Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Miscellaneous
Reexamination Certificate
1998-11-18
2001-09-18
Etienne, Ario (Department: 2155)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Miscellaneous
C709S206000, C379S088260, C379S088270, C379S070000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06292823
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed to a method and system for providing the communication of messages of various protocols over a communications network. More particularly, the present invention provides a method and a system by which a message coding/decoding technique can be defined arbitrarily by, for example, one of two communicating parties and the other party can receive the message by using a retrieved copy of the coding/decoding technique.
Messaging has become increasingly important for individuals and for business entities. In much the same way that traditional communication services have been carried on separate infrastructures, messaging capabilities are being offered on different service platforms using different interfaces depending on the message media. As an example, voice messaging is offered by many telecommunication companies. Voice messaging is often provided using a network resident answering machine that can be remotely operated using a telephone. At the same time that voice messaging has continued to be heavily used, there has been growing interest in electronic mail (e-mail) services by which electronic messages can be transmitted between parties using a data network such as the Internet. Customers would be better served if these various communication services which have been provided on separate infrastructures could somehow be integrated upon the same infrastructure. Specifically, it would be beneficial if integration of user access to e-mail and voice mail could be achieved by unifying messages with respect to all known media and also by infringing service specific message coding and decoding.
Another shortcoming extant in present messaging architectures is that a messaging technique to be employed between two parties is limited by the player/receiver capabilities of the respective end terminals. Thus, a given receiver can only receive content of known media and format. Before viewing or playing published content, a receiver must know the media of the content and the format of the content and must provision its own end device, (for example, a work station), with an appropriate program that is capable of playing the content. The receiver also must perform a mapping to enable a content browser to execute this program on seeing the identified content type. Thus, a receiver is limited in its ability to play a message content and cannot receive a message of unknown type. This limitation means that the sender and the receiver must negotiate or coordinate to assure that a transmitted message can be accurately received by the intended recipient. Furthermore, this problem is more acute where the transmitter desires to use some new message type, whereby the receiver must be provided with a player that is adapted to deal with this new message type.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a method and system for enhancing message communication between parties. In accordance with the present invention, a message may be generated using any intended recording technique, including a new recording technique previously unknown to any recipients. A message notification signal is then sent from the sender to an intended recipient in a format familiar to the recipient. The message notification includes sufficient information to enable the recipient to receive messages recorded by the first recording technique even if the intended recipient does not already have a player adapted to play messages recorded in accordance with the first recording technique.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the message notification includes software code for the playback technique. Furthermore, the message content can be included either with the code for the playback technique or in a subsequent transmission directed to message content.
In an alternative embodiment, the message notification includes an indirect reference to the player code. The indirect reference could be a pointer to where code for the playback technique can be found or, for example, a universal resource locator (URL). The recipient can then use the indirect reference to retrieve the playback technique (and possibly the recording technique) to facilitate the comprehension of the message generated in accordance with the first recording technique. Using an indirect reference can be beneficial in that it avoids the need for sending code for a playback technique with every message and simply provides the intended recipient with a reference to, for example, a server or other central location at which one or more such playback techniques could be stored and accessed when necessary. In yet another alternative embodiment, the message may be associated with multiple playback routines and code for these multiple routines could be included in the message notification or indirectly referred to by that notification.
In yet another alternative, the message content itself is not included in the transmission from the message originator to the message recipient. Instead, the transmission to the recipient could include an indirect reference to the location of the message content. Again, such an indirect reference could constitute a pointer or a URL. This would allow the called party to retrieve the message as desired and would reduce the bandwidth requirements for the communication that occurs explicitly between the first party and the second party. This also allows the message recipient to receive large amounts of data, virtually infinite content, and this could be extended to include content related to a live broadcast.
In another embodiment of the present invention, a server can act as a message repository, storing messages generated in accordance with multiple recording techniques. The message could then be transferred to the intended recipient using a decoder or player that converts the received message to a format that will be understandable by the intended recipient.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5799307 (1998-08-01), Buitron
patent: 6151386 (2000-11-01), Argade
AT&T Corp.
Etienne Ario
Garg Rohini K.
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