Abstract:
A method in one embodiment includes storing a voicemail message in a mailbox of a recipient, the voicemail message being left by a sender, and then electronically receiving one or more attachments from the sender. The one or more attachments are stored as content associated with the voicemail message. Upon accessing the mailbox, the voicemail message and the one or more attachments are provided to the recipient. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. 37 CFR 1.72(b).

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present disclosure relates generally to the field of electronic messaging, including voice messaging, over telephony networks. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Voice messaging systems that enable users to send and retrieve voice mail messages are known in the communication arts. In a typical prior art voice messaging system a telephone is connected to a private branch exchange (PBX) that may utilize a notification mechanism, such as a message waiting indicator light, to notify a message recipient that a new message is waiting for them. Many wireless telephone communication systems also provide a Short Message Services (SMS) feature that allows users to send and/or receive short text messages. Today, many modern communication systems provide messaging services via packet-based networks, i.e., those that operate in accordance with the Internet Protocol (IP). A unified messaging (UM) system handles voice, facsimile, regular text messages, and computer-readable documents as objects in a single mailbox that a user can access either with a regular email client, or by telephone. A UM system typically connects to a PBX to provide automated attendant, audiotext, and voice mail services to subscribers or users. For instance, a personal computer (PC) user with multimedia capabilities typically can open and playback voice messages, either as speech or text. Unified messaging is therefore particularly convenient for mobile business users because it allows them to reach colleagues and customers through a PC or telephone device, whichever happens to be available. 
     There are times when a caller connected to a messaging system via a voice-only channel leaves a voicemail, but also would like to attach media content such as electronic mail (email), Web pages, financial data, documents, and/or video attachments to the voicemail message. But due to the limitations of existing UM and telephony systems users are unable to attach additional rich media content (e.g., documents, media clips, Uniform Resource Locators (URLs), etc.) to a unified message that is left as a voicemail. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The present disclosure will be understood more fully from the detailed description that follows and from the accompanying drawings, which however, should not be taken to limit the invention to the specific embodiments shown, but are for explanation and understanding only. 
         FIG. 1  example communications network with messaging capabilities. 
         FIG. 2  illustrates an example method of operation of the communications network shown in  FIG. 1 . 
         FIG. 3  illustrates another example method of operation of the communications network shown in  FIG. 1 . 
         FIG. 4  illustrates an example network node or device. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     In the following description specific details are set forth, such as device types, system configurations, protocols, methods, etc., in order to provide a thorough understanding of the disclosure herein. However, persons having ordinary skill in the relevant arts will appreciate that these specific details may not be needed to practice the embodiments described. 
     It should be understood that in the context of the present application the term “email” (as a noun or verb) is broadly understood to apply both to Internet email systems, e.g., based on the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), and to intranet systems that allow users within an organization or enterprise to communicate with each other via electronic messages. An “email client”, also called a mail user agent (MUA), is a computer program or application that is used for composing, sending, storing, and receiving of electronic messages over a communication network or system. A “voicemail” is recorded speech message stored in a computerized system for answering and routing telephone calls, for recording, saving, and relaying messages, and sometimes for paging a user. 
     An “voicemail system”, as that term is used in the present disclosure, may refer to a single computer system or network, or more expansive systems that include gateway devices connected to other computer systems, thus enabling users to send/retrieve recorded speech messages anywhere in the world. An endpoint is any device, component, element, or object capable of sending or receiving an email message over a network. An endpoint may comprise a personal computer (PCs), workstation, personal digital assistant (PDA), laptop or notebook computer, or other messaging equipment. A Unified Messaging (or UM) system is a computerized system that integrates different streams of messages (e-mail, fax, voice, video, etc.) into a single “in-box”, accessible from a variety of different endpoint devices. 
     According to one embodiment of the present invention, a Unified Messaging (UM) system is provided that allows a user to attach additional rich media content to a unified message left as a voicemail. A first user (i.e., a “sender”) may call into a UM system on a voice-only channel, deposit a voicemail message, and later attach a Web page, for example, to the voicemail message. An Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system may be utilized to query the sender whether he wishes to attach additional, non-voice content to the voicemail message. If the sender responds affirmatively, an email message may be sent to the sender by the UM system. The email message may contain the deposited voicemail message as an attachment (so that the sender remembers what was said) and a text request to attach additional content as a reply to the email. The UM system of the various embodiments described herein recognizes emails with attached content and adds the content to the deposited voicemail. The attached content may then accessed by a second user (i.e., the “receiver”) along with the voicemail message in the UM system&#39;s Graphical User Interface (GUI). 
     When a receiver retrieves a voicemail message with attached content, the UM system handles this message just like any other rich-media UM system message. That is, the UM system handles the voicemail and attached content as objects in a single mailbox that the receiver can access either with a regular email device (such as a personal computer, (PC), a telephone device, or other suitable endpoint device. In the event that the receiver retrieves a voicemail message before the reply with the attached content is received via email, the UM system may warn the receiver that additional content has yet to be attached and send notification to the receiver that content was subsequently attached. In this manner, the receiver is able to view the attachment once it arrives. 
     Referring to  FIG. 1 , an example communications network  10  is shown with messaging capabilities provided be a UM system or module  14  (e.g., an application or code running on a server) located on IP network  13 . Individual users may send/retrieve messages to/from UM system  14  (and take responsive actions thereto) utilizing any number of different endpoint devices and communication paths. For example, users  11  and  18  calling into UM system  14  from either an office telephone  16  with a text message screen or PC  15  or  19  may connect with UM system  14  (e.g., to retrieve messages and initiate responsive actions) via IP network  13 . Users  11  and  18  may also connect with UM system  14  using other types of endpoint devices that provide two-way communications with UM system  14  over one or more network connections. 
     UM system  14  may incorporate or be associated with a text-to-speech (TTS) converter for converting a text message to audible speech when a user connects with UM system  14  via a voice-only device. Similarly, UM system  14  may incorporate or be associated with a speech-to-text (STT) converter for converting a voice message to text for a user connected via a display-only device. Conversions from different media formats or types (e.g., speech-to-text or text-to-speech) may also be based on user preferences rather than the user interface capabilities of the dialing user&#39;s device. 
       FIG. 2  illustrates an example method of operation of the communications network shown in  FIG. 1  in which a user retrieves a voicemail message with attached content using a telephone device. The process begins with the caller/sender calling into the UM system (server) on a voice-only channel. The UM system detects the voice-only call and allows the sender to deposit a voicemail message (block  21 ). At the end of the voicemail message, the voicemail IVR component of the UM system asks the sender whether he has any additional, non-voice content he wishes to attach to the message. If the sender says “yes” and does not have an account with the UM system, the UM system prompts for the email address of the sender, again using the IVR (block  22 ). For example, the IVR may state, “Please state or spell your email address after the beep.” After the beep the sender may leave his email address on the voice-only channel, which may be collected by the ASR component of the UM system (block  23 ). In another embodiment, the sender may use a keypad or other input device to send a DTMF representation of the email text string. 
     Alternatively, if the sender wishes to attach additional, non-voice content to the voicemail message and the sender has an account with the UM system, it is unnecessary to obtain the sender&#39;s email address because it is already stored in a directory of the UM system. In this scenario, the UM system may look up the email address of the sender simply using caller identification information. If the sender does not wish to attach additional content to the voicemail message, (e.g., if he responds negatively when the IVR component of the UM system queries the sender if he would like the attach any additional, non-voice content to the voicemail message) the UM system simply notifies the recipient of the voicemail message and closes the call 
     In the case where the caller/sender wants to attach a media file or other content to his voicemail, the UM system sends an email message to the sender&#39;s email address requesting attachments to the voicemail message. Note that this occurs after the sender has already deposited his voicemail message in the UM system and ended his call (block  24 ). In the example shown, the email message from the UM server to the sender&#39;s email box contains the deposited voicemail message as an attachment (to remind the sender of what he said in the voicemail message) and a text request to attach additional content as a reply to the email message. For instance, the email may state “In the voicemail message sent at 8:00 a.m. on March 3 to phone number 408-555-1111, you indicated that you wanted to attach documents to this voicemail message. Please send a reply email with these documents attached.” When the sender accesses his email later on (block  25 ), he is able to retrieve the email message requesting that he attach documents to the voicemail message (block  26 ). This email request from the UM system is simply waiting in his inbox along with his other email messages. 
     The process continues with the sender replying to the email message with the relevant attached documents (block  27 ). Here, the UM system is operable to correlate the sender&#39;s response with the UM system&#39;s initial email message so that the attachments are added to the proper unified message. In one embodiment, the UM system may include a unique ID in the subject line of the email message. When the sender replies, the subject line is preserved, allowing the UM system to complete the correlation. The UM system then adds the attachments to the previous voicemail message (block  28 ). The attached content is now available to be displayed with the voicemail in the UM system&#39;s GUI. The recipient may retrieve the message by accessing his mailbox within the UM system any time thereafter (block  29 ). By accessing the UM system the recipient may now retrieve both the voicemail message (block  30 ) and the attachment(s) (block  31 ). 
     As stated previously, the UM system treats reply emails with attached content as regular unified messages. That is, the UM system delivers one or more rich media files to the recipient in various forms, depending on what type of device the recipient is calling in on. The recipient&#39;s different messaging systems (e.g., voice, fax, email, text, video, etc.) are consolidated in a single repository that the recipient may access using the UM system&#39;s GUI. If the recipient is accessing the voicemail message and the attached content through a personal computer connected to the Internet, for example, a STT converter may convert the speech in the voicemail message to text so that the recipient may simply read the message on his computer screen along with the attached documents. Alternatively, if the recipient is accessing the message by a dial-up call from a telephone connected to the Internet, then a TTS converter may convert the text of the attached documents into speech, so that the recipient may listen to the voicemail message and the attached documents using the handset device of the telephone. 
       FIG. 3  illustrates another example method of operation of the communications network shown in  FIG. 1 . Each of the steps  33 - 41  are similar to those described in  FIG. 2 . The difference is that in the example of  FIG. 3 , the recipient retrieves the voicemail message (block  43 ) before the UM system is able to receive the reply email from the sender with the attached documents (block  39 ), and also before the attached documents are included in the recipient&#39;s mailbox in association with the voicemail message (block  41 ). In other words, at the time that the recipient accesses his UM system mailbox, the only contents are the voicemail message previously left by the sender, without any attachments. 
     In block  43 , the recipient requests the voicemail component of the message from the UM system, and the UM system returns the voicemail portion of the message (block  44 ). The UM system may inform the recipient that attachments to the voicemail message are expected but have not yet arrived (block  45 ). For example, if the recipient is accessing the voicemail message using the web browser of a personal computer, an email message in the recipient&#39;s inbox may state, “Please expect attached documents to the voicemail message you received on March 7 at 8:30 a.m. from phone number 408-555-1111 to arrive shortly.” 
     The next time the recipient accesses his UM system&#39;s GUI (e.g., his web browser), the UM system may notify him that content was subsequently attached to the voicemail message (in the case, the edited documents). In one embodiment, the UM system sends the recipient an email message indicating that the attachments to the sender&#39;s voicemail are now available. For example, the email message sent to the recipient by the UM system may state, “The attached documents to the voicemail you received on March 7 at 8:30 a.m. from phone number 408-555-1111 are now available.” The recipient may also be notified that the attached documents have arrived via some other mechanism, such as a page or cell phone call, depending on the type of endpoint device the recipient is using to access his messages on the UM system. Regardless of how the recipient is notified, once the attachments have been received by the UM system, and then the recipient again retrieves the voicemail component of the message (block  46 ), the attached documents (block  47 ) the attachments are now waiting in his inbox and are available for downloading, viewing, playing, etc. 
       FIG. 4  is a generalized block diagram showing an example network device or node  56 , such as may comprise any of the systems, devices, or nodes (e.g., a PC or server) shown or described above. Node  56  includes a processor subsystem  51  coupled with a memory unit  52 , one or more hardware/software modules  50 , and an input/output (I/O) interface  54  via a system bus  53 . Modules  50  may include software, firmware, or logic embedded in hardware for implementing any of the functions described herein, e.g., those functions associated including an attached document with a voicemail message, etc. 
     It is appreciated that any unified messaging and/or email system utilized by or in conjunction with node  56  may comprise separate hardware devices coupled to the system bus  53 , or, alternatively, implemented as software programs or modules  50  that run on one or more processors of subsystem  51 . In other words, the composing, sending, storing, and receiving of electronic messages, as well as other associated functions may be implemented as separate hardware devices, memory locations (storing executable code), firmware devices, software modules, or other machine-readable devices. (In the context of the present application, therefore, the term “module” is to be understood as being synonymous with both hardware devices and computer-executable software code, programs or routines.) 
     It should be further understood that elements of the present invention may also be provided as a computer program product which may include a machine-readable medium having stored thereon instructions which may be used to program a computer (e.g., a processor or other electronic device) to perform a sequence of operations. Alternatively, the operations may be performed by a combination of hardware and software. The machine-readable medium may include, but is not limited to, floppy diskettes, optical disks, CD-ROMs, and magneto-optical disks, ROMs, RAMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnet or optical cards, or other type of machine-readable medium suitable for storing electronic instructions. 
     Additionally, although the present invention has been described in conjunction with specific embodiments, numerous modifications and alterations are well within the scope of the present invention. For instance, although functions and methods of various embodiments have been described as being embodied on a UM system coupled to a server via IP network, it is appreciated that these same methods and functions may be embodied on an endpoint device of a user, another server or client, a messaging application, or a third party service application program accessible via a web-based browser. Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense.