Method of providing voicemails to a wireless information device

Abstract

Voicemail is received at a voicemail server and converted to an audio file format; it is then sent or streamed over a wide area network to a voice to text transcription system comprising a network of computers. One of the networked computers plays back the voice message to an operator and the operator intelligently transcribes the actual message from the original voice message by entering the corresponding text message (actually a succinct version of the original voice message, not a verbose word-for-word conversion) into the computer to generate a transcribed text message. The transcribed text message is then sent to the wireless information device from the computer. Because human operators are used instead of machine transcription, voicemails are converted accurately, intelligently, appropriately and succinctly into text messages (SMS/MMS).

1 . A method of providing voicemail to a mobile telephone, in which a caller initiates a voice call to the mobile telephone, but that call is diverted to a voicemail server, with the caller then leaving a voice message on the voicemail server; the method comprising the steps of:
 (a) converting the voice message to an audio file format;   (b) sending or streaming the audio file to a voice to text transcription system comprising at least one computer adapted to play back the voice message to an operator to enable the operator to intelligently transcribe the original voice message into the computer to generate a transcribed text message;   (c) sending the transcribed text message to the mobile telephone;
 and in which the transcribed text message includes a unique identification that links the text message to the voice message held at the voicemail server, to allow that voice message to be played back to the mobile telephone when an end-user of the mobile telephone selects or uses the unique identification. 
   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  in which the transcribed text message has automatically added to it the time and date that the voice message was originally received at the voice mail server. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  in which the text transcription system automatically adds the unique identification to the text message voice message. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  in which the transcribed text message is displayed on the telephone as though it was sent directly from an originator of the voice message. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1  in which the computer does not display to the operator the telephone number associated with the mobile telephone. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1  in which the computer displays to the operator an option to re-route the audio file to a different computer with an operator that is more suited to transcribing the voice message because of linguistic, dialect, or cultural reasons. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1  in which the operator represents the mood of the caller leaving the voice message in the transcribed text message using either a written description or an emoticon. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1  in which the operator succinctly summarises the voice message. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8  in which the operator summarises the voice message to fit a160 character limit or concatenated text messages. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1  in which the operator omits from the transcribed text message any hesitations, artefacts, or repetitions present in the voice message. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1  in which the text message is sent to the mobile telephone in a format previously specified as appropriate by the user of the telephone. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1  in which if the recording time of a voice message is less than a user set maximum time, then the message is transcribed, otherwise, it is not transcribed but instead a standard notification is sent to the user that they have a new voicemail to listen to. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12  in which the operator listens to the voice message and writes up a very short indication of the subject of the call which is sent to the message recipient. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1  in which, for a mobile telephone that supports less than a certain amount of text, there is an initial look up of the text limitations in a database and then an automatic suggestion of appropriate maximum recording time generated by the voicemail server for the caller. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 1  in which the text transcription system includes an automated voice recognition system that partly processes the audio file prior to the operator intelligently transcribing some or all of the original voice message. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 1  in which the text message is a SMS or MMS text message. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 1  in which the steps of (i) converting, (ii) sending or streaming; and (iii) sending, take place within a single jurisdiction. 
     
     
         18 . A text message which has been transcribed from a voicemail and is provided to a mobile telephone using the method of  claim 1 . 
     
     
         19 . A mobile telephone when storing or displaying the text message of  claim 18 . 
     
     
         18 . A system for providing voicemail to a mobile telephone, in which a caller initiates a voice call to the mobile telephone, but that call is diverted to a voicemail server, with the caller then leaving a voice message on the voicemail server; the system adapted to:
 (a) convert the voice message to an audio file format;   (b) send or stream the audio file to a voice to text transcription system comprising at least one computer adapted to play back the voice message to an operator to enable the operator to intelligently transcribe the original voice message into the computer to generate a transcribed text message;   (c) send the text message to the mobile telephone;   and in which the system operates to cause the transcribed text message to include a unique identification that links the text message to the voice message held at the voicemail server, to allow that voice message to be played back to the mobile telephone when an end-user selects or uses the unique identification.