WO2018229721A1 - A system and a method for creating personalized audible messages to set as a ring back tone and/or to share on social media - Google Patents

Abstract

A system and a method for allowing the user to browse, select, personalize by way of intermixing and set audible recordings based on the user's current status, mood, experiences and emotions for a caller, a group of caller or all the callers or contacts.

Description

A SYSTEM AND A METHOD FOR CREATING PERSONALIZED AUDIBLE MESSAGES TO SET AS A RING BACK TONE AND/OR

TO SHARE ON SOCIAL MEDIA

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a system and a method for creating personalized audible messages to set as a ring back tone and/or to share on social media.

BACKGROUND

People very often share emotions with others in order to manage their emotional experiences. While the world is replete with technology platforms and other social networks which allows users to express themselves with text, images and videos, there has been little done to venture into the audio domain dealing with "voice" as a prime medium of expression. Voice with its various intonations, pitches, emotions and even accent and gender, inherently forms a rich way for a user to express himself. Thus a need exists in the state of the art to enhance and enrich user experience to offer voice as a prime medium of expressing oneself, while keeping the method intuitively simple and interactive.

SUMMARY

The present invention is directed to teaching sharing of status in the form of audibles, which are pre-recorded sound clips, later personalized and designed to convey different moods, statuses, greetings, emotions - allowing the user to personalize the audible with their name.

It is yet another object of the present invention to allow the users to reject an incoming call by choosing on-the-fly, a personalized audible of their choice to send to the caller via different media (a whatsapp message or an SMS link or any other mode of messaging communication). It is also the object of the present invention to allow the users to handle missed calls via an audible message with content suggestion or message prompts enabled.

It is yet another object of the present invention which teaches stitching a pre-recorded audible with a name to personalize the audible, and convey mood/status and then sharing it on social media or setting it as a Ring Back Tone (RBT) for a particular caller, a group of callers or all callers - by selecting one's name and a relevant audible (based on the status and mood) and intermixing or sticking the name with the selected audible. A further objective is to intermix or stick the name of a particular caller to personalize the audible for not just the callee, but also the caller who hears the audible

It is yet another object of the invention to enable content suggestion while responding to the calls by determining and providing the feature of End of Call Prompt (EoCP). The frequency and the content of the prompts will be optimized to avoid intrusiveness and feature fatigue

It is also the object to the present invention to provide a feed page of audible/updates set by the phonebook contacts either especially for the user or for all contacts in general, which the user can both see and hear and providing feedback (using DTMF tones or other portal or app based methods)

Therefore the present invention helps people express themselves with status updates, moods and emotions, greetings and other modes of expression using audibles. Such audibles can be used to set ring back tones on callers calling the users on the telephone network. Or such audibles can also be used to post status updates, share expressions, or funny audibles on social networks. The product itself manifests as an app and a web sit£ which can be used to get updates from contacts and share updates socially.

The invention allows a user to browse, select and set audible recordings based on his current status, mood and emotions (called audibles henceforth) for his callers and the following steps are part of the invention. This is accomplished by selecting a name from the available list of names from the data base and then browsing and selecting the most relevant audible based on the status, mood and emotions; user is allowed to select a prerecorded audible which is relevant to him. This process is followed by intermixing the name with the pre-recorded audible which user could preview e in the handset app/website and then finally the intermixed audible is set as RBT post verification of the intermixed audible by the user, or posted socially

The user may use an APP or a web site to create audibles personalized with the user's name. The user can discover audible from amongst many merchandised ones or search for audible based on keywords. It allows the user an option to customize an audible with his name before setting it for all callers who call the user, or for a specific caller.

The invention also allows the user to share the audibles to other online services, including social media networks and messaging apps. The invention is also a system or platform for users to create and set audibles of their own, apart from being able to choose from merchandized ones on the platform. They can also openly share their audibles for other users to use.

The present invention in an embodiment provides a method of creating personalized audible message comprises of appending a file to a pre-recorded audible message wherein by searching for said file in a database. The method further determines and selects the prerecorded audible from a list of pre-recorded audibles to reflect a right state of mood of an end user for a selected file. The method further shares the audible on a social media and setting the audible as a Ring Back Tone for at least one selected file stored in the database. The method further comprises of recording an audible for a new file to be stored in the database and appending said file to the recorded audible and to share the recorded audible on the social media and setting the audible as the Ring Back Tone for said file.

The present invention in another embodiment provides a method of providing personalized a ring back tone which comprises of a caller and a user wherein the caller connects with the user over a communication network wherein the user on receiving a connection request from the caller, selects an audible file to append with the name of the caller and wherein the audible file reflects a right state of mood of the user and sending said audible file to the caller over the communication network without accepting the connection request and the audible file sent by the user is played on the caller device.

The present invention further sends a connection request by a caller to the user over a communication network wherein the connection request is prematurely terminated and on detecting said premature terminated request by the user and transmits an audible file to the caller associated with said premature terminated request wherein on selecting the premature terminated connection request from a log stored in the database of the user device further sends selected audible files to said callers over a communication network. The present invention in further embodiment provides a method of providing a content suggestion comprises of prompting a user after terminating a communication with the caller over a communication network with an audible file stored in a database and selecting said audible file for said user and optimizes the frequency of prompting to the user after terminating a communication with the caller and determines caller subscription to the content suggestion and the method further provides the content suggestion to the caller over a communication network and tracks the caller subscription and activities for providing optimized content suggestion over a communication network.

The present invention in another embodiment provides a method of providing an audible news feed to a user comprises of receiving a notification indicating a status of at least one stored file in a database of a user device, accessing the notification sent by at least one stored file to the user, responding to the notification by transmitting an action of the user and determining the notification of at least one stored file stored in the database of the user device and listening to the status of at least one stored file.

The present invention in another embodiment provides a system for creating a personalized audible message comprises of means for searching and appending a file to a pre-recorded audible message stored in a database, means for determining and selecting the pre-recorded audible file stored in the database to reflect the right state of mood of a user, means for sharing the audible message on a social media through a communication network and means for setting the pre-recorded ¾udible message as a ring back tone for at least one file stored in the database.

The system of the present invention further comprises of means for recording an audible message for a new file in the database, means for appending said file to the recorded message, means for sharing said audible file on social media, means for setting said audible file as ring back tone for the new file stored in the database. The present invention provides a system for providing a personalized ring back tone comprises of a calling device and a user device wherein the calling device is configured to connect with the user device on a communication network and wherein the user device is configured to receive a connection request sent by the calling device over the communication network wherein the user device is also configured to select an audible file for appending the audible file with the caller device wherein the user device transmits said audible file to the calling device over the communication network. Further, the caller device is configured to play the audible message transmitted by the user device. The caller device of the present invention further sending a connection request to the user device over the communication network and when the connection request is prematurely terminated the user device is configured to detect the premature terminated connection request and transmits an audible file to the calling device associated with the premature connection request, the user device is further configured to select the premature connection request from a log stored in the database of the user device and transmitting selected audible files to the selected calling devices over the communication network.

The present invention provides in another embodiment a system system for providing a content suggestion, comprises of means for prompting a user device upon termination of communication with the calling device over a communication network to select an audible file stored in a database of the user device, means for optimizing the frequency of prompting to the user after terminating the communication with the calling device, means for determining calling device subscription to the content suggestion, means for providing the content suggestion to the calling device over the communication network; and means for tracking the calling device subscription and activities for providing optimized content suggestion over the communication network.

The present invention in yet another embodiment provides a system for providing an audible news feed to a user device comprises of means for receiving a notification indicating a status of at least one stored file in a database of the user device, means for accessing the notification sent by at least one stored file to the user device, means for responding to the notification by transmitting an action of the user device, means for determining the notification of at least one stored file stored in the database of the user device; and means for listening to the status of at least one stored file of the calling device and the user device. BRIEF DESCRIPTION

Figure 1 illustrates an exemplary block diagram of the overall architecture of system.

Figure 2 illustrates an exemplary process flow of stitching of a name to a pre-recorded audible message

Figure 3 illustrates an exemplary flow diagram for rejecting an Incoming Call with an audible message

Figure 4 illustrates an exemplary flow diagram for responding to a Missed Call with an audible message Figure 5 illustrates an exemplary flow diagram of content suggestion or End of Call Prompt

Figure 6 illustrates an exemplary flow diagram of an audible news feed

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Exemplary embodiments now will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. The invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this invention will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey its scope to those skilled in the art. The terminology used in the detailed description of the particular exemplary embodiments illustrated in the accompanying drawings is not intended to be limiting. In the drawings, like numbers refer to like elements.

The specification may refer to "an", "one" or "some" embodiment(s) in several locations. This does not necessarily imply that each such reference is to the same embodiment(s), or that the feature only applies to a single embodiment. Single features of different embodiments may also be combined to provide other embodiments.

As used herein, the singular forms "a", "an" and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless expressly stated otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms "includes", "comprises", "including" and/or "comprising" when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. It will be understood that when an element is referred to as being "connected" or "coupled" to another element, it can be directly connected or coupled to the other element or intervening elements may be present. Furthermore, "connected" or "coupled" as used herein may include wirelessly connected or coupled. As used herein, the term "and/or" includes any and all combinations and arrangements of one or more of the associated listed items.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention pertains. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein. The figures depict a simplified structure only showing some elements and functional entities, all being logical units whose implementation may differ from what is shown. The connections shown are logical connections; the actual physical connections may be different.

In addition, all logical units described and depicted in the figures include the software and/or hardware components required for the unit to function. Further, each unit may comprise within itself one or more components, which are implicitly understood. These components may be operatively coupled to each other and be configured to communicate with each other to perform the function of the said unit.

Figure 1 illustrates an exemplary block diagram of the overall architecture of system ( 100). The system (1 00) comprises a caller or a contact (107) who is essentially any caller, including but not limited to the contact from the phonebook. The system (100) further comprises a communication infrastructure (106) which essentially is the backbone of the communications system upon which various broadcasting and telecommunication services are operated. This can be built from copper cable, fiber, or wireless technologies utilizing the radio frequency spectrum, such as microwave and satellite. There is also present social networks (105) which is essentially a dedicated website or other application which enables users to communicate with each other by posting information, comments, messages, images, etc. Further to this is provided a service backend infrastructure (104), which is essentially the data access layer of a piece of software, or the physical infrastructure or hardware and contains an entire repository of names and the backend logic for the product to function. The User Interface (User Agent 101), the end user device software (102) and the end user device hardware together form the front end of the system architecture, while service backend infrastructure (104) forms the backend. The overall system operates also by virtue of being connected to public communication infrastructure (106) and social networks (105), and users thereof.

Figure 2 illustrates an exemplary process flow of stitching of a name to a pre-recorded audible message. An end user searches for his name using the user agent (101). The user agent (101) then contacts the service backend infrastructure (104) to check if the name is present in the database. If the name is available (203) the user moves on to choose from a list of audibles or recordings a relevant recording or audible depicting the right state or mood of the user on the user agent (205). If the recorded name is not available then a new recording is initiated (204). The name of the user is stitched with the recording or the audible in the user agent (101) at 206. At (207), the user shares the named audible socially, by employing the use of social network (105) and end user device software and hardware (102, 103). Alternately, or apart from sharing socially, the user is also allowed to set the named audible as a Ring Back Tone (RBT) for the chosen/selected contact or group of contacts or all contacts. The RBT forms an essential part of Communication Infrastructure (106). He accomplishes this by first choosing one or more or a group of contacts from his contact book / phone book (at 208), and setting the named audible as an RBT for selected contacts (at 210). If the user chooses a specific contact to set the RBT for, then at 209, he has an option to personalize the named audible further by stitching the contact's name also in the audible, if the contact's name is available as a recorded resource

In yet another embodiment of the invention, the caller (107) either makes a call to the user or opens a message from the user sent using any means of communication. If the user has sent an audible or a recording for the caller as an RBT, the caller hears the audible when he calls the user. The contact (107) also gets an embedded audible or a link to that audible, depending on the application used to access the audible. If the caller hears the audible as an RBT, the caller can react to the audible using DTMF tones using the phone. Else, if the caller / contact (107) uses other applications, he will be provided with appropriate tools to react to the audible. Reactions could be, but not limited to: Like, Love, Share, Copy etc. Figure 3 illustrates an exemplary flow diagram (300) for rejecting an Incoming Call with an audible message. The caller (107) places a call (301) and in this case, the user agent (101) detects at 302 the incoming call based on previous registration of a request for incoming call alert with the user's device software(102). The user agent (101) provides an option to reject the call by using one of the audibles already pre-recorded (303). At (304), the call is disconnected by the user agent when the user selects one audible from a repository of pre-recorded audibles. At (305, the user agent invokes a previously chosen messaging service to send the chosen/selected audible to the caller. This audible can be sent as a link or as an audible file. Figure 4 illustrates an exemplary flow diagram (400) for responding to a Missed Call with an audible message. The user misses a call from the caller (401) and the user agent (at 402) then detects the missed call based on previous registration of a request for missed call alert with the end device software (102). The user agent at (403) prompts the user with relevant content to be sent as an audible to the caller. In yet another embodiment, the user can also view the missed call logs and choose a missed call to respond with an audible. The user agent places an actionable item in these cases next to each call in the call log. The user then selects an audible to respond to the call (404). The user agent invokes a previously chosen messaging service to send the chosen/selected audible to the caller, either as an actual audible file or as a link (405). Figure 5 illustrates an exemplary flow diagram (500) of content suggestion or End of Call Prompt (EoCP). The user receives a call from a contact or makes a call to the contact from the phonebook and then ends the call (501). The user agent will sometimes show a prompt (pop up) when the user ends calls with some of his callers(502) by detecting the end-of- call Event based on previous registration of a request for the End of Call Alert with the device software (102). Such a pop up will suggest a ;suitable audible to set for that particular caller. The frequency of such prompts at the end of a call, and the content in them, would be optimized, to ensure such pop ups remain relevant and not irksome or intrusive to the user. 503 determines whether it is indeed appropriate to show a prompt to the user, and a prompt is not shown to the user if on the basis of certain parameters, it is determined that an EoCP should not be shown (504). If it is determined that an EoCP is to be shown to the user, then it is further determined if the contact (107) is also a user of the the overall service (505), in order to factor in the caller's content preferences too, apart from considering the user's preferences (506). If the contact (107) is not a user of the overall service, then a prompt containing an audible suggestion that is most likely to be relevant to the caller is determined, and taken into consideration for showing to the user (507). The user agent shows the user a prompt to set as an audible to the caller when the call ends (508). The user agent keeps a track of the user's actions and preferences for better heuristics and further content suggestion enabling for issuing prompts and pop up messages in relation to any particular contact, a group of contacts or all the contacts (509).

Figure 6 illustrates an exemplary flow diagram (600) of an audible news feed. The user receives a notification on his mobile about a contact who has updated their status with an audible indicative of attributes including but not limited to mood or expression or experiences. The user can access the service via opening the service on an app or a browser to view audible updates or dial in a number to reach a voice portal to access the service. A news feed is presented in the form of all audibles which have been posted by the contacts (107) either specifically directed to the user and for everyone (602). The user browses through the feed and has the option of responding to any particular post or feed via various means including but not limited to liking, sharing or commenting (603). In one non-limiting embodiment of the invention. The user can also connect the feed to a Bluetooth device and play out all audibles in the audibles feed. The invention allows the users to see what his contacts are setting their audibles to - either explicitly for him or in general for all their callers. This information becomes visible to the user in the form of a news feed that the user can access (via an app or web site). There shall also be a provision to allow the user to hear out a play-list of status updates from all his contacts at the click of a button. Such a play list can play out only the latest updates from the user's contacts or it could play all updates.

As will be appreciated by one of skill in the art, the present invention may be embodied as a method, system, or computer program product. Accordingly, the present invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, a software embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, the present invention may take the form of a computer program product on a computer-usable storage medium having computer-usable program code embodied in the medium. Furthermore, the present invention was described in part above with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer- readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means which implement the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus like a scanner/check scanner to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks. The flowchart and schematic diagrams illustrate the architecture, functionality, and operations of some embodiments of methods, systems, and computer program products for managing security associations over a communication network. In this regard, each block may represent a module, segment, or portion of code, which comprises one or more executable instructions for implementing the specified logical function(s). It should also be noted that in other implementations, the function(s) noted in the blocks may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending on the functionality involved.

In the drawings and specification, there have been disclosed exemplary embodiments of the invention. Although specific terms are employed, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation, the scope of the invention being defined by the following claims.

Claims

A method of creating personalized audible message comprising;

appending a file to a pre-recorded audible message wherein by searching for said file in a database;

determining and selecting the pre-recorded audible from a list of pre-recorded audibles to reflect a right state of mood of an end user for a selected file;

sharing the audible on a social media and setting the audible as a Ring Back Tone for at least one selected file stored in the database.

The method as claimed in claim 1 , comprising;

recording an audible for a new file to be stored in the database and appending said file to the recorded audible;

sharing the recorded audible on the social media and setting the audible as the Ring Back Tone for said file.

A method of providing personalized a ring back tone comprising;

a caller and a user wherein the caller connects with the user over a communication network;

the user on receiving a connection request from the caller, selecting an audible file to append with the name of the caller; and

wherein the audible file reflects a right state of mood of the user and sending said audible file to the caller over the communication network without accepting the connection request.

The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the audible file sent by the user is played on the caller device.

The method as claimed in claim 3, comprising;

sending a connection request by a caller to the user over a communication network; wherein the connection request is prematurely terminated; detecting said premature terminated request by the user and transmitting an audible file to the caller associated with said premature terminated request;

selecting the premature terminated connection request from a log stored in the database of the user device and sending selected audible files to said callers over a communication network.

A method of providing a content suggestion comprising;

prompting a user after terminating a communication with the caller over a communication network with an audible file stored in a database and selecting said audible file for said user;

optimizing the frequency of prompting to the user after terminating a

communication with the caller;

determining caller subscription to the content suggestion;

providing the content suggestion to the caller over a communication network; and tracking the caller subscription and activities for providing optimized content suggestion over a communication network.

7. A method of providing an audible news feed to a user comprising;

receiving a notification indicating a status of at least one stored file in a database of a user device;

accessing the notification sent by at least one stored file to the user;

responding to the notification by transmitting an action of the user;

determining the notification of at least one stored file stored in the database of the user device; and

listening to the status of at least one stored file.

8. A system for creating a personalized audible message comprising:

means for searching and appending a file to a pre-recorded audible message stored in a database;

means for determining and selecting the pre-recorded audible file stored in the database to reflect the right state of mood of a user;

means for sharing the audible message on a social media through a communication network; and means for setting the pre-recorded audible message as a ring back tone for at least one file stored in the database.

The system as claimed in claim 8, comprising:

means for recording an audible message for a new file in the database;

means for appending said file to the recorded message;

means for sharing said audible file on social media; and

means for setting said audible file as ring back tone for the new file stored in the database.

A system for providing a personalized ring back tone comprising:

a calling device and a user device wherein the calling device is configured to connect with the user device on a communication network;

the user device is configured to receive a connection request sent by the calling device over the communication network wherein the user device is also configured to select an audible file for appending the audible file with the caller device;

wherein

the user device transmits said audible file to the calling device over the

communication network.

The system as claimed in claim 10 wherein the caller device is configured to play the audible message transmitted by the user device.

12. The system as claimed in claim 10, wherein the caller device sending a connection request to the user device over the communication network and the connection request is prematurely terminated;

the user device is configured to detect the premature terminated connection request and transmitting an audible file to the calling device associated with the premature connection request, the user device is further configured to select the premature connection request from a log stored in the database of the user device and transmitting selected audible files to the selected calling devices over the communication network.

13. A system for providing a content suggestion, comprising: means for prompting a user device upon termination of communication with the calling device over a communication network to select an audible file stored in a database of the user device;

means for optimizing the frequency of prompting to the user after terminating the communication with the calling device;

means for determining calling device subscription to the content suggestion; means for providing the content suggestion to the calling device over the communication network; and

means for tracking the calling device subscription and activities for providing optimized content suggestion over the communication network.

14. A system for providing an audible news feed to a user device comprising;

means for receiving a notification indicating a status of at least one stored file in a database of the user device;

means for accessing the notification sent by at least one stored file to the user device;

means for responding to the notification by transmitting an action of the user device;

means for determining the notification of at least one stored file stored in the database of the user device; and

means for listening to the status of at least one stored file of the calling device and the user device.