WO2005062635A2

WO2005062635A2 - Telecommunications services apparatus and methods

Info

Publication number: WO2005062635A2
Application number: PCT/GB2004/005385
Authority: WO
Inventors: Jeffrey Wilson
Original assignee: Intellprop Limited
Priority date: 2003-12-24
Filing date: 2004-12-23
Publication date: 2005-07-07
Also published as: EP1704735A2; GB0329954D0; WO2005062635A3

Abstract

A predefined arrangement of one or more predefined characters in one or more predefined positions in the body of a text message is recognised by a text message router (3). In response to that recognition, a function required by the sender of the text message is selected. The required function may be to tag a recorded message with one or more text identifiers extracted from a text message sent by the caller or the recipient, the recorded message being a voice message or a video message. The required function may invoke a further communication initiated by the apparatus, utilising text and/or voice communication. The further communication may be sent back to the subscriber who sent the original message. A language translation means may send a language translation of at least part of the original message. The further communication may be sent according to addressing information in the original message. The further communication may be sent via an email interface (6) to an email address associated with the sender. A voice call may be established between the call originator and a voice mailbox associated with addressing information in the original message.

Description

TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES APPARATUS AND METHODS

This invention relates to telecommunications services apparatus and methods, such as may be used in telecommunication networks and in particular in the context of text messaging services.

An example of a text messaging facility is used in the GSM mobile telephone system. In GSM the Short Message Services (SMS) allow Mobile Stations (MS) to send and receive short text messages. The messages are normally routed via a Short Message Service Centre (SMSC), which provides a store and forward function. The SMSC will attempt to deliver each message to its destination, which may be another MS or a host address in the same or another network.

Successful standardisation has permitted the global spread of mobile telecommunication networks. Handsets are manufactured that can be used in many networks in many countries. However, the standardisation process also slows down the introduction of new features in networks, and facilities available to users today are to a large extent constrained by the scope of the designs envisaged by those who formed the standards several years previously. Consequently some services or network facilities that are desirable today are not immediately available because their use was not previously envisioned during standardisation. Nevertheless it is still possible to introduce new services because of the richness and flexibility of those features that are available. Also, existing services can be used in new or specific ways to provide alternative behaviour and provide new services.

Text messaging has undergone enormous growth because it fulfils a basic communication need, complementing voice communication with the ability to send and receive short text messages. Text messaging is taken here as a generic term that includes similar forms of messaging including SMS, EMS, MMS and the like. Text messaging in GSM, using SMS, was primarily aimed at handset-to-handset communication, or network to handset communication for the purpose of alerting. The extensive use today for communication gives rise to a need for associated services that allow text messages to be exchanged with other forms of media. However these exchanges are not well supported today, and their usage is not simple enough. One key example of a beneficial service is the integration of Short Message and email services. It would be desirable to have an easy way to specify that a text message be to be delivered to an email address as well or instead of being delivered to a telephone address. This is possible in GSM today, but requires the sender to know the email address that relates to the destination number, to format the message in a specific way to identify the email address within the body of the text message and to remember a different number to which to send the message. Given all of these separate actions by the sender, the network is then capable of directing a text message to an email address. The complexity of the presently available model, and the differences from everyday text messaging, render the service little used in its present form.

One of the factors that has allowed the Internet to be so successful is the user-friendly naming scheme, whereby addresses are referenced by a meaningful name rather than by a non-memorable numeric value. In telephony, users already have an assigned telephone number. This number is likely to be known to friends and family, and regular contacts will probably have each other's numbers stored in a directory in their mobile communication devices. It would therefore be most convenient if telephony- related communications directed to a user made use of the user's telephone number, regardless of the medium or manner of the communication or service being invoked.

Present technology offers many means of communication with a user of a telecommunications system, but apart from the simplest forms of communication, services often require the sender to remember additional telephone numbers of systems or services. For example, the delivery of a pre-recorded birthday greeting to a friend currently requires the sender to dial a specific number to access a service. The details of the recipient are then entered interactively into the service. This type of process requires the communicator to know additional telephone numbers in order to invoke these services.

A difficulty with exists with current voice mail systems in that it is difficult to archive and manage recordings. Voice data is inherently hard to search, as one cannot simply instruct a computer to search a set of audio files for occurrences of a given spoken word, whereas with text this operation is very easy. Consequently an archive of voice files can quickly become unmanageable and unusable, since the only information likely to be stored along with the audio file is a creation timestamp and possibly a phone number.

Furthermore voice mail systems do not provide any additional features to alleviate this problem, and many do not even provide an archiving facility. Commonly, voice mail systems do not provide a means for users to transfer files into their personal space, keeping them solely within the network and deleting them automatically after a period.

According to an aspect of the invention there is provided a telecommunications services apparatus for use with a telephone messaging system, the apparatus comprising:

means for recognising a predefined arrangement of one or more predefined characters in one or more predefined positions in the body of a message being submitted to the telephone messaging system; and

means responsive to recognition of the recognising means to select a function required by the sender of the message.

The required function may be operable to tag a recorded message with one or more text identifiers extracted from a text message sent by the caller before, during or after leaving the message, wherein the message may be a voice message, a video message or the like.

The required function may be operable to tag a recorded message with one or more text identifiers extracted from a text message sent by the recipient during or after listening to the message, wherein the message may be a voice message, a video message or the like.

The required function may invoke a further communication initiated by the apparatus, the function utilising text communication, voice communication or a combination of the two.

The further communication function may be operative to send a communication back to the subscriber who sent the original transmission. The communication initiated by the apparatus may comprise a language translation of all or part of the original text message.

The further communication function may be operative to send a communication to a second subscriber according to addressing information provided in the original message.

The further communication function may be operative to send a communication to an email address associated with the sender instead of or in addition to delivery of the text message by normal means.

The communication initiated by the apparatus may comprise a voice call between the originating subscriber and a voice mailbox associated with the addressing information provided in the original message.

According to another aspect of the invention there is provided a telecommunications services method for use with a telephone messaging system, the method comprising:

recognising a predefined arrangement of one or more predefined characters in one or more predefined positions in the body of a message being submitted to the telephone messaging system; and

selecting, in response to recognition of the predefined arrangement, a function required by the sender of the message.

Further aspects of the invention provide a computer program for carrying out the above method, and a storage medium on which such computer program is stored.

The invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment of the invention; and

Figure 2 is a block diagram of another embodiment of the invention.

Figure 1 shows an embodiment of one aspect of the invention suitable for a GSM network that may be used to implement the invention. A mobile station 1 is connected to a telephone network and is associated with a mobile switching centre (MSC) 2. A text message router 3, which may be in the form of a Transaction Converter manufactured by Telsis (RTM) Limited, is operable to intercept messages transmitted between the MSC 2 and a message service centre (SC) 4. An attached translation engine, shown as a database 5, allows the router 3 to optionally translate the text message into a specified language. The router 3 is connected to an email interface 6 that is optionally able to format and transmit messages as email.

In Figure 2, the router 3 is also connected to a voice services platform or voice switch

7 that is optionally able to out dial and connect voice calls, and to a voice mail system

8 that is able to record and play back voice mail messages.

Text messages transmitted towards the message service centre (SC) 4 are directed via the text message router 3 using well know routing techniques. For example the switching centres (MSCs) in a GSM network may typically be programmed to perform global title translation on Short Messages so that these messages are routed to the text message router 3 instead of directly to a service centre. In this way all messages destined for the service centre 4 are sent via the text message router 3. In a practical realisation, several routers may be required. The router 3 examines the body of each message to determine whether one of a set of specific text tags is present in a predefined position in the text message. The router 3 may also use source or destination address information to filter the messages so that only a certain subset of messages that pass through the router 3 have their text content examined. This would be advantageous in reducing the processing load on the router 3, for example in situations where a proportion of text messages passing through the router 3 are destined for certain types of SMS host applications such as voting, where message modification according to embodiments of the invention may not be applicable.

The router 3 examines messages passing through the router that are deemed applicable to the message modification function. If a specific text tag is not present in the body of the message, then the message is routed on transparently to its destination, either via a service centre, or by direct delivery from the router 3 to the destination MSC.

If a specific text tag is present, then the tag is preferably removed, and the router 3 causes the message to be modified in a manner that is specified by the particular tag detected. Examples of the types of modification include re-routing, diversion, conversion of content to an alternative medium, content substitution, replacement of the content by pre-stored content in the same or an alternative medium, translation of the text content into a different language, delayed delivery and the like.

An example application is now described in detail, with reference to Figure 1, where the particular modification performed by the embodiment of the invention causes the message to be delivered by email instead of, or in addition to, delivery by normal means.

Referring to Figure 1, text messages transmitted towards the message service centre SC 4 are intercepted by the text message router 3. The router examines the body of each message to determine whether a specific text tag is present. If the tag is not present, then the message is routed on transparently to its destination, either via the service centre 4, or by direct delivery from the router 3 to the destination MSC. If the tag is present, then the tag is removed, and the router 3 accesses the attached database 5 to determine the associated email address for the message. The database 5 provides a mapping between destination MSISDN numbers, such as are specified in the text message, and email addresses. The association between email address and telephone number may be user-provisioned by means of a text message service, a web interface or the like. If a mapping exists in the database 5, the message and the email address are passed to the email interface 6, formatted as an email and transmitted to the defined email address via an external data network (not shown). If mapping does not exist in the database 5, the sender may be informed by a text message, or by a negative acknowledgement to his transmission, and the message is routed on transparently to its destination, either via the service centre 4, or by direct delivery from the router 3 to the destination MSC.

In a preferred embodiment the specific tag that the sender uses to indicate that the message is to be converted to email comprises the characters "*E#" at the start of the message body. These are both easy to enter on most mobile telephones, and easy to remember. These characters only reduce the available message size for a single SMS message from 160 to 157 characters. The user does not need to remember the email address of the chosen recipient. Provided he has the mobile telephone number he can choose the method of delivery as SMS or email. If the recipient has provisioned an email address in the database then messages prefixed with "*E#" will be converted to email with the prefix characters removed, and sent to the associated email address. If the address is not present, invalid, or otherwise unusable, then an error message may be returned by SMS to the sender, and the text message may be passed on as though the prefix had not originally been present. Messages arriving at the router 3 with no prefix are passed transparently to the service centre 4. Optionally direct delivery to the destination MSC may be attempted by the router 3, with the message only being passed to the Service Centre if this is unsuccessful.

In an alternative embodiment, messages may be sent to the destination telephone number in addition to being sent as email.

Provisioning of email addresses to the database 5 may be carried out in several ways. Preferably subscribers are only permitted to modify the email address associated with their own CLI. In a preferred embodiment, a text message formatted according to a predefined syntax may be sent to a predefined number e.g. a shortcode. This would cause the message to be terminated by the text message router 3 and the database 5 to be updated with the subscriber's CLI and the given email address. In an embodiment comprising more than one router, the database 5 may be shared between routers. In this case the database 5 may be connected indirectly to the routers, for example via a text Service Control Point (SCP.)

In another embodiment, database provisioning may be carried out via a web interface.

Alternative implementations of the invention may be used, such that specific tags entered by the user at a predefined place in the message body cause the text message router to implement other functions. Examples are —

• Tag "*L2#" could cause the router to substitute the CLI for the subscriber's Line 2 for the CLI of the text message, so that the originating number presented to the recipient corresponds to the sender's second line. This would be useful for subscribers with two lines on their mobile terminal, where handset functionality prevents SMS being sent with the line 2 number as CLI. • Tag "*French#" could cause the router to translate the remainder of the message into French and to transmit the result either back to the sender or to the addressed recipient.

• Tag "*VM#" could indicate to the router that the message is to converted to voice format, using a text to speech convertor, and delivered to a voice mail number associated with the recipient's telephone number. This could be useful for allowing SMS messages to be converted into a form suitable for delivery to non-SMS capable telephone numbers, e.g. fixed lines.

• Tag "*l#" could indicate to the text message router that the message is to be delivered to a predefined group of recipients, where the tag also identifies which group. The tag may be numeric or alphanumeric.

• Tag "*A#" could indicate to the text message router that the message is to be archived to an email address associated with the sender in addition to being delivered to the recipient.

• Tag "*F#" could indicate that the message is to be delivered directly to the screen of the recipient's terminal, sometimes known as "Flash" SMS. This functionality is now being exploited by SMS hosts but is not yet available for person-to-person messaging. The transport of this message type is standard, so the router can manipulate the attributes of the message to cause it to be so displayed.

• Tag "*123#" could indicate that pre-stored audio item no 123 (from a published catalogue or personal audio store) for example is to be substituted for the message and delivered by voice means. This could either be into a voice mailbox associated with the recipient's telephone number, or to a server capable of outdialling to the recipient for the purpose of delivering the message. • Tag "*ADR#" could indicate that the sender's address is to be substituted for the message body and sent to the destination number, optionally with the sender's CLI suppressed. It would also be possible to combine pre-stored content with variable content taken from the message body to make a composite message for delivery. The combination could be in the text domain, the voice audio domain or another medium.

• Tag "*TAG#" could indicate that a 'tagged' Voice or Video mail is to be created. For example the system connects to the sender and to a mail system and connects the calls together. It records a message from the sender and optionally tags the message with textual keywords from the original text message. This provides powerful labelling, management and searching functions to be performed on archived messages, especially if subsequently stored as email. Variations of this scheme are possible including but not limited to cases where the apparatus initiates a connection to the caller, or the caller initiates a connection to the apparatus, where the order of text message and connection are reversed, and where either the sender or the recipient or both can perform the tagging operation on a message.

The present invention may provide a means for the sender of a voice message, or other data item being created for storage, to specify one of more textual keywords that may be later used as identifiers or 'tags' for management and location of the item. In a voice mail system these identifiers may be stored in the file system along with traditional file details, or for example may be stored in a separate database, linked to the audio item by its unique filename. The identifiers are preferably entered as words in a text message. The text message may be indicated as a voice mail tagging message by a prefix such as *TAG#. If this message is sent to a recipient number, then the apparatus initiates a voice call between the originator and the recipient's voice mailbox so that a voice mail can be left, and electronically attaching the tag keywords to the created audio message.

It is also desirable for the recipient of a voice message to be able to add his own tagging identifiers to a message, rather than relying on the sender who might not supply suitable identifying tags, or any tag at all. During retrieval of voice mail, preferably using an interaction by DTMF, the listener may add one or more identifying tag keywords to a message, for example by using Predictive Text or another method of alpha entry. This information would then be associated with the message prior to any archiving or copying process.

Textual tagging of voice and other media is potentially very useful, as it can allow traditional sorting, searching and archiving techniques to be applied to media that are either not text-based or are intrinsically not easily searchable, such as audio. Voicemail messages that are archived with keyword tags would be much easier to manage and retrieve.

It would also be possible for the syntax to permit multiple text message tags in the same message to be recognised by the text message router, and for one or more of the indicated functions to be performed on the message.

As an alternative to using a text prefix or infix to indicate that the text message is to be translated and sent back to the originator, this could be default behaviour for messages sent to one's own number, providing a versatile, portable and available phrase book for a preset language. The language choice could be determined by text message or by other means.

The present invention is distinct from the previously-proposed systems, which make use of a specific text tag in the message body to modify a single characteristic associated with the transmitted message, that causes the network to send a delivery receipt back to the sender once the message is delivered. This functionality benefits only the sender, and does not modify the user experience of the recipient in any way. Indeed the recipient is unable to tell that the sender invoked the function. In contrast, embodiments of the present invention allow the sender to modify the user experience of the recipient in various ways, and offer the possibility of attractive new services.

A key attribute of embodiments of the invention is that the described services and other like functions can be invoked on behalf of the recipient without the sender having to know any special telephone numbers. Traditionally these types of services would be implemented by the sender dialling a specific different number for each feature and interacting with a service. In the present case, the message is always directed at a recipient's telephone number, which may be the sender's own number, and the specific modification required is specified by easily memorable text tags that are inserted in an intuitive way into the body of a text message.

In so far as the embodiment(s) of the invention described above may be implemented, at least in part, using software controlled processing apparatus, it will be appreciated that a computer program providing such software control and a storage medium by which such a computer program is stored are envisaged as aspects of the invention.

Claims

1. Telecommunications services apparatus for use with a telephone messaging system, the apparatus comprising: means for recognising a predefined arrangement of one or more predefined characters in one or more predefined positions in the body of a message being submitted to the telephone messaging system; and means responsive to recognition of the recognising means to select a function required by the sender of the message.

Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the required function is operable to tag a recorded message with one or more text identifiers extracted from a text message sent by the caller.

3. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the required function is operable to tag a recorded message with one or more text identifiers extracted from a text message sent by the recipient.

4. Apparatus according to claim 2 or claim 3, wherein the recorded message is a voice message.

5. Apparatus according to claim 2 or claim 3, wherein the recorded message is a video message.

Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the required function is operable to invoke a further communication initiated by the apparatus, the function utilising text communication and/or voice commumcation.

Apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the required function is operable to send the further communication back to the subscriber who sent the original message.

8. Apparatus according to claim 6 or claim 7, including language translation means operable to send in the further communication a language translation of at least part of the original message.

9. Apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the required function is operable to send the further communication to a subscriber according to addressing information provided in the original message.

10. Apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the required function is operable to send the further communication to an email address associated with the sender instead of or in addition to normal delivery of the message.

11. Apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the required function is operable to send, as the further communication, a voice call between the originator and a voice mailbox associated with addressing information provided in the original message.

12. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the recognising means comprises a text message router operable to determine whether the body of the received message includes one of a set of specific text tags in a predetermined position in the message.

13. Apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the text message router is operable to filter the received messages in accordance with source or destination addresses of the messages so that only a subset of messages are subject to recognition of the predefined arrangement of characters.

14. A telecommunications services method for use with a telephone messaging system, the method comprising: recognising a predefined arrangement of one or more predefined characters in one or more predefined positions in the body of a message being submitted to the telephone messaging system; and selecting, in response to recognition of the predefined arrangement, a function required by the sender of the message.

15. A method according to claim 14, wherein the required function is operable to tag a recorded message with one or more text identifiers extracted from a text message sent by the caller.

16. A method according to claim 14, wherein the required function is operable to tag a recorded message with one or more text identifiers extracted from a text message sent by the recipient.

17. A method according to claim 14 or claim 15, wherein the recorded message is a voice message.

18. A method according to claim 14 or claim 15, wherein the recorded message is a video message.

19. A method according to claim 14, wherein the required function is operable to invoke a further commumcation, the function utilising text communication and/or voice communication.

20. A method according to claim 19, wherein the required function is operable to send the further communication back to the subscriber who sent the original message.

21. A method according to claim 19 or claim 20, including sending in the further communication a language translation of at least part of the original message.

22. A method according to claim 19, wherein the required function is operable to send the further communication to a subscriber according to addressing information provided in the original message.

23. A method according to claim 19, wherein the required function is operable to send the further communication to an email address associated with the sender instead of or in addition to normal delivery of the message.

24. A method according to claim 19, wherein the required function is operable to send, as the further communication, a voice call between the originator and a voice mailbox associated with addressing information provided in the original message.

25. A method according to any one of claims 14 to 24, wherein a text message router determines whether the body of the received message includes one of a set of specific text tags in a predetermined position in the message.

26. A method accordmg to claim 25, wherein the text message router is operable to filter the received messages in accordance with source or destination addresses of the messages so that only a subset of messages are subject to recognition of the predefined arrangement of characters.

27. A computer program for implementing a method according to any one of claims 14 to 26.

28. A storage medium storing a computer program according to claim 27.