EP1261179A2
Expired / Lapsed
EP
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Method and apparatus for multimedia messaging
Assignee: Siemens Communications Inc
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Filing: 2002-05-22
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2022-05-22
Abstract
Abstract The invention provides the user of a unified messaging mailbox with efficient, intelligent, media and device sensitive methods and apparatus to access and process (e.g., read, listen, forward, and search) messages. The invention introduces media conversion capabilities to selectively treat multimedia messages and message attachments so that they can be efficiently handled by mobile devices like PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), pagers, or phone devices (with or without a text display feature). Furthermore, the invention introduces message content analysis capabilities that will recognize linguistic relationships between messages regardless of the media type. The invention also describes the ability to present these linguistic relationships along with the standard messaging relationships (Message arrival time, subject, sender, etc.). Still further, the invention introduces a message referencing option that allows simpler message selection from certain devices.
Inventors
- 👤 Christoph A. Aktas
- 👤 John W. Yates
- 👤 Phillip C. Meredith
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-04 05:08
CPC Classifications
H; H04; H04M; H04M3/00; H04M3/42; H04M3/50; H04M3/53; H04M3/533; H04L; H04L51/00; H04L51/06; H04L51/066; H04L51/21; H04L51/214; H04L51/56; H04L65/00; H04L65/1066; H04L65/1101; H04L65/80; H04M3/5307; H04M2201/00; H04M2201/60; H04M3/53333; H04M3/5335
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 16
Claim 1
Independent Claim
31 words
A multimedia mailbox system, comprising: a) a message store for storing multimedia messages; and b) a plurality of data converters for converting
messages in one medium to messages in another
medium.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
38 words
A system according to claim 1 wherein said plurality of data converters
includes at least two selected from the group consisting of a text to speech
converter, a speech to text converter, and a fax to text converter.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
26 words
A system according to claim 1 further comprising means for linguistically
based searching of multiple message types and for linguistically relating
multiple messages of different type.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
17 words
A system according to claim 1 further comprising means for assigning a
reference number to each message.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
33 words
A multimedia mailbox system, comprising: a) a message store for storing multimedia messages; and b) means for linguistically based searching of multiple message types
and for linguistically relating multiple messages of different type.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
17 words
A system according to claim 5 further comprising means for assigning a
reference number to each message.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
60 words
A multimedia mailbox system, comprising: a) a message store for storing multimedia messages; b) a plurality of data converters for converting
messages in one medium to messages in another
medium; c) means for linguistically based searching of multiple
message types and for linguistically relating
multiple messages of different type and d) means for assigning a reference number to each
message.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
38 words
A system according to claim 7 wherein said plurality of data converters
includes at least two selected from the group consisting of a text to speech
converter, a speech to text converter, and a fax to text converter.
Claim 9
Independent Claim
31 words
A method for managing a multimedia mailbox, comprising the steps of: a) storing messages of different types in a single
mailbox; and b) automatically converting messages from one medium to
another.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
34 words
A method according to claim 9 wherein said step of converting includes
at least two selected from the group consisting of converting text to speech,
converting speech to text, and converting fax to text.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
24 words
A method according to claim 9 further comprising the step of linguistically
searching multiple message types and linguistically relating multiple
messages of different type.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
18 words
A method according to claim 9 further comprising the step of assigning a
reference number to each message.
Claim 13
Independent Claim
36 words
A method for managing a multimedia mailbox, comprising the steps of: a) storing messages of different types in a single
mailbox; and b) linguistically searching multiple message types and
linguistically relating multiple messages of
different type.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
18 words
A method according to claim 13 further comprising the step of assigning a
reference number to each message.
Claim 15
Independent Claim
53 words
A method for managing a multimedia mailbox, comprising the steps of: a) storing messages of different types in a single
mailbox; b) automatically converting messages from one medium to
another; c) linguistically searching multiple message types and
linguistically relating multiple messages of
different type; and d) assigning a reference number to each message.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
34 words
A method according to claim 15 wherein said step of converting includes
at least two selected from the group consisting of converting text to speech,
converting speech to text, and converting fax to text.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
No citation records indexed.
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