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.

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.