Granted Patent B2

US 7,995,716 · App. 11/522,044 · Granted Aug 9, 2011

Abstract

Claims (60)

1. A method, comprising:

receiving a call from a calling party to a called party;

acquiring a voice message from the calling party to the called party;

selectively retrieving a plurality of stored email messages sent to said called party; and

in response to the retrieving of the stored email messages:

receiving from the calling party a selection of an email message from said retrieved stored email messages; and

associating the voice message with the selected email message.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the retrieved stored email messages are email messages that were previously sent to the called party, the method further comprising:

presenting to the calling party the retrieved said stored email messages previously sent to the called party.

3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein at least one of the plurality of retrieved stored email messages was sent to the called party from a third party.

4. The method according to claim 2 , further comprising:

determining an identity of the calling party; and

retrieving the plurality of stored email messages based on the determined identity.

5. The method according to claim 2 , wherein presenting the plurality of retrieved email messages comprises:

converting text associated with each of the plurality of retrieved email messages to speech signals; and

transmitting the speech signals to the calling party.

6. The method according to claim 2 , further comprising:

receiving search criteria from the calling party; and

wherein the retrieving of the plurality of stored email messages is based on the search criteria.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein associating the voice message with the email message comprises:

creating a new email message to the called party; and

attaching the voice message and the selected email message to the new email message.

8. The method according to claim 7 , further comprising:

transmitting the new email message to the called party.

9. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

presenting the voice message to the called party;

converting text associated with the selected email message to speech signals; and

transmitting the speech signals to the called party.

10. A The method according to claim 1 , wherein if the calling party selects not to retrieve stored email messages the method comprises:

creating a new email message to the called party; and

attaching the voice message to the new email message.

11. The method according to claim 10 , further comprising:

sending the new email message to the called party.

12. A communications system comprising an apparatus having a non-transitory medium storing program code, the program code comprising:

code to receive a call from a calling party to a called party;

code to acquire a voice message from the calling party to the called party;

code to selectively retrieve stored email messages sent to said called party;

code to receive from the calling party a selection of an email message from said retrieved stored email messages; and

code to associate the voice message with the selected email message.

13. The communications system according to claim 12 wherein the program code further comprising:

code to present to the calling party a plurality of retrieved said email messages sent to the called party.

14. The communications system according to claim 13 , wherein at least one of the plurality of retrieved email messages was sent to the called party from a third party.

15. The communications system according to claim 13 , wherein the program code further comprising:

code to determine an identity of the calling party; and

code to retrieve the plurality of email messages based on the determined identity.

16. The communications system according to claim 13 , wherein the program code to present the plurality of retrieved email messages comprises:

code to convert text associated with each of the plurality of retrieved email messages to speech signals; and

code to transmit the speech signals to the calling party.

17. The communications system according to claim 13 , wherein the program code further comprising:

code to receive search criteria from the calling party; and

code to retrieve the plurality of email messages based on the search criteria.

18. The communications system according to claim 12 , wherein the program code to associate the voice message with the email message comprises:

code to create a new email message to the called party; and

code to attach the voice message and the selected email message to the new email message.

19. The communications system according to claim 18 , wherein the program code further comprising:

code to transmit the new email message to the called party.

20. The communications system according to claim 12 , wherein the program code further comprising:

code to present the voice message to the called party;

code to convert text associated with the selected email message to speech signals; and

code to transmit the speech signals to the called party.

Assignments (13)