; and

code to attach the voice message and the selected email message to the new email message.

19. The communications system according to claim 18, wherein the program code further comprising:

code to transmit the new email message to the called party.

20. The communications system according to claim 12, wherein the program code further comprising:

code to present the voice message to the called party;

code to convert text associated with the selected email message to speech signals; and

code to transmit the speech signals to the called party.