Telephonic communications – Audio message storage – retrieval – or synthesis – Multimedia system
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-02
2002-05-07
Tsang, Fan (Department: 2645)
Telephonic communications
Audio message storage, retrieval, or synthesis
Multimedia system
C379S088240, C379S093280, C709S206000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06385306
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to a method of transmitting audio messages over a network, and more particularly, a method of recording and retrieving audio attachments to electronic mail by use of a touch-tone telephone.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Electronic mail (“email”) has proliferated as a common method of communication. Initial communications consisted of ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) text. In an ASCII file, each alphabetic, numeric, or special character is represented with a 7-bit binary number (a string of seven 0s or 1s). 128 possible characters are defined. However, basic ASCII text email messages have progressed to include graphics, audio and even video. Graphic images, digital audio files and digital video all require an encoding and decoding process when transmitted over the Internet. A user wishing to encode a voice message and send the message to a preselected email address had to accomplish several steps and have certain hardware and software equipment. The user would typically record their voice message on a computer using a sound card attached or integrated into the motherboard of a computer.
The voice message is a sequence of analog signals that are converted to digital signals by the audio card, using a microchip called an analog-to-digital converter (ADC). When sound is played, the digital signals are sent to the speakers where they are converted back to analog signals that generate varied sound.
Audio files are usually compressed for storage or faster transmission. Audio files can be sent in short stand-alone segments —for example, as files in the WAV format. In order for users to receive sound in real-time for a multimedia effect, listening to music, or in order to take part in an audio or video conference, sound must be delivered as streaming sound. More advanced audio cards support wavetables, or precaptured tables of sound. The most popular audio file format today is MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer-3).
Once these digital audio files reside on the hard drive of the user, the user would attach the file to an email sent to a selected recipient. When the file is attached, it might be transmitted in a standardized protocol such as Multi-Purpose Internet Mail Extensions (herein “MIME”). MIME is an extension of the original Internet e-mail protocol that lets people use the protocol to exchange different kinds of data files on the Internet: audio, video, images, application programs, and other kinds, as well as the ASCII handled in the original protocol, the Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP). In 1991, Nathan Borenstein of Bellcore proposed to the Internet Engineering Task Force that SMTP be extended so that Internet (but mainly Web) clients and servers could recognize and handle other kinds of data than ASCII text. As a result, new file types were added to “mail” as a supported Internet Protocol file type.
Servers insert the MIME header at the beginning of any Web transmission. Recipients use this header to select an appropriate “player” application for the type of data the header indicates. Some of these players are built into the Web client or browser (for example, all browsers come with GIF and JPEG image players as well as the ability to handle HTML files); other components, such as audio file players, may need to be downloaded.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,945,989 to Freishtat et al. describes a method of adding or altering the content of a website by using a touch-tone telephone. Freishtat et al. describes a processing of converting a telephone message into an audio file which can then be posted on a website (col. 2, lines 19-22; col. 4, lines 33-34; and col. 5, lines 6-7 There is also a suggestion that the handset on a touch-tone telephone operates as “a kind of substitute computer keyboard.” (col. 2, lines 26-27 and col. 22, lines 24-26). However, the patent does not describe or suggest any means for transmitting the audio file by email. Nor does the touch-tone telephone entry describe or suggest a method of keying in any alphanumeric character based on the number of times the telephone button is depressed within a specified wait loop. Rather, the Freishtat et al. patent requires the user to establish a pre-existing touch-tone ID for each page element. (col. 6, lines 48-49; col. 9, lines 62-65; and col. 10, lines 3-4). Accordingly, while the Freishtat et al. patent describes a method of digitizing recorded audio from a touch-tone telephone to a file for publication on a web server, there is no description nor suggestion that the recording of the audio file would be transmitted to a predetermined email recipient. Furthermore, there is no teaching or suggestion for a method of keying in the necessary array of alphanumeric characters to properly designate an email recipient over a touch-tone telephone without pre-existing email address identifiers.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,996,006 to Speicher describes an online dating service that converts audio files received via telephone into digital files for retrieval on the Internet. (col. 5, lines 27-29 and col. 6, lines 37-39). However, the Speicher patent does not describe nor suggest a method of directly sending the recorded audio file to a predetermined email recipient. Nor does the Speicher patent describe or teach a method of keying in the necessary alphanumeric characters necessary to establish a preselected Internet email address over a touch-tone telephone. (See col. 6, lines 60-63 wherein Speciher teaches that the email address must be recorded by audio, then later manually translated to alphanumeric form).
A number of companies such as Onebox.com, BuzMe.com, Inc., Getmessage.com, American Voicemail Network, Inc., and Excite, Inc. currently offer services wherein a pre-configured recipient account may be set up to receive email with audio file attachments originating from a regular voice mail system. However, in all of these systems, the recipient must set up an account in advance. Furthermore, these systems require the sender of the audio voice mail message to know ahead of time their voicemail telephone number which typically has a unique extension for that recipient.
Consequently, there is a need in the art for a method of transmitting digital audio file attachments to a preselected email address without requiring the recipient to first set up an account with a service.
There is a further need in the art for a method of transmitting digital audio file attachments wherein the only information required by the sender is to know the recipient's email address.
However in view of the prior art at the time the present invention was made, it was not obvious to those of ordinary skill in the pertinent art how the identified needs could be fulfilled.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The above and other objects of the invention are achieved in the embodiments described herein by providing a method of transmitting one or more audio file attachments in an electronic message from a touch-tone telephone comprising the steps of dialing into a predetermined telephone number, sending one or more DTMF signals on the touch-tone telephone corresponding to a preselected email address wherein the one or more DTMF signals is associated with a predetermined alphanumeric character, assembling a string of alphanumeric characters by repeating the DTMF signal entry until the preselected email address has been completed, recording an audio voice message over the touch-tone telephone, converting the audio voice message into a digital audio file, attaching the digital audio file to an electronic message directed to the preselected email address, and transmitting the electronic message to the preselected email address.
In a preferred embodiment, a subscriber record is maintained so that the caller does not need to repeatedly enter in the same email addresses. The steps involved for utilizing a subscriber record system comprise sending an identification code to a central server by sending DTMF signals on the touch-tone telephone, associating the identification code with a subscriber record, validating th
Foster Roland G.
Hopen Anton J.
Smith & Hopen , P.A.
Tsang Fan
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