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EP1261179A2 Expired / Lapsed EP ⏱️ 0.0 years remaining

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
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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 13:08
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.

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