Method and system for communicating a data file over a network

• US 8,161,116 B2
• Filed: 05/24/2004
• Issued: 04/17/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/23/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aawaaz Inc.
• Original Assignee: Kirusa Inc.
• Inventors: Chaddha, Navin, Desai, Adesh, Kuwadekar, Sanjeev, Sodhi, Dan
• Primary Examiner(s): Moise, Emmanuel L.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ashraf, Waseem
• Application Number:
  US10/852,845
• Publication Number:
  US 20050020250A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,885 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204, 709/206, 709/229, 379/88.13, 379/88.22, 379/88.14, 379/93.23, 379/202.01, 379/88.17, 455/416, 455/413, 455/557
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1818 Conference organisation arrangements, e.g. handling schedules, setting up parameters needed by nodes to attend a conference, booking network resources, notifying involved parties
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/066 Format adaptation, e.g. format conversion or compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/224 providing notification on incoming messages, e.g. pushed notifications of received messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/56 Unified messaging, e.g. interactions between e-mail, instant messaging or converged IP messaging [CPM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/60 Medium conversion
• 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 2203/4536 Voicemail combined with text-based messaging
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/5054 Meet-me conference, i.e. participants dial-in
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/382 using authorisation codes or passwords
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42204 Arrangements at the exchange for service or number selection by voice at the terminal H04M1/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5307 for recording messages comprising any combination of audio and non-audio components
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5322 for recording text messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/537 Arrangements for indicating the presence of a recorded message , whereby the presence information might include a preview or summary of the message
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/56 Arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities video conference systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/565 relating to time schedule aspects

Abstract

A method and system for forwarding information such as data files to a recipient across disparate or incompatible communication networks, which are not constrained by incompatible user devices. The sender sends information such as a data file to an intended recipient via a messaging server. The messaging server communicates with the intended recipient using basic communication tools that are generally compatible regardless of the network that the recipient is subscribed to. The messaging server stores the information, creates and sends a notification message to the intended recipient that she has information to be retrieved. The notification message includes a unique access address associated with the message, at which the recipient can retrieve the information. Different unique access addresses are associated with different messages.

Claims

1. A method of transmitting a data file from a sender to a recipient, comprising the steps of:

transmitting said data file to a messaging server over a first communication network by said sender using a sender device;

said messaging server associating said data file with a unique access address;

said messaging server associating said unique access address with a notification message;

said messaging server transmitting said notification message to said recipient over a second communication network, wherein;

said notification message is not sent while the sender is accessing the messaging server and said notification message is queued for later delivery;

said first communication network and said second communication network are disparate networks;

said sender device stores contact information to keep recipient contact information of said sender updated within an address book stored on said messaging server;

said messaging server periodically queries said sender device for detecting changes in said stored contact information; and

said messaging server transmits said notification message to said recipient based on said recipient contact information;

said recipient accessing said unique access address to retrieve said data file;

said messaging server identifying the unique access address used by the recipient; and

said messaging server transmitting said data file corresponding to the unique access address to said recipient.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said notification message is sent within at least one of a text message, a voice message and an electronic mail.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of transmitting said data file to said messaging server by said sender comprises the steps of:

speaking a voice message into said sender device; and

converting said voice message to text using speech-to-text processing.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of transmitting said data file to said messaging server by said sender comprises the steps of:

inputting a text message into said sender device; and

converting said text message to a voice message using text-to-speech processing.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the data file is transmitted to said messaging server over a communication network subscribed by the sender, and the messaging server transmits the notification message to the recipient over a different network subscribed by the recipient.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein more than one data file is transmitted, and wherein a different unique access address is associated with a different data file.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of said messaging server identifying the unique access address comprises the steps of:

messaging server determining a dialed access phone number with a dialed number identification service (DNIS); and

messaging server determining a data file associated with said dialed access phone number.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said step of said recipient accessing said unique access address to retrieve said data file further comprises the step of authenticating the recipient.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising the step of the sender designating a recipient device address to which the notification message is to be transmitted, and the step of authenticating the recipient includes the step of verifying one of said recipient contact information and personal identification information wherein said personal identification information comprises at least one of name, user identification number and personal identification number code.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the data file is transmitted over a cellular network, wherein the sender has a sender cellular device and the recipient has a recipient cellular device, and wherein the sender transmits the data file using the sender cellular device, and the recipient accesses the unique access address to retrieve the data file using the recipient cellular device.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the notification message is sent via text messaging to the recipient cellular device.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the sender cellular device communicates with a first cellular network to which the sender subscribes, and the recipient cellular device communicates with a second cellular network to which the recipient subscribes.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein said data file comprises at least one of a text message, a voice message, an audio file, a video file, a text file, an image file, an executable file, and a multimedia file and wherein at least one of the audio file, video file and multimedia file is captured using a sender device, and said data is sent to the messaging server using at least one of store-and-forward and streaming.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein said at least one of the audio file, video file and multimedia file is sent by the messaging server to the recipient using at least one of store-and-forward and streaming.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein said messaging server transmits notification messages associated with said unique access address to a plurality of recipients.

20. The method of claim 9, wherein the sender designates more than one recipient device to which notification messages are to be sent to said recipient, thereby providing notification redundancy.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein a recipient device that receives the notification message is different from a recipient device that retrieves the data file associated with the unique access address in the notification message.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein the data file created by the sender further comprises one of a text message and a voice message, and wherein the mode of said data file is converted to a mode appropriate to the type of the intended recipient device.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein a cancellation message is sent to each of the recipient devices that earlier received the notification message once the associated data file is retrieved by the recipient.

24. The method of claim 19, wherein each recipient is assigned a unique access address for the same data file.

25. The method of claim 1, wherein a network through which the notification message is sent to the recipient is different from a network through which the associated data file is retrieved by the recipient.

26. The method of claim 8, wherein said step of authenticating said recipient by said messaging server comprises authenticating a caller as the intended recipient if caller identification of said caller matches recipient notification address.

13. A messaging server for transmitting a data file from a sender device to a recipient device, said messaging server comprising:

a data receiver receiving said data file from said sender device over a first communication network;

a notification message transmitter associating said data file with a unique access address and associating said unique access address with a notification message, and transmitting said notification message to said recipient device over a second communication network, wherein;

said notification message is not sent while the sender is accessing the messaging server and said notification message is queued for later delivery;

said first communication network and said second communication network are disparate networks;

said sender device comprises a memory device for storing contact information to keep recipient contact information of said sender updated within in an address book stored on said messaging server;

said messaging server periodically querying said sender device for detecting changes in said contact information in said memory device; and

said messaging server transmitting said notification message to said recipient device based on said recipient contact information;

a data file transmitter providing access to a recipient using said unique access address, and transmitting said data file from said messaging server to said recipient device.

14. The network system of claim 13 further comprising:

one or more nodes to provide access for said sender device;

one or more nodes to provide access for said recipient device; and

one or more nodes to provide access by a messaging server.

15. The network system of claim 14, wherein said network comprises at least one of a cellular network, a wide area network, a telephony network, an IP network and a data network.

16. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium for programming a computer to forward a data file from a sender device to a recipient device, said medium including processor executable instructions comprising:

a first program module receiving said data file from said sender device over a first communication network;

a second program module associating said data file with a unique access address and associating said unique access address with a notification message, and transmitting said notification message to said recipient device over a second communication network, wherein;

said notification message is not sent while the sender is accessing the messaging server and said notification message is queued for later delivery;

said first communication network and said second communication network are disparate networks;

said sender device comprises a memory device for storing contact information to keep recipient contact information of said sender updated within in an address book stored on said messaging server;

said second program module periodically querying said sender device for detecting changes in said contact information in said memory device; and

said second program module transmitting said notification message to said recipient device based on said recipient contact information;

a data file transmitter module providing access to the recipient using said unique access address, and transmitting said data file from said computer to said recipient device.