Abstract:
In accordance with a method and apparatus of the present invention, a voice communication system is disclosed for use in a packet switching network environment including a host server for communicating voice information, initiated by a telephone user, to an electronic mail (email) recipient. A public switching telephone network (PSTN) includes at least one telephone device for communicating the voice information therethrough. The host server is responsive to email messages, transmitted in packet form, through the packet switching network The voice communication system includes a network device responsive to a voice message generated by the telephone user. The voice communication system is operative to convert the voice message to an email message, establish a first connection between the network device and the host server for transmission of the email message, edit the voice message pursuant to commands from the telephone user and transmit the email message, in the form of packets, to the host server for storage thereof and transmission thereafter to the email recipient, wherein the voice message may be manipulated by the telephone user prior to the transmission thereof by the network device without the use of secondary storage within the network device.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATIONS  
       [0001]    This application is a continuation-in-part of our prior U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/272,811, entitled “EMAIL To FAX Processing When No Secondary Storage Is Available”, filed on Mar. 19, 1999, the co-inventors of which are Neil Joffe and Ilya Umansky. 
     
    
     
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    1. Field of the Invention  
           [0003]    The present invention relates generally to the field of network communications systems employing routers for directing communication of voice-mail messages, in a packet switching network environment and particularly to routers having no secondary storage available for storing the voice-mail messages.  
           [0004]    2. Description of the Prior Art  
           [0005]    When a voice mail message is transmitted to a party over a telephone system, it is desirable for the party to be able to playback the message in order to edit or delete the same, if needed. In some present-day communications systems, telephone devices are generally connected to routers (or access servers) through the Public Service Telephone Network (PSTN). Within the router, a voicemail message received from the telephone device, is converted to an electronic mail (email) message and later transmitted to its point of destination, which may be a Personal Computer (PC) or other types of communications devices capable of receiving email messages. To provide an efficient and less costly communications system, the email message is generally encoded or compressed within the router prior to transmission thereof.  
           [0006]    To perform editing on a voice message at the time it is converted to an email message, the entire message must be stored in a secondary storage device such as a hard disk or nonvolatile memory. There are a number of reasons for the need to maintain storage of the entire message. Firstly, to edit a voice message, it is desirable to listen to and have access to the entire message. Moreover, if the user wishes to copy others on the message, the entire message must first be received and stored before it is distributed pursuant to the user&#39;s instructions. Secondly, even if it is possible to edit the message while only a portion of the message is received, it is nearly impossible to keep up with editing instructions while receiving the entire message. It is therefore necessary to maintain the message in a storage area.  
           [0007]    Generally, however, routers lack secondary storage capability for various reasons, such as cost and size, and consequently cannot be used for the purpose of editing voice-related mail messages.  
           [0008]    Therefore, the need arises for network communications systems using routers, or other network devices without secondary storage, to allow for editing, copying and other manipulation of voice-mail messages, which are converted to email messages within the network devices, and transmitted to the recipient.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0009]    Briefly, a voice communication system for use in a packet switching network environment, including a host server, for communicating voice information, initiated by: a telephone user, to an electronic mail (email) recipient includes a network device. A public switching telephone network (PSTN) includes at least one telephone device for communicating the voice information therethrough. The host server is responsive to email messages, transmitted in packet form, through the packet switching network. The network device is responsive to a voice message generated by the telephone user and is operative to convert the voice message to an email message, establish a first connection between the network device and the host server for transmission of the email message, edit the voice message pursuant to commands from the telephone user and transmit the email message, in the form of packets, to the host server for storage thereof and transmission thereafter to the email recipient, wherein the voice message may be manipulated by the telephone user prior to the transmission thereof by the network device without the use of secondary storage within the network device.  
           [0010]    The foregoing and other objects, features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments, which made reference to the several figures of the drawing. 
       
    
    
     IN THE DRAWING  
       [0011]    [0011]FIG. 1 shows a voice communication system  10  including a network device  26  in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0012]    [0012]FIG. 2 illustrates more details of the networking device  26  of FIG. 1 in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0013]    [0013]FIG. 3 shows details of the network device  26  with respect to second and further passes of the email message  42  shown in FIG. 1.  
         [0014]    [0014]FIG. 4 shows, in flow chart form, the operation of the voice communication system  10  of FIG. 1. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0015]    Referring now to FIG. 1, a voice communications system  10  is presented in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The voice communications system  10  is shown to include an electronic mail (email) recipient  12 , a network  14 , a host server  18 , a network device  26 , a public switching telephone network (PSTN) interface  32  and phone devices  38 . The email recipient  12  is coupled through various paths, which will be discussed in detail in relation to the operation of the voice communications system  10 . The network device  26  is coupled, through the PSTN  32 , to the phone devices  38 . In one embodiment of the present invention, the network device  26  may be an access server product including a router device for selecting a path that information should tale through the packet switching network, such as the network  14  in FIG. 1, thereby requiring the router to have an understanding of the network and how to determine the best route for the path.  
         [0016]    The email recipient  12  may be a Personal Computer (PC), a work station or alternatively, any other device capable of receiving email messages. The network  14  is generally an industry-recognized protocol, such as a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet (TCP/IP) and alternatively may use any other type of industry-recognized standard for communicating email messages between devices, such as the host server  18  an the email recipient  12 . TCP/IP specifies certain protocol for use by manufacturers of equipment employed in the Internet environment. The host server  18  is a commercially-available device including storage space for storing email messages and directing the same to predetermined destinations based on the address included within the email message. The network device  26  may be an access server including a router device for receiving voice or email information and choosing the path to be taken by the information, which is generally in packet form, prior to reaching its final destination. The PSTN  32  is used by telephone companies for relaying voice information to and from telephone lines. The phone devices  38  include one or more telephone devices, such as a telephone device  36 . Each of the phone devices  38  may be devices using dual tone modulation frequency (DTMF) for transmitting a voice message or may be voice-prompted where the user&#39;s voice initiates transmission of the voice message or may simply be a conventional dial pulse telephone.  
         [0017]    Information between the phone devices  38  and the PSTN  32  is coupled through telephone company (telco) transmission lines  34  bidirectionally. In operation, a user of the telephone device  36  places a call to a predetermined destination defined by the telephone number dialed by the user. The call may be in the form of a voice mail (vmail) message  40  that may be stored and listened to by the recipient at a later time, at the recipient&#39;s leisure. With the advent of answering machines and voice mail boxes (storage areas for storing voice mail messages at an address defined by the telephone number of the voice mail message recipient), this is commonly done by the public-at-large. The vmail message  40 , which is at this time in the form of a continuous stream of voice signal, is coupled, through the PSTN  32  and a network device input line  28 , to the network device  26 . The network device  26  converts the vmail message  40  into an email message  42 , which is in packet form with each packet having a portion or packet of voice information for transmission thereof. The email message  42  is transmitted along with an email context history  50 , to the host server  18 . The email message  42  and the email context history  50  form an email package  41 . In one embodiment of the present invention, the email context history is appended to the end of the email message  42 .  
         [0018]    The email context history includes information regarding the vmail message  40 . For example, the context history may include commands or instructions, defined by the user of the telephone device  36  (the person leaving the vmail message) regarding actions to be taken on the vmail message  40 . In FIG. 1, the user of the telephone device  36  may wish for the vmail message  40  to be distributed to a number of recipients, to be edited in a certain manner, to be played back to the user, to be fast-forwarded, to be recorded or delivered to the recipient at a later-specified time. There are indeed many instructions and commands that may be applied to a vmail message, which will be discussed in more detail shortly. The context information is commonly proprietary information to manufacturers of voice mail applications.  
         [0019]    When the email message  42 , which includes voice information, is sent to the host server  18 , it is stored in an administrative account  44 , identified by the address of the email message  42 . The administrative account  44 , sometimes referred to as a ‘pop’ account or a user account, occupies an area of nonvolatile memory, such as hard disk drive or the like, within the host server  18 . The network device  26  does not include secondary storage for storing the entire email message. Thus, the present invention takes advantage of and uses the host server&#39;s memory for storage of the email message. In fact, as the user is transmitting the vmail message  40 , i.e. the user speaks into one of the phone devices  38 , there is a connection  20  established between the network device  26  and the host server  18  for transferring the email message  42  therebetween. The email message  42  is transmitted in packet form where each packet includes portions of the vmail message  40 . As the user is transmitting the vmail message  40 , the email message  42  is streamed out of the network device  26  to a particular administrative account  44  within the host server  18 . Information coupled through the connection  20 , in one embodiment of the present invention, may be governed by Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). The network device  26  appends to the end of the email message  42 , context history  50  and transmits both through the connection  20  to the host server  18 .  
         [0020]    If the user command is to discard the message, the connection  20  is simply disconnected. Alternatively, if the user command is to play back the message or if the user command is other than to discard the message, the context information is appended to the email message  42 . The end of transmission of the email package  41  is noted by what is referred to as ‘dot termination’, which is the transmission of a dot or ‘.’ from the network device  26  to the host server  18 . In fact, every time an email package is transmitted between the host server and the network device, the end of the transmission is noted by ‘dot termination’.  
         [0021]    The context information, which may be in an industry-recognizable format, referred to as Multi-purpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME), further includes information regarding which network device the user is connected thereto. In other words, in the voice communication system of FIG. 1, there may be many devices within the phone devices  38  and while not shown in FIG. 1, there may additionally be many network devices  26 . Information regarding the connection of the phone devices to the network devices in included within the context information and appended to the email message  42  when the email message  42  is not discarded and coupled onto the connection  20  for storage within the administrative account  44 . If the user command indicates that the message is ready to be transferred to its final destination, which may be the email recipient  12 , then prior to such transfer and following the transfer of the vmail message&#39;s context history from the network device  26  to the host server  18 , the terminating dot is transmitted indicating the end of the email message  42 . The terminating dot is used by the recipient thereof, such as the host server  18  in this case, for indicating the end of the message and at such time, the connection that was established between the devices for transmitting the message may be disconnected.  
         [0022]    Once the host server  18  receives the email message  42  and stores the same in the administrative user account, it invokes an executable file that is associated with the mail box or administrative user account. This executable file parses the context history of the message, which is located at the end of the message in one embodiment and moves the same in front of the email message  42  for transmission of an email package  46  including the email message  42  and the context history being in front of the email message to the network device  26 . The email package  46  is then transmitted from the host server  18  back to the network device  26  through a connection  22 , which may be an SMTP type of connection. It should be noted that the user continues recording while the message is transmitted through the connection  20  but the connection  22  is not established until the user somehow notes the end of the message and enters the next command or instruction. The user may note the end of the message by, for example, pressing the ‘#’ key on the keypad of the telephone device, which would end the call. Thereafter, the connection  22  is established when the message is received by the host server  18  and stored within the administration account  44 .  
         [0023]    The network device  26  receives the email package  46  and uses the context history  50 , which now appears in front of the email message  42  for obtaining all of the necessary information regarding the email message  42 . For example, if the context history includes an instruction to play back the message, the email message  42  is converted back to the vmail message  40  and played back to the user by coupling the vmail message through the PSTN  32 . This is, in part, the reason for including the context history in a location preceding the email message. That is, the network device  26  is given an opportunity to determine the destiny of the email message upon receipt thereof due to the contents of the context history.  
         [0024]    Each reception of the email message by the network device  26 , triggers sending of the email message  42  to the administrative account  44  in the host server  18  with the email message having appended thereto new context information each time it is re-transmitted to the host server  18 . This process terminates when the user decides to finally finish editing the vmail message  40  and to have it sent to its final destination, which, for example, in FIG. 1, is the email recipient  12 . The end of the message is identified by the user sending a predefined end-of-message command, such as a button on the telephone device  36  indicating ‘sent’.  
         [0025]    The context information in the last passage of the email message will include a “message sent” command and a destination and other relevant information. The telephone number that is dialed or otherwise indicated by the user generally identifies the destination. In FIG. 1, this passage is indicated by an email package  52  being sent through a connection  24 , which may be an SMTP type of connection, from the network device  26  to the host server  18 . The email package  52  includes a copy of the original message, or email message  42 , and new context history  54 , which includes the “message sent” command. The context information  54  is appended at the end of the email message  42  in the email package  52  that is transmitted to the host server  18  through the connection  24 . In the host server  18 , the email package is stored in the administrative account  44  and through the use of the executable file within the host server  18 , it is determined from the contents of the context history  54  that the email message  42  is ready to be sent to its final destination. The host server  18  then sends the email message  42 , through the network interface  14 , to the email recipient  12 . Alternatively and while not shown in FIG. 1, the email message may be sent to more than one destination. Information regarding the number of destinations is also included in the context history. Upon the network device  26  sending the email message  42  in the last passage, it plays a proper prompt to the user of the telephone device  36  to indicate successful delivery of the vmail message  40 . It should be noted that until the user sends a command indicating satisfaction with the message for transmission to the message&#39;s final destination, the email message is continuously looped between the network device and the host server. In fact, the message continues being transmitted to the host server  18  through the connection  24  for storage within the host server since secondary storage within the network device  26  does not exist. As previously stated, the vmail message  40  is too large to store within the network device  26 .  
         [0026]    In one embodiment of the present invention, all connections are “gracefully” terminated and in another embodiment of the present invention, if the user decides to discard the message, the router can terminate the connection through which the message is coupled “ungracefully”. If the message is being coupled onto the connection  20 , then the connection  20  is terminated “ungracefully” and if the message is being coupled onto the connection  24 , then the connection  24  is terminated “ungracefully”. “Ungraceful” termination of a connection is the same as “aborting” the connection, as discussed in more detail in the patent document referred to and incorporated by reference herein. In still another embodiment of the present invention, it is yet possible to “gracefully” terminate the connection even if the user commands to discard the message because the context information includes the user command to do the same.  
         [0027]    Referring still to FIG. 1, as soon as the email package  46  begins to be received by the network device  26 , the connection  24  is established.  
         [0028]    Thus, when the email message  42  is transmitted from the network device  26  to the host server  18 , sometimes referred to as the forward connection, i.e. connections  20  and  24  in FIG. 1, the context information is appended at the end of the email message and when the email message  42  is transmitted from the host server  18  to the network device  26 , sometimes referred to as the reverse connection herein, it is placed in a position preceding the email message. Alternatively, context history may be stored in the network device  26 .  
         [0029]    In an alternative embodiment, the email message  42  that is coupled onto the connection  24  from the network device  26  to the host server  18  may not be identical to the email message  42  that is coupled onto the connection  20 . This could be due to the user of the telephone device  36  having edited the message after listening to it. Consider the situation where the user speaks into the telephone device  36  and thereby creates the vmail message  40 , which is ultimately transferred to the host server  18 , in the form of an email message, through the connection  20 . Thereafter, the email message is transmitted or played back to the network device  26  through the connection  22  where the network device  26  converts the email message back into the vmail message  40  and the user listens to what he/she has recorded and decides to modify it in some way. The modified or edited version of the vmail message  40  is then sent back to the network device  26 , which, in turn, converts the latter into a modified email message that is now different than the original email message  42  sent by the user. This modified email message is then transmitted to the host server  18  by the network device  26 .  
         [0030]    In an alternative embodiment, the network device  26  sends the email message  42  and the context information  54  to a host server that is other than the host server  18 . Stated differently, since the email message is in continuous transit and carries context information with it that identifies necessary information regarding the final destination and other like information, the email message  42  need not be transmitted to the same host server.  
         [0031]    In FIG. 1, a router output line  30  is used for coupling voice information from the network device  26 , through the PSTN  32 , to the phone devices  38 . In one embodiment of the present invention, the network device input line  28  and the router output line  30  are T1 transmission lines carrying  24  channels of voice information. Alternatively, they may be E1 or other like transmission lines.  
         [0032]    Considering the example provided hereinabove regarding playing back the message to the user, the email message  42  is converted back to the vmail message  40  by the network device  26  and transmitted through the router output line  30  and through the PSTN to the phone devices  38 .  
         [0033]    Alternatively, in FIG. 1, the network interface  14  includes further host server devices such that when the host server  18  transmits the email message, the latter is received by yet another host server device. In fact, there may be a number of host server devices through which the email message travels within the network interface  14 .  
         [0034]    [0034]FIG. 2 shows some details of the network device  26  in FIG. 1. In FIG. 2, the network device  26  is shown to include a router  60  coupled to the network device input line  28  and coupled to the router output line  20  for transmitting information to the host server  18 . The router  60  includes a coder/decoder device  62 , which receives a coder/decoder input  64  and generates a coder/decoder output  66 . The input  64  is formed from the network device input line  28  and the output  66  forms the router output line  20 .  
         [0035]    Prior to transmission of the email message  42  (in FIG. 1) to the host server  18 , the message is compressed by the coder/decoder device  62  to effectively reduce the size of the email message and minimize any redundancies inherently present therein. This results in an increase in the system throughput. In the play back example, prior to playing back of the message to the user on the line  30  and prior to conversion of the email message to vmail, the email message is decompressed by the coder/decoder  62  so as to reconstruct the original form of the message and then converted to vmail. The latter is shown more clearly in the following figure.  
         [0036]    [0036]FIG. 3 shows details of the network device  26  with respect to second and further passes of the email message  42  shown in FIG. 1. In FIG. 3, the router  60  of FIG. 2 is shown to receive an email message, coupled onto the connection  22 , from the host server  18 . The received email message contains compressed voice information in the form of an email message, which is decompressed by the coder/decoder  62 . The router  60  is also shown to transmit email information to the host server  18  through the connection  24 . The transmitted email information is compressed prior to transmission by the coder/decoder  62 . The router  60  is further shown to transmit or playback voice information to the user through the connection  30  and the PSTN  32 . The played back voice information may be decompressed voice for Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) transmission. Alternatively, if the connection  30  couples the router  60  to a packet switching network (such as the Internet) rather than the PSTN  32 , the played back voice information may be compressed in the same or different manner as done with respect to the information that is coupled onto the connections  22  and  24 .  
         [0037]    In FIG. 4, the operation of the voice communication system  10  (in FIG. 1) is outlined in flow chart form. At  80 , the operation begins and at step  82 , the user places a call, which is transmitted to the network device  26  and the network device  26  starts recording the voice message provided by the user. As previously noted, the network device  26  is not capable of storing the entire voice message transmitted by the user and thus only stores a minimal amount or portions of the message prior to passing the portions onto the host server.  
         [0038]    Following the step  82 , at step  84 , the network device establishes a forward connection, for example, the connection  20 , to the host server  18 . Thereafter, at step  86 , the voice message from the user is converted to an email message, such as the email message  42  in FIG. 1 and the email message including context history is transmitted to the host server through the established connection.  
         [0039]    At step  88 , the user enters a command, which may be one of several commands, such as playback, send message, continue recording, change recipients and the like. A playback command causes the message to be played back to the user, as earlier discussed. A send message command causes the message to be sent to its final destination and essentially brings the message out of transit between the host server and the network device. The continue recording command causes the original voice message to include further voice information and the change recipients command causes modification of the originally-specified destination of the message.  
         [0040]    The process continues to step  90  after step  88  at which time the command that was entered by the user at step  88  is appended to the email message  42  as a part of the context history. Thereafter, at step  92 , the forward connection established at step  84  and that was used to transfer the email message to the host server  18  is ‘gracefully’ terminated and the email message is stored in an administrative user account within the host server  18 . An explanation of how a connection is ‘gracefully’ terminated and how a connection is ‘aborted’ is provided in a related U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/272,811, entitled “EMAIL To FAX Processing When No Secondary Storage Is Available”, filed on Mar. 19, 1999, the inventors of which are Neil Joffe and Ilya Umansky and the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference as though set forth in full.  
         [0041]    Following step  92 , step  94  is performed at which time the executable file in the host server  18  causes the processing of the email message that is stored within the user account. Next, at  96 , a determination is made as to whether or not the next command entered by the user is a ‘send message’ command. If so, step  98  follows and the host server  18  sends the email message to the intended recipient, such as the email recipient  12  in FIG. 1 and the process ends at  100 .  
         [0042]    On the other hand, if the determination at  96  yields no ‘send message’ by the user, the process continues to step  102  at which time the context history, such as the context history  50 , is moved to the front or start of the email message. As the reader recalls, the context history includes the next command specified by the user at  96 . Thereafter, at step  104 , the host server establishes a reverse connection, for example the connection  22  in FIG. 1, for coupling the email message to the network device  26 . The network device  26 , upon receipt of the email message, converts the same to a vmail message and starts to play back the latter to the user by coupling the vmail message onto the line  30 . At step  106 , at the same time the network device  26  starts to play back the message at step  104 , it establishes a forward connection (from the network device  26  to the host server  18 ), such as the connection  24  in FIG. 1, for re-transmitting the email message along with potentially different context information to the host server. As previously discussed, the mail message that is sent back through for example the connection  24  may be different in contents from that of the email message originally sent to the host interface, for example, the latter being the connection  20 . In fact, the user may continue to edit the message resulting in a modified email message being transferred back to the host server every time. Additionally, the email message may be sent back and forth between the network device and the host server many times until the user is satisfied with the message and so indicates by sending a ‘send message’ command. This is shown in FIG. 4 by the process continuing onto the step  86  after the step  106  whereat the email message is sent back to the host server and the steps  86 - 106  continue to be performed until the result of the determination at  96  is positive with respect to receiving a ‘send message’ command.  
         [0043]    Although the present invention has been described in terms of specific embodiments it is anticipated that alterations and modifications thereof will no doubt become apparent to those skilled in the art. It is therefore intended that the following claims be interpreted as covering all such alterations and modification as fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention.