JPH0683309B2 - Answering machine - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an answering machine having a function of remotely recording a response message.

(Prior Art and Problems Thereof) In this type of conventional device, a silent portion has a predetermined time (for example, 3 seconds) to detect the end of the response message.
In the case where it continues, it is judged that the response message has ended, and a beep sound, which is a signal for moving to the message recording, is sent to record the message (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 53-96708).

Further, when the response message is dubbed by remote control to change the recording content, an end signal is recorded after the response message, and then control is performed to record silence for, for example, 10 seconds to detect silence.

In the case of such control, if the MF signal (multi-frequency signal) that is the push button dial signal is used to end the recording, the MF signal sound is recorded after the response message, which is the start sound of the message recording. It is easy to be confused with, so the person who called the phone mistakenly called the MF signal sound as the start sound and started talking about the message before the device was ready to record, and the beginning part of the message was There was a problem that it was not recorded.

In order to solve this, a control method is also provided in which, when a recording end signal is detected, the recording part of the MF signal is erased, but when using a recording tape, for example, that part is deleted. It becomes a complicated operation of rewinding and then erasing, and it is extremely difficult to erase it later on a deck that cannot instantly rewind.

(Object of the invention) In order to solve these drawbacks, the present invention has a function of remotely recording a response message, and a remote control used for ending recording during playback of a response message recorded by remote operation. (EN) Provided is an answering machine which monitors a signal and, when the remote control signal is detected, shifts to recording a message for a message and eliminates the ambiguity at the time of switching.

(Structure and Action of the Invention) The present invention will be described in detail below.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention, in which 1 is a telephone line terminal, 2 is a hook switch, 4 is a telephone network, 5 is a transmitter, 6 is a receiver, 7 is a signal transformer, and 8 is recording. Amplifier, 9 is regenerative amplifier, 10 is microphone, 11 is speaker, 12 is voice detection circuit, 13 is remote control signal receiving circuit, 1
4,15,16,17 are analog gates, 18 and 19 are relays, 3 is the contact l of the relay 18, 31 is the contact a of the relay 19, and 20 is a chip
Control circuit such as CUP, 21,22 head, 23,24 tape, 25,
26 is a motor, 27 and 28 are rotation detection circuits for detecting the number of windings of the cassette tapes 23 and 24, 29 is an operation switch,
Reference numeral 30 is an incoming call detection circuit, 32 is a guidance sound circuit, and 33 is a silence detection circuit.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. First of all, when recording the response message, when the control circuit 20 operates the motor 25 to start the recording operation of the response message by operating the operation switch 29, and when the rotation detection circuit 27 completes the cueing of the response message. Start recording audio signals from. The audio signal is [microphone 10 → analog gate 15
→ Recording amplifier 8 → Relay contact a31 → Head 21] is recorded on the tape 23. The response message is cued by the rotation detection circuit 27 and the control circuit 20 corresponding to the take-up reel of the tape 23. First, the control circuit 20 rotates the motor 25 in the rewinding direction to find the beginning of the tape before recording. The tape start end is judged when the reel stops rotating and the output of the rotation detection circuit 27 stops. Next, the control circuit 20 sends the tape 23 for a certain period of time while running at a constant speed, sets it as the beginning (starting end) of the response message, and records the message after that. This behavior is
The same is done when responding to an automatic incoming call and when waiting at the beginning of the response message.

Next, the operation of recording a message upon receiving an incoming call will be described. An incoming signal detection circuit for incoming signals from the central office line via the telephone line terminal 1.
When the control circuit 20 determines that there is an incoming call, the relay 18
To operate. As a result, the relay contact 13 is turned on and a straight line loop is formed for the line via the communication network 4. When the line is closed, the control circuit 20 activates the motor 25 and sends the response message recorded as described above from the position in which the motor 25 was made to stand by in advance. For the response message, the signal of the tape 23 is picked up by the head 21, and the line terminal 1 is passed through the route of [relay contact a31 → regenerative amplifier 9 → analog gate 16 → signal transformer 7 → relay contact l3].
Sent to. The end of the reproduction signal of the response message is detected by the silence detection circuit 33, and accordingly, the control circuit 20 operates the relay A19 and the motor 26 to start the message recording.

Here, the end of the response message is realized by recording a silence for 10 seconds in advance when recording the response message, and deciding that the response message has ended when the silence continues for 3 seconds during playback. it can. This will be described later. The message from the other party input to the telephone line terminal 1 is the voice signal from the telephone line terminal 1 [relay contact l3 → signal transformer 7 → analog gate 14 → recording amplifier 8 → relay contact a31 → head It is recorded by being supplied to the tape 24 via the route [22]. When the caller finishes recording the message and goes on-hook,
An end signal (busy tone) is transmitted to the office line. When this signal is detected by the voice detection circuit 12, the control circuit 20 ends the message recording operation, restores the relay L18 and the relay A19, cues the response message, and prepares for the next incoming call.

Next, the operation of remote control will be described. At the time of answering the above-mentioned automatic incoming call, the remote control signal receiving circuit 13 monitors the remote control signal from the line. As a remote control signal, for example, MF of a telephone
When a signal is used, 13 becomes an MF signal receiving circuit. When the remote control signal is received, for example, when the signal is a remote control signal for reproducing a message from which a message from a third party is recorded, the control circuit 20 activates the motor 26, The beginning end of the tape 24 is taken out, and after the beginning end comes out, the tape 24 is put into a reproduction state, and the message message recorded on the tape 24 is sent to the line side. Here, the start detection of the message tape 24 is performed by the rotation detection circuit 28 in the same manner as the start detection of the tape 23 of the response message described above. Also, the final position of the message tape 24 can be determined when the number of revolutions at the time of starting end alignment coincides with the number of revolutions during the reproducing operation, and the reproducing operation is terminated at this position and the next control signal is output. To wait.

Here, the recording operation of the response message in the present invention will be described. First, in the description of the remote operation, it is assumed that the remote control signal is defined as follows.

However, Is a two-digit number that can be arbitrarily set by the owner of the device, and here it is assumed that it is set to "12" as an example.

Only the owner first knows the operations such as recording and playback of listening to the message recorded by remote control and dubbing the response message. Enter. When the device detects the personal identification number, it enters the remote control state and waits for the next operation signal.

Next, when a control signal such as (ii) to (iv) is input, the device operates according to each signal. For example, (v
i) When you input, the response message is cued and the response message is recorded by the owner's voice input signal from the line side. This operation is similar to the recording operation of the response message from the microphone described above, and the signal input is not the microphone 10 but “line terminal 1 → relay contact l3 → signal transformer 7
→ It will be routed through the analog gate 14 ”and the recording amplifier 8 and below are the same. The recording of the message of (v) is necessary, for example, when the message from the customer is heard remotely from the destination and the content of the instruction to the third party is recorded. In this case, the message already recorded is recorded. It is continuously recorded from the last position of the message.

Since the device operates the remote control signal receiving circuit 13 after the automatic incoming call response and monitors the remote control signal from the line, the remote control signal can be identified by the MF signal described above.
Therefore, when a personal identification number such as (i) is received for the first time, it becomes a normal remote operation state in which recording and playback operations are performed.
Only when the recording signal of the message of the type (v) is directly received without the signal of (i), the transmission is stopped without detecting the end of the response message, and the message recording state is immediately set. It is possible to move on to recording the message. This operation is the same as the message recording operation from the line described above.

PIN code For example, if you can directly enter the message recording state without inputting Control circuit 20 You can move to message recording when you confirm.

FIG. 2 shows the above operation.

At the end of the response message, which is the premise of the present invention, Enter. As a result, the control circuit 20 becomes an analog gate.
14 is closed, and a silent section is recorded on the tape 23 for 10 seconds (first
Time) to create. Response tape 23 has a response message recorded from the tape waiting point Is recorded, and then silence is recorded for 10 seconds.

FIG. 3 shows an example of a response message, (a) shows a case of recording with a microphone built in the unit, and (b) shows an example of dubbing the response message by remote control.

The operation of detecting the end of the response message according to the present invention will be described. During reproduction of the response message, the signal on the tape 23 is applied to the silence detecting circuit 33 through the head 21, the relay contact a31 and the reproduction amplifier 9 and to the remote control signal receiving circuit 13 through the analog gate 16.

So during playback When the remote control signal receiving circuit 13 detects, or when the silence detecting circuit 33 detects silence (for example, when there is no sound output for 3 seconds (second time) continuously, it is determined to be silent),
Judge that the response message has ended. The device is When is detected, the process directly shifts to the message recording operation, and when no sound is detected, the message recording switching sound is transmitted and then the message recording operation is started.

The answering message of the answering machine is normally "○○, but I am out of office until now XX hours.
Please record your name, message and phone number after a beep. Message such as ".

When you try to change the XX time to the Δ △ on the go, the reply message is replaced, but in this case it is done remotely, so there is no problem in starting the recording, but at the end, the end Is recorded. The end signal for remote control is the MF signal In this case, a beeping sound is heard, so that it can be determined that the response has ended, and at the same time, it can be used as a substitute sound for switching to message recording.

If the above Even if it is not detected, silence can be detected in the silent portion that follows, so the end of the response message will not be overlooked.

As a recording end signal This is because (high group 1336Hz, low group 941Hz) is a signal component with few malfunctions with respect to voice.

Is the same. Report on Practical application of RIKEN
17, No. 11, P. 2681, 1968) has detailed data.

Since the device operates the remote control signal receiving circuit 13 after the automatic incoming call response and monitors the remote control signal from the line, the remote control signal can be identified by the MF signal described above.
Therefore, when a personal identification number such as (i) is received for the first time, it becomes a normal remote operation state in which recording and playback operations are performed.
Only when receiving a message message recording signal such as (v), stop sending without reply message end detection, immediately shift to message recording state, and move to message recording Is possible. This operation is the same as the message recording operation from the line described above.

The above operation example is shown in FIG. 4 (a) (b) (c).
Is.

(A) shows a case of recording a response message using a microphone, (b) shows a case of recording a response message by remote operation, and (c) shows a case of reproducing a response message at the time of automatic response.

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, according to the present invention, when a response message is recorded by remote control, the end of the response message is detected without using another signal for control and performing a special operation. In addition to being easy to do, there is an advantage that the end of the response message is not missed and the start sound of the message recording can be substituted.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a connection diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a time chart for explaining an operation example of the device of the present invention, and FIG.
FIGS. 4A and 4B are time charts for explaining the operation of the present invention, and FIGS. 4A, 4B and 4C are flowcharts showing the operation example of the present invention. 1 ... telephone line terminal, 2 ... hook switch, 3 ... relay 18 contact l, 4 ... communication line network, 5 ... speaker, 6
...... Handset, 7 ... Signal transformer, 8 ... Recording amplifier, 9 ... Playback amplifier, 10 ... Microphone, 11 ... Speaker, 12 ... Voice detection circuit, 13 ... Remote control signal receiving circuit, 14 , 15,16,17 …… Analog gate, 18,19 …… Relay, 20 …… Control circuit, 21,22 …… Head, 23,24 …… Tape, 25,26 …… Motor, 27,28 …… Rotation detection circuit, 29 ……
Operation switch, 30 ... Incoming call detection circuit, 31 ... Contact 19 of relay 19, 32 ... Guidance sound circuit, 33 ... Silent detection circuit.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Hisataka Fujita 1-1-6 Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Nihon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (72) Makoto Shimizu 1-16-6 Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo (56) Reference JP 62-31241 (JP, A) JP 53-96708 (JP, A) JP 59-100658 (JP, A) JP 61- 214854 (JP, A)

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An answering machine having a function of remotely recording a response message and a function of recording a message, wherein a remote control is performed to start recording when the response message is recorded. During the recording of the response message from the line by the signal, when the second signal for remotely controlling the end of the recording is detected, the response message from the line is cut off, and no sound is output for a predetermined first time. When recording and playing the response message in response to an incoming call, when the second signal is detected or the silent state continues for a predetermined second time shorter than the first time. When it is detected that the response message has ended, the response message is judged to have ended and the operation for reproducing the response message is shifted to the operation for recording the message. Telephone answering devices. 2. A PB in a telephone line as the second signal
The answering machine according to claim 1, characterized in that a signal "0", "3" or "b" is used.