Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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Voice Mail Network Gateway
Back~round of the Invention
The present invention relates to messaging and, more particularly, to a
voice mail messaging network.
Today, people share information via different types of information
networks. For example, a point-to-point voice mail network is shown in FIG. 1.
Voice mail network 8 comprises voice mail systems 10, 12, 14, 16, and 1~, which
are connected in a point to point manner using links such as link 20. The latter could
be a digital link using a protocol such as TCP/IP (Tr~nsmicsion Control ProtocoV10 Tntt-rnet Protocol). This is a set of co,llpute~ networking protocols that allows two or
more hosts to co"""~ ic~te It is also possible to interconnect voice mail systems
using analog links such as link 22, which uses a protocol such as the AMIS protocol.
Each of the voice mail systems provide a voice mail service to subscribers, who
access the voice service through telephones like telephone 24. The voice mail
15 systems can be systems such as those available from AT&T AUDIX(~, or Octel, and
VMX.
Each of the voice mail systems can provide filn~tionc such as answering
a call and taking a message, forwarding a mt-ss~, annotating and forwarding a
m~ss~ge, playing a message, creating a new mess~ge, or deleting a m~ss~ge.
20 ~ess~ges are exchanged between systems over links 20 or 22. The messages
typically include the mess~ge body and message header where the m~ss~ge body
contains the voice m~ss~ge for example and the mess~ge header contains the
addressing inform~tion Messages between voice mail systems may also include
inform~tion such as delivery status and directory updates, where the directory
25 contains information such as a ~lestin~tion address associated with the name of a
particular addressee.
Somewhat similar to the voice mail network of FIG. 1 is an "electronic
mail" (e-mail) network (not shown), where e-mail messages are sent between users.
In an e-mail network, the telephones are replaced by data t~rmin~l equipment (DTE)
30 such as personal colllpu~l~ (PCs) with termin~l em~ tion software. The body of an
e-mail message contains text info~lllation that is typically typed in by a user, the
sender, at their DTE for tr~ncmiccion to another user, the recipient. The latterreceives the message by visually displaying the e-mail message on their DTE.
Both the voice mail network and the e-mail network represent disparate
35 information services because they are based upon different media. A user of a voice
mail network typically interacts with their telephone set, where the voice mail user
21391~2
sends and receives audio messages via a voice mail network. In comparison, a user
of an e-mail network typically interacts with their DTE, through which the e-mail
user sends and receives text messages. As a result, a voice mail user and an e-mail
user cannot send messages to each other. This results in some people having access
5 to both systems to ensure that they can col"",l"-icate with both voice mail users and
e-mail users. Such a "multi-system" user must independently access both systems to
ensure that all mess~es, both voice mail and e-mail, have been retrieved.
Unfortunately, even if a person is a multi-system user, that person typically favors
one system over the other. For example, a multi-system user with a plcfelence for
10 voice mail may not consistently monitor, via their DTE, for any e-mail messages
tr~n~mitt~A to them. Consequently, this type of multi-system user may miss
important e-mail-based info~ ation tr~nsmitte~l to them by an e-mail user who may
have erroneously assumed that the recipient always reads their e-mail.
Summary of the Invention
This invention elimin~tes the incompatibility beLweell dirrt;-c~ t
inform~tion services employing dirr.,~el t media for co"""lll~ic~ting information. In
accordance with the principles of the invention, a voice mail network processes
messages according to the media format desired by the recipient independent of the
media format used by the sender. As a result, this allows a voice mail user to receive
20 voice mail notification of any message tr~nsmitte~ to them regardless of the media
used by the sender. Further, this invention allows a user, who has a preference for
one type of media, to only receive information in that media. Consequently, such a
user is no longer required to be a multi-system user.
In an embodiment of the invention, a "gateway" to a voice mail network
25 receives an e-mail mess~ge from an e-mail sender, and processes the e-mail message
into a multi-media message format. The gateway of the voice mail network then
checks a "user profile" associated with the recipient of the e-mail message. This
profile stores user-specific information and includes the media preference of the user.
The gateway retrieves the media plcfclcllce for the recipient from the user profile
30 and sends the multi-media message to the recipient in the p.efell~d format
Brief Description of the Drawin~
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a prior art point-to-point voice mail
network;
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a hub architecture of a voice mail system in
35 accordance with the principles of the invention;
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F M.3is a functional diagram of a hub of FIG.2;
FIG.4is a hardware level block diagram of a hub of FIG.2;
FIG.Sis a software architecture block diagram of a hub;
FIG.6is an illustrative block diagram of a hub function;
S FIG.7 is a block diagram illustrating the interconnection of several
hub-based voice mail networks;
FIG.8is an illustrative format of an e-mail message;
FIG.9 is an illustrative flow chart for processing an e-mail message in
accordance with the principles of the invention;
FIG.lOis an illustrative format for a multi-media message; and
FIG.llis an illustrative flow chart for processing a voice mail message
in accordance with the principles of the invention;
Detailed Description
FIG.2 illustrates a voice mail network in accordance with the principles
15 of the invention. Voice mail network 100 illustratively has a "hub" architectnre as
represented by hubs 40,42, and 44. These hubs are interconnected by data links 46.
Data links 46 can be digital data links using a protocol such as TCP/IP or they may
be analog or optical links. Conn~cte~l to each of the hubs are voice mail ~y~ellls like
voice mail systems 48 and 50, which are connected to hub 40 over data links 52 and
54, respectively. Each hub and voice mail system is representative of a "host."
Interhost comm-lnic~tion is based upon the 7-layer Tntern~tion~l Standards
Org~ni7~tion (ISO) model. The character of data link 52, i.e., whether digital or
analog, is lict~te~l by the format used by voice mail system 48. Likewise, the
character of data link 54 is dictated by the format used by voice mail system 50.
Connected to each of the voice mail systems are co-"l",-.-ic~ti~n termin~l~ likeco."",.~ tion termin~l 56, which is coupled to voice mail system 50.
Co~ tion~ termin~l 56 can be a simple telephone that receives the voice mail
mess~ges or services from voice mail network 100.
In accordance with the principles of this invention, hub 40 provides a
"gateway service" that couples e-mail network 30 to voice mail network 100. Thisgateway service allows messages to be sent between any e-mail user, like the user
associated with DTE 32, and any voice mail user, like the user associated with
c~ unications terminal 66--even though the media formats are dirrerellt. As
further described below, the gateway service of hub 40 processes an e-mail message
from e-mail network 30 so that the resulting message can be delivered to a voicemail user, who can listen to the m~ss~ge as opposed to reading the message.
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Similarly, the gateway service of hub 40 allows an e-mail user to read a message as
opposed to listening to the message.
Before proceeding with a description of the gateway service of hub 40,
the overall operation of voice mail network 100 will be described. At the outset, it
5 should be noted that the term "hub" represents a collection of hardware and software
that provides "hub functionality" as further described below. Each of the hubs are
used to provide a directory that covers all of the users on the entire network rather
than requiring each voice mail system to store a directory for the entire network. In
this embodiment, each voice mail system only stores a directory of its local users.
10 For example, voice mail system 50 only stores a directory of the users identified with
terminals 56. However a voice mail system may include a subset of the respectivehub's network wide directory. This subset of the hub's directory is "downloaded"from the hub that is connected to the voice mail system, i.e., its "local hub." By
downloading the local hub's directory, it provides the advantage of enabling the15 respective voice mail system to provide additional voice mail features like "name
addressing" and/or "voice name back while addressing." The name addressing
feature enables a user to send a m~ss~e to a receiver by using just the addressee's
name as opposed to the telephone number; and the voice name back while
addressing feature provides the sender with the addressee's name to verify that a
20 correct address has been entered into the system. It is also possible to keep the entire
directory of a voice mail system on the local hub and thereby alleviate the voice mail
system of memory re~lui~.llents needed to support a directory. It is advisable that a
high speed link between the voice mail system and the local hub be provided to
ensure apyluyliate response times.
FIG. 3 illustrates a high level functional block diagram of a hub.
rnterf~celformat conversion 80 includes hardware and software that is used to
provide co~ ic~tion between the different inputs and outputs of the hub. For
example, an input 82 using an AMIS analog format to a voice mail system can be
convellc;d to formats used by other input/outputs like a low speed digital input or
30 output used by I/O 84, a high speed digital format used by VO 86, and a local area
network (LAN) format such as TCP/IP used by I/O 88. In addition, for
coll~"."ni~ting with other hubs a message received at any of the inputs or outputs
can be converted to a digital format used by network interconnect 90, an analog
format used by network interconnect 92 or a LAN format used by network
35 interconnect 94. It is also possible to provide format conversion between optical
formats and other formats.
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A hub also contains storage 96 which is used to store info~ ation such
as the directory of users on the entire network and application programs. It is also
possible for a hub to provide a voice mail function by providing voice mail services.
Referring back to FIG. 2, this is illustrated by hub 42, which is directly coupled to
5 co.,.-~ ic~tions t~rmin~l~ 60. In this situation, the software application used to
provide the voice mail function, which heretofore resided in a voice mail system, is
run on the same haldwale used to provide the hub function. When the hub is also
used as a voice mail system, user terminal interf~ce hardware 98 is provided, in the
hub, to interface to co.-,-..ll.-icationi terrnin~l 60.
FIG. 4 is an illustrative hardware-level block diagram of a hub. The hub
c~mprises several electronic cards and storage devices that C(Jlllllll~l~ic~t~ over
standard bus 104, which may be a bus such as an EISA bus used by many of the
widely-available PCs. The processing tasks are h~n~le-l by processor 110, which
in~ cles a microprocessor such as an Intel 8486 processor that operates at a speed
15 such as 50 Mhz. System memory used by processor 110 is provided on memory 112that co....~ tt~s with processor 110 over intern~l bus 140. Memory 112 shouldinclude a convenient amount of memory such as 64 megabytes. It should be noted
that it is also possible to elimin~te the electronics card associated with memory 112
by placing the memory on the electronics card associated with processor 110.
20 Video/l~eyboard interface 114 is used to provide an interface between processor 110
and a monitor and keyboard. This monitor and keyboard is used by a local
lmini.~trator, who ~rlmini~ters~ i.e., configures and m~int~ins the hub. Directory and
application storage are provided by disk drives 116. Disk drives 116 can be one
large optical drive or several of the widely-available magnetic drives or tape drives.
25 Typically for a voice mail network involving 5,000 users it is desirable to have
storage capability on the order of 3 Gigabytes. Network interf~ce 118 is used toprovide an interface between bus 104 and link 46, which in~l.;onnect the hubs ofvoice mail network 100. Network interface 118 provides the electrical interface
beLweell the bus 104 and link 46. The message formatting required for the
30 co----.-~ ic~tion over links 46 is carried out by processor 110. A hub may also
include serial port card 120, i.e., a mo-lem, which receives inputs over a conventional
telephone line. This provides the capability for remote access to a hub for
gnosticsandupgrade.
When a hub is used to provide a voice mail function such as in the case
35 of hub 42, switch interf~e 122 and telephone line interface 124 are included. These
cards co- - -. . lll ~icate with processor 110 over bus 104. Switch interface 122 is used to
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- 6 -
control telephone switching to co,~ ic~tions terminals 60. The switching usuallyoccurs through a device such as private branch exchange (PBX) 126 and/or
telephone network 128. Telephone interface 124 provides col~lllu~ atiQn between
bus 124 and the telephone lines provided by PBX 126. These telephone lines can be
5 conventional "tip and ring" lines.
Tnt~rf~ce card(s) 130 provides an interface between bus 104 and a
con-,--lll-ic~tions link to a voice mail system. For example, interface card(s) 130
may be used to interface bus 104 to c~ mm~lnie~tiQns paths using fiber optics, co-
axial, or wireless, links. The formatting required by the comm-lnic~tions link is
10 calried out by processor card 110.
FIG. S is an illustrative software architecture for a hub. UNIX (~)
ol)cldLillg software layer 160 is used to col~ ate with the above-mentioned
hal.lw~t; of the hub. The UNIX operating software may also use driver soflwalc;
that is provided by the hardware m~nllf~ctllrer that provides the electronic cards used
15 to construct the hub. The UNIX operating software is well-known and provides time
sharing of the above-described hardware by the applications (described below). Hub
software element 162 performs functions such as format conversions, ~ltt~ se
routing when a particular network link becomes inoperative, user di~ ,loly updates
and transfers be~ween hubs or between a hub and voice mail system, and security
20 functions to provide password protection for access to voice mail sys~ems (described
below). Hub software element 162 co,,,.l~llnic~tçs with the UNIX operating software
using INTUITY ~ voice express layer 166, which is available from AT&T.
Applications functions are provided within a hub as represented by voice mail
software el~m~nt 164. These application functions can be standard voice mail
25 applications, which are available from AT&T. It is also possible for a hub to provide
other applic ~tions as represented by software elemen~ 168, which provides
interactive voice response (IVR) to users. An IVR application may be an application
provided under the name CONVERSANT (~) by AT&T.
FIG. 6 is an illustrative block diagram illustrating one of several
30 possible implementations of the functions carried out by hub block 162 of FIG. 5.
Each of the blocks of FIG. 6 illustrate a software process that performs one function;
however, it should be noted that several functions can be combined into process.The process l~presellted by network interface 180 is used to provide a network
address to a message that is to be passed along one of the links between the hubs.
35 The address used by network interface 180 is provided by directory manager 182.
This process ~ccesses subscriber directory database 184 to provide the proper
213~I32
- 7 -
network address for a subscriber narne or telephone number. The actual message
that network interf~re 180 provides to the network is received from message
deliverer 186. Message deliverer 186 accesses message storage database 188 to
provide the mess~ge data to network interface 180.
Messages received from links between the hubs are received by network
interface 180, which provides the message to message receiver 190. The latter then
stores the message in message A~t~ba~e 188. Message receiver 190 stores the
message in message database 188 with addressing information such as the address of
the sender and message recipient. Message manager 192 keeps track of message
10 status. This process m-nitors messages received by mess~ge receiver 190 and
messages delivered by message deliverer 186. This way, message manager 192
keeps track of what messages have been received and which have been delivered and
accessed by the the recipient. When requested via message receiver 190, message
m~n~ger 192 provides a status message to the requester through mess~ge deliverer15 186.
The network interface process is also used to provide directory updates
to other hubs on the network and to voice mail systems that are ~tt~chrA to the hub.
When another hub or a voice mail system requires an exchange of subscriber
directory information with this hub, network interf~re 180 uses directory m~n~ger
20 182 to provide subscriber information from database 184 to the requesting device.
Directory manager 182 will also request subscriber information from a m~n~ging
system through network interf~ce 180 and store that information in the database 184.
Administrator 194 and its associated database 196 provide overall
control to the afolcmei1tioned processes. For example, aAmini~trator 194 provides
25 control over information provided by directory manager 182, message deliverer 186,
and message receiver 190, in accordance with passwords and other seculi~y
functions. Database 196 is used to store infoImation such as passwords.
FIG. 7 illustrates the interconnection of several hub-based voice mail
networks. Voice mail network 200 is interconnected to voice mail network 202
30 using higher level voice mail network 204. In this embodiment, one of the hubs of
voice mail network 200, such as hub 206, is interconnected to hub 208 of voice mail
network 204 using a high speed digital link like TCP/IP. Hub 208 comm-lnir~tes
with other hubs of voice mail network 204, such as hubs 210 and 212, using links214, 216, and 218. Hub 206 of voice mail network 200 can commllnic~te with hub
35 220 of voice mail network 202 through voice mail network 204. Hub 206
co""""l-ir~tes over line 207 to hub 208, which then co"""~ iç~tes with hub 210
2l39l32
-
- 8 -
over link 216. Hub 210 then provides comm~lnic~tion to hub 220 using link 222. In
this manner, a voice mail user of voice mail network 200 can communic~te with a
voice mail user of voice mail network 202. It is possible to provide additional
security and password safeguards at the hubs that interface to voice mail network
5 204 to provide security for proprietary information.
In accordance with the principles of the invention, a gateway service is
provided by hub 40, of FIG. 2, that couples e-mail network 30 to voice mail network
100. As shown in the following example, this gateway service allows messages to
be sent between any e-mail user, like the user associated with DTE 32, and any voice
10 mail user, like the user associated with co"""l~nic~tions terminal 66--even though
the media formats are different. Generally speaking, the format of an e-mail
message includes a "header" and "a body." This is shown in FIG. 8 for e-mail
mpss~ge 300. Header 301 includes information such as the address of the recipient,
while body 302 inclu~les the text portion of the message, i.e., the actual information
lS sent to the recipient. FIG. 9 shows an illustrative method for use in hub 40 in
accordance with the principles of the invention for processing an e-mail message like
e-mail mess~ge 300. It is assumed that e-mail network 30 contains info~ aLion for
routing messages to voice mail network 100 of FIG. 2. In other words, it is assumed
that e-mail network 30 treats voice mail network 100 as if it were an e-mail network.
20 Hub 40 receives e-mail message 300 in step 405. After receiving the e-mail
mess~ge hub 40 filters e-mail message 300 to determine if it is a valid message in
step 410. For example, hub 40 parses header 301 and compares the res--lting
information with information on directory l~t~ba~e 184, of FIG. 6, to determine if
the recipient of e-mail mess~ge 300 is located on voice mail network 100. If e-mail
25 mPss~ge 300 is not a valid message, then hub 40 sends a "cannot deliver message"
back to e-mail network 30 in step 415 for suitable processing by e- mail network 30.
On the other hand, if e-mail message 300 is a valid mess~ge~ then hub 40 retrieves
the recipient's profile from directory database 184 in step 420. The recipient'sprofile includes additional information on the recipient such as the media-type that
30 the recipient wants to receive the message in. The media-type could be audio, e.g.,
voice mail; image, e.g., fax; or text, e.g., e-mail. Further, the profile incl~ .s
destination information, such as where the recipient's printer, telephone, terminal,
and/or fax machine are located within voice mail network 100. After retrieving the
recipient's profile, hub 40 processes e-mail message 300 in accordance with the
35 recipient's desired media-type, i.e., media ~lefelence, to provide a multi-media
message in step 425. This multi-media message is illustratively shown in FIG. 10.
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Like e-mail message 300, multi-media message 350 includes a header - mnltim~
header 351, and a body - multi-media body 352. Multi-media header 351 includes
address information for the recipient of e-mail message 300 and is used by the
rem~in~er of voice mail network 100 for routing and delivery of multi-media
5 message 350. Multi-media body 352 includes a number of segments, where each
segment corresponds to a different media type. The format of multi-media body 352
can be predefined, i.e., with segment information appearing in a particular sequence;
or each segment can include identifying information as to what media-type is used to
convey the information. In this example, segment 356 includes the original text of
10 e-mail mtossage 300, while segment 357 includes an audio, i.e., speech,
representation of the origin~l text of e-mail mçss~ge 300 (described below). In other
words, in this example, it is assumed that the media preference of the recipient is to
receive voice mail messages, not e-mail messages. This multi-media message is
stored in above-mentioned message storage 188 of FIG. 6. The message is stored
15 until marked as delivered by message m~n~gçr 192 of FIG. 6. The multi-media
message is then sent to the recipient in step 435. Assuming that the recipient was
associated with co,.l"nl~ ations terminal 66, hub 40 routes multi-media message
350 to hub 44 based upon the content of header 351, for delivery to voice mail
system 65. The latter, upon receiving the multi-media mess~gç, stores it for access
20 by the recipient and turns on an inclicator (not shown) on co.--.nl.ni~tions termin~l
66, which is assumed to be a telephone for the purposes of this example. The
in(lic~tor can be a light, which when turned on represents to the recipient that a new
voice mail message has arrived. As a result, the recipient--a voice mail user--
can listen to the message as opposed to being required to read the mt-ssage.
As noted above, each multi-media message includes dirrelGnt segrnents,
where each segment is associated with a different media type. Each voice mail
system of voice network 100 processes the message for delivery in accordance with
the associated co"""ll,-ic~tions terminal, which is tied to the media type. In this
example, commllnications terminal 66 represents a telephone, therefore voice mail
30 system 65 processes only the segment that contains audio inro~ ation and simply
ignores the segment cont~ining the original text of the e-mail. This multi-mediamçssage format allows any type of ml~ss~ging system to deal with infollllation at a
messaging level. For example, the recipient's profile could direct that a fax message
be forwarded to a fax mailbox associated with a fax machine, e.g., co-"",l.nications
35 terminal 62, which is coupled to a different voice mail system. This allows the
recipient to print the fax even if the current system that the recipient is on is not itself
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..
- 10-
capable of providing fax services.
Similarly, FIG. 11 shows a similar method to that of FIG. 9 for
processing a mt~ ge in the reverse direction, i.e., from a voice mail user of voice
mail network 100 to an e-mail user on e-mail network 30. In this example, it is
5 assumed that a voice mail user at commllni~tions terminal 66 of voice mail system
65 sends a voice mail message to an e-mail user associated with DTE 32 of e-mailnetwork 30. At the outset, it should be noted that since the voice mail user is within
voice mail network 100, the voice mail message is already in a multi-media m~ss~ge
format except that only the audio segment contains a representation of the mçss~ge
10 The other segments are empty. Hub 44 receives the voice mail message in step 505
and checks the validity of the message in step 510. For example, hub 44 parses the
multi-media header and compares the resulting inro",l~tion with information on
directory database 184, of FM. 6, to determine if the recipient of the voice mail
m~-ss~ge is located on voice mail network 100. In this instance, it is assumed that the
15 address of the recipient, although located on an e-mail network, is included within
directory rl~t~b~e 184. If the voice mail mçss~ge is not a valid m~ss~ge, then hub
44 sends a "cannot deliver message" back to voice mail system 65 for the voice mail
user in step 515. On the other hand, if the voice mail message is a valid mess~ge,
then, in step 518, hub 44 sends the message to the gateway hub, i.e., hub 40 in
20 accordance with the address information contained within the multi-media header of
the voice mail mçss~ge. Gateway hub 40 retrieves the recipient's profile from
directory database 184 in step 520. The recipient's profile incll~des additionalinformation on the recipient such as the media-type that the recipient wants to
receive the message in. In this example, the media-type is text, i.e., e-mail. After
25 retrieving the recipient's profile, hub 40 processes the voice mail message in
accordance with the recipient's desired media-type, i.e., media pl~Çe~ ce, to provide
a multi-media message in step 525. Now, the text segment of the multi-media
message is no longer empty but is a text representation of the audio portion of the
message as represented by the audio segment. This multi-media message is stored in
30 m~ss~ge storage 188 of FIG. 6. The message is stored until marked as delivered by
message m~n:~ger 192 of FM. 6. At this point, the e- mail message is sent to the e-
mail user in step 535. It should be noted that the content of the message sent to e-
mail network 30 can vary in a number of ways. For example, if the message formatexpected by e-mail network 30 is different from the multi-media message format of
35 voice mail network 100, then hub 40 simply provides an additional conversion step
and converts the multi-media message into a compatible e-mail message before
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11
sending the e-mail mçss~ge to e-mail network 309. On the other hand, if e-mail
network 30 can operate on a multi-media message format, then hub 40 simply
transmits the multi-media messages, as is, to e-mail network 30. The latter only uses
the text segment of the multi-media message and simply ignores any additional
5 information included in the other media segments. Consequently the gateway
service of hub 40 allows an e-mail user to read a message as opposed to being
required to listening to the message.
As described above, the gateway services of hub 40 create a gateway
directly into the fabric of the voice mail network. Gateways provide a method for
10 subscriber plefelences and profiles to allow for filtering of the messages as they flow
from one type of network (e.g., e-mail as illustrated above) to a voice mail or multi-
media capable network. In accordance with the principles of the invention, the
gateway function of hub 40 provides the unique capability of allowing the recipient
of the message to decide on the media-type to receive the message in, be that fax,
15 text, or speech. The gateway function of hub 40 provides a place within a network
of voice mess~ging sys~ems to do the necessary media conversions and
encapsulation of data to allow all systems, whether voice mail, e-mail, or image, to
deal with infi~rmation at some level. Further, the mess~ge could be annotated with
voice on any system independent of whether that system is capable of displaying all
20 portions of the message.
Therefore, in accordance with the principles of this invention, each
co,.;..-l"~ tions t~rminal of voice mail network 100 is more properly regarded as a
multi-media endpoint, which support a particular media-type, whether it be audio,
e.g., voice mail; or image, e.g., fax; etc. In the case of multi-media endpoints, an
25 additional interfa~e card is provided in the hal.lwale architecture of FIG. 4 to convert
the data on bus 104 to the applu~liate format used for the associated multi-media
endpoint. In this way, video, sound and image data can be transferred over
commllni~tion lines to a respective commllni~ations terminal. This info~n~tion can
be transferred using compression techniques to enable passing multi-media
30 information over conventional telephone lines or an interface card may be used to
interf~ce the multi-media inf(~ ation on bus 104 to commllnic~tiQn paths using fiber
optics, co-axial, or radio, links.
Since voice mail network 100 supports multi-media mess~ging,
additional features are available to its users. For example, in addition to listening to
35 a message, a user is able to request a printout of the message. Since it is a multi-
media message, the text portion of the message is available for printout.
21341~2
As described above, gateway hub 40 must provide the conversion of
information from one media type to another. In all instances, well-known
conversion methods can be used, and as such will not be described in detail. Forexample, in order to covert a text-based portion of a multi-media message into an
S audio portion, gateway hub 40 first filters out that inform~tion that is not related to
speech, e.g., the header, punctuation, etc. Then gateway hub 40 performs text tospeech coding on the rem~ining portion of the information. This speech coding can
either utilize voice fragments or general text to speech software such as that
available from AT&T and other venders.
Similarly, the conversion of speech to text can be p~lrolllled by any of
the current speech recognition techniques. However, it should be noted that the
quality of conver~ing from speech to text is a function of the complexity of thespeech recognition process. Although a large speaker-independent vocabulary
would yield the best results, a smaller vocabulary may be usable. In addition,
15 alternatives exist if it is not desired to covert an entire voice mail message. For
example, only the header of the multi-media m~ssRge may be converted into text.
Although this does not provide the whole mess~ge~ and may still require a "multi-
system" user, it at least provides notification to the e-mail user, and vice versa, that a
m-oss~e has been sent. As a result, a multi-system user at least will not miss any
20 messages sent in a different media. In addition, an opeld~or, i.e., a human being, can
be used to provide complete conversion of voice mail messages into text.
Finally, once a message has been converted into a text form, it can
easily be converted into a raster image that is compatible with existing fax m,.~hinçs
Similarly, in the reverse direction, a raster image can be processed using existing
25 optical character recognition (OCR) techniques to provide a text representation of
the fax. As described above, once a text representation exists, an audio mess~ge can
be easily created, thus allowing a fax message to be delivered, in audio form, to a
voice mail user.
The foregoing merely illustrates the principles of the invention and it
30 will thus be appreciated that those skilled in the art will be able to devise numerous
~lt~rn~tive arrangements which, although not explicitly described herein, embody the
principles of the invention and are within its spirit and scope.
For example, in the above description, each e-mail message was
processed into a multi-media message that included not only the original text of the
35 e-mail message but also included an audio segment representing the original text.
However, each e-mail message does not have to be converted into a multi-media
213~132
- 13-
message format but can simply be converted into an audio segment. The original
text of the e-mail message can then either be preserved for latter reference, e.g., print
out, within the hub; or discarded entirely. Further, e-mail network 30 is only
illustrative of an information source that provides information in a particular media-
5 type such as existing information services like Dow Jones, etc.
