Abstract:
Subscribers can access and listen to their email while they drive, access to the email messages being hands-free so a person can listen to email while they drive. In further accord with the present invention, a selectable avatar speaks the email message. And, the invention provides unified messaging such that SMS and email are unified and present and spoken by the avatar, so the subscriber need not access two devices (an instant message device, and an email device). Additionally, the invention can convert natural language to an acronym to be spoken by the avatar, and can convert acronyms in a message to natural language spoken by the avatar; subscriber selects the desired one of these two.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    This patent claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/836,937 filed Aug. 22, 2006, which is incorporated by reference in its entirety. 
     
    
     TECHNICAL FIELD 
       [0002]    The present invention relates to the wireless reception of messages, and in particular email messages received on a car PC, mobile phone, or handheld computer. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0003]    Research by Telestra (Telestra.com) shows 58 percent of motorists aged 17 to 29 read a text message, or SMS, while driving. 
         [0004]    One-third of drivers under 30 surveyed felt they could safely take their eyes off the road to send a text message or talk on the phone. And if they could not manage to send the message while driving, traffic lights provided the perfect texting opportunity for more than 30 percent of young drivers, the research 
         [0005]    Men are the worst offenders, with more males than females making and answering calls while driving. Five percent of males even agreed that chatting on a hand-held phone affected their driving. 
         [0006]    But it is not just younger drivers who cannot resist the temptation of a ringing phone. 
         [0007]    Across all age groups, one in three motorists admitted to making calls from their mobile at least once a week, and more than half said they answered the phone in the car. A survey by Nationwide Mutual Insurance found that one in five people text while driving. The numbers jump to one in three among 18-34 year olds, and insurers predict that this trend will only increase as more people get access to mobile devices with messaging technologies. 
         [0008]    In May, 2007 the state of Washington passed a ban on texting while driving, and a number of other states, including New York, California and Florida, are considering similar laws. 
         [0009]    A solution is needed. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0010]    It is an object of the present invention to allow a person to get his email through an audio message, that is without reading his email. 
         [0011]    According to the present invention, subscribers can access and listen to their email while they drive, access to the email messages being hands-free so a person can listen to email while they drive. In further accord with the present invention, a selectable avatar speaks the email message. Third, the invention provides unified messaging such that SMS text messages and email are unified and presented and spoken by an avatar, so the subscriber need not access two devices (an instant message device, and an email device) but receive both kinds of messages from one device. 
         [0012]    These and other advantages will become readily apparent to those skilled in the art based upon the disclosure contained herein. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0013]      FIG. 1  is a diagram of the present invention. 
           [0014]      FIG. 2  is a diagram of the present invention. 
           [0015]      FIG. 3  is a diagram of the present invention using a personal computer. 
           [0016]      FIG. 4  is a diagram of the present invention using a handheld computer. 
           [0017]      FIG. 5  is a flowchart of the email reader application for a personal computer. 
           [0018]      FIG. 6  is a flowchart of the email reader application for a personal computer. 
           [0019]      FIG. 7  is a flowchart of the email reader application for a personal computer. 
           [0020]      FIG. 8  is a flowchart of the email reader application for a personal computer. 
           [0021]      FIG. 9  is a flowchart of the email reader application for a cell phone or handheld computer. 
           [0022]      FIG. 10  is a flowchart of the email reader application for a cell phone or handheld computer. 
           [0023]      FIG. 11  is a flowchart of the email reader application for a cell phone or handheld computer. 
           [0024]      FIG. 12  is a flowchart of the email reader application for a cell phone or handheld computer. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0025]    The invention renders an email and text message on a screen display of an animated avatar synchronized with an audio version of the email or text message. The invention can work on a mobile device including a personal computer, smart phone, cellphone, or handheld computer. It is understood that mail and email are used interchangeably as are the terms user and subscriber. In  FIG. 1 , an SMS text message sender  2 , a POP email sender  4  both can send their messages through a web server  6  to a wireless mobile internet terminal  8  where the SMS and email can be read aloud as a sound file by an avatar  10 . This unified message system avoids the need to check two devices for incoming messages (for example a Blackberry, and a personal computer) and avoids the need to read the message because the message is spoken. If the wireless mobile internet terminal sits on an automobile dashboard, a user can listen to email and SMS messages rather than read them and therereby drive more safely for his benefit and the benefit of others. This makes for safe driving. The invention can, but is not limited to, connect to the Internet through the Verizon Wireless EV-DO high-speed network. When fully installed on a compatible device, Vivee, yields full wireless Internet connectivity at speeds on par with many DSL services. 
         [0026]    In  FIG. 2 , a user  12  has a POP3 email account  14 . First, a telematics server  16  gets email from the POP3 email account  14  of the user. Second, the telematics server  16  saves mail to a global mail database  18 . Third, the telematics server  16  sends a mail list to a Vivee  20  (short for Voice Interactive Voice Enhanced Email). Fourth, Vivee  20  updates mail information in a local database.  22  Fifth, Vivee  20  displays available mail to user  12 . Vivee  20  can be a handheld computer, smartphone, or personal computer. 
         [0027]    In  FIG. 3 , user  12  has a master mail (or email) account which forwards mail automatically to a Vivee email server  26 . The Vivee email server  26  sends signals to and receives signals from a Vivee mail database  28 . The Vivee mail server  26  also sends signals to and receives signals from a Vivee administration server  29  for the purpose of verifying a user account. The Vivee administration server  29  in turn communicates mail both ways with a Vivee account database  30 . Further, the Vivee mail server  28  provides mail via a POP3 internet connection to a user car personal computer  32 . A user email client  34  resides on the personal computer  32 . Unwanted characters are stripped from piece of mail and the mail is provided to a text processor  36 . After text processing the mail is stored locally  38  and converted to a speech signal  40 . The speech signal is stored in a speech library  42  on the car personal computer  32 . The speech signal is also provided to a character animator  44  for providing an avatar animated in synchronization with the text email. The character animator  44  is responsive to a lip-synch module  46  which receives the speech signal and together with the character animator  44  provides an avatar signal to the user  12  via a display on an animation player  48 . This display includes a visual component and an audio component which plays the speech signal in synchronization with the lip movement of the chosen avatar  10 . The user  12  can choose to look at the avatar  10 , listen to the mail, or both. 
         [0028]      FIG. 4  shows a view of the present invention for use on a mobile device  32   a . A mobile device, or mobile handheld computing device, can include as a handheld computer, PocketPC, Palm, or the like. The operation of the invention differs somewhat from that shown in  FIG. 2 . A handheld computer is typically constrained by less computing power than might be found on a stand-alone personal computer. A user  12  has a master mail account  24  which forwards mail automatically to a Vivee mail server  26 . The Vivee mail server  26  is available from Mail Enable (MailEnable.com), a powerful, scalable, hosted messaging platform. Mail Enable provides multi domain support and integrates with Microsoft&#39;s Management Console for management of users and domains. The base configuration of Mail Enable stores the configuration information in tab delimited files in the config folder. The Enterprise version supports storing this data in either SQL or MySQL. The Vivee email server  26  sends signals to and receives signals from a Vivee mail database  28 . The Vivee mail server  26  also sends signals to and receives signals from a Vivee administration server  29  for the purpose of verifying a user account. The Vivee administration server  29  in turn communicates mail both ways with a Vivee account database  30 . Further, the Vivee mail server  26  provides mail via a POP3 internet connection to a handheld computer  50 , such as a PocketPC. A user email client  52  resides on the handheld computer  50 . Unwanted characters are stripped from piece of mail and the mail is provided to a text processor  54 . After text processing, the mail is stored locally  56  but not converted to a speech signal. Instead, the processed text message is sent by wireless internet to a Vivee character server  58 . On the Vivee character server, the processed text message is converted to an audio speech signal. One job of the Vivee character server  58  is conversion: to receive a text file and provide a flash file. The speech signal is provided to a character animator  62 . The character animator  62  is responsive to a lip-synch module  64  which receives the speech signal and together with the character animator  62  provides an avatar signal in flash format to the user via a display on an animation player  66 . This display includes a visual component which speaks the text of the mail and an audio component which plays the speech signal in synchronization with the lip movement of the chosen avatar  10 . 
         [0029]      FIG. 5  is a flowchart of the email reader application for a personal computer  32 . The email reader application is responsible for making the connection to the server, verifying user authority, transfer the emails to the mobile device playing the email. Each customer of this service will receive an email address at Vivee.com. It will be the responsibility of a user to setup forwarding to their Vivee.com email address for any other email accounts they would like to access through the Email Reader. A user (or subscriber)  12  starts an email reader application  70  which first determines  72  if the user  12  is connected to the wireless network (such as the internet) and if not the email reader application  70  ceases  76 . Otherwise, the email reader makes a connection  78  to the mail server  26  and then the mail server  26  gets user information for evaluation  80 . Standard internet protocol POP3 is used to make the connection to the server  26 . This user information can include a user identity for comparison with a list of active users who have or have not paid their bill for using the invention. By getting the user information, the invention can inform delinquent subscribers of their delinquency and send them a message as to how to resolve the delinquency. The invention can receive credit card information in real-time such that users need not be frustrated by a service lapse. Seriously delinquent users can be informed of their status and how they can reactivate their accounts should they choose to do so. If a query  82  as to whether the subscriber is valid and active is answered in the negative, the email reader application  70  exits  76 . If the query  82  answers in the affirmative the mail server  202  is checked for new emails  84 . 
         [0030]    If the user has no new emails, a message  86  is sent to the user  12  informing him that there are no emails and the email reader application  70  is exited  76 . If the user  12  has new emails a listing of the new emails is sent to the user  12  and the email reader application is exited  76 . The application  70  does not immediately bring the full email down for processing, but rather brings a listing  88  ( FIG. 6 ) of the emails including the following: sender, title, date, time. The emails are handled in this manner for productivity reasons. When the email reader application  70  is active a process will continue to run in the background and poll the email server for new emails. 
         [0031]    In  FIG. 6 , the email reader application  70  further includes an email reading method  90  where the user  12  chooses to read one or more emails  92 . The choice may be expressed by the user  12  in a number of ways including but not limited to a voice command, or pushing a play button on the animation player  48 . Alternatively, the user  12  can choice the reading method  90  to begin automatically after the listing  88  and that choice can be affected by the user  12  choosing a default option in the email reader application  90 . In any event, the first email message is read  94  beginning with an email conversion process  96  which includes an email text message being converted into a flash file and stored on the personal computer  32  ( FIG. 1 ). The flash file is queued for playing  98  and played, and then the email application reader  70  queries  100  whether additional emails need reading. If not, the email reader application  70  exits, else the conversion  96  and playing  98  and query  100  steps are repeated until the emails are exhausted. 
         [0032]    When a user  12  selects to read email the first thing the program does is determines if the email chosen to be read is actually on the mobile device. If not, the email will be downloaded from the server. The application  70  can use a commercially available EAGetMail component to connect to the server and download email to the local personal computer  32 . The invention can read emails in multiple languages (such as Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, French, German, English) and convert that text into an audio message spoken in the language of the email. 
         [0033]    As shown in  FIG. 7 , the email conversion method  96  includes a subroutine  102 . Email conversion subroutine  102  includes a query  104  as to whether a flash file already exists for the email and if so the email conversion subroutine  102  is exited  304 . This query  104  exists because each email on mail server  26  has an associated unique identifier, that identifier being a string of characters divided into one or more characters or groups of characters. The characters or groups of characters indicate the source of the email, the target of the email, and other information. The email conversion subroutine  102  strips (or parses) html tags from the email  106 , removes additional unreadable characters  108 , removes any header and footer  110  that might be in the email and then passes a clean email text to a Media Semantics Character application programming interface (API)  112 . The Media Semantics application is available from MediaSemantics.com and P.O. Box 1024, Snowqualmie, Wash. 98065 USA. In response to the the API, a NeoSpeech text-to-speech application combines sound and a visual (avatar) into a flash file  114 . The Neo-speech application is available from Neo-Speech, 2051 Landings Drive, Mountain View, Calif. 94043. 
         [0034]    It is not until the user begins to play an email that a full email is extracted from the Vivee email server  26  and brought to the mobile device, personal computer  32 . At this point the EAGetMail component is used to connect to the mail server through POP3 and bring down the email. The email reader application  70  further includes a play subroutine  116  ( FIG. 7 ). Email play subroutine  116  queries  118  whether there are any flash email files to play and if not the subroutine  116  is exited. If there are email to play, and query  118  is answered in the affirmative, the first email flash file is played  120  and subsequent emails flash files are played one after another until query  122  is answered in the negative. 
         [0035]      FIG. 9  is a flowchart of the email reader application  130  for use on handheld computer, smartphone, or cellphone. The email reader application  130  is responsible for making the connection to the server, verifying user authority, transfer the emails to the mobile device playing the email. Each customer of this service will receive an email address at Vivee.com. It will be the responsibility of the user to setup forwarding to their Vivee.com email address for any other email accounts they would like to access through the Email Reader. 
         [0036]    User  12  starts email reader application  130  which determines  132  if the user  12  is connected to a wireless network (such as the internet) and if not the email reader application  130  ceases  134 . Otherwise, the email reader makes a connection  136  to the Vivee mail server  26  ( FIG. 4 ) and then the Vivee mail server  26  gets user information for evaluation  138 . The standard internet protocol POP3 is used to make the connection to the server. This user information can include an identity for comparison  140  with a list of active users who have or have not paid their bill for using the invention. By getting the user information, the invention can inform delinquent users of their delinquency and send them a message as to how to resolve the delinquency  142 . The invention can receive credit card information in real-time such that subscribers need not be frustrated by a service lapse. Seriously delinquent subscribers can be informed of their status and how they can reactivate their accounts should they choose to do so. If query  140  as to whether the subscriber is valid and active is answered in the negative, the email reader application  130  exits  134 . If the query  140  answers in the affirmative the Vivee mail server  26  ( FIG. 4 ) is checked for new emails  144 . 
         [0037]    If it is determined that the user  12  has no new emails  146 , a message  148  is sent to the user  12  informing him that there are no emails and the email reader application  130  is exited. If the user  12  does have new emails a listing of the new emails is sent to the user  12  and the email reader application  130  is exited. The process does not immediately bring the full email down for processing, but rather brings a listing  149  ( FIG. 10 ) of the emails including the following; sender, title, date, time. The emails are handled in this manner for application productivity reasons. When the email reader application  70  is active a process will continue to run in the background and poll the email server for new emails. 
         [0038]    In  FIG. 10 , the email reader application  130  further includes an email reading method  150  where the user  12  chooses to read one or more emails  152 . The choice may be expressed by the user  12  in a number of ways including but not limited to a voice command, or pushing a play button on the animation player  66  ( FIG. 4 ). Alternatively, the user  12  can choice the reading method  150  to begin automatically after the listing  149  and that choice can be affected by the reader choosing a default option in the email reader application  130 . When a user  12  selects to read an email the first thing the program does is determines if the email chosen to be read is actually on the mobile device. If not, the email will be downloaded from the server. The application uses the EasyMail component to connect to the server and download the email to the local PC. EasyMail is available from QuickSoftCorp.com. In any event, the first email message is read  154  beginning with an email conversion process  156  which includes an email text message being converted into a flash file and stored on a handheld computer of the user. The flash file is queued for playing  158 , and then the email application reader  130  queries whether additional emails need reading  160 . If not, the email reader application  130  exits, else the conversion  156  and playing  158  and query  160  steps are repeated until the emails are exhausted. 
         [0039]    As shown in  FIG. 11 , the email conversion method  156  includes a subroutine  162 . Email conversion subroutine  162  includes a query  164  as to whether a flash file already exists for the email and if so the email conversion subroutine  162  is exited. This query  164  exists because each email on Vivee mail server  26  ( FIG. 4 ) has an associated unique identifier, that identifier being a string of characters divided into one or more characters or groups of characters. The characters or groups of characters indicate the source of the email, the target of the email, and other information. The email conversion subroutine  162  strips (or parses) html tags from the email  166 , removes additional unreadable characters  168 , removes any header and footer  170  that might be in the email and then passes a clean email text to a Media Semantics Character application programming interface  172 . The Media Semantics application is available from MediaSemantics.com and P.O. Box 1024, Snowqualmie, Wash. 98065 USA. In response to the the API, a NeoSpeech text-to-speech application combines sound and a visual (avatar) into a flash file  174 . The Neo-speech application is available from Neo-Speech, 2051 Landings Drive, Mountain View, Calif. 94043. The flash file is passed to the handheld device ( FIG. 4 ) for the mail by means of the animation player  66 . 
         [0040]    It is not until the end user begins to play an email that the full email is extracted from the server and brought to the mobile device. At this point the EAGetMail component is used to connect to the mail server through POP4 and bring down the email. The email reader application  130  further includes a play subroutine  180 . Email play subroutine  180  queries  182  whether there are any flash email files to play and if not the subroutine  180  is exited. If there are email to play, the first email flash file is played  184  and subsequent emails flash files are played one after another until query  186  is answered in the negative. 
         [0041]    It will be observed that the present invention has apparent utility in a wide variety of fields beyond those described herein. The disclosure herein illustrates the presently-known preferred embodiments for utilizing the technique of the present invention. Additional objects and circumstances are included within the scope of the present invention in accordance with the precepts thereof. All citations referred to herein are incorporated expressly herein by reference.