U.S. patent application number 09/867058 was filed with the patent office on 2001-10-04 for notification system for multimedia messaging systems.
This patent application is currently assigned to Siemens Information and Communication Networks, Inc.. Invention is credited to Beyda, William Joseph, Shaffer, Shmuel.
Application Number | 20010026608 09/867058 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 22111721 |
Filed Date | 2001-10-04 |
United States Patent
Application |
20010026608 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Beyda, William Joseph ; et
al. |
October 4, 2001 |
Notification system for multimedia messaging systems
Abstract
A system and method within a multimedia messaging system for
automatically enabling the system to notify a user that his or her
mailbox is full and therefore no longer accepting messages for
storage. The system includes one or more mailboxes to receive and
store messages from callers, a capacity calculator to determine
whether the messages stored in the mailbox exceed the allotted
amount of storage space and a message transmittal unit to enable
one or more notification alerts to be generated in response to the
capacity calculator determining that the mailbox is full.
Inventors: |
Beyda, William Joseph;
(Cupertino, CA) ; Shaffer, Shmuel; (Palo Alto,
CA) |
Correspondence
Address: |
Siemens Corporation
Intellectual Property Department
186 Wood Avenue South
Iselin
NJ
08830
US
|
Assignee: |
Siemens Information and
Communication Networks, Inc.
|
Family ID: |
22111721 |
Appl. No.: |
09/867058 |
Filed: |
May 29, 2001 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
|
09867058 |
May 29, 2001 |
|
|
|
09073099 |
May 5, 1998 |
|
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Current U.S.
Class: |
379/88.13 ;
379/88.22 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04M 1/65 20130101; H04M
3/10 20130101; H04M 3/36 20130101; H04M 3/533 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
379/88.13 ;
379/88.22 |
International
Class: |
H04M 011/00; H04M
001/64 |
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A multimedia messaging system, comprising: a mailbox configured
to receive and store one or more messages; a capacity calculator
configured to determine the amount of space occupied by said one or
more messages; and a message transmittal unit configured to
automatically enable one or more notification messages to be
generated in response to said capacity calculator determining that
the amount of space occupied by said one or messages exceeds a
predetermined threshold.
2. The system of claim 1, wherein said capacity calculator is
configured to count the number of messages stored in said
mailbox.
3. The system of claim 1, wherein said capacity calculator is
configured to determine the amount of time said one or more
messages occupy.
4. The system of claim 1, wherein said mailbox is located in a
nonvolatile memory device.
5. The system of claim 4, wherein said capacity calculator is
configured to determine the amount of non-volatile memory consumed
by said one or more messages.
6. The system of claim 1, wherein said capacity calculator is
configured to count the number of minutes said one or more
messages.
7. The system of claim 1, wherein said non-volatile memory device
includes a fixed disk drive.
8. The system of claim 1, wherein said non-volatile memory device
includes flash memory.
9. The system of claim 1, wherein said notification messages
include one or more facsimile messages.
10. The system of claim 1, wherein said notification messages
include one or more telephone messages.
11. The system of claim 1, wherein said notification messages
include one or more pager notifications.
12. The system of claim 1, wherein said notification messages
include one or more electronic mail messages.
13. The system of claim 1, wherein said notification messages
include changing the cadence of a message waiting light on a
telephone.
14. The system of claim 1, wherein said notification messages
include modifying a telephone dial tone.
15. The system of claim 14, wherein said modified telephone dial
tone includes changing the frequency of the dial tone.
16. The system of claim 14, wherein said notification messages
includes stuttering the telephone dial tone.
17. The system of claim 1, further including a user alert profile
table to store information as to where said one or more
notification messages are to be sent.
18. The system of claim 1, wherein said multimedia messaging system
is an electronic mail system.
19. The system of claim 1, wherein said multimedia messaging system
is a facsimile server.
20. The system of claim 1, wherein said multimedia messaging system
is a voice mail system.
21. A multimedia messaging system, comprising: a mailbox adapted to
receive and store one or more messages; a message transmittal unit
responsive to said mailbox receiving said one or more marked
messages to enable one or more notification messages to be
generated; and a user alert table to store the one or more
locations where said one or more notification message are to be
sent.
22. The system of claim 21 wherein said one or more locations
includes user contact information.
23. The system of claim 22 wherein said contact information
includes one or more electronic mail addresses.
24. The system of claim 22 wherein said contact information
includes one or more facsimile numbers.
25. The system of claim 22 wherein said contact information
includes one or more voice telephone numbers.
26. The system of claim 22 wherein said contact information
includes one or more pager numbers.
27. In a multimedia messaging system, a method for generating
notification messages, comprising: receiving and storing one or
more messages; determining the amount of space occupied by said one
or more messages; and automatically enabling one or more
notification messages to be generated in response to said
determining step determining that the amount of space occupied by
said one or messages exceeds a predetermined threshold.
28. The method of claim 22, further including the step of storing
one or more addresses where said one or more notification message
are to be sent.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0001] 1. Field of the Invention
[0002] This invention generally relates to a messaging system and,
more particularly, to a messaging system which causes notification
alerts to be automatically sent to one or more destinations during
predetermined conditions.
[0003] 2. Description of the Prior Art
[0004] Message processing systems have been in widespread use for
many years. These systems, such as a voice messaging system,
facsimile servers and other multimedia messaging systems, are
commonly used as message sending, receiving and storing tools. For
example, voice messaging systems, commonly known as voice mail
systems are configured in such systems that each user is assigned a
mailbox wherein messages sent to the user are saved. The recipient
of a message, upon accessing the voice mail system, may retrieve
messages from his or her mailbox.
[0005] Typically, such systems allow a user to store only a certain
predefined number of messages, occupy only a predetermined amount
of storage space on the voice mail system or limit the amount of
message time to a predetermined number of minutes. If the calls to
a particular user exceed the allotted limits, the message system is
generally programmed to prevent further storage of any additional
messages to the user's mailbox. Such limits protect against a
single mailbox user's attempt to use more than their share of the
system. In addition, the limits protect against so-called hackers
that could call voice mail systems and leave lengthy messages or
many small messages until the system's storage is depleted.
[0006] Generally, once a mailbox is full, subsequent callers are
informed of the full mailbox condition, but are not allowed to
record and save messages to the user. Furthermore, all subsequent
callers are denied the opportunity to leave messages until the user
deletes one or more messages from the mailbox so that storage space
is once again available for new messages. Thus, a danger exists
that the mailbox will become full at precisely the time the user
most requires the system's message storing capabilities, for
example, during a time when the user is too busy to answer
telephone calls or is away from a phone, but is relying on the
system to store messages during that time.
[0007] Unfortunately, in many cases, callers not only are not
allowed to save messages in such a situation, but they also may
have no other means of contacting the user. In such a case, the
user may not even be aware of potentially important messages not
being saved or accepted by the system because the user's mailbox is
full. Furthermore, the user has no way of knowing that the mailbox
is full until the user accesses the messaging system to check for
new messages. It is only then that the user is notified and learns
of the full mailbox condition, by which time many callers may have
been turned away.
[0008] What is needed, therefore, is a system that allows the
messaging system to automatically notify the user, through a
variety of different methods, that the user's mailbox is full and
therefore no longer accepting messages.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0009] The present invention relates to a system and method for a
messaging system for automatically enabling the system to notify a
user that his or her mailbox is full. The messaging system includes
one or more mailboxes to receive and store messages from callers. A
capacity calculator is used to determine whether the messages
stored in the mailbox exceed the amount of storage space allotted
to the user. A message transmittal unit is used for enabling one or
more notification alerts to be generated in response to the
capacity calculator determining that the amount of space occupied
by the messages meets or exceeds a predetermined allocated amount
of storage space. An alert table may also be used to store one or
more contact numbers and other information through which the user
may be contacted.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
[0010] FIG. 1 is an overall block diagram of a known voice mail
system.
[0011] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the voice mail system in
accordance with the present invention.
[0012] FIG. 3A and 3B illustrate a flow diagram for generating
notification messages in accordance with the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0013] The present invention relates to a messaging system for
example, a multimedia messaging system. Although the invention is
described and illustrated with respect to a voice mail system, the
principles of the present invention are applicable to other
multimedia messaging systems, such as facsimile server systems. In
a voice mail system, the invention is used to notify a user of the
status of the user's mailbox, e.g., that their mailbox is full.
User notification is achieved by enabling the messaging system to
contact the user in a variety of different ways. An important
aspect of the invention relates to the use of various techniques,
such as facsimile, electronic mail (E-Mail), telephone call and
pager call, to notify the user of a full mail box condition.
[0014] Referring to FIG. 1, a known voice mail system VMS 90 is
shown and generally includes a mail server 100 having telephone
interfaces 101 and a mass storage device 105, such as a hard disk
drive, having a controller 106. The mail server 100 is typically a
microprocessor or microcontroller-based (not shown) control unit
that controls the operation of the VMS 90 and is responsible for,
among other things, controlling all of the messaging functions of
the VMS 90. One or more mailboxes 102, are defined within the
storage device 105, and represent portions of space reserved on the
mass storage device 105 for a particular user. The amount of disk
space allocated to each mailbox 102 is generally determined by a
system administrator, and may typically be a function of the number
of mailboxes required for all voice mail users and the amount of
total system storage space available on the hard drive 105 or other
storage area. Voice mail storage capacities may usually be
expressed in terms of numbers of messages, minutes of messages
and/or storage space utilization. Thus, for example, a mailbox may
be limited to ten messages, thirty minutes and/or 2 MB of
storage.
[0015] It is to be noted that FIG. 1 is representative of only one
of many possible voice mail systems and configurations, and is
therefore exemplary only. Furthermore, it should be understood that
the present invention is also applicable to many other types of
multimedia messaging systems including facsimile servers and other
electronic message storage and retrieval systems.
[0016] Each of the telephone interfaces 101 is connected to a
telephone 104. The telephone interfaces 101 are used to receive
voice signals over telephone lines and to convert them to
appropriate digital format for storage and later retrieval from the
mass storage device 105. In addition, the telephone interfaces 101
also perform functions such as ring detection, dial signal
generation, off-hook detection, etc. In operation, control signals
from the telephone interfaces 101 are transmitted to the mass
storage controller 106 over a control bus 103 and voice signals,
which have been converted into a digital signal and using an
analog-to-digital converter (not shown) are transmitted to the mass
storage device 105 over a data bus 107. Typically, the telephone
interfaces 101 receive voice signals, such as speech, in analog
form and receive control signals and data in the form of dual tone
multifrequency (DTMF) tones generated by key presses on the DTMF
numeric key pad (not shown) of the telephone 104. The mail server
100 responds to the control signals to telephone interfaces 101 and
the mass storage controller 106 to identify voice signals with
selected addresses and stores them in the appropriate mailbox 102
on the mass storage device 105 for retrieval by the recipient or
addressee at a later time.
[0017] Turning to FIG. 2, a block diagram of a notification system
110 which may be implemented in a VMS 90 in accordance with the
present invention is illustrated. As mentioned above, the
notification system 110 enables the messaging system to alert a
user that their mailbox is full using media blending to ensure that
the user is notified of the situation.
[0018] In the present system, the notification system 110 includes,
as will be discussed further below, a capacity calculator 154 to
determine the amount of space occupied by the messages in each
mailbox 102. The capacity calculator 154 further includes a message
transmittal unit 152 to enable a notification message to be
generated and sent in response to the capacity calculator 154
determining that the amount of space occupied by the messages
exceeds a predetermined threshold. The capacity calculator 154
further may include a memory 158 in which a user alert profile
table 156 stores the various items of contact information, such as
E-mail address, phone number, pager number, etc. at which the user
may be contacted by the messages transmittal unit 152. The above
system may be interconnected by a data bus 103 and a control bus
107 and, in turn, to hard drive controller 106. The buses 103, 107
are used to carry control messages and data between the various
components. The capacity calculator 154 and the message transmittal
unit 152 may each be implemented as a software program or algorithm
running on a microprocessor or controller (not shown). In addition,
the user alert profile table 156 may optionally be a database or
table on the hard drive 105 or some other non-volatile storage
device.
[0019] The capacity calculator 154 determines the amount of space
occupied by messages in the mailbox 102 by polling the controller
106 as to either the amount of disk or message space remaining or
the amount of disk or message space used by the user's mailbox.
Upon determining that the mailbox 120 is full, the capacity
calculator 154 causes a flag to be set such that the voice mail
system 100 enables callers to receive a mailbox full message and to
refuse to store any further messages. In the present invention, the
flag also causes the message transmittal unit 152 to issue a
notification alert to the user that the user's mailbox is full.
Depending upon the configuration of the system, the notification
system 110 may use media blending techniques to initiate one or
more different methods of contacting the user, as mentioned
above.
[0020] The user alert profile alert table 156 is used to store the
various user contact information. The user alert profile table 156,
which may be stored as a table in a non-volatile memory device,
such as on the hard disk 105 or in a database in a non-volatile
memory device, such as flash RAM 158, enables the system to cross
reference a particular user with the user's contact information.
For example, the user's name may be associated with one or more
voice telephone numbers, facsimile numbers, pager numbers, E-mail
addresses, etc., at which the user may be contacted. The system may
be programmed such that one or more of the numbers may be used in
contacting the user.
[0021] Contact information for the user, which is stored in the
user alert profile table 156, may be entered into the system in a
number of ways. In particular, a user when setting up his or her
voice mail account may be prompted by the voice mail system 100
software to input appropriate telephone numbers that may be used to
contact the user. For example, known voice mail systems generally
prompt the user to enter a password via the DTMF pad on the
telephone for use in accessing the voice mailbox when the user is
setting up his or her voice mail account for the first time.
Similarly, the present invention may prompt the user to enter a
voice telephone number as well. The system can also be programmed
to prompt for entry of a facsimile number, pager number, etc. The
information entered by the user is decoded by the telephone
interface 101 which sends a command to the mass storage controller
106 to save the user entered information on the mass storage device
105 in a table or as a database entry associated with the user's
extension or phone number.
[0022] Alternatively, the system administrator may enter the user's
information directly into the voice mail system 100 through a
standard control terminal that is generally used for system
administration of the voice mail system 100.
[0023] The notification system 110 may also be used to send E-Mail
messages, as mentioned above. This may be accomplished in systems
where the notification system 110 is located in a voice mail system
100 that may be interfaced to a mail server in a client-server or
other computer telephony integration (CTI) type environment. In
particular, CTI enables the user to control telephony functions
from a PC using known standards such as telephony application
programming interface (TAPI) or telephony services application
programming interface (TSAPI). In the above implementations, the
user's E-Mail address may be entered into the system via a PC.
Furthermore, voice phone number, page number and other phone
numbers mentioned above may also be entered via PC.
[0024] In operation, the message transmittal unit 152, in response
to the flag being set by the capacity calculator, may take one or
more approaches in alerting a user, as described below. It should
be noted that the notification system may be configured by the
system administrator or user to implement as many or none of the
following notification methods as desired. First, a message-waiting
light, alphanumeric message that is typically found on most
telephones interfaced to a voice mail system 100, may be programmed
with an alternate cadence or message. For example, the transmittal
unit 152 may cause a signal and/or message to be sent over the
control bus 103 and data bus 107 to telephone interface 101 such
that a digital phone having an alphanumeric display associated with
the user's mailbox, may be instructed to display a message
indicating that the user's mailbox is full. Furthermore, the
cadence, or on-off pattern, of a message waiting light on phones
equipped with such a device may be changed by the transmittal unit
152 to indicate a message full condition. For example, a message
waiting light that normally blinks on and off in a slow cadence
when indicating one or more waiting messages may be programmed to
flash rapidly to gain the user's attention to indicate that the
user's voice message mailbox is full. Similarly, the system may
also provide an altered dial tone to the phone when taken off-hook.
In particular, the dial tone may be changed such that it is
stuttered or higher or lower in pitch. As such, a user picking up
the handset hears a different dial tone, which is intended to
notify the user that the mailbox is full. In addition, the
transmittal unit 152 may also enable the voice mail system 100 to
cause the telephone number associated with the particular full
mailbox to be rung back periodically until the user responds.
[0025] Second, the transmittal unit 152 may also be used to call
one or more user contact numbers as stored in the user alert
profile table 156. In particular, the voice mail system 100,
through a connection with the phone system or communications server
(not shown), may instruct the server to outdial to the user's pager
and transmit the user's telephone number for display on the pager.
Similarly, the server may be programmed to outdial to a
preprogrammed voice telephone number at which the user may be
reached. Upon connection, the voice mail system 100 may play a
stored prerecorded message informing the user that the user's voice
mail mailbox is full. Furthermore, the server may also be
programmed to outdial to a preprogrammed facsimile number that the
user has pre-entered into the system. Upon connection, a voice
mailbox full message may be transmitted.
[0026] Third, the transmittal unit 152 may also be used to enable a
message to be sent to the user's E-Mail address. Upon the capacity
calculator 154 determining that the user's mailbox is full, the
transmittal unit may send a signal to the mail server to send a
form E-Mail message to the user's E-Mail address indicating that
the user's voice mail mailbox is full. It should be noted that the
present invention is not limited to the notification methods
described above and that other notification methods may be used as
well to alert a user of a full mailbox condition.
[0027] For security reasons, the system of the present invention
may be configured such that only the sender may respond to the
notification message in the voice mail system. This is enforced by
the voice mail system 100 at the time the user answers the
notification call or uses the voice mail system 100, using commonly
known and used caller identification techniques. In particular,
during user log-in, the voice mail system 100 checks the electronic
identification of the telephone from which the call is being placed
or requires the caller to enter the extension that the caller is
registered under. The voice mail system 100 then verifies the
identity of the person logging into the system by requiring the
user to enter a security or identification password associated with
the user's extension. The code may be entered via the DTMF keypad
of the telephone. The mail server 100 then cross-references the
user-entered code with an existing list stored in the memory 91 in
the voice mail system 100 that contains a list of all authorized
users and their respective passwords. If a match is found, the
system enables the user to gain further access to the functions of
the voice mail system 100 and override or turn off the notification
system. If no match is found, the voice mail system 100 denies
further access to the system and the notification system continues
to attempt to notify the user. Thus, an unauthorized or inadvertent
user is prevented from turning off or cancelling the notification
system.
[0028] Referring to FIG. 3A and 3B, a flow diagram is shown
depicting the message notification system in operation. In step 202
the system determines whether the user's mailbox is full. If the
user's mailbox is not full, then in step 204 the system continues
accepting messages and returns to step 202. However, if it is
determined that the user's mailbox is full, then the system stops
accepting and storing messages in step 206 and activates the
notification system in step 208.
[0029] In step 210 the system alters the cadence of any message
waiting lights that may be on the telephone. In step 212, the
system dials the mailbox owner's preprogrammed telephone number. If
the telephone is answered, then in step 214 the notification
message is played, informing the user that the mailbox is full. In
step 216 the system determines if the user was reached
successfully. This is accomplished, as mentioned above, by the user
entering his or her voice mail log-on password into the system via
the DTMF pad on the telephone after receiving the notification
message. Upon doing so, the user may gain access to their voice
mail system and disable the notification system to prevent further
notification messages from being transmitted to the user. The
system then exits in step 218. However, if the user was not reached
successfully, or an incorrect password was entered, a facsimile may
be sent in step 220 to the fax number stored in the user alert
profile table 156 (FIG. 2).
[0030] In step 222 the system waits a predetermined amount of time
to give the user a reasonable amount of time to call the voice mail
system in responding to the facsimile message recipient to call the
voice mail. In step 224, the system determines whether or not the
user responded, as explained above. If so, then the system returns
to step 218 and exits. However, if there was no response, or an
incorrect or unrecognized response, then in step 226 an E-Mail
message may be sent to the user. In step 228, the system once again
waits for a predetermined amount of time to enable the user to
respond to the E-mail notice. The user may respond either via
return E-mail if the particular system is part of a client-server
multimedia messaging center or by dialing the voice mailbox and
entering the voice messaging system as explained above. If the user
is able to respond to the E-mail within the predetermined time,
then the system exits once again, in step 218. However, if the user
did not respond to the E-mail in step 230, then in step 232, the
user's pager may be paged.
[0031] Once again, in step 234, the system waits a predetermined
amount of time to determine whether or not the user has responded
to the page. In step 236, if the user does respond within a
predetermined amount of time then the system exits in step 218.
However, if the user does not respond, then in step 238 the
notification procedure may once again repeat at step 212. It should
be noted that the system administrator may enable or disable
repetition of the notification procedure as required. Furthermore,
the system administrator may also enable or disable one or more of
the notification methods described above.
* * * * *