Kirusa, a mobile services provider based in New Jersey, USA, announced that it has been granted a patent for its Voice SMS technology by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The patent, filed in 2003, covers several aspects of the Voice SMS technology invented by Kirusa that form the foundation of its Voice SMS product offerings.

"We believe this is the first patent on Voice SMS issued in the United States, and is a significant milestone for Kirusa. The invention of Voice SMS involved brainstorming by some of Kirusa's best technical minds. These inventors had a prime objective of making the basic Voice SMS concept practical and easy to use for mobile subscribers," said Dr. David Berkley, Chief Scientist of Kirusa.

The patent provides the basis for Kirusa's Voice SMS solution, a service that enables users to send short voice messages by speaking, in a similar way to how they send text messages by typing. Kirusa demonstrates the usefulness of their solution with a possible user scenario: "Imagine you are driving your car or rushing down the street to an appointment, and you receive a text message that requires an urgent response. Imagine trying to type a response while holding onto the wheel of the car or trying to navigate people traffic on the street." Voice SMS provides the answer to this real life situation, by allowing users to send audio SMS messages, or respond to text and voice SMS with verbal response.

The patent granted to Kirusa covers several important capabilities of Voice SMS, including Direct Listen technology that allows users to directly access and reply to a voice message, without any login required. Other important claims cover convergence with MMS, and the sending of pre-recorded messages, such as standard birthday greetings. Kirusa's Voice SMS also features Speed Codes for quickly sending messages using codes, group messaging, voice information services, and international Voice SMS. Kirusa has also disclosed the use of Voice SMS for other purposes such as Voicemail notification and video messaging in this patent.

Speaking about the new patent, Dr. Inderpal Singh Mumick, Founder and CEO of Kirusa, said: "Our vision for Kirusa can be summed up in one word - 'Innovation'. Kirusa is innovating technologies that make a difference to the lives of people, in the way they communicate, and in the way they interact with each other."