JP2005117152A - Method for parametrizing greeting message of voice mailbox - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a technology of enabling a user to parameterize / set its greeting message by optimizing the connection time of a terminal to the network and enabling voice messages to have image, video and / or text type information added to them. <P>SOLUTION: A user produces (301) a vocal and/or video message on an apparatus provided with a means for recording such a message. This message is packaged (302) in a multimedia configuration message. This setting message also comprises an identifier of the user. This configuration message is sent (303) to a greeting message server that uses the identifier and the greeting message of the setting message to update (307) a database of the server. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention is directed to a method of parameterizing a voice mailbox greeting message.

  The technical field of the present invention is that of telephone and voice mail services. More particularly, the technical field of the present invention is that of an answering machine used to receive a message from a caller if it is not connected (or does not reach) a mail service subscriber called a “party”. is there.

  One object of the present invention is to allow users to parameterize / set their greeting messages while optimizing the terminal connection time to the network.

  Another object of the present invention is to allow a voice message to have image, video, and / or text type information added to the voice message.

  In the prior art, a voice mail service as proposed by a mobile telephone operator is known. If a subscriber to the mobile operator is unable to answer the call, the caller who wants to talk to the subscriber is automatically connected to the voice mailbox. The voice mailbox then broadcasts a greeting message, after which the caller can record the message. Connection to such a voice mailbox is inevitably made by telephone equipment, whether it is a landline or mobile phone.

  The greeting message can often be personalized by a user who subscribes to the service of the telephone carrier that provides the voicemail service. This personalization is done for each subscribed user. The user establishes a connection with his voice mailbox through the telephone network to personalize the greeting message in his voice mailbox. Once a connection is established, the user must use his / her telephone keypad to indicate to the voicemail or messaging server that he / she wants to parameterize his / her voicemailbox. It is common to have to. Then the server moves to recording mode. The user then states his greeting message and the message is recorded on the server. Once recording is complete, the user presses a key. This represents the completion of your greeting message. The server then sends the greeting message just created to the user over the telephone network. This allows the user to determine whether his greeting message is appropriate. When the user is satisfied, disconnect from the voicemail server. If you are not satisfied, record another greeting message using your terminal's keypad.

  There are a number of problems with this kind of interface to voicemail servers. The first problem is that the user must use a telephone terminal that is compatible with the voice mail server to which the user is a subscriber.

  Another problem is that the type of data transmitted to the voice mail server is limited by the data acquisition and immediate transmission capabilities of the device used to personalize the voice mailbox greeting message. In the prior art, parameterization is performed by connection in the voice mode, and information that can be transmitted at that time is only the voice of the user and the pitch of the DTMF mode (when the terminal used can manage such transmission). is there. In particular, it is impossible to transmit text, images such as still images and moving images.

  Yet another problem is that the terminal is connected to the voice mail server all the time while recording the greeting message and enabling the message. Such a connection will monopolize network resources that can no longer be allocated to other users who wish to make a standard call. This not only prevents the user from receiving calls from those who want to contact the user, but also does not accurately parameterize the user's voice mailbox, and therefore the user's voice. This prevents you from receiving calls from people who want to contact you when your mailbox is not ready to receive voice messages. This problem is particularly severe because the message may require more than a minute of time in addition to the procedure for recording the message, and the initial recording attempt is rarely appropriate. It is. That's why it's not uncommon to need more than enough to personalize a user's voice mailbox, which is harmful to both the user and the operator. The resources in question here are mainly voice communication and data resources, and exclude resources for signaling and network management. The latter resource is problematic but less important.

  The present invention solves the above problems by personalizing a mail service and a voice mailbox via a multimedia message of MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) type. The user generates the message on the device in a predetermined format, which may be a mobile phone terminal, a personal computer or other type of device. Such a device includes a program that allows the user to generate a pre-formatted message with a pre-set of all items. This item includes at least one user identifier and voice data corresponding to the greeting message. Such an item is inserted into the MMS message and the message is sent to the voice mail server, for example over the Internet. It is also possible to send the message to a server that can parameterize the voicemail server. In the present invention, network resources are only affected during the transmission of a personalized message, after the user has generated a greeting message. Therefore, for the greeting message, it is possible to further reduce the load of communication resources of the network by using a compression method. Similarly, image data of moving images or still images can be incorporated in the personalized message. When receiving a personalized message, the voicemail server extracts from the message the information needed to parameterize the message according to the user's request.

Therefore, the method for parameterizing the greeting message of the voice mailbox targeted by the present invention is characterized by the following procedure.
The user records a greeting message on the device,
・ The greeting message is compressed on the terminal.
A multimedia message containing a compressed greeting message is generated on the terminal,
The multimedia message includes an indication area indicating that it is a greeting message;
A multimedia message is sent from the terminal to the greeting message server.

The present invention is also directed to a method for parameterizing a voice mailbox greeting message, characterized in that it comprises the following procedure.
An indication area indicating that the multimedia message is a message for updating a greeting message is received at the greeting message server;
The sender of the multimedia message is determined by the greeting message server,
-Greeting messages are extracted from the greeting message server.
A greeting message is recorded in the database in association with the sender of the multimedia message in the database.

The invention will be better understood by reading the following description and examining the accompanying drawings. The accompanying drawings are merely examples, and are not intended to limit the present invention.
FIG. 1: shows the means that can be used to carry out the method of the invention.
FIG. 2: shows a personalized message according to the invention.
FIG. 3: shows the procedure of the method according to the invention.

  The apparatus 101 shown in FIG. 1 is a mobile phone in this example. In practice, the device 101 can be a personal computer, PDA, or any device that connects to a greeting message server and sends a personalized message to the server.

  The telephone 101 has at least one microprocessor 102 and program memory 103. There are several areas in the program memory 103, and in each area there are instruction codes that allow the functions of the device 101 to be executed. These instruction codes are interpreted by the microprocessor 102. Therefore, when the device is operating, the operation is performed by the microprocessor of the device in the form that the microprocessor executes the instruction code recorded in the program memory of the device.

  An area 103a in the memory 103 includes an instruction code for generating an MMS message according to the present invention, and an area 103b includes an instruction code for transmitting an MMS message. The memory 103 and the microprocessor 102 are connected via a bus 104.

  The telephone 101 also includes an interface circuit 105 between the bus 104 of the telephone 101 and the antenna 108. The telephone 101 also includes a microphone 106 and a speaker 107. Means 105 to 107 are connected to the bus 104. Means 106 and 107 are standard mobile telephone means, they are simply shown to show that mobile telephones have all the means used to capture and play audio. I'm just there.

  As is conventional, the telephone 101 can be connected to the Internet network 109 via a wireless connection 110 between the antenna 108 and the base station 111. Base station 111 belongs to the infrastructure of a GSM / GPRS (or UMTS) network including a gateway 113 between network 112 and network 109. The gateway is typically a WAP gateway.

  It is also possible to connect the greeting message server 114 and the voice mail server 115 via the network 109. For the sake of explanation, the function of the greeting message server and the function of the voice mail server are separated by dividing them into two devices. However, in practice, only one device may implement both functions. Is possible.

  The server 114 includes a microprocessor 116, a program memory 117, a greeting message memory 118, and an interface circuit 119 with the network 109. Components 116 to 119 are connected via a bus 120.

  The memory 117 includes at least one area 117a containing an instruction code for receiving a multimedia message, one area 117b containing an instruction code for transcoding the multimedia message, and one for sending a greeting message. Two areas 117c. Transcoding a multimedia message consists of extracting various multimedia components of the message.

  The memory 118 is a table divided into rows and columns. Each row corresponds to a user identified by an identifier recorded in column 118a. In that case, a greeting message corresponding to each identifier is recorded in column 118b. The memory 118 may include other columns that allow other information (images, videos, business cards, etc.) to be associated with the user. Memory 118 indicates the fact that server 114 has a means of associating information including the greeting message with the user's identifier.

  The server 115 includes at least one microprocessor 121, one program memory 122, an interface circuit 123 with the network 109, and an interface circuit 124 with the network 112. Components 121 to 124 are connected via a bus 125.

  The memory 122 includes at least one area 122a including an instruction code for obtaining a greeting message and one area 122b including an instruction code for broadcasting a greeting message. The greeting message is broadcast to the person P who is trying to call the user of the telephone 101 when the telephone 101 is no longer connected. User P of telephone 126 is then connected to voice mail server 115.

  FIG. 2 shows a possible configuration for message personalization / setting according to the present invention. Such a message 200 includes an indication area 201 that allows the message to be identified as a personalized message, an area 202 that allows identification of a person as well as a voice mailbox for personalization, and a greeting message. And a region 203 to be included. This configuration is known to all devices that make up the part of personalization, which makes it possible to accurately interpret the region. Solutions used to determine regions include defining region dividers, using fixed-length regions, and implementing XML (eXtended Markup Language) meaning extended markup language , Using the marking procedure defined by the MMS recommendation.

  The above example shows the syntax that can be considered as part of the utilization method using the XML method. Line 01 in the above corresponds to features specific to the XML standard. Line 02 defines a message whose message type is “maj mes acc”. This is an instruction code corresponding to the area 201 and indicates that the message is for updating the greeting message. Row 03 corresponds to region 202 identifying the user whose user greeting message must be updated. Line 04 corresponds to a greeting message sandwiched between two tags, and the type in which the greeting message is encoded is specified in the start tag. Line 05 corresponds to line 02 and is an end tag according to the XML syntax. The XML syntax of this example is given as an example, and the tag name and type information may have different arrangements and names as well as text indentation. Similarly, XML / MMS syntax is not the only possible choice. Other types of syntax are known and these include SGML, HTML, other types of syntax and binary constructs that allow the domain to be exemplified.

  In a variation, the message for updating the greeting message may include information other than information necessary for updating the greeting message. Such information may be a user's photo or general parameterized information about the user's subscription. In this case, it is a message for updating / setting the greeting message included in the general setting message including at least the area described in FIG.

  In FIG. 3, a preliminary procedure 301 is shown while the user of telephone 101 uses the device to generate a greeting message. In this example, the device is assumed to be a telephone 101. Actually, any other computer may be used as long as it is a personal computer, a PDA, or a device having recording capability. In step 301, the user records a message via the microphone 106. This message is recorded as an audio file in the memory of the telephone 101. The audio file format is preferably compressed by MP3 or other MPEG format if possible. Of course, in some variations, this file may be a video file. In order to be able to generate a video file, the telephone 101 must be connected to a video camera or the telephone 101 must be equipped with a video camera. Once this audio file is generated, the process moves to a procedure 302 for generating a multimedia message.

  In step 302, information regarding the update of the greeting message is created on the telephone 101. That means generating a message with the structure described for FIG. 2 and / or the structure described for the exemplary XML syntax. An instruction code used for entering information in the area 201 is defined in advance, and is included in, for example, the instruction code of the area 122a. The user identifier is, for example, a telephone number. The user identifier is input by the user of the telephone 101 in step 302, automatically read by the SIM card of the telephone 101, or automatically updated by the network. The area 203 is given information from the audio file and / or video file generated in the procedure 301. In this way, a message for setting a voice mailbox is obtained. Subsequent to the procedure 302, a procedure 303 for transmitting a setting / update message is repeated.

  In step 303, the multimedia message 200 generated in step 303 is enclosed in a message according to a so-called transfer protocol. Such a protocol is, for example, TCP / IP, HTTP, FTP, or the like. This transfer protocol message includes at least one recipient address in addition to the update message 200. In this example, the recipient is a greeting message server 114 added via the Internet 109. The transfer protocol message is carried via the network 112, the gateway 113, and the network 109. The address of the server 114 is obtained in a standard way because (a) the address is encoded in the area 103b or other memory area of the phone 101, or (b) a DNS type address. Because it is coded by the solution. There are other transfer protocols, such as UDP and X25 protocol, used to send a setup message from the phone 101 to the server 114. As a reminder, in one variation, during procedure 303, telephone 101 updates area 202 according to the identifier communicated by network 112. This update can also be performed by the server 113 that forms part of the network 112.

  In procedure 304, server 114 receives the transfer message. The server 114 removes the information layer corresponding to the transport protocol used from this message and obtains a configuration message as described for the diagram 200 and / or the exemplary XML syntax. Therefore, the procedure goes to step 305 to analyze the multimedia message.

  In procedure 305, server 114 can access the area of message 200. Therefore, the server 114 can determine the type of message received via the forward message. In step 306 after the type is determined in step 305, the server 114 analyzes the value of the area 201 to determine whether the message just received is an update message. Possible values for region 201 are defined according to various types of messages that can be processed by server 114. Such a value may be numeric, alphanumeric, or simply binary.

  Therefore, in step 306, the value read in step 305 for the region 201 is compared with a table of values expected by the server 114 for the region 201. If the read value corresponds to the value of the instruction code for updating the greeting message, the process proceeds to the update procedure 307. Otherwise, the process proceeds to the end procedure 308.

  In step 308, the server continues to process the message, which is no longer related to the message according to the invention.

  In step 307, the server 114 searches the memory 118 for a row in which the value of the column 118 a corresponding to the value of the area 202 of the setting message received in step 304 is stored. When the corresponding row is found, the server replaces the numerical content of the column 118b of that row with the numerical content of the area 203 of the message received in step 304. If the line is not found, a new line is created or the update message is ignored.

  It is possible that the format of the greeting message recorded in memory 118 is not the same as that used in the region. This format is selectively specified in region 203 as discussed for the XML example. This allows the server to perform transcoding operations before recording a new greeting message in memory 118, if necessary. Here, the memory 118 is a simplified representation of the database.

  In variations where the message 200 forms part of a general configuration message, everything from step 304 except that when the message contains other information, other areas of the memory 118 are updated. This is done as already described up to 307.

  In another variant, the user can have several greeting messages, depending on the situation or the caller. In this case, the setting message includes the same number of lines as the greeting message to be set, such as the area 203 type area or the line 04 in the XML example. In that case, each greeting message is accompanied by an information portion that identifies features unique to that greeting message so that the server 114 can accurately store it for later appropriate reuse.

  In the procedure 309 shown in FIG. 3, the call is received by the voice mail server 115. This situation occurs when the subscriber is not connected or when someone is calling the voice mailbox directly. In this example, the call is considered to have originated from the phone 126 towards the phone 101 that is no longer connected.

  From step 309, the process moves to step 310 where the server 115 identifies the party receiving the call. Such identification is easy because the call is always carried via a protocol that can identify the person receiving the call. In general, the identifier is the person's telephone number. This identifier is also transmitted to the voice mail server, which must be able to assign the message left by the user connected to the server 115 to the subscriber. Therefore, the server 115 knows the identifier of the party receiving the call (typically the person's telephone number). The method shown in this example moves to a procedure 311 for generating a request, here called message R, to obtain a greeting message corresponding to the party receiving the call.

  In step 311, the server 115 generates a request message R including an instruction code indicating that this request is a request for obtaining a greeting message and a user identifier I. In a variant, the message R also has an area for identifying the caller. Once the message R is generated, it is sent to the server 114 via the transfer protocol at step 312.

  In step 313, the server 114 receives the message transmitted in step 312. The server 114 removes the transfer information from this message and acquires the message R. The server 114 identifies this message R through the area of the instruction code included in the message R. The method illustrated in this example then moves to a procedure 314 that generates a response to message R.

  In procedure 314, server 114 scans memory 118, particularly column 118a, for identifier R of message R. When the row corresponding to identifier I is found, server 114 generates a response to message R using the numeric content of column 118b. This numerical content forms a greeting message. Accordingly, the response RR to the message R includes at least this greeting message found. The response RR also includes an area II that is identical to the area I where the association attached to the greeting message can be determined. The role of region II is to allow server 115 to associate response RR with message R. Response R may also include an instruction code indicating the type of response RR that is a response to a request for a greeting message.

  The message R may further include information that allows the appropriate greeting message to be determined if the called subscriber has planned several greeting messages. Such an appropriate greeting message may also be determined as a function of the time at which the message R is received.

  When the response RR is generated, it is transmitted to the server 115 in step 315. The transfer protocol used for this transmission operation is preferably the same as the protocol used for transmitting the message R. Therefore, the response RR is transmitted through the network 109. In practice, the communication between the servers 114 and 115 may, of course, occur over a private network and / or a network using a technology other than that used on the Internet. Examples include a direct connection via a LAN, a USB port, and a wireless network, but these examples are not all. In a variation, the servers 114 and 115 are the same and only one device, and in that case, only one server has the contents of the memories 117, 118, and 122. There is no need to communicate at all.

  In procedure 316, the server 115 receives the response RR. At that time, the server 115 has a greeting message that can be sent to the telephone 126. This transmission is typically done, that is, the greeting message is preferably decompressed by the server 115 and broadcast acoustically to the telephone 126. In one variation, the greeting message is sent as an audio file to the phone 126, which then serves both the decompression of the file and the acoustic performance.

  In procedure 317, phone 126 connected to server 115 receives information corresponding to the greeting message from that server. This information is processed by the phone 126 and is acoustically broadcast through the phone speaker.

  In the present description, the device 101 is currently considered to be a mobile phone. In practice, it is also possible to use a personal computer capable of recording audio files, ie a computer equipped with a microphone and capable of implementing a program for creating multimedia messages from audio files. This creation program corresponds to the instruction code of the area 103a. The computer must also be connected to the Internet so that created messages can be sent to the server 114. References were made to personal computers, but any pocket computer or PDA would be suitable.

Means that can be used to carry out the method of the invention Personalized message according to the present invention Procedure of the method according to the invention

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 Mobile phone 102 Microprocessor 103 Program memory 103a Area 103b Area 104 Bus 105 Interface circuit 106 Microphone 107 Speaker 108 Antenna 109 Internet network 110 Wireless connection 111 Base station 112 Network 113 Gateway 114 Greeting message server 115 Voice mail server 116 Microprocessor 117 Program Memory 118 database (greeting message memory)
119 Interface circuit 120 Bus 121 Microprocessor 122 Program memory 123 Interface circuit 124 Interface circuit 125 Bus 126 Telephone 200 Message

Claims (9)

The user records a greeting message (301) on the terminal.
The greeting message is compressed (302) at the terminal,
A multimedia message containing the compressed greeting message is generated (302) at the terminal;
The multimedia message includes an indication area (201) indicating that it is a greeting message;
A multimedia message is sent (303) from the terminal to the greeting message server;
A method for parameterizing a greeting message in a voice mailbox, characterized in that the procedure consists of: The method of claim 1, wherein the multimedia message is formatted with an XML type message. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the multimedia message comprises a region (202) identifying the user who generated the greeting message. 4. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the multimedia message includes formatting information for a greeting message. An indication area is received (304) at the greeting message server indicating that the multimedia message is a message for updating a greeting message;
The sender of the multimedia message is determined at the greeting message server (305-306);
A greeting message is extracted from the greeting message server (307);
A greeting message is recorded (307) in the database (118) in a state associated with the sender of the multimedia message in the database;
A method for parameterizing a greeting message in a voice mailbox, characterized in that the procedure consists of: 6. The greeting message according to claim 5, characterized in that the greeting message is transcoded before recording, according to the format used by the greeting message server and according to the format information contained in the multimedia message. Method. The user connects to the voicemail service of the voicemail server (115) via the terminal (126);
A request is sent (312) from the voice mail server to the greeting message server, the request including an identifier of the called user;
A greeting message in the database corresponding to the called user identifier is sent from the greeting message server to the voice mail server (315);
A greeting message is sent from the voice mail server to the terminal (316),
-Broadcast a greeting message acoustically on the terminal (317),
The method according to claim 5 or 6, characterized in that: The method according to claim 1, wherein the terminal is a mobile phone. The method according to claim 1, wherein the terminal is a computer.