GB2383714A

GB2383714A - E-mail delivered voice messages

Info

Publication number: GB2383714A
Application number: GB0226163A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Jeffrey Wilson
Original assignee: Intellprop Ltd
Current assignee: Intellprop Ltd
Priority date: 2001-11-09
Filing date: 2002-11-08
Publication date: 2003-07-02
Also published as: GB0226163D0; GB0126950D0

Abstract

A subscriber 1 of a telephone network 2 can record a voice message which is then delivered as an email attachment to a predetermined email address. A voice call receiving means 3 forwards the voice call to an audio store 5 for recording. Also, a stored email address is retrieved from a database 10 on the basis of the subscriber's CLI and also an access number input by the subscriber. The recorded voice call is then forwarded by an email server 7 as an attachment to the recipient 9 at the retrieved email address.

Description

TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES APPARATUS This invention relates to telecommunications services apparatus for use with a telecommunications system. the system interacting with a plurality of communications terminals providing a facility for telecommunications voice calls. The invention also relates to a method of processing telecommunications voice calls.

Current developments in mobile telephony offer users an increasingly rich communication environment. There are now many different methods which are used by individuals for communication with each other including voice. voice mail. text messaging. email. fax and audio conferencing. The ability to communicate by voice will always be fundamental to electronic communication systems, while other techniques have their place alongside voice, each providing its own unique advantages. Furthermore, each method of communication may have more than one means of delivery. For example. a text message entered on a mobile terminal may be delivered either as an email. as a fax or as a Short Message. whilst a voice call on a telephone may be received either on another telephone or by a voice mail system.

In some cases the sender has the ability to choose the delivery means, and as communication systems become more integrated the ability to choose the delivery medium provides increased benefit and flexibility to the users. For the person who wishes to communicate. the choice of which delivery means to use may depend on several factors such as the importance of the message, the intrusiveness of the delivery means. the sender s relationship to the recipient, and the time of day. If the communication is important or urgent. then the user may choose to make a direct voice call to a mobile telephone. or to send a Short Message by SMS. each of which is potentially intrusive to the recipient. while a social communication sent during the day might be delivered via email for the recipient to read at his convenience later that evening.

Telephone answering machines and network voice-mail systems can provide a temporary record of a one-party call. which can later be retrieved by the intended recipient. Long term retention of the message by the recipient is not normally convenient as answering machines will generally overwrite old messages. and network voice mail systems will generally delete messages after a period of time.

Multi-channel recording systems. both analogue and digital have been used for security purposes. for example to record all of the conversations between an organisation and its customers. These systems are generally used to provide a record in case of dispute. and a particular conversation may not be easily accessible from the archive medium. Usually the recording system will be owned by an organisation. and the recordings made will normally be inaccessible by callers to that organisation and of no direct benefit to the callers.

Systems are known for the recording of telephone conversations or conferences. This is usually carried out by voice services equipment attached to the telephone network.

Recordings made on these equipments would not normally be made readily available.

European Patent Application Serial No. EP-A-1 077 563 discloses a technique for recording telephone calls between two or more parties and sending the resultant recording by email to a single pre-determined email address which is associated with the CLI of one the parties to the call. In that disclosed system, all parties to a call are recorded.

One aspect of the invention provides telecommunications services apparatus for use with a telecommunications system. the telecommunications system interacting with a plurality of communications terminals which provide a facility for telecommunications voice calls. the telecommunications services apparatus comprising: means for recording a voice call from one of the communications terminals; and an electronic mail processing means operable to retrieve a stored electronic mail address on the basis of an identification function associated with the communications

terminal from which the recorded voice call originates. and to communicate the recorded voice call to the electronic mail address.

Another aspect of the invention provides a method of processing telecommunications voice calls. the method comprising: recording a voice call from a communications terminal : retrieving a stored electronic mail address on the basis of an identification function associated with the communications terminal from which the recorded voice call originates ; and communicating the recorded voice call to the retrieved electronic mail address.

A preferred embodiment of the invention provides the user with the convenience of an alternative to either a voice call attempt or the use of voice mail that is so simple to use that it would be suitable for roll-out to the customer base of a mobile telephone network.

The preferred embodiment allows the user to make a voice call to a telephone number. and to record a voice message which is then delivered immediately as an email attachment to a pre-determined email address. The email address was specified by the user previously by sending a Short Message containing the email address to the same telephone number that is subsequently used to send voice messages. A block of for example. nine telephone numbers may be provided by the network for this purpose so that each network subscriber could have up to nine email addresses to which they can simply send voice messages at the touch of a button.

This offers the user a convenient additional choice of delivery means. beyond either a normal voice call or a message to voice mail. The advantage of delivery by email is that it is non intrusive. and also that the attachment may be forwarded or archived easily by the recipient. using the normal facilities of email. In contrast. a voice mail system normally does not allow messages to be kept beyond a certain period, and does not easily permit the message contents to be either shared with a third party. or archived.

The key feature, which makes it easy for the user to comprehend and to use. is that one number. which may preferably be a short code. is used both for setting up the email destination address. and for making the voice call to record a message. The network may provide a set of these numbers so that each user may have several email addresses set up. All users can use the same small set of one or more access numbers. as the network can store the email addresses in a database along with the CLI of the user and the access number used. In this way. the combination of CLI and access number identifies a unique storage field. which may be used to store a destination address for subsequent messages. Short Messages to an access number may be used to set up the email address. while voice calls to the same number may be used to leave messages.

The invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawing. Figure 1. which shows a block diagram of a system for email delivery of voice recordings.

In the preferred embodiment shown in Figure 1. a telephone network 2 provides a set of access numbers (preferably nine short codes) any of which may be used by its subscribers I both to set up a destination email address and to later leave a voice recording which will be delivered by email to the pre-determined email address associated with the access number used.

The telephone network 2 communicates with a voice call receiving means 3 and an SMS receiving means 4 both of which have access to a database 10. The voice call receiving means 3 also communicates via an audio store 5. a transcoder 6 and an email server 7 over the Internet 8 to a recipient 9.

By way of example. a network may allocate the nine short codes 1211 through 1219 for the purpose of voice recording delivery. A subscriber 1 who wishes to occasionally send a voice message to a particular recipient 9 may then choose to use 121 l for this recipient. He first sends a Short Message to 1211 with the email address of the desired recipient 9 as the body of the text message. The system may

acknowledge the storage of this address with a confirmation message. The message is delivered by the network to the Short Message receiving means 4. which may typically be implemented as one or more mobile telephones attached by a data connection to a computer or equipment designed to appear as such a configuration. The CLI. the email address and the access number are stored in the database 10. Later when the user wishes to send a voice message to this recipient. he dials 1211 and is connected to the voice call receiving means 3. The system retrieves the email address information from the database 10 using the CLI and access number. Guided by voice prompts as necessary. the user then records his message into the audio store 5. and the audio recording is tagged with the destination email address. After the user has accepted the recording or hung up. the system may convert the audio message into an alternative format by transcoding 6 to save space and transmission time. and the system then delivers it using the email server 7 as an email attachment over the public email system of the Internet 8. The sender's address on the email may either be the sender s telephone number, a network email address available to the sender which is formed from his telephone number. or an email address which has been previously specified.

Means for specifying the sender's email address could for example use the same technique as for specifying a destination address, but using a special access number reserved for the purpose.

Additional features of the system may be implemented as follows- * The email address associated with any access number and CLI may be queried by sending an SMS message to the access number from that CLI. with the text of the message conforming to a query syntax. for example a single ?.

Attempts to send a voice message to an access number which does not have a valid email address set up could result in a voice announcement advising the user.

* A Short Message could be sent to the sender confirming the success. failure or otherwise of message delivery.

'A further access number could be provided. such that text representing the sender s email address sent by SMS to this number would be used on future email message deliveries to represent the email address of the sender. This would permit the recipient to easily reply to the message by normal email means.

* The destination address specification set up by SMS could be a list of one or more email addresses, such that delivery attempts for recorded voice messages would be made to all of the email addresses listed.

. The destination address specification set up by SMS could be a telephone number.

In this case delivery could be effected by alternative methods, e. g.- 'the message could be delivered as an email to a network email account the address of which is formed from the telephone number. such as 0123456789@anynetwork. com * a Short Message could be sent to the telephone number, inviting the recipient to dial a specified number to retrieve his voice message. In this case the network would hold the message for a period of time.

'The destination address specification set up by SMS could be a combination of one or more email addresses and telephone numbers.

'Upon calling the access number using a voice call for the purpose of leaving a voice message, the user could be guided by voice prompts which would assist him to make the recording. and could also provide options to review, re-record or send the message. Upon hanging up. the default should be to send the message currently recorded.

The voice interaction of the recording service could be arranged to speak the name of the recipient as part of the welcome greeting. This would reassure the user that he had used the correct access number for the desired recipient. This would require a syntax in the set-up SMS for specification of a textual name for the recipient in addition to the destination address details, e. g.' (John) anyaddress@hotmail. com'.

The system would also require a database of recorded names for playback to the user. one being selected according to the textual name entered in the address set-up.

Playback by spelling of individual letters could be used for names not present in the database.

Additional syntax options could allow the user to send a Short Message to one of the access numbers which instead of being interpreted as a specification of the destination address details. would be sent verbatim as a Short Message to the previously set up address or addresses.

Claims

CLAIMS 1. Telecommunications services apparatus for use with a telecommunications system. the telecommunications system interacting with a plurality of communications terminals which provide a facility for telecommunications

voice calls. the telecommunications services apparatus comprising : means for recording a voice call from one of the communications terminals ; and an electronic mail processing means operable to retrieve a stored electronic mail address on the basis of an identification function associated with the communications terminal from which the recorded voice call originates, and to communicate the recorded voice call to the electronic mail address.
2. Apparatus according to claim 1. comprising a data store which associates. for a particular communications terminal, a plurality of electronic mail addresses with a respective plurality of identifying key signals for the communication terminal. such that the electronic mail processing means can retrieve the required electronic mail address on the basis of the identification function of the communications terminal and the received identifying key signal.
3. Apparatus according to claim 2. wherein the identifying key signals are access numbers used to connect the communications terminals to the telecommunications services apparatus.
4. Apparatus according to claim 3. wherein the access numbers are short code numbers.
5. Apparatus according to claim 2. claim 3 or claim 4. including means for entering electronic mail addresses into the data store, in response to input from one of the communications terminals, such that a user may enter desired electronic mail addresses associated with respective key signals.

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6. Apparatus according to claim 5. wherein the telecommunications system is a telephone system providing a text messaging function, and wherein the means for entering electronic mail addresses is responsive to a characteristic text message which includes the electronic mail address to be entered into the data store.
7. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the electronic mail processing means includes transcoding means for converting the recorded voice call into a data format capable of saving storage space and transmission time.
8. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims. wherein the electronic mail processing means is operable to communicate the recorded voice call with

the sender s address being one of : the sender's telephone number ; a network electronic mail address formed from the sender's telephone number; and a previously-specified electronic mail address.
9. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims, including means for querying a stored electronic mail address by the use of a query syntax sent from one of the communications terminals.
10. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the electronic mail processing means is operable to send a notification to the sender of a message indicative of the success or otherwise of message delivery.
11. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims as dependent on claim

2. wherein the data store may store more than one electronic mail address for a particular identifying key signal, such that delivery attempts for the recorded

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voice call may be made to more than one of the respective stored electronic mail addresses.
12. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims. wherein the identification function associated with each communication terminal is the calling line identity signal of the terminal.
13. Telecommunications services apparatus substantially as herein described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawing.
14. A method of processing telecommunications voice calls. the method comprising : recording a voice call from a communications terminal ; retrieving a stored electronic mail address on the basis of an identification function associated with the communications terminal from which the recorded voice call originates; and communicating the recorded voice call to the retrieved electronic mail address.
15. A method of processing telecommunications voice calls, the method being substantially as herein described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawing.