FR2845234A1 - Voice box welcome message setting procedure uses XML multimedia message with user identification to send message for storage in database for retrieval - Google Patents

Abstract

A voice box welcome message setting procedure records (301) and compresses (302) it as an XML (EXtended Markup Language) multimedia message with welcome message and user identification (202) instruction (201) fields and sends (303) it from his terminal (101) to a welcome message server which extracts (307) the message for storage in a database and acoustic reproduction (315) as required (312).

Description

Method for configuring the welcome message of a voice mailbox.

  The subject of the invention is a method for configuring the message.

voicemail.

  The field of the invention is that of telephony and voicemail. More particularly, the field of the invention is that of voice responders making it possible to take messages from calling users when the called users, subscribing to a service.

  cannot be reached.

  An object of the invention is to allow a user to configure I configure his welcome message by optimizing the connection time of a

network terminal.

  Another object of the invention is to allow the enrichment of

  voice messages by image, video, and / or text information.

  In the state of the art, messaging services are known.

  voice such as those offered by mobile operators.

  When a subscriber to the mobile operator cannot be reached, a calling user seeking to reach the unreachable user is automatically connected to a voice mailbox. This voice mailbox then broadcasts a welcome message, broadcast after which the calling user can record a message. The connection to this mailbox is necessarily

  by a telephony device, whether fixed or mobile.

  The greeting message is most of the time customizable by users subscribed to the telephone operator offering the voice messaging service. This customization is done by each subscribed user. To personalize his mailbox greeting, a user establishes a connection, via the telephone network, with his mailbox. Once the connection has been established, the user generally has to use the keypad of his telephone to indicate to the messaging server that he wishes to configure his voice mailbox. The server then goes into a recording mode. The user can then say his welcome message which is recorded by the server. Once the registration is complete, the user presses a key, which means that he has finished his welcome message. The server then broadcasts, via the telephone network, and towards the user, the welcome message that the user has just spoken. This allows the user to realize the relevance of his welcome message. If the user is satisfied he cuts the voice connection with the messaging server, otherwise, he causes, via the keyboard of his terminal,

  recording another greeting.

  This type of interface with the voicemail server presents several problems. A first problem is the obligation to use a telephony terminal compatible with the messaging server to which

the user is subscribed.

  Another problem is that the type of data transmitted to the voice mail server is limited by the acquisition and

  instant transmission of the device used to personalize the voicemail greeting. In the state of the art, the configuration is done according to a connection in voice mode, the only transmissible information then being the voice of the user and possibly, if the terminal used manages it, tones according to DTMF mode.

  In particular, it is impossible to transmit text or the image that it

either fixed or animated.

  Yet another problem is that during the recording of the greeting and its validation, the terminal is connected to the voice mail server. This connection takes up network resources that can no longer be allocated to other users wishing to make a standard call. This also prevents the user from receiving a call from a person wishing to reach him, at a time when moreover, his voice mailbox is not correctly configured, therefore unable to receive voice messages. This problem is all the more critical since a message, outside of its recording procedure, can last a minute or more and the first attempt to record is rarely the right one. It is therefore common to use ten minutes or more to personalize your voice mailbox, which is detrimental to both the user and the operator. The 30 resources discussed here are primarily voice and data communications resources excluding signaling and network management resources. For these latter resources, the

  problem exists but is less significant.

  The invention solves these problems by carrying out the personalization of a voicemail, or mailbox, via a pre-formatted multimedia message of MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) type. The user produces a message in predefined format on a device which can be a mobile telephone terminal, a personal computer, or another type of device. This device includes a program 5 allowing the user to produce the pre-formatted message by including all the elements previously provided. These elements include at least one user identifier, and voice data corresponding to the welcome message. These elements are inserted into an MMS message which is sent, for example via the Internet, to the voicemail server. 10 The sending can also be made to a server able to configure the voice mail server. In the invention, the resources of the network are only requested for the transmission of the personalization message, and after the production of the welcome message by the user. Compression methods can therefore be used for the greeting message, further reducing the demand on the communication resources of the

  network. Likewise, it is possible to incorporate in the personalization message data of still or moving images. On receipt of a personalization message, the voice mail server extracts from this message the information it needs to configure itself according to the user's wishes.

  The subject of the invention is therefore a method for configuring the welcome message of a voice mailbox, characterized in that it comprises the following steps: - a user records, on a terminal, a welcome message, - compresses the welcome message on the terminal, - a multimedia message is produced on the terminal comprising the compressed welcome message, - the multimedia message includes an instruction field to indicate that it is a welcome message, - the multimedia message is sent from the terminal to a server

greeting message.

  The subject of the invention is also a method for configuring the welcome message of a voice mailbox, characterized in that it comprises the following steps: - a multimedia message comprising a multimedia message is received on a welcome message server instruction field indicating that the multimedia message is a welcome message update message, - the transmitter of the multimedia message is determined on the welcome message server, - the message server d welcome, the welcome message, - the welcome message is recorded in a database by making it correspond, in the database, to the sender of the multimedia message.

  The invention will be better understood on reading the description which follows

  and examining the accompanying figures. These are presented as an indication and in no way limit the invention. The figures show: Figure 1: an illustration of means usable for the implementation

of the process according to the invention.

  Figure 2: an illustration of a personalization message according to the invention.

  Figure 3: an illustration of process steps according to the invention.

  Figure 1 shows an apparatus 101 which in our example is a mobile telephone. In practice, the device 101 could be a personal computer, an electronic personal assistant or any device capable of connecting to a greeting message server to send it a message.

personalization message.

  The telephone 101 comprises at least one microprocessor 102 and a program memory 103. The program memory 103 comprises several zones, each zone comprising instruction codes allowing

  the implementation of a functionality of the apparatus 101. These instruction codes are interpreted by the microprocessor 102. Thus, when an action is lent to an apparatus, this is carried out by a microprocessor of the apparatus, said microprocessor executing instruction codes 30 stored in a program memory of the apparatus.

  The memory 103 comprises an area 103a comprising instruction codes for the production of an MMS according to the invention, and an area 103b comprising instruction codes for the transmission of an MMS message. The

  memory 103 and microprocessor 102 are connected via a bus 104.

  The telephone 101 also includes interface circuits 105 between the

  bus 104 and an antenna 108 of the telephone 101. The telephone 101 also includes a microphone 106 and a loudspeaker 107. The means 105 to 107 are connected to the bus 104. The means 106 and 107 are conventional means of a mobile telephone , they are only shown to illustrate the fact that a mobile telephone includes all the means enabling the acquisition and reproduction of sounds.

  Conventionally, the telephone 101 is capable of connecting to a network 109 of the Internet type via a wireless connection 110 between the antenna 108 and a base station 111. The base station 111 belongs to the infrastructure of a network 112 GSM / GPRS (or UMTS) comprising a gateway 113 between the network 112 and the network 109. This gateway is typically a new WAP which starts the information of the number of

phone of the MMS sender.

  Via network 109, it is also possible to reach a server 114 with a greeting message, and a server 115 with voicemail. For the

  description we have separated the greeting server and voice server functions by dividing them into two devices. In practice there could be only one device implementing the two

  features. The server 114 comprises a microprocessor 116, a program memory 117, a greeting message memory 118, and circuits 119 for interfacing with the network 109. The elements 116 to 119 are connected via

a bus 120.

  The memory 117 comprises at least one zone 117a comprising instruction codes for the reception of multimedia messages, a zone 117b comprising instruction codes for the transcoding of the multimedia messages, and a zone 117c for the transmission of greeting message. Transcoding a multimedia message consists in extracting the different

multimedia components of the message.

  Memory 118 is a table divided into rows and columns.

  Each line corresponds to a user identified by an identifier recorded in column 118a. Each identifier then corresponds to a welcome message recorded in a column 1 18b. The memory 118 may include other columns making it possible to associate other information (image, video, business card, etc.) with a user. The memory 118 illustrates the fact that the server 114 includes means for associating information, including a

  welcome message, to a user ID.

  The server 115 comprises at least one microprocessor 121, a

  program memory 122, circuits 123 for interfacing with the network 109 5 and circuits 124 for interfacing with the network 112. The elements 121 to 124 are connected via a bus 125.

  The memory 122 comprises at least one zone 122a comprising instruction codes for obtaining a welcome message, and a zone 122b comprising instruction codes for broadcasting a welcome message. The welcome message is broadcast to a person P seeking to reach the user of the telephone 101 at a time when the telephone 101 cannot be reached. Person P, using a telephone 126 then finds himself

  connected to the voicemail server 115.

  FIG. 2 illustrates a possible structure for a personalization / configuration message according to the invention. Such a message 200 includes an instruction field 201 making it possible to identify the message as being a personalization message, a field 202 making it possible to identify both a person and a voice mailbox to be personalized and a field 203 comprising the message d 'Home. This structure is known to all the devices used for personalization, which makes it possible to correctly

  interpret the fields. One possible solution for determining the fields is to define a field separator, or to use fields of fixed and known length, or to use markup as prescribed by the MMS recommendation implementing XML syntax (eXtended 25 Language Markup, for extended markup language).

  Example of personalization message 01 <? Xml version = "1.0" encoding = "ISO-8859-1"?> 30 02 <message type = "maj mes acc"> 03 <idu> 06 12 34 56 78 </idu> 04 <mes type = "codage"> O111o11 ... 0101 </mes> </message> The example above illustrates a possible syntax in the context of an implementation using XML mode. Line 01 of the example corresponds to a specificity of the XML standard. Line 02 defines a message whose type is "maj mes acc", it is an instruction code, corresponding to field 201, indicating that it is a message updating a message 5 reception. Line 03 corresponds to field 202 identifying the user whose welcome message is to be updated. Line 04 corresponds to the welcome message between two tags, the type of coding being specified in the opening tag. Line 05 is the closing tag, according to XML syntax, corresponding to line 02. Note that the XML syntax of the example is indicative, both the name of the tags, the indentation of the text, and the

  type information could be positioned and named differently.

  Similarly the XML / MMS syntax is not the only one possible, we also know the syntaxes SGML, HTML, or other syntaxes or binary structures

allowing to instantiate fields.

  In a variant, a message for updating the welcome message may contain information other than that useful for updating the welcome message. Such information can be a photo of the user, or general configuration information for the user's subscription. In this case it is the update / configuration message of the welcome message which is included in a configuration message.

  general including at least the fields described for figure 2.

  FIG. 3 shows a preliminary step 301 during which the user of the telephone 101 uses a device to produce a welcome message. In our example, the device is considered to be the telephone 25 101, in practice it could be a personal computer, a personal assistant, or any other device provided with recording capacity. During step 301 the user records a message via the microphone 106. This message is recorded in a memory of the telephone 101 in the form of a sound file. The format of this sound file is preferably compressed, for example, to MP3, or other MPEG. Alternatively, this file may very well be a video file. To be able to produce a video file, the telephone 101 must be connected to a camera or include a camera. Once this audio file has been produced, we proceed to a step 302 of producing the

multimedia message.

  In step 302, the telephone 101 formats the information relating to the updating of a welcome message. This amounts to producing a message having the structure described for FIG. 2, and / or the structure described for the example of XML syntax. The instruction code used to fill in the field 201 is predefined, and included, for example, in the instruction codes 5 of the area 122a. The user identifier is, for example, a telephone number. This is either entered during step 302 by the user of the telephone 101, or read automatically in a SIM card of the telephone 101, or updated automatically by the network. Field 203 is filled in from the sound (video) file produced in step 301. This gives a message for configuring a voice mailbox. Step 302 is followed

  a step 303 for transmitting the configuration / update message.

  In step 303, the multimedia message 200, produced in step 303, is encapsulated in a message according to a so-called transport protocol. Such a protocol is, for example, TCP / IP, HTTP, or FTP, etc. This transport message comprises at least, in addition to the update message 200, an address of a recipient. In our example, this recipient is the welcome message server 114 joined via the Internet 109 network. The transport message is routed via the network 112, the gateway 113 and the network 109 Internet. The address of the server 114 is obtained in a conventional manner, either because it is coded in the zone 103b, or another memory zone of the telephone 101, or by resolution of address of the DNS type. There are other transport protocols such as UDP or X25 making it possible to send a configuration message from the telephone 101 to the server 114. It is noted that, in a variant, the telephone 101 updates, during step 303, field 202 25 according to an identifier communicated by the network 112. This update

  can also be performed by the server 113 which is part of the network 112.

  In step 304, the server 114 receives a transport message. The server 114 rids this message of the information layers corresponding to the transport protocol used and obtains a configuration message such as that described for FIG. 200 and / or the example of XML syntax. We then go to a step 305 of analyzing a multimedia message. In step 305, the server 114 has access to the fields of the message 200. The server 114 can therefore determine the nature of the message received via the transport message. In a step 306, following the extraction of the

  In step 305, the server 114 analyzes the value of the field 201 to determine whether the message it has just received is an update message. The possible values for field 201 are predefined according to the different types of messages that the server 114. Can handle. These 5 values are either numeric, alphanumeric, or simply binary.

  In step 306, the value read in step 305 for the field 201 is therefore compared to a list of values expected by the server 114 for the field 201. If the value read corresponds to the value of the instruction code for setting day of the welcome message, we go to an update step 307,

  otherwise we go to an END step 308.

  In step 308, the server continues its operations for processing the

  messages which no longer relate to the messages according to the invention.

  In step 307, the server 114 searches in memory 118 for the line whose value in column 118a corresponds to the value in field 202

  of the configuration message received in step 304. Once this line has been found, the server substitutes the digital content of column 118b of this line with the digital content of the message field 203 received in step 304. If line n is not found, then it is either created or the update message is ignored.

  It is possible that the format of the welcome message recorded in the memory 118 is not the same as that used for the field 203. This format is optionally specified in the field 203 as seen for the example XML. This allows the server to perform, if necessary, a transcoding before recording the new welcome message in the memory 118. It is noted here that the memory 118 is a representation

simplified database.

  In the variant in which the message 200 is part of a general configuration message, everything goes as previously described for steps 304 to 307, except that the message comprising

  other information, other areas of memory 118 are updated.

  In another variant, it is possible that a user has several welcome messages used depending on the circumstances, or the person calling. In this case, a configuration message comprises as many 35 fields of type 203, or of line 4 of the XML example, as greeting message to configure. Each welcome message is then accompanied by information specifying its particularity and allowing the server 114 to

  store it correctly for subsequent reuse.

  Figure 3 shows a step 309 of receiving a call by the voice mail server 115. This situation occurs either when a subscriber is unavailable, or when someone calls a mailbox directly. We consider in our example, the call made from the phone

  126 to telephone 101 which is then unreachable.

  From step 309, we pass to a step 310 of identification of the called party 10 by the server 115. This identification is easy because a communication is always routed via a protocol making it possible to identify the called party, in general, this is his phone number. This identifier is also transmitted to the voicemail server which must be able to assign to subscribers the messages left by the users connecting to the server 115. The server 115 is therefore in possession of a called party identifier, conventionally its phone number. We then go to a step 311 of producing a request, called here message R,

  to get the welcome message corresponding to the called party.

  In step 311; the server 115 produces the request message R 20 comprising an instruction code indicating that it is a request for

  get a welcome message, and a user ID. In a variant, the message R also includes a field for identifying the caller.

  Once this message R has been produced, it is sent, in a step 312 and via a

  transport protocol, to server 114.

  In a step 313, the server 114 receives the message sent in step 312. The server 114 rids this message of the transport information and obtains the message R. The server 114 identifies this message R by means of the instruction code field which the message contains R. We then go to a step 314 of producing a response to the message R. In step 314, the server 114 browses the memory 118 and in particular the column 118a in search of the identifier I of the message R. Once the line corresponding to the identifier I is found, the server 114 uses the digital content of column 118b to produce a response to the message R. This digital content is a welcome message. The response 35 RR to the message R therefore comprises at least this welcome message found. The response RR also includes a field II identical to field I allowing the membership of the welcome message to be determined. The role of the field It is to allow the server 115 to associate the response RR to the message R. The response R can also include an instruction code indicating the type of the response RR which is a response to a request for greeting message. The message R can include more information making it possible to determine the relevant greeting message in the case where the called subscriber has planned several greeting messages. The relevant welcome message can also be determined as a function of the time at which the message R is received. The response RR produced, it is sent, in a step 315, to the server 115. The transport protocol used for this sending is preferably the same as that used for sending the message R. The transmission of the RR response is therefore done via the network 109. In practice, the communications between the servers 114 and 115 can very well be carried out via a private network and / or using other technologies than the technologies used on the Internet. We cite for example local networks, direct connections via a USB port, wireless networks, and the list is not exhaustive. In a variant, the servers 114 and 115 are one and the same device, in this case there is no need to make them communicate with each other because the single server then contains the contents of the memories

117, 118 and 122.

  In a step 316, the server 115 receives the response RR. The server is then in possession of a welcome message which it can send to telephone 126. This sending is preferably done in a conventional manner,

  know that the welcome message is decompressed by the server 115 and broadcast acoustically to the phone 126. In a variant, the welcome message is sent as a sound file to the phone 126 which is then responsible for both of its decompression and its acoustic rendering.

  In a step 317, the telephone 126, connected to the server 115, receives from this server information corresponding to a welcome message. This information is processed by the telephone 126 and disseminated so

  acoustic through a speaker of this phone.

  In the description, it has so far been considered that the apparatus 101

  is a mobile phone. In practice, it is also possible to use a personal computer capable of recording a sound file, that is to say provided with a microphone, and capable of implementing a program for composing a multimedia message from the file. his. This composition program corresponds to the instruction codes of zone 103a. The same computer must also be connected to the Internet to be able to send the composed message to the server 114. We quote a personal computer,

  but any pocket computer or PDA does the trick.

Claims (8)

  1 - Method for configuring the welcome message of a voice mailbox, characterized in that it comprises the following steps: - a user records (301) offline, on a terminal, a welcome message, it is compressed (302 ), on the terminal, the welcome message, - a multimedia message (302) is produced, on the terminal, comprising the compressed welcome message, - the multimedia message comprises an instruction field (201) to indicate that it this is a welcome message, - the multimedia message is sent (303) from the terminal to a greeting server.   2 - Method according to claim 1, characterized in that the multimedia message is formatted according to an XML type language.   3 - Method according to one of claims 1 or 2, characterized in that   that the multimedia message includes a field (202) identifying   the user producing the welcome message.   4 - Method according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the multimedia message includes format information for the welcome message.   - Method for configuring the welcome message of a voice mailbox, characterized in that it comprises the following steps: - we receive (304), on a welcome message server, a multimedia message comprising an instruction field indicating that the multimedia message is a welcome message update message, - it is determined (305-306), on the welcome message server, the transmitter of the multimedia message, - we extract (307), on the welcome message server, the welcome message, - the welcome message is recorded (307) in a database (118) by making it correspond, in the database, to the transmitter multimedia message.   6 - Method according to claim 5, characterized in that the welcome message is transcodeed, before recording, according to the format used by the welcome message server and according to information   format included in the multimedia message.   7 - Method according to one of claims 5 or 6, characterized in that   that: - a user connects, via a terminal (126), to a voicemail of a vocal server (115), - a request is sent (312), from the vocal server, to the message server of reception, the request comprising a user identifier called, - the reception message from the database corresponding to the user identifier is sent (315) from the welcome message server and to the voice server user called, - the welcome message is sent (316) from the voice server and to the terminal, - the welcome message is broadcast (317) acoustically on the terminal.   8 - Method according to one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that   that the terminal is a mobile phone.   9 - Method according to one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the terminal is a computer.