Abstract:
A voice mail apparatus and a method of processing voice mail are provided. Upon taking out digitized voice from a memory, a sender identifier identifies a proper number of a sender of the digitized voice. A retrieval of a table is performed to find an address corresponding to the proper number. A documentation converter converts reply voice to digitized document. The digitized document of the reply voice is transmitted by a transmitter to an address of the sender.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    The present invention relates to a voice mail apparatus and a method of processing voice mail, which may be usable in exchanging, within a computer network, information by voice massage or document with voice message attachment.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    The term “voice mail service” is herein used to mean a service to store digitized voice message from a sender into a memory accessible by a receiver and to take out document data from the sender in terms of voice message. A voice mail apparatus employed for such a voice mail service includes a memory provided in an information network. Storage regions of the memory are assigned to registered terminals, respectively.  
           [0003]    According to a known voice mail apparatus, among voice mail users registered at the apparatus, a voice mail sender can send a voice mail to a voice mail receiver and the voice mail receiver can reply to the voice mail sender by calling the voice mail sender.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0004]    An object of the present invention is to provide a voice mail apparatus and a method of processing voice mail wherein a voice mail receiver can reply to a voice mail sender quickly and without calling the voice mail sender.  
           [0005]    According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a voice mail apparatus comprising:  
           [0006]    a memory to store received digitized voice from a sender;  
           [0007]    an identifier to identify the sender that has sent the digitized voice; and  
           [0008]    a table containing plural addresses against plural senders, respectively.  
           [0009]    According to a specific aspect of the present invention, there is provided a voice mail apparatus comprising:  
           [0010]    a memory to store received digitized voice from a sender;  
           [0011]    an identifier to identify a proper sender number of the sender that has sent the digitized voice; and  
           [0012]    a table containing plural addresses against plural proper sender numbers of plural senders, respectively.  
           [0013]    According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of processing voice mail comprising the steps of:  
           [0014]    identifying a sender of digitized voice upon taking out the digitized voice from a memory; and  
           [0015]    performing retrieval of a table to find an address of the sender.  
           [0016]    According to a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of processing voice mail comprising the steps of:  
           [0017]    identifying a proper number of a sender of digitized voice upon taking out the digitized voice from a memory; and  
           [0018]    performing retrieval of a table to find an address corresponding to the proper number. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0019]    [0019]FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a preferred embodiment of a voice mail apparatus according to the present invention.  
         [0020]    [0020]FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a communication network into which the voice mail apparatus is placed.  
         [0021]    [0021]FIG. 3 illustrates content of information on a table within the voice mail apparatus.  
         [0022]    [0022]FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of a processing flow.  
     
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0023]    Referring to the accompanying drawings, FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a voice mall apparatus  20  according to the present invention. The voice mail apparatus  20  includes a control unit  21 , a line interface  24 , an E-mail transmitter  22 , a memory  23 , a sender number identifier  26  and a table  25 . The control unit  21  controls the line interface  24 , E-mail transmitter  22 , memory  23 , sender number identifier  26  and table  25 .  
         [0024]    The line interface  24  interconnects the voice mail apparatus  20  and a private branch exchange  30  (see FIG. 2). The E-mail transmitter  22  transmits E-mail to a E-mail server  10  (see FIG. 2). The memory  23  stores voice mails and the sender number identifier  26  identifies a sender number attached to each received voice mail. The table  25  stores E-mail addresses against sender numbers.  
         [0025]    [0025]FIG. 2 illustrates a network incorporating the embodiment of voice mail apparatus  20  according to the present invention. In this network, the voice mail apparatus  20  is connected to a local area network (LAN)  70 . The LAN  70  includes E-mail server  10  and plural computers  50  and connected via gateway  80  to computer network  90 . The gateway  80  may take the form of a provider. The computer network  90  may take the form of internet and/or intranet.  
         [0026]    The voice mail apparatus  20  is connected to a private branch exchange  30  including plural telephone sets  60 . The private branch exchange  30  is connected to a public telephone line network  40 .  
         [0027]    Telephone sets  61  and  62  are connected to the public telephone line network  40 . The telephone set  62  may take the form of a subscribed telephone set in a family  71 . The family  71  may have a computer, preferably, a personal computer  51 , connected to the computer network  90 .  
         [0028]    In the embodiment, the table  25  stores E-mail addresses corresponding to sender numbers of the subscribers of this voice mail service.  
         [0029]    As shown in FIG. 3, the table  25  stores E-mail addresses B 1 , B 2  . . . Bn corresponding to sender numbers A 1 , A 2  . . . An, respectively.  
         [0030]    The flow diagram of FIG. 4 illustrates a control routine of the preferred implementation of the present invention. It is now assumed that the telephone set  62  sends a voice mail to the telephone set  61 . The telephone set  62  is connected via the public telephone line network  40  and the private branch exchange  30  to the voice mail apparatus  20 . The voice mail apparatus  20  stores the voice mail in the memory  23 . In step  101 , the control routine determines whether or not the voice mail apparatus  20  has received any new voice mail. The control routine repeats this determination in step  101  unless new voice mail has been stored in the memory  23 . Immediately after the memory  23  has stored new voice mail, the control routine proceeds from step  101  to step  102  and the sender number identifier  26  identifies sender number A 2  corresponding to the telephone set  62 . The voice mail apparatus  20  holds the voice mail at an address corresponding to the sender number A 2  within the memory  23 . In step  102 , the control routine determines whether or not the telephone set  61  has taken out the voice mail from the telephone set  62  from the memory  23 . The telephone set  61  is connected to the voice mail apparatus  20  via the public telephone line network  40  and the private branch exchange  30 . The control routine repeats this determination in step  102  unless the telephone set  61  has taken out the voice mail from the memory  23 .  
         [0031]    Immediately after the telephone set  61  has taken out the voice mail from the memory  23 , the control routine determines whether or not a reply request by the telephone set  61  is available in step  103 . In this implementation, dual tone multi-frequency (DTMF) signaling is used to send this request.  
         [0032]    If, in step  103 , it is determined that there is no reply request from the telephone set  61 , the control routine comes to an end. If, in step  103 , there is reply request from the telephone set  61 , the control routine proceeds to step  104 . In step  104 , the control unit  21  determines whether or not the sender number A 2  is available in the table  25 .  
         [0033]    If, in step  104 , it is determined that the table  25  contains the sender number A 2 , the control routine proceeds to step  105 . In step  105 , the control unit  21  determines whether or not the table  25  contains an E-mail address B 2  corresponding to the sender number A 2  after performing retrieval operation of the table  25  against the sender number A 2 . If, in step  105 , the control unit  21  finds the E-mail address B 2  corresponding to the sender number A 2 , the interrogation in this step results in affirmative. Then, the control routine proceeds to step  107 .  
         [0034]    If the interrogation in step  104  results in negative or the interrogation in step  105  results in negative, the control routine proceeds to step  106 . This is the case where the table  25  does not contain the sender number A 2  or the E-mail address B 2  corresponding to the sender number A 2 . In this case, the voice mail apparatus  20  sends to the telephone set  61  voice announcement that reply by E-mail is impossible (step  106 ) before the control routine comes to an end.  
         [0035]    Unless the telephone set  61  receives the voice announcement that reply by E-mail is impossible, the telephone set  61  may send its operator voice reply message to the voice mail apparatus  20 . The memory  23  stores the operator voice reply message. In step  107 , the control unit  21  determines whether or not the memory  23  has stored the operator voice reply message sent by the telephone set  61 .  
         [0036]    The control routine repeats this determination in step  107  unless the memory  23  has stored the operator voice reply message. If, in step  107 , it is determined that the memory has stored the voice reply message, the control routine proceeds to step  108 .  
         [0037]    In step  108 , the voice mail apparatus  20  sends to an E-mail server  10  an E-mail against the E-mail address B 2  from a proper E-mail address of the voice mail apparatus  20 . Specifically, The E-mail transmitter  22  transmits the E-mail with the voice reply message attachment via the LAN  70  to the E-mail server  10 .  
         [0038]    The E-mail server  10  sends the E-mail with the voice reply message attachment to the computer  51  having the E-mail address B 2  via the LAN  70  and the computer network  90 . E-mail receiver may hear the voice reply message attached to the E-mail by operating the computer  51 .  
         [0039]    If it is desired to read voice reply message in terms of sentences, the voice mail apparatus may be modified to have a media converter to convert voice reply message into text for sending as E-mail. In this case, receiver of the E-mail can read the voice reply message.  
         [0040]    The voice mail apparatus may have a table containing E-mail addresses against voice mail users, respectively. Using this table, the voice mail apparatus uses E-mail address of a voice mail user as a sender address in sending a reply E-mail to a receiver. In this case, the receiver can recognize the sender before taking out the reply message.  
         [0041]    From the preceding description of the embodiments, it is appreciated that a voice mail receiver can reply to a voice mail sender quickly and without any call to the sender.  
         [0042]    The above-described voice mail implementation of the present invention is an example implementation. Moreover, various modifications to the present invention may occur to those skilled in the art and will fall within the scope of the present invention as set forth below.