WO2000059195A1 - Spoken name confirmation in a networked voice mail processing system - Google Patents

Spoken name confirmation in a networked voice mail processing system Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2000059195A1
WO2000059195A1 PCT/US2000/006261 US0006261W WO0059195A1 WO 2000059195 A1 WO2000059195 A1 WO 2000059195A1 US 0006261 W US0006261 W US 0006261W WO 0059195 A1 WO0059195 A1 WO 0059195A1
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WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
voice mail
voice
intended recipient
message
processor
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/US2000/006261
Other languages
French (fr)
Inventor
Sonny Bettis
Timothy A. Miller
Original Assignee
Glenayre Electronics, Inc.
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Glenayre Electronics, Inc. filed Critical Glenayre Electronics, Inc.
Priority to AU36231/00A priority Critical patent/AU3623100A/en
Publication of WO2000059195A1 publication Critical patent/WO2000059195A1/en

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Classifications

    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04M3/00—Automatic or semi-automatic exchanges
    • H04M3/42—Systems providing special services or facilities to subscribers
    • H04M3/50—Centralised arrangements for answering calls; Centralised arrangements for recording messages for absent or busy subscribers ; Centralised arrangements for recording messages
    • H04M3/53—Centralised arrangements for recording incoming messages, i.e. mailbox systems
    • H04M3/533—Voice mail systems
    • H04M3/53325—Interconnection arrangements between voice mail systems
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04M3/00—Automatic or semi-automatic exchanges
    • H04M3/42—Systems providing special services or facilities to subscribers
    • H04M3/487—Arrangements for providing information services, e.g. recorded voice services or time announcements

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to telephone-based voice mail processing systems.
  • voice mail has become an increasingly useful tool for people to communicate with one another.
  • a person leaving a voice mail message may not be certain that the voice mail has been correctly forwarded to the correct recipient.
  • voice mail systems provide an echoing feature, where the recipient's telephone number, voice mail box number, or other identifier is repeated back to the caller, the caller may still not be certain that the voice mail message has been correctly delivered because the caller may have remembered the wrong telephone number or other identifier.
  • the present invention provides to the caller an audible, spoken name confirmation that the voice mail message was addressed to the correct recipient.
  • the spoken name confirmation is provided to the caller when the message is addressed by the caller.
  • the caller addresses the message by entering an appropriate input on a telephone keypad such as the recipient's phone number or voice mailbox.
  • the spoken name confirmation provided by the present invention is transmitted over a distributed network of linked voice message systems
  • a confirmation request is transmitted to a voice message system that is local to the caller
  • the local voice message system searches its database to locate the recipient's identity If the recipient is found in the local voice message system, the spoken name is played to the caller, confirming the identity of the intended recipient If, however, the recipient is not found locally, the telephone number of the recipient is transmitted to a routing table
  • the routing table determines where to direct the confirmation request
  • the routing table is programmed to associate the telephone number of the recipient with a corresponding remote voice mail system in a particular geographic area
  • a communications channel preferably an Internet link
  • the confirmation request is then directed and sent to the remote voice mail system over the communications channel
  • the remote voice mail system then returns the spoken name of the recipient to the caller on the communications channel
  • FIGURE 1 depicts an exemplary voice mail processor according to the present invention
  • FIGURE 2 depicts an exemplary environment in which a voice mail processing system according to the present invention operates
  • FIGURE 3 depicts an exemplary routing table according to the present invention
  • FIGURE 4 depicts a series of steps for carrying out the present invention
  • the present invention is a voice mail processing system in which two or more voice mail processors are interconnected by a telecommunications network
  • the voice mail processing system may be implemented in a general purpose computing device which may be a stand alone device or an add-on to a conventional voice mail system FIGURE 1 and the following discussion are intended to provide a brief, general description of a suitable computing environment in which the invention may be implemented
  • the invention will generally be implemented as a number of computer-executable instructions, such as program modules, being executed by a processor within the voice mail system
  • program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types
  • the invention may be practiced with other computei system configurations, such as multiprocessor systems, minicomputers, and mainframe computers
  • the invention may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are pei formed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network
  • program modules may be located in both local and
  • an exemplary system for implementing the invention includes a general purpose computing device such as a voice mail processing computer 20, including a processing unit 21, a system memory 22, and a system bus 23 that couples various system components including the system memory to the processing unit 21
  • the system bus 23 may be any of several types of bus structures including a memory bus and memory controller, a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures System timing is provided by a clock signal 28 applied to the system bus 23
  • the system memory 22 includes read only memory (ROM) 24 and random access memory (RAM) 25
  • the voice mail processing computer 20 further includes storage devices such as a hard disk drive 27 connected to the system bus through a hard drive interface 32 for reading from and writing to a hard disk 31 and one or more removable disk drives 30 connected to the system bus through one or more removable storage interfaces 34 for reading from or writing to removable storage 29, such as floppy disks, removable magnetic disks, CD-ROMs or other optical media
  • the drives and their associated computer-readable media provide nonvolatile storage of computer readable
  • a telephone interface 48 Also connected to the system bus 23 via a telephone interface 48 are a number of telephones 47-1, 47-2, , 47-n that are connected to the system bus 23 via a telephone interface 48
  • the telephones may also be connected to conventional telephone communications channels or subscriber lines, either directly or indirectly, according to well-known principles and techniques known in the art
  • the voice mail processing computer 20 may operate in a networked environment using logical connections to one or more remote voice mail processing computers, such as remote voice mail processing computers 49 and 60 Each remote voice mail processing computer 49 or 60 typically includes many or all of the elements described above relative to the voice mail processing computer 20
  • the logical connections depicted in FIGURE 1 include a local area network (LAN) 51 and a wide area network (WAN) 52
  • LAN local area network
  • WAN wide area network
  • the remote voice mail processing computer 60 communicates with the voice mail processing computer 20 via the local area network 51
  • the remote voice mail processing computer 49 communicates with the voice mail processing computer 20 via the wide area network 52
  • the voice mail processing computer 20 When used m a LAN networking environment, the voice mail processing computer 20 is connected to the local network 51 through a network interface 53
  • the voice mail processing computer 20 When used in a WAN networking environment, the voice mail processing computer 20 typically includes a modem 54 or other means for establishing communications over the wide area network 52, such as the Internet
  • the modem 54
  • FIGURE 3 depicts an exemplary routing table 37 according to a present embodiment of the invention
  • Each voice mail processor in the voice mail processing system of the present invention includes a routing table Routing table 37 includes a recipient identifier field 301 and a processor identifier field 302
  • the recipient identifier field will typically include ranges of voice mailbox addresses for recipients, and a corresponding processor identifier field will include an identifier for the voice mail processor servicing those voice mailboxes
  • the processor identifier will include the network address of the voice mail processor
  • voice mailbox addresses between 000 and 199 are serviced by voice mail processor A, addresses between 200 and 399 by processor B, addresses between 400 and 599 by processor C, addresses between 600 and 799 by processor D, and addresses between 800 and 999 by processor E
  • the addresses in the recipient identifier field 301 may be implemented as voice mailbox numbers, area codes, exchanges (l e , the first three digits of a seven-digit telephone number), or other identifiers
  • FIGURE 4 depicts an overall operation of the present invention
  • the caller records a voice mail message for the recipient
  • the caller identifies the recipient in some manner
  • the identification will typically be the recipient's telephone number, which may include an area code or not, depending on the geographic distribution of the particular voice mail system, but may simply be a voice mailbox number It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art and others that the caller can alternatively identify the recipient before recording a message
  • the routing table of the voice mail processor that is local to the caller is checked to determine the location of the recipient's voice mailbox at step 410 If, at step 420, it is determined that the recipient's voice mailbox is on the local voice mail processor, the spoken name of the recipient is accessed and played to the caller as a confirmation that the voice mail was addressed to the correct recipient See step 425
  • the recipient's spoken name is stored at the voice mail processor that is local to the recipient, in association with the recipient's voice mailbox.
  • a test is made to determine whether the message should be addressed to additional recipients If it is determined that the message is to be sent to an additional recipient, the process described above is repeated as shown in FIGURE 4 On the other hand, if there are no additional recipients, the message is delivered to the ldentified recipient or recipients and the call is then disconnected See step 430 In a present embodiment of the invention, once the caller receives confirmation that the correct recipients were addressed, the message is delivered
  • a link is established between the local voice mail processor and the remote voice mail processor hosting the intended recipient at step 435
  • the link may be established according to well-known principles and techniques, and will not be addressed in detail as they are not essential to an understanding of the present invention
  • a confirmation request is sent to the remote voice mail processor
  • the spoken name for the intended recipient is accessed at the remote voice mail processor by using the recipient's identifier to find the associated voice mailbox and read a spoken name that was previously stored in association with the voice mailbox, and then transmitted to the local voice mail processor through a network or other communication link
  • the spoken name for the intended recipient is then played to the caller at step 450 as confirmation that the voice mail message was addressed to the intended recipient
  • processing returns to step 427 and either additional recipients are identified or the message is sent and the call is disconnected as described above and shown in FIGURE 4
  • the system returns to await the next voice mail message
  • the present invention additionally acts to mask the delay to the caller at step 455, which performs concurrently with steps 435-445
  • the local voice mail processor may retrieve a stored message such as "Your voice mail message will be delivered to ", or any other such message Since the typical delay will normally be on the order of a few seconds, the playing of this message should be sufficient to mask any delays to the caller

Abstract

A spoken name confirmation message may be provided to a subscriber of a voice mail system who desires to leave a voice mail message for another subscriber. A routing table is provided in each voice mail processor in the system. A spoken name confirmation message is retrieved from the voice mail processor hosting the intended recipient based on information in the routing table and played for the caller once the message has been delivered to the recipient. Any delays resulting from the retrieval is disguised to the subscriber leaving the voice mail message.

Description

SPOKEN NAME CONFIRMATION IN A NETWORKED VOICE MAIL
PROCESSING SYSTEM
Cross Reference To Related Application
The following application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 09/276,590, filed on March 25, 1999.
Field of the Invention The present invention relates to telephone-based voice mail processing systems.
Background of the Invention
In today's busy world, voice mail has become an increasingly useful tool for people to communicate with one another. However, especially in large and/or widely distributed voice mail processing systems, a person leaving a voice mail message may not be certain that the voice mail has been correctly forwarded to the correct recipient. While some prior art voice mail systems provide an echoing feature, where the recipient's telephone number, voice mail box number, or other identifier is repeated back to the caller, the caller may still not be certain that the voice mail message has been correctly delivered because the caller may have remembered the wrong telephone number or other identifier.
Summary of the Invention In an environment where a subscriber of a voice mail system (the "caller") desires to leave a voice mail message to another subscriber (the "recipient"), the present invention provides to the caller an audible, spoken name confirmation that the voice mail message was addressed to the correct recipient. The spoken name confirmation is provided to the caller when the message is addressed by the caller. The caller addresses the message by entering an appropriate input on a telephone keypad such as the recipient's phone number or voice mailbox. The spoken name confirmation provided by the present invention is transmitted over a distributed network of linked voice message systems When a caller addresses a voice message to a recipient, a confirmation request is transmitted to a voice message system that is local to the caller The local voice message system searches its database to locate the recipient's identity If the recipient is found in the local voice message system, the spoken name is played to the caller, confirming the identity of the intended recipient If, however, the recipient is not found locally, the telephone number of the recipient is transmitted to a routing table
The routing table determines where to direct the confirmation request In particular, the routing table is programmed to associate the telephone number of the recipient with a corresponding remote voice mail system in a particular geographic area Once the remote voice mail system corresponding to the recipient's telephone number is identified, a communications channel, preferably an Internet link, is established between the local and the remote voice mail system The confirmation request is then directed and sent to the remote voice mail system over the communications channel The remote voice mail system then returns the spoken name of the recipient to the caller on the communications channel
In accordance to another aspect of the present invention, in recognition of an associated time delay in providing spoken name confirmation, provisions for minimizing and disguising the delay are provided
Brief Description of the Drawings The foregoing aspects and many of the attendant advantages of this invention will become more readily appreciated as the same become better understood by reference to the following detailed description, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein
FIGURE 1 depicts an exemplary voice mail processor according to the present invention,
FIGURE 2 depicts an exemplary environment in which a voice mail processing system according to the present invention operates, FIGURE 3 depicts an exemplary routing table according to the present invention, and
FIGURE 4 depicts a series of steps for carrying out the present invention
Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiment
The present invention is a voice mail processing system in which two or more voice mail processors are interconnected by a telecommunications network In accordance with the present invention, the voice mail processing system may be implemented in a general purpose computing device which may be a stand alone device or an add-on to a conventional voice mail system FIGURE 1 and the following discussion are intended to provide a brief, general description of a suitable computing environment in which the invention may be implemented Although not required, the invention will generally be implemented as a number of computer-executable instructions, such as program modules, being executed by a processor within the voice mail system Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the invention may be practiced with other computei system configurations, such as multiprocessor systems, minicomputers, and mainframe computers The invention may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are pei formed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network In a distributed computing environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote memory storage devices
With reference to FIGURE 1 , an exemplary system for implementing the invention includes a general purpose computing device such as a voice mail processing computer 20, including a processing unit 21, a system memory 22, and a system bus 23 that couples various system components including the system memory to the processing unit 21 The system bus 23 may be any of several types of bus structures including a memory bus and memory controller, a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures System timing is provided by a clock signal 28 applied to the system bus 23 The system memory 22 includes read only memory (ROM) 24 and random access memory (RAM) 25 The voice mail processing computer 20 further includes storage devices such as a hard disk drive 27 connected to the system bus through a hard drive interface 32 for reading from and writing to a hard disk 31 and one or more removable disk drives 30 connected to the system bus through one or more removable storage interfaces 34 for reading from or writing to removable storage 29, such as floppy disks, removable magnetic disks, CD-ROMs or other optical media The drives and their associated computer-readable media provide nonvolatile storage of computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules and other data for the computer 2C A number of program modules may be stored on the storage devices, including an operating system 35, and one or more application programs 36
Also connected to the system bus 23 via a telephone interface 48 are a number of telephones 47-1, 47-2, , 47-n that are connected to the system bus 23 via a telephone interface 48 The telephones may also be connected to conventional telephone communications channels or subscriber lines, either directly or indirectly, according to well-known principles and techniques known in the art
The voice mail processing computer 20 may operate in a networked environment using logical connections to one or more remote voice mail processing computers, such as remote voice mail processing computers 49 and 60 Each remote voice mail processing computer 49 or 60 typically includes many or all of the elements described above relative to the voice mail processing computer 20 The logical connections depicted in FIGURE 1 include a local area network (LAN) 51 and a wide area network (WAN) 52 Such networking environments are commonplace in offices, enterprise-wide computer networks, intranets and global networks such as the Internet As depicted in FIGURE 1, the remote voice mail processing computer 60 communicates with the voice mail processing computer 20 via the local area network 51 The remote voice mail processing computer 49 communicates with the voice mail processing computer 20 via the wide area network 52 When used m a LAN networking environment, the voice mail processing computer 20 is connected to the local network 51 through a network interface 53 When used in a WAN networking environment, the voice mail processing computer 20 typically includes a modem 54 or other means for establishing communications over the wide area network 52, such as the Internet The modem 54, which may be internal or external, is connected to the system bus 23 via the serial interface 46 In a networked environment, program modules depicted relative to the voice mail processing computer 20, or portions thereof, may be stored in the remote memory storage device It will be appreciated that the network connections shown are exemplary and other means of establishing a communications link between the computers may be used Referring to FIGURE 2, an exemplary environment in which the present invention operates is depicted A local voice mail processing computer ("voice mail processor") processor A 210 is connected to, either directly or indirectly, and in communication with, remote voice mail processors B, C, D, and E 220-250 Local voice mail processor A 210 hosts a number of subscribers 210-1, 210-2, 210-3, , 210-n, each of which has its own voice mail account and voice mailbox Likewise, remote voice mail processor B 220 hosts subscribers 220-1, 220-2, , 220-m, remote voice mail processor C 230 hosts subscribers 230-1, 230-2, 230-3, , 230-p, remote voice mail processor D 240 hosts subscribers 240-1, 240-2, 240-3, , 240-r, and remote voice mail processor E 250 hosts subscribers 250-1, 250-2, 250-3, 250-4, , 250-s Each of the subscribers of the remote voice mail processors B-E also have their own voice mail accounts and voice mailboxes In the presently preferred embodiment of the invention, the voice mail processors are modular voice processor systems (MVP), available from Glenayre Electronics, Inc , of Atlanta, Georgia, the assignee of the present invention The MVP systems may be interconnected using any network topology and communications may be accomplished using any standard network protocol, such as the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
FIGURE 3 depicts an exemplary routing table 37 according to a present embodiment of the invention Each voice mail processor in the voice mail processing system of the present invention includes a routing table Routing table 37 includes a recipient identifier field 301 and a processor identifier field 302 The recipient identifier field will typically include ranges of voice mailbox addresses for recipients, and a corresponding processor identifier field will include an identifier for the voice mail processor servicing those voice mailboxes Typically, the processor identifier will include the network address of the voice mail processor Thus, as shown in FIGURE 3, voice mailbox addresses between 000 and 199 are serviced by voice mail processor A, addresses between 200 and 399 by processor B, addresses between 400 and 599 by processor C, addresses between 600 and 799 by processor D, and addresses between 800 and 999 by processor E The addresses in the recipient identifier field 301 may be implemented as voice mailbox numbers, area codes, exchanges (l e , the first three digits of a seven-digit telephone number), or other identifiers
While the recipient identifiers have been depicted as being evenly distributed among the voice mail processors, other distributions could be employed, and very likely will be used, based on capabilities of particular voice mail processors, number of subscribers local to the voice mail processors, and on other physical and/or practical considerations
FIGURE 4 depicts an overall operation of the present invention Beginning at step 395, when a subscriber to a voice mail system (the "caller") wishes to leave a voice mail message to another subscriber (the "recipient"), the caller records a voice mail message for the recipient Then, at a step 400, the caller identifies the recipient in some manner In a present embodiment of the invention, the identification will typically be the recipient's telephone number, which may include an area code or not, depending on the geographic distribution of the particular voice mail system, but may simply be a voice mailbox number It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art and others that the caller can alternatively identify the recipient before recording a message
After the caller has identified the recipient, the routing table of the voice mail processor that is local to the caller is checked to determine the location of the recipient's voice mailbox at step 410 If, at step 420, it is determined that the recipient's voice mailbox is on the local voice mail processor, the spoken name of the recipient is accessed and played to the caller as a confirmation that the voice mail was addressed to the correct recipient See step 425 In a present embodiment of the invention, the recipient's spoken name is stored at the voice mail processor that is local to the recipient, in association with the recipient's voice mailbox Then, at a step 427, a test is made to determine whether the message should be addressed to additional recipients If it is determined that the message is to be sent to an additional recipient, the process described above is repeated as shown in FIGURE 4 On the other hand, if there are no additional recipients, the message is delivered to the ldentified recipient or recipients and the call is then disconnected See step 430 In a present embodiment of the invention, once the caller receives confirmation that the correct recipients were addressed, the message is delivered upon the system receiving a command from the caller to send the message The system then returns to await another voice mail message as shown in FIGURE 4
On the other hand, if at step 420, the routing table indicates that the recipient's voice mailbox is on a remote voice mail processor, a link is established between the local voice mail processor and the remote voice mail processor hosting the intended recipient at step 435 The link may be established according to well-known principles and techniques, and will not be addressed in detail as they are not essential to an understanding of the present invention At step 440, a confirmation request is sent to the remote voice mail processor At step 445, the spoken name for the intended recipient is accessed at the remote voice mail processor by using the recipient's identifier to find the associated voice mailbox and read a spoken name that was previously stored in association with the voice mailbox, and then transmitted to the local voice mail processor through a network or other communication link The spoken name for the intended recipient is then played to the caller at step 450 as confirmation that the voice mail message was addressed to the intended recipient Next, processing returns to step 427 and either additional recipients are identified or the message is sent and the call is disconnected as described above and shown in FIGURE 4 Finally, the system returns to await the next voice mail message
Since the process of sending requests to remote systems to retrieve spoken names could potentially result in undesirable delays to the caller, the present invention additionally acts to mask the delay to the caller at step 455, which performs concurrently with steps 435-445 To mask the delay to the caller, the local voice mail processor may retrieve a stored message such as "Your voice mail message will be delivered to ", or any other such message Since the typical delay will normally be on the order of a few seconds, the playing of this message should be sufficient to mask any delays to the caller
While the preferred embodiment of the invention has been illustrated and described, it will be appreciated that various changes can be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention

Claims

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows
1 A voice mail processing system for providing an indicator that a message was addressed to an intended recipient comprising a plurality of voice mail processors and a communications medium connecting each of the plurality of voice mail processors to at least one other of the plurality of voice mail processors, comprising a plurality of voice mailboxes interconnected by a communication link, a plurality of voice mailboxes associated with each voice mail processor, each voice mailbox being assigned to a subscriber and having a spoken name confirmation message that is played to a caller when a message is addressed to the subscriber's mailbox, a routing table that is accessible from each of the plurality of voice mail processors that include information associating subscribers and voice mail processors, voice mail accepting means for receiving an intended recipient identifier and a voice mail message from a first subscriber, wherein the intended recipient is a second subscriber to the voice mail processing system, spoken name confirmation means for confirming that the voice mail message has been addressed to the intended recipient by accessing the routing table to locate the voice mail processor associated with the intended recipient, requesting a spoken name confirmation message from the remote voice mail processor associated with the intended recipient after the voice mail message has been addressed to the recipient's mailbox, receiving the spoken name confirmation message, and playing the spoken name confirmation message to the subscriber
2 The voice mail processing system of Claim 1, wherein the spoken name confirmation means further confirms the intended recipient to the subscriber by retrieving the spoken name confirmation message from the intended recipient's voice mailbox if the intended recipient is associated with a local voice mail processor
3 The voice mail processing system of Claim 1 , further comprising a delay masking means for disguising a time delay associated with requesting and receiving a spoken name confirmation message from a remote voice mail processor
4 The voice mail processing system of Claim 3, wherein the delay masking means comprises means for playing to the subscriber a confirmation message while the spoken name confirmation message is requested from the remote voice mail processor
5 A method for providing a spoken name confirmation for a voice mail message recorded by a subscriber of a voice mail processing system, the voice mail processing system comprising a plurality of voice mail processors interconnected by a communications medium, the method comprising the steps of recording, by a subscriber hosted by a voice mail processor of the voice mail processing system, a voice mail message for an intended recipient, the intended recipient having a voice mailbox hosted by a voice mail processor of the voice mail processing system, receiving an entry from the subscriber that indicates a voice mailbox identifier for the intended recipient, determining a voice mail processor which hosts the intended recipient's voice mailbox, requesting a spoken name confirmation message for the intended recipient from the remote voice mail processor if the voice mail processor which hosts the intended recipient's voice mailbox is a remote voice mail processor, acquiring the spoken name confirmation message for the intended recipient, and playing the spoken name confirmation message for the intended recipient to the subscriber after the voice mail has been addressed to recipient's mailbox
6 The method of Claim 5, further comprising the step of retrieving the spoken name confirmation message for the intended recipient associated with the intended recipient's voice mailbox if the voice mail processor which hosts the intended recipient's voice mailbox is the local voice mail processor
7 The method of Claim 5, further comprising the step of disguising a time delay associated with requesting and receiving the spoken name confirmation message from the remote voice mail processor
8 The method of Claim 7, wherein the step of disguising a time delay further comprises the steps of retrieving a confirmation message from a local voice mail processor, and playing the confirmation message to the subscriber , wherein the steps of retrieving and playing of the confirmation message are performed concurrently with the steps of requesting and receiving the spoken name confirmation message from the remote voice mail processor
9 The method of Claim 5, wherein the step of determining a voice mail processor which hosts the intended recipient's voice mailbox comprises the steps of accessing a routing table in a local voice mail processor, the routing table comprising information associating the recipient with a voice mailbox and a voice mail processor, and determining a voice mail processor associated with the voice mailbox identifier
10 A voice mail processing system for providing an indicator that a message was addressed to an intended recipient comprising a plurality of voice mailboxes interconnected by a communication link, a plurality of voice mailboxes associated with each voice mail processor, each voice mailbox being assigned to a subscriber and having a spoken name confirmation message that is played to a caller when a message is addressed to the subscriber's mailbox, a routing table that is accessible from each of the plurality of voice mail processors that include information associating subscribers and voice mail processors, and a processor programmed to receive an intended recipient identifier and a voice mail message from a first subscriber, wherein the intended recipient is a second subscriber to the voice mail processing system, and
confirm the intended recipient to the subscriber by accessing the routing table to locate the voice mail processor associated with the intended recipient by requesting a spoken name confirmation message from the remote voice mail processor associated with the intended recipient after the voice mail message has been addressed to the recipient's mailbox, receiving the spoken name confirmation message, and playing the spoken name confirmation message to the subscriber
PCT/US2000/006261 1999-03-25 2000-03-09 Spoken name confirmation in a networked voice mail processing system WO2000059195A1 (en)

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US27659099A 1999-03-25 1999-03-25
US09/276,590 1999-03-25
US35192999A 1999-07-12 1999-07-12
US09/351,929 1999-07-12

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US5740231A (en) * 1994-09-16 1998-04-14 Octel Communications Corporation Network-based multimedia communications and directory system and method of operation
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EP0507226A2 (en) * 1991-04-05 1992-10-07 Siemens Rolm Communications Inc. (a Delaware corp.) Protocol for transmitting messages in a network
US5740231A (en) * 1994-09-16 1998-04-14 Octel Communications Corporation Network-based multimedia communications and directory system and method of operation
WO1997014243A1 (en) * 1995-10-13 1997-04-17 Glenayre Electronics, Inc. Improved architecture for voice messaging systems
US5940478A (en) * 1996-05-31 1999-08-17 Octel Communications Corporation Method and system for extended addressing plans

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