Method of providing voicemails to a wireless information device

• US 8,682,304 B2
• Filed: 01/26/2007
• Issued: 03/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/22/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Doulton, Daniel Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, KHAI MINH
• Application Number:
  US11/627,596
• Publication Number:
  US 20070116204A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,615 Days
• Field of Search: 455/466, 455/422.1, 455/432.2, 455/432.3, 455/414.1, 455/414.4, 455/414.2, 455/413, 455/412.1, 379/88.17, 379/88.11, 379/88.18, 379/88.22
• US Class Current: 455/414.4
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/066 Format adaptation, e.g. format conversion or compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/7243 with interactive means for internal management of messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72436 for text messaging, e.g. short messaging services [SMS] or e-mails
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/60 Medium conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/253 where a visual mode is used instead of a voice mode
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/4536 Voicemail combined with text-based messaging
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/74 with voice recognition means voice activated dialling H04M1/271; voice recognition algorithms G10L15/00
• 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 3/4228 in networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/53 Centralised arrangements for recording incoming messages , i.e. mailbox systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/53333 Message receiving aspects
• 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: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/16 Communication-related supplementary services, e.g. call-transfer or call-hold
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup

Abstract

Voicemail is received at a voicemail server and converted to an audio file format; it is then sent or streamed over a wide area network to a voice to text transcription system comprising a network of computers. One of the networked computers plays back the voice message to an operator and the operator intelligently transcribes the actual message from the original voice message by entering the corresponding text message (actually a succinct version of the original voice message, not a verbose word-for-word conversion) into the computer to generate a transcribed text message. The transcribed text message is then sent to the wireless information device from the computer.

Because human operators are used instead of machine transcription, voicemails are converted accurately, intelligently, appropriately and succinctly into text messages (SMS/MMS).

Claims

1. A method of providing voicemail to a mobile telephone, in which a caller initiates a voice call to the mobile telephone, but that call is diverted to a voicemail server, with the caller then leaving a voice message on the voicemail server, the method comprising the steps of:

when a recording time of the voice message exceeds a maximum time, sending a standard notification to the mobile telephone indicating that an end-user of the mobile telephone has a new voicemail to listen to;

when the recording time of the voice message is less than a maximum time;

converting the voice message to an audio file format;

sending or streaming the audio file to a voice to text transcription system comprising at least one computer adapted to play back the voice message to an operator to enable the operator to transcribe the voice message into the computer to generate a transcribed text message;

including a unique identification in the transcribed text message that links the text message to the voice message held at the voicemail server;

sending the transcribed text message to the mobile phone; and

providing the voice message held at the server to the mobile telephone when the end-user of the mobile telephone selects or uses the unique identification.

2. The method of claim 1 in which the transcribed text message contains the time and date that the voice message was originally received at the voice mail server.

3. The method of claim 1 in which the transcription system automatically adds the unique identification to the transcribed text message.

4. The method of claim 1 in which the transcribed text message is displayed on the telephone as though it was sent directly from the caller that recorded the voice message.

5. The method of claim 1 in which the transcription system does not display to the operator the telephone number associated with the mobile telephone.

6. The method of claim 1 in which the transcription system displays to the operator an option to re-route the audio file to a different transcription system with an operator that is more suited to transcribing the voice message because of linguistic, dialect, or cultural reasons.

7. The method of claim 1 in which the operator represents the mood of the caller leaving the voice message in the transcribed text message using either a written description or an emoticon.

8. The method of claim 1 in which the operator summarizes the voice message.

9. The method of claim 8 in which the operator summarizes the voice message to fit a 160 character limit or creates concatenated text messages.

10. The method of claim 1 in which the operator omits from the transcribed text message hesitations, artifacts, and/or repetitions present in the voice message.

11. The method of claim 1 in which the text message is sent to the mobile telephone in a format previously specified as appropriate by the end-user of the mobile telephone.

12. The method of claim 1 in which the operator listens to the voice message and indicates the subject of the call which is sent to the message recipient.

13. The method of claim 1 in which the text message is a SMS or MMS text message.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the maximum time is set by the voicemail server.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the maximum time is user-defined.

16. A system for providing voicemail to a mobile telephone, in which a caller initiates a voice call to the mobile telephone, but that call is diverted to a voicemail server, with the caller then leaving a voice message on the voicemail server, the system adapted to:

when a recording time of the voice message exceeds a maximum time, send a standard notification to the mobile telephone indicating that an end-user of the mobile telephone has a new voicemail to listen to;

when the recording time of the voice message is less than a maximum time;

convert the voice message to an audio file format;

send or stream the audio file to a voice to text transcription system comprising at least one computer adapted to play back the voice message to an operator to enable the operator to transcribe the voice message into the computer to generate a transcribed text message;

include a unique identification in the transcribed text message that links the text message to the voice message held at the voicemail server;

send the transcribed text message to the mobile phone; and

provide the voice message held at the server to the mobile telephone when the end-user of the mobile telephone selects or uses the unique identification.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the maximum time is set by the voicemail server.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the maximum time is user-defined.

19. A method of providing voicemail to a mobile telephone, in which a caller initiates a voice call to the mobile telephone, but that call is diverted to a voicemail server, with the caller then leaving a voice message on the voicemail server, the method comprising the steps of:

when the mobile telephone supports less than a certain amount of text, initially looking up text limitations in a database and automatically suggesting, by the voicemail server, an appropriate maximum recording time for the caller;

converting the voice message to an audio file format;

sending or streaming the audio file to a voice to text transcription system comprising at least one computer adapted to play back the voice message to an operator to enable the operator to transcribe the voice message into the computer to generate a transcribed text message;

including a unique identification in the transcribed text message that links the text message to the voice message held at the voicemail server;

sending the transcribed text message to the mobile phone; and

providing the voice message held at the server to the mobile telephone when the end-user of the mobile telephone selects or uses the unique identification.

20. A system for providing voicemail to a mobile telephone, in which a caller initiates a voice call to the mobile telephone, but that call is diverted to a voicemail server, with the caller then leaving a voice message on the voicemail server, the system adapted to:

when the mobile telephone supports less than a certain amount of text, initially looking up text limitations in a database and automatically suggesting, by the voicemail server, an appropriate maximum recording time for the caller;

convert the voice message to an audio file format;

send or stream the audio file to a voice to text transcription system comprising at least one computer adapted to play back the voice message to an operator to enable the operator to transcribe the voice message into the computer to generate a transcribed text message;

include a unique identification in the transcribed text message that links the text message to the voice message held at the voicemail server;

send the transcribed text message to the mobile phone; and

provide the voice message held at the server to the mobile telephone when the end-user of the mobile telephone selects or uses the unique identification.