Voice message delivery system and method
View Patent ↗A hosted system receives a request for the delivery of a voice message from a collective such as a school district. The hosted system determines whether the message should be sent over a telephone line at the hosted system or the school district. Instructions are sent to a delivery mechanism at the determined location indicating how to prepare the message and the number to be called. In one embodiment, the instructions are in XML script form to reduce the bandwidth required. Having the hosted system determine the allocation of messages allows for both the efficient use and lower calling cost of any available capacity on telephone lines at a school district or other collective organization, as well as the larger capacity access to telephone lines of a hosted service for quick delivery of numerous or urgent messages.
1. A method for calling a telephone number to deliver a voice message on behalf of one of a plurality of requestors organized into groups, each group having a group delivery mechanism with the ability to make telephone calls and play voice messages, comprising:
receiving at a central system a request from a requestor to deliver a voice message to a designated telephone number, the central system having a central delivery mechanism with the ability to make telephone calls and play voice messages;
determining whether the message should be delivered by the central delivery mechanism or by the group delivery mechanism of the group to which the requestor belongs;
transmitting instructions to the central delivery mechanism if it is determined that the message should be delivered by the central delivery mechanism, or to the group delivery mechanism if it is determined that the message should be delivered by the group delivery mechanism, the instructions indicating the voice message to be delivered and the telephone number to which it is to be delivered; and
calling the designated telephone number from the delivery mechanism that receives the instructions and playing the indicated voice message if the call is answered.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving a request further comprises receiving a text version of the voice message, and further comprising synthesizing the text version into the voice message.
3. The method of claim 2 wherein receiving a request further comprises receiving a request to personalize the voice message for a particular recipient.
4. The method of claim 3 wherein receiving a text version of the indicated voice message further comprises receiving a request that one portion of the voice message be a uniform portion and another portion of the voice message be personalized to a particular recipient, and synthesizing the text version further comprises synthesizing a standard portion of the voice message and a personalized portion of the voice message.
5. The method of claim 4 further comprising storing the uniform portion of the voice message and the personalized portion of the voice message in a memory at the central system.
6. The method of claim 5 wherein transmitting instructions further comprises transmitting the instructions in XML format.
7. The method of claim 6 wherein the instructions comprise pointers to the locations in the central system memory of the uniform portion of the voice message and the text necessary to retrieve or render the personalized portion of the voice message.
8. The method of claim 7 further comprising downloading the portions of the message to the delivery mechanism from the locations in the central system memory indicated by the pointers.
9. The method of claim 8 further comprising storing the downloaded portions of the message in a memory local to the delivery mechanism.
10. The method of claim 1 wherein the groups are school districts, and the requesters are schools and the school districts to which the schools belong.
11. The method of claim 1 wherein determining whether to initiate a call to the designated telephone number from the central delivery mechanism or the group delivery mechanism further comprises determining if the group delivery mechanism is available to send the message.
12. The method of claim 1 wherein determining whether to initiate a call to the designated telephone number from the central delivery mechanism or the group delivery mechanism further comprises determining if the message is urgent.
13. A hosted system for delivering a voice message on behalf of one of a plurality of requestors organized into groups, each group having the ability to make telephone calls and play voice messages, comprising:
a central delivery deli very mechanism having the ability to execute instructions to make a telephone call and play a voice message; and
a processor configured to:
receive from a requestor a request to deliver a voice message to a designated telephone number;
create instructions indicating the voice message to be delivered and the telephone number to be called;
determine whether the message should be delivered by the central delivery mechanism or by the group to which the requestor belongs; and
transmit the instructions to the central delivery mechanism if it is determined that the message should be delivered by the central delivery mechanism, and to the group if is determined that the message should be delivered by the group.
14. The hosted system of claim 13 , further comprising:
a text to speech module for creating an audio file containing speech from text contained in the request; and
a memory for storing the audio file.
15. The hosted system of claim 13 , wherein the processor is further configured to create the instructions as an XML script.
16. The hosted system of claim 13 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
receive a signal from the group indicating that the group is able to deliver a message; and
determine whether to send the instructions to the central delivery mechanism or to the group to which the requester belongs based in part upon the signal.
17. A system for delivering voice messages on behalf of a plurality of requestors organized into groups, comprising:
a server containing:
a central delivery mechanism including:
a telephone module for making telephone calls; and
a voice rendering module for executing instructions to prepare a voice message and for playing the voice message; and
a processor configured to:
receive from a requestor a request to deliver a voice message to a designated telephone number;
create instructions indicating the voice message to be delivered and the telephone number to be called;
determine whether the message should be delivered by the central delivery mechanism or by the group to which the requestor belongs; and
transmit the instructions to the central delivery mechanism if it is determined that the message should be delivered, by the central delivery mechanism, and to the group if it is determined that the message should be delivered by the group to which the sender belongs; and
a group delivery mechanism at the group including:
a telephone module for making telephone calls; and
a voice rendering module for executing the instructions, preparing a voice message and playing the voice message.
18. A method for calling telephone numbers to deliver voice messages on behalf of a plurality of requestors organized into groups, each group having a group delivery mechanism with the ability to make telephone calls and play voice messages, comprising:
receiving at a central system a plurality of requests from senders to deliver indicated voice messages to designated telephone numbers, the central system having a central delivery mechanism with the ability to make telephone calls;
selecting a first plurality of messages to be delivered by the central delivery mechanism and a second plurality of messages to be delivered by the group delivery mechanism of a group for requestors within that group;
transmitting a first plurality of instructions to the central delivery mechanism to deliver the first plurality of calls, and a second plurality of instructions to the group delivery mechanism to deliver the second plurality of calls, each instruction indicating a voice message to be delivered and the telephone number to which it is to be delivered;
calling each number in the first plurality of instructions from the central delivery mechanism and playing the message indicated for that number if the call is answered; and
calling each number in the second plurality of instructions from the group delivery mechanism and playing the message indicated for that number if the call is answered.