Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR ACCESSING PERSONALIZED
INTERNET INFORMATION USING A MOBILE DEVICE
Field Of The Invention
This invention relates generally to methods
and apparatus for providing access to information
available in the Internet using a mobile device. More
specifically, the present invention provides methods
and apparatus for accessing personalized Internet
information using a mobile device such as a telephone.
Backcrround Of The Invention
The Internet and the World Wide Web
(hereinafter "the web") have revolutionized the ways ir~
which information is disseminated and shared. A wide
variety of information can be simultaneously accessed
by multiple users through a new category of documents
designed to easily represent content for display and
transmission over the Internet. These new documents,
often referred to as electronic documents or web pages,
are increasingly replacing their traditional paper
counterparts as the medium through which business is
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carried out.
A web page is a multimedia composition that
is displayed to the user on a "web browser window" by
"web browser software". Under the control of a user,
the web browser software establishes a connection over
the Internet between the user's computer, and a "web
server". This connection is used to download data
representing a "web page" from the web server to the
user's computer. Web pages may contain text, audio,
graphics, imagery, and video content, as well as nearly
any other type of content that may be experienced
through use of a computer or other electronic devices.
Additionally, web pages may be interactive, and may
contain user selectable links that cause other web
pages to be displayed, forms that may be used to send
information from the user to the web server,
interactive executable code, or other elements through
which the user may interact with web pages. A group of
one or more interconnected and closely related web
pages, such as all the web pages containing information
about a single company, located on one or more web
servers, is referred to as a "web site".
At present, information displayed on web
pages in the Internet can be accessed by various
"Internet appliances", which are electronic devices
configured with an Internet access system. Internet
appliances include, but are not limited to,
microprocessor based devices such as personal and
portable computers, personal digital assistants,
electronic organizers, as well as land line and
wireless mobile telephones. In particular, using a
wireless telephone to access information available in
the Internet has become increasingly popular. The
growing demand by mobile business users to have access
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to Internet information from anywhere in the world has
led to the development of various Internet telephone
access technologies provided by wireless communications
providers, such as Sprint Co. from Westwood, KS, and
Motorola, Inc., from Schaumburg, IL.
These technologies allow users to access
information such as their e-mail, news, stock quotes,
among others, by using a visual interface in a wireless
telephone provided by the wireless communications
provider. A visual interface is used in wireless
phones that have a small visual display to provide
access to Internet information via microbrowser
software, which consists of a simpler version of a web
browser, with reduced graphic capabilities. Users
select an information content provider in the Internet
from a pull-down menu displayed in the microbrowser
window in the wireless telephone. Such content
providers include Yahoo! from Santa Clara, CA, Excite
from Redwood City, CA, America Online, Inc., from
Dulles, VA, as well electronic commerce companies such
as Amazon.com from Seattle, WA. The user makes a
specific information request to the content provider,
and the requested information is then delivered to the
user by the microbrowser in the telephone display.
Accessing Internet information using a
microbrowser in a wireless telephone, however, has
several drawbacks. First, it is a very time consuming
process, requiring users to select several options in
the small visual display in the telephone to access the
desired information. The telephone and Internet
connections may be unreliable, or the user may have to
wait a significant amount of time to receive the
rea_uested information. Second, interacting with the
visual interface in the telephone is extremely tedious.
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An inordinately large number of telephone key presses
may be required to retrieve even a small amount of
useful information. The visual interface has to be
managed on a telephone with difficult to use controls.
Lastly, the existing microbrowser systems do not
provide access to concise, relevant, and important
information quickly and easily. Different pieces of
information are often relevant to different users, and
users may have to iterate through several items of less
important and less interesting information before
accessing desired information.
One alternative way to access information
using a telephone is provided by interactive voice
response (IVR) systems. These systems enable the
telephone user to access information by dialing a phone
number corresponding to an IVR system server. The
server contains software to issue voice prompts to the
user corresponding to several information access
options, and the user responds to the voice prompts by
either selecting and pushing buttons on the telephone,
or by using speech recognition technologies. Users can
access IVR systems from any standard telephone,
including those that do not have visual displays.
Examples of IVR systems include those employed by
financial institutions to give users access to their
accounts over the telephone, such as the system covered
in U.S. Patent Number 5,825,856. Similar systems are
also employed in a host of other applications,
including those in the airline industry offering users
the ability to check flight information over the
telephone. IVR systems are very easy to use, and
provide quick access to information from any telephone
with a simple phone call.
Information can also be accessed by several
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other mobile devices, such as personal digital
assistants (PDAs) and pagers. In this case, the IVR
system may be substituted by an interactive response
(IR) system in which the voice prompts are replaced
with text in a small visual display window in the
mobile device. An example includes the two-way word
messaging feature offered by Motorola, Inc., from
Schaumburg, IL.
In view of the foregoing drawbacks of
accessing Internet information using a microbrowser in
a telephone, it would be desirable to provide methods
and apparatus for accessing information in the Internet
using an IR system and a mobile communications device
(MCD) .
It would further be desirable to provide
methods and apparatus for accessing e-mail, fax, voice
mail information, calendar, and specific items on web
sites using an IR system and a MCD.
It would also be desirable to provide methods
and apparatus for creating a personalized information
database to store each user's personalized information
to be accessed using an IR system and a MCD.
Summary Of The Invention
In view of the foregoing, it is an object of
the present invention to provide methods and apparatus
for providing access to personalized Internet
information using an IR system and a MCD.
It is another object of the present invention
to provide methods and apparatus for accessing e-mail,
fax, voice mail information, calendar, and specific
items on web sites using an IR system and a MCD.
It is a further object of the present
invention to provide methods and apparatus for creating
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a personalized information database to store each
user's personalized information to be accessed using an
IR system and a MCD.
These and other objects of the present
invention are accomplished by providing methods and
apparatus for accessing personalized Internet
information using an IR system and a MCD. The
personalized information may include e-mail, fax
notification, calendar, "to do" lists, as well as
specific items on favorite web sites.
In a preferred embodiment, the methods of the
present invention for providing personalized access to
Internet information using an IR system and a MCD
involve three steps: (1) creating a web page to provide
an interface for personalizing the information to be
accessed using the IR system; (2) creating a
personalized information database to store the
personalized information selected by the user to be
accessed using the IR system; and (3) designing an IR
system to provide access to the personalized
information stored in the personalized information
database.
More specifically, a personalization routine
generates a web page interface that enables users to
specify and update personal information preferences
that are accessed using the IR system and the MCD. The
personalized information preferences are selected by
creating specially designed "scripts", which are
programs generated when users select personalized
information for several information categories, such as
e-mail, financial information, and news. The scripts
contain the steps required for users to access their
personalized information for a specific information
category and are executed each time the user requests
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the personalized information in that category using the
IR system. The user requests personalized information
for a specific information category by connecting to
the IR system and selecting one or more information
categories to be downloaded to the MCD. The scripts
are stored in a personalized information database
provided in the web server.
Advantageously, the present invention enables
a user to access Internet information quickly and
easily using an IR system from any MCD.
In addition, the present invention enables a
user to select the information accessible using the IR
system according to his or her personal preferences.
Brief Description Of The Drawincts
The foregoing and other objects of the
present invention will be apparent upon consideration
of the following detailed description, taken in
conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which
like reference characters refer to like parts
throughout, and in which:
FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a computer
system suitable for use with the present invention;
FIG. 2 shows the network environment in which
the present invention operates;
FIG. 3 is a flow chart for accessing
personalized information with an illustrative
embodiment of the present invention in which the MCD is
a telephone and the IR system is an interactive voice
response (IVR) system;
FIG. 4 illustrates an example list of
information categories to be accessed using the IR
system;
FIG. 5 is a schematic view of a web page
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interface for users to select the personalized
information to be accessed with the IR system;
FIG. 6 is a schematic view of a preferred
embodiment of an interactive web page for specifying
the "favorites" information category;
FIG. 7A is a flow chart for selecting
information from a web site in the "favorites"
information category to be accessed using the IR
system;
FIG. 7B shows an example web site in the
"favorites" information category containing an item
selected for access using the IR system;
FIG. 8A is a schematic view of a preferred
embodiment of an interactive web page for specifying
the "messages" information category;
FIG. 8B shows an example message window
displayed on the interactive web page for specifying
the "messages" information category; and
FIG. 9 shows an example text transcript of
user access to an illustrative embodiment of the
present invention in which the MCD is a telephone and
the IR system is an IVR system.
Detailed Description Of The Invention
The present invention provides access to
personalized Internet information using an IR system
and a mobile communications device (MCD). The MCD, as
used herein, may be a telephone, a personal digital
assistant (PDA), a pager, or any other mobile device
that provides access to the Internet. An IR system
enables a user to access information by connecting to
an IR system server. The server contains software to
issue prompts to the user corresponding to several
information access options, and the user responds to
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the prompts by either selecting icons or pushing
buttons on the MCD, or, if the MCD is a telephone, by
using speech recognition technologies. Users therefore
can access IR systems from any standard MCD, including
those that do not have visual displays.
Referring to FIG. l, a computer system
suitable for use with the present invention is
described. Computer system 20 includes at least
processor 21, for processing information according to
programmed instructions, memory 22, for storing
information and instructions for processor 21, and
storage system 23, such as a magnetic or optical disk
system, for storing large amounts of information and
instructions on a relatively long-term basis. Memory
21 contains instructions for web browser software to
access a web page interface on which users select
personalized Internet information to be accessed using
an IR system. Processor 21, memory 22, and storage
system 23 are coupled to bus 24, which enables devices
connected to bus 24 to communicate with each other.
It will be apparent to one of ordinary skill
in the art that computer system 20 is illustrative, and
that alternative systems and architectures may be used
with the present invention. It will further be
understood that many other devices, such as a display
system (not shown), a network interface (not shown),
and a variety of other input and output devices (not
shown) may be included in computer system 20.
Referring now to FIG. 2, an overview of the
network environment in which a preferred embodiment of
the present invention operates is presented. Client
computer 25 ("client") uses web browser software to
communicate across the Internet with IR server 26
(herein referred to as "server"). Server 26 executes
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web server software to process requests from client
computers on the Internet. Server 26 responds to these
requests by sending web pages to client 25, such as the
web page interface on which users select the
personalized information to be accessed using the IR
system.
In accordance with the present invention,
server 26 also generates "information category software
scripts" (herein referred to as scripts) that contain
the steps required for a user to access his or her
personalized information for a specific information
category. The scripts are generated when client 25
sends requests to server 26 to select personalized
information in a specific information category via the
web page interface displayed in client 25. Server 26
contains personalized information database 27 to store
the scripts generated for all users having access to
the system. Users are granted access to the IR system
by establishing user accounts in the web page interface
displayed in client 25. The scripts are executed each
time an user accesses the IR system. The IR system is
accessed by connecting to the IR system using a MCD,
such as for example, telephone 28 or personal digital
assistant 29. Requests are sent to server 26 to
execute the scripts stored in personalized information
database 27 by keying in commands using the input pad
of telephone 28 or PDA 29. Alternatively, commands
could be entered in the form of voice prompts from a
user of telephone 28.
Additionally, server 26 may contain "search
engine" software for locating web pages in the
Internet. Server 26 also may handle database
management tasks, as well as a variety of
administrative tasks, such as compiling usage
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statistics. Alternatively, some or all of these tasks
may be performed by computers 30a-c, connected to
server 26 through local area network 31. It will be
understood by one skilled in the art that there are
large numbers of web servers connected to the Internet,
and large numbers of client computers running web
browser software. If server 26 has sufficient
capacity, at any given time it may be in communication
with thousands of client computers.
Web servers 32a-c are computers that provide
access to web pages that may be found through use of a
search engine provided by server 26. When a user of
client 25 selects a web page that runs on one of the
web servers 32a-c from the search engine results
provided by server 26, client 25 may communicate across
the Internet with one of web servers 32a-c.
Further, one skilled in the art will
understand that the present invention also could be
used in other network settings. For example, rather
than connecting through the Internet, the apparatus and
methods of the present invention could be used on a
local area network. In such a configuration, the
clients and server would all be connected to the same
local area network.
Referring to FIG. 3, a flowchart for
accessing personalized information with an illustrative
embodiment of the present invention in which the MCD is
a telephone and the IR system is an interactive voice
response (IVR) system is described. At step 34, the
user dials the number to access the IVR system server
using a telephone. A telephone connection is
established between the user's telephone and the
server, and the user is greeted with voice commands to
notify the user of any important messages or useful
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information according to the users' preferences, and to
inform the user that information is ready to be
accessed. At step 35, the user selects the desired
information category by selecting the appropriate
buttons on the telephone keypad or by issuing voice
commands. A request for information is then sent to
the server, and at step 36, the server executes the
appropriate script corresponding to the information
category selected by the user to fetch the user's
personalized information from the Internet. The
scripts corresponding to all information categories for
each user of the IR system are stored in a personalized
information database in the server. The personalized
information is translated into voice commands at step
37, and the voice commands are transmitted to the user
at step 38. At step 39, the user decides whether to
access additional information categories, and if so
desired, the process described above is repeated,
starting from step 35.
Referring now to FIG. 4, an example list of
information categories that may be accessed using the
IR system is described. Information categories 41a-i
may be accessed by the user by entering the appropriate
commands using an input device, such as a keypad or a
menu, or by using voice prompts in the case of a
telephone. Information categories 41a-i include:
messages (41a) , quotes (41b) , news (41c) , weather
(41d), sports (41e), favorites (41f), address book
(41g), calendar (41h), and downloads (41i). The
selection of an information category will trigger the
execution of a script in the server that fetches the
user's personalized information in that category from
the Internet. The server stores a list of scripts
associated with each information category for each user
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of the IR system. The scripts are stored in the
personalized information database in the server. It
will be understood by one skilled in the art that
different information categories may be included with
the present invention.
Message category 41a provides access to a
unified messaging system, enabling the user to receive
e-mails, fax notification, and voice mail via the MCD.
All the e-mails and voice mail messages received by the
user can be deleted, skipped to the next message,
saved, and played multiple times. For example, if the
MCD is a telephone, an e-mail reply may be sent to the
server as a compressed audio file to the appropriate e-
mail address. Fax notifications also may be sent to
the user in the form of a fax header and sender details
that are read to the user by the server. The user has
the option to review the fax header, skip to the next
fax, delete the fax, and forward the fax to a fax
number. In addition, the user can use the MCD input
device to select fax, phone, and e-mail addresses
through which the user can be contacted. For example.
the "@" and "." characters used in e-mail addresses may
be specified with the "*" key of the telephone keypad.
Quotes category 41b provides access to a
stock portfolio maintained by the user. The user can
receive stock quotes or be notified of relevant
movements in the stock market in accordance with
specified preferences selected by the user when
accessing the web page interface. News category 41c
provides access to preferred news web sites in the
Internet. Users also can be notified of specific news
according to information preferences stored in the
personalized information database in the server.
Similarly, weather category 41d and sports category 41e
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provide access to selected weather and sports
information, respectively. The selected information is
specified in the corresponding scripts stored in the
personalized information database in the server.
Favorites category 41f provides a list of
selected web sites according to the user's preferences.
Upon selecting a web site from the list provided in
favorites category 41f, the script corresponding to
favorites category 41f for the user is executed by the
server. The script corresponding to favorites category
41f performs the actions required to access the web
site and extracts desired information from the web site
to be sent to the user. The server packages the
desired information into the appropriate format for the
MCD, and the user may browse the information in the web
site by entering appropriate commands using the MCD
input device. The desired information from the web
site is specified by the user when interacting with the
web page interface. The user has the option to select
all the information or only specific fields of
information from any given web site. For example,
consider the web site for Amazon.com of Seattle, WA.
The user can specify in the web page interface that
only the week's best-seller list is to be sent to the
user when the Amazon.com web site is selected from
favorites category 41f.
In addition, address book category 41g and
calendar category 41h enable users to access their
address book and calendar, respectively, using the IR
system. Downloads category 41i allows users to specify
where data files downloaded from web sites are to be
stored in the server.
Referring now to FIG. 5, a schematic view of
a web page interface for personalizing user information
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to be accessed with the IR system is described. Web
page interface 42 may be accessed by users in any
client computer with web browser software by specifying
the web address of web page interface 42. Web page
interface 42 preferably contains at least user account
field 43 and information category field 44. User
account field 43 is accessed by a first-time user of
the IR system to create an account, and by a returning
user of the IR system to specify his or her account.
Creating an user account involves: (1) selecting a
connection address, e.g., a phone number, to be used
when accessing the IR system, (2) selecting a password
for accessing the web page interface in a secure
manner, (3) entering personal user information such as
user's address and zip code, and (4) selecting a
service plan with corresponding billing options. The
user's address and zip code are used in the
customization of local news and weather reports. Users
can select from a variety of service and billing
options, to specify any rates incurred when accessing
the IR system. Upon creating the user account, any
subsequent access to web page interface 42 will require
the user to enter the selected password in user account
field 43.
Information category field 44 displays all
the information categories available for user access
with the IR system. Each information category in
information category field 44 is a user selectable
link, that when clicked, causes an interactive web page
to be displayed. Information category field 44
contains 9 user selectable information links, each
information link corresponding to a given information
category: (1) messages link 44a, (2) quotes link 44b,
(3) news link 44c, (4) weather link 44d, (5) sports
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link 44e, (6) favorites link 44f, (7) address book link
44g, (8) calendar link 44h, and (9) downloads link 44i.
Each information link points to an interactive web page
that enables users to specify the desired information
to be transmitted when a given information category is
selected by the user when accessing the IR system.
First-time users of the IR system may click on the
links in information category field 44 to specify the
information to be transmitted over the IR system.
Additionally, a returning user of the IR system may
click on information links 44a-i any time to update
preferences regarding the information transmitted
through the IR system. When a user specifies or
updates his or her information access preferences for a
given information category, the server generates a
script containing the steps required for that user to
access his or her information preferences for a given
information category. Scripts are created for all
information categories and stored in the personalized
information database in the server.
Messages link 44a points to an interactive
web page that provides users with a unified messaging
system. The unified messaging system allows users to
specify e-mail addresses, phone, fax, and page numbers
to be used as returning and forwarding points of
contact by the IR system. The unified messaging system
further enables users to specify actions to be
performed when certain messages are received. For
example, a user may want to be alerted any time an e-
mail is received, or to forward all e-mail messages
relating to a stock portfolio to a special file folder.
Quotes link 44b points to an interactive web
page that allows users to specify the stock quotes and
stock market indexes desired to be transmitted by the
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IR system. The user also may assign a priority to a
number of stock quotes so that an alert is sent to the
user by the IR system any time the stock quote goes
above or below a certain price. News link 44c points
to an interactive web page that allows users to specify
favorite news sources and news topics for access with
the IR system. Similarly, weather link 44d and sports
link 44e point to interactive web pages that allow
users to specify desired weather information and sport
scores to be accessed with the IR system.
Favorites link 44f points to an interactive
web page that allows users to select a list of
preferred web sites to be accessed with the IR system.
The user has the option to select all the information
or only specific fields of information from any given
web site to be accessed with the IR system. Lastly,
address book link 44g, calendar link 44h, and downloads
link 44i point to interactive web pages that allow
users to specify an address book, a calendar, and file
download information to be accessed using the IR
system.
Referring now to FIG. 6, a schematic view of
a preferred embodiment of an interactive web page for
specifying the favorites information category is
described. Interactive web page 45 allows users to
select a list of preferred web sites to be accessed
with the IR system. The web sites can be listed
individually, such as personal web sites 46a-c (denoted
by the letter "P"), or in a folder, such as web sites
47a-b (denoted by the letter "F"). A set of control
buttons is provided in the web page interface for users
to update the list of web sites that may be accessed
using the IR system. Control buttons 48, 49, 50, and
51, enable users to delete, add, edit, or specify a new
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favorite web site or folder in the list of preferred
web sites, respectively. It will be understood by
those skilled in the art that different control buttons
may be included in the web site.
When add control button 49 is clicked by an
user, the user is prompted with a new browser window to
specify the desired web site to be added to the list.
The user then may select the specific fields of
information from the web site that are to be accessed
using the IR system. The selection process involves
the use of specific control keys to mark the desired
information fields in the web page. Edit control
button 50 may be clicked by an user any time an update
to the selected information fields from a given web
site in the list is desired. Web sites or folders can
be removed from the list by clicking on delete control
button 48, and new web sites or folders may be included
in the list by clicking new control button 51.
Referring now to FIG. 7A, a flow chart for
selecting information from a web site in the favorites
information category to be accessed using the IR system
is described. At step 53, the user clicks on add
control button 49 (see FIG. 6) to add a new favorite
web site to the favorites information category. Upon
receiving the user's request, the server starts
creating a script corresponding to the favorite web
site selected at step 54. The script records the
actions required to access the desired information for
the given favorite web site. When the favorite web
site is accessed by the user through the IR system, the
server simply executes the script corresponding to the
favorite web site for that particular user.
At step 55, the user browses the selected web
site to determine what information displayed in the web
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site may be accessed using the IR system. At step 56,
the user selects the desired information from the web
site to be accessed through the IR system by using a
set of control keys to mark the information in the web
site. The control keys are used to draw a rectangular
box around the desired information to be accessed.
Once the rectangular box is drawn, an "alert trigger"
pop-up window is displayed so that the user can
determine specific items in the information selected
that are given higher access priority. Alert triggers
are higher priority information conveyed to an user
when the IR system is accessed. When users connect to
the IR system, the first information they are presented
is the alert triggers, followed by a menu of options to
prompt the user for access to the information
categories.
The user can specify the information items
that are to be assigned higher priority as well as the
delivery mechanism for receiving the alert, including
e-mail, fax notification, or by phone, at step 57. For
example, users may want to be alerted of special
airline promotions for particular destinations when
accessing a favorite airline web site. Lastly, at step
58, the server records the actions performed by the
user when selecting the information from the web site
to be included in the favorites information category.
Any future changes to this category are updated in the
script. The script is executed any time the user
accesses this category through the IR system.
Referring now to FIG. 7B, an example web site
in the favorites information category containing an
item selected for access using the IR system is
described. Web site 60 is a personal "My Yahoo" site
from Yahoo!, Inc., of Santa Clara, CA, containing
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information targeted for a particular user, such as
news headlines and stock portfolios. Web site 60 is
displayed on a web browser window in the user's
computer. Web site 60 includes stock portfolio 61 that
is selected by the user as the information item from
the web site to be accessed through the favorites
information category using the IR system. Stock
portfolio 61 is selected when the user draws a
rectangular box around the information displayed in
stock portfolio 61 using the computer mouse and special
control keys. This action triggers the server to
display alert pop-up window 62 in the user's computer.
Alert pop-up window 62 contains interactive user
windows 63 and 64 for the user to specify which items
inside the rectangular box drawn around stock portfolio
61 are to be given higher priority by the IR system
(user window 63), and how the alert is to be delivered
to the user (user window 64). The user specifies this
information by placing the mouse cursor inside user
windows 63 and 64 and typing the information directly
in the windows. As shown in the example, the user may
specify a stock quote such as "YH00" to be assigned
higher priority, causing the IR system to alert the
user by phone any time this stock quote goes above 150.
Further, it will be understood by one skilled
in the art that alert triggers may be specified for all
information categories. For example, users may choose
to receive weather information for a particular
location and scores for a particular game as alerts.
Referring now to FIG. 8A, a schematic view of
a preferred embodiment of an interactive web page for
specifying the messages information category is
described. Interactive web page 65 enables users to
specify a unified messaging system. Unified messaging
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system 66 allows users to specify e-mail addresses,
phone, fax, and page numbers to be used as default
returning and forwarding points of contact by the IR
system. Users also may specify different points of
contact for handling alert triggers issued by the IR
system. Unified messaging system 66 contains message
action window 67 to enable users to specify actions to
be performed when certain messages are received.
Message action window 67 contains two fields, message
field 67a and action field 67b. Message field 67a
allows users to specify the message conditions under
which an action may be executed. Those conditions are
typically the arrival of a message from a specific
sender. The action performed on a message condition in
message field 67a is specified in action field 67b.
Two types of actions are possible, a forward
action, to forward the messages specified in message
field 67a to a given point of contact, such as an e-
mail address, fax, phone number, or voice mail, and an
alert action, to cause the IR system to alert the user
when the message specified in message field 67a is
received. For example, a user may want to be alerted
any time he or she receives an e-mail from a family
member, or it is desired to forward all e-mail messages
containing business information to a special file
folder. Interactive web page 65 also contains control
buttons 68, 69, 70, and 71, to allow users to delete,
add, edit, or create a new message/action pair in
message action window 67. It will be understood by
those skilled in the art that different control buttons
may be included in the web site.
Referring to FIG. 8B, an example message
window displayed on interactive web page 65 for
specifying the messages information category is
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described. Message window 72 is displayed on
interactive web page 65 to present to the user the
current list of messages sent to the points of contact
specified in unified messaging system 66. Message
window 72 displays message list 73 according to message
status, message type, message sender, message subject,
and message date. The message status is either new, to
indicate a new incoming message, read, to indicate that
the message has already been read by the user, or
forwarded, to indicate that the message has been
forwarded to another user. The message type is either
an e-mail, a voice mail, or a fax notification.
Message window 72 also contains control buttons 74, 75,
76, 77, and 78, to allow users to perform various
actions on the messages presented in message list 73,
including deleting a message from the list (74),
replying to a message from the list (75), forwarding a
message from the list to another user (76), creating a
new message list folder (77), and specifying an action
to be performed any time a given message from the
message list is received (78). It will be understood
by those skilled in the art that different control
buttons may be included in message window 72.
Referring now to FIG. 9, an example text
transcript of user access to an illustrative embodiment
of the present invention in which the MCD is a
telephone and the IR system is an IVR system is
described. Text transcript 79 contains the text
translation of voice or telephone key selection
commands issued by the user as well as the text
translation of the voice information sent by the IR
server to the user during a user's phone call to the IR
system. Upon dialing the phone number corresponding to
the IR system, the user receives alert voice
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notification 80 from the IR server relating to the user
all the alerts specified by the user when interacting
with the web page interface. After a brief pause
following alert notification 80, the IR server presents
the user menu of options 81 to prompt the user for
access to the information categories. When the user
selects an information category option by pressing the
corresponding telephone keypad or by saying the number
corresponding to the selected information category, the
IR server executes the script corresponding to the
information category, fetches the information from the
Internet, and translates the information to the user
through information voice notification 82.
A brief pause follows information voice
notification 82, and the user then hears menu 81 again
to select further information categories. The user
selects the messages information category, and listens
to message notification 83 from the server. Selecting
the messages information category again after listening
to message notification 83 triggers the IR server to
read the messages in message notification 84 to the
user. At any point during the phone call the user may
choose to hangup, or to return to menu of options 81 to
access additional information categories.
Although particular embodiments of the
present invention have been described above in detail,
it will be understood that this description is merely
for purposes of illustration. Specific features of the
invention are shown in some drawings and not in others,
and this is for convenience only and any feature may be
combined with another in accordance with the invention.
Steps of the described processes may be reordered or
combined, and other steps may be included. Further
variations will be apparent to one skilled in the art
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in light of this disclosure and are intended to fall
within the scope of the appended claims.
