Telephonic communications – Audio message storage – retrieval – or synthesis – Multimedia system
Reexamination Certificate
1999-09-10
2004-09-14
Tsang, Fan (Department: 2645)
Telephonic communications
Audio message storage, retrieval, or synthesis
Multimedia system
C379S088220, C379S100080, C379S093240, C379S088250, C709S206000, C709S248000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06792085
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates broadly to systems and methods for unified messaging involving a voice-mail system and an e-mail system.
2. Background of the Invention
Effective communication between persons continues to be important to both businesses and private individuals. Two types of communication are in common use. The first type of communication is the long established telephone, which uses the public telephone system or other wiring system in conjunction with a telephone set. The second type of communication in common use today is e-mail.
A document characterized as an electronic mail, i.e., an e-mail or e-mail message, is created by a user on a personal computer, for example, and forwarded across a data network to the recipient. The recipient retrieves the e-mail using a suitable service provider and may then view the received e-mail at some later time.
Alternatively, voice-mail systems allow callers, both internal and external to a particular establishment, to leave voice recordings of memoranda or short messages that can be accessed at a later time by a recipient. Each telephone set associated with a voice-mail system will have a designated message location, known commonly as a “voice mailbox.” If a caller accesses a voice mailbox associated with a given telephone set, a voice recording may be stored for selective retrieval by user at a later time. This process of using the telephone may be characterized as voice messaging.
E-mail messaging and voice-mail messaging operate in distinct environments using different technologies. The distinctness of the environments have been a result of the nature of the technology, the vendors involved who distribute and promote the technology, and the types of services traditionally offered by each of e-mail messaging and voice-mail messaging, using the telephone.
The concept of “unified messaging” is to create an operating environment in which the user believes that he or she is dealing with a single environment, as opposed to the traditional two environments of voice-mail and e-mail.
There are various known systems directed at unified messaging systems. Illustratively, U.S. Pat. No. 5,717,742 (hereinafter the 742 patent) to Hyde-Thomson discloses an electronic mail system having integrated voice messages. The 742 patent discloses a system in which a voice message is converted into a digital voice file, which is stored in the shared memory device corresponding to the intended recipient's mailbox. Thereby, one mailbox can contain both voice and text messages. The 742 patent further discloses that the same message handling mechanism is used for handling both voice and text messages.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,647,002 to Brunson (hereinafter the 002 patent) discloses a system in which synchronization of mailboxes of different types is performed. The 002 patent teaches that one messaging system may be an e-mail system and the other messaging system may be a voice-mail system. The synchronization enables the mailbox user/owner to depend on either system to notify him or her of the arrival of any message in both systems. The 002 patent further discloses that the user may retrieve all messages from either system and do so in an identical manner, or may retrieve some messages from one system and other messages from the other system irrespective of which system the message originated on. The user may also determine the correct status of all messages from examining the system. The 002 patent describes that a scanning process is performed to analyze the contents of the mailbox. Illustratively, the 002 patent describes that a processor checks the contents of message ID fields, of all entries of a table, against stored information to see if any message IDs that appear in the table do not appear in the mailbox.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,333,266 to Boaz et al. (hereinafter the 266 patent) discloses a method and apparatus for message handling in computer systems. The 266 patent teaches an integrated messaging system (IMS) which integrates mail from a plurality of mail servers handling messages of different media types such as text, voice, facsimile, video and image. The IMS maintains the in-basket for all mail systems, eliminating the need to collect each type of mail separately. The 266 patent further discloses that the IMS also includes synchronization means which checks to see whether the mail count in each in-basket is the same to guarantee that the same mail items are in each file server in-basket. The 266 patent describes that the IMS comprises a plurality of file servers each coupled to a plurality of workstations. Each file server includes a message store for the messages of the media type which it handles, as well as a message pointer store which serves as an in-basket. Accordingly, the 266 patent relies on the use of pointers.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,837,798 to Cohen et al. (hereinafter the 798 patent) discloses a communication system having unified messaging. The 798 patent describes that unified messaging is a concept that provides for a single electronic mailbox for different types of messages. The mailbox can be on a user's host computer, PBX, PC, etc., and the user has consistent facilities available to originate, receive and manipulate messages. The 798 patent discloses that messages can be translated from one media to another for reception, and a single message may be composed of parts that use different native media. The 798 patent further describes that the message recipient has a single controllable point of contact where all messages can be scanned and/or viewed. The 798 patent teaches that, for example, if a user has a voice-mail service associated with a telephone station set and a data mail service available with a terminal (or PC), that user may specify either service as the recipient service. Thus, when the message arrives at either service, the notification of the arrival of the message is given only in the recipient service.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
However, there are various problems associated with the known unified messaging systems. Illustratively, the known systems do not provide the capabilities necessary for today's mobile worker. For example, the known unified messaging systems do not provide message replication, i.e., message duplication, and message synchronization that is independent of the location of the in-basket such that the unified messaging system performs in an enhanced manner. Further, the known unified messaging systems do not provide replication and synchronization of messages using an incremental process to identify newly changed or added messages, as opposed to performing an operation that re-scans all messages. Accordingly, the present invention addresses these and other shortcomings of the conventional systems.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a unified messaging system and method that provides an e-mail system and a voice-mail system without sacrifices to either of the systems.
It is another object of the invention to provide a unified messaging system that provides on-going synchronization while the e-mail system and a voice-mail system are in communication with each other and a post-login synchronization subsequent to the e-mail system and the voice-mail system re-gaining communication with each other.
It is another object of the invention to provide a unified messaging system and method that provides enhanced access of both e-mail messages and voice-mail messages by utilizing replication of the messages.
It is another object of the invention to provide a unified messaging system and method that provides enhanced synchronization between an e-mail message store and a voice-mail message store.
It is another object of the invention to provide a unified messaging system and method that attempts to provide a user with similar capabilities with respect to message manipulation regardless of whether the user is operating as a workstation client or a telephone client.
It is another object of the invention to provide a unified messaging s
Bedlek Greg
Heaney Eoin
Rigaldies Bertrand
Ringle Jonathan
Smith Ryan
Comdial Corporation
Escalante Ovidio
Holland & Knight LLP
Tsang Fan
LandOfFree
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