JP2823939B2 - Answering machine - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an answering machine, and more particularly to an answering machine.

(2) Conventional technology When a message is recorded during an answering machine in an answering machine, the answering machine calls the pager station to quickly inform the user of the message to the pager station. Is called, and the called user makes a call to the answering machine and listens to the remotely recorded operation to perform a so-called transfer operation.

The problem here is that when a call is made to the pager station, it may happen that the pager station is not connected due to a busy line or the like. As a method to solve this problem, mating partner and how to determine the polarity inversion of the L ₁ / L ₂ for confirmation in the case of response by a method for detecting the line busy tone as a confirmation method if the caller does not respond A response or non-response was determined, and an operation such as repeating retransmission until a response to the other party was confirmed was performed.

FIG. 6 is an example of a conventional circuit for detecting polarity reversal,
When the line is closed to the telephone lines L ₁ and L ₂ at the relay contact l, if L ₁ is + and L ₂ is-then [L ₁ (+) → relay contact l → photocoupler PC ₁ → resistance R ₁ → L ₂ (-)] current flows in the direction of the output I ₁ of Hotokappura PC ₁ is turned on, the output I ₂ of Hotokappura PC ₂ is turned off. Similarly L ₁ is -, I ₁ when L ₂ is + off, I ₂ is turned on, and detects the polarity inversion of the telephone line. In such a configuration,
A photocoupler for detection and a judgment circuit for judging the photocoupler are also required, resulting in a complicated circuit configuration and operation.

A method of detecting a busy tone (400 Hz) of a line and determining non-response of the other party is often used for an answering machine. This is because the answering machine has a busy tone determination circuit for determining the disconnection tone of the caller in the task recording operation at the time of automatic answering. The telephone line is often used as a 400 Hz signal, such as a dial tone, a busy tone, and a tone for prompting a remote control signal such as a pager station. Therefore, in this case, it is difficult to determine that the busy tone is generated when the other party does not respond. In the case of a pager station in particular, once you connect to the station due to traffic, then the station sends a voice guidance such as "I am calling you now. Please hang up and wait for the contact from the other party." The telephone line will be disconnected. At this time, since the busy tone is transmitted through the line, the answering machine detects the busy tone and retransmits the call.

(3) Objects and features of the present invention It is an object of the present invention to provide a telephone answering machine that can reliably perform a call during a transfer operation in the case of a response from the other party while distinguishing it from a non-response to the other party.

(4) Configuration and operation of the invention In order to achieve this object, an answering machine according to the present invention provides a line closing means for closing and opening a telephone line, and sends a telephone number registered in advance to the telephone line. Dialing means, timer means, and a signal from the telephone line are monitored to discriminate whether a single signal is an unmixed audio signal or a single signal frequency signal is mixed with an audio signal. Signal identification means, comprising a control means, during the transfer operation to close the telephone line by the line closing means, perform a dial operation by the dial means, hold the telephone line for a certain time by the tire means, The signal identifying means monitors the signal of the telephone line by the signal identifying means, and it is discriminated by the signal identifying means that the voice signal not mixed with the single frequency signal is inputted. Wherein opening the telephone line by circuit closing means is configured so as to stop subsequent recall operation if the.

A feature of the present invention resides in that a voice response circuit in an answering machine is used to detect voice when the other party responds, thereby determining that the other party responds.

 Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

First, the general configuration and operation of the answering machine according to the present invention will be described.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the device of the present invention, wherein 1 is a connection terminal of a telephone line, 2 is a diode bridge for polarity matching,
3 is a transistor for DC connection, 4 is a speech circuit, 5 is a receiver, 6 is a transmitter, 7 is a dial circuit, and 8 is a speech circuit 4.
And a power supply for the dial circuit 7, 9 is a keyboard, 10 is a keyboard interface (KB I / F), 11 is a hook switch, 12 is a DC cut capacitor, 13 is a rectifier diode bridge, 14 is a tone ringer circuit, and 15 is DC Transformer for separation, 16 is an incoming signal detection circuit, 17 is a recording / playback circuit (R / P circuit), 18 is a speaker amplifier (SP amplifier), 19
Is a speaker, 20 is a microphone, 21 is a cassette deck,
22 is a zero cross circuit, 23 is a remote control signal receiver (PBRE
C), 24 is a voice synthesizer for IC recording and playback, 25 is a D-RAM that stores the analysis results of 24, 26 is a fixed message IC, 27 is a liquid crystal display, 28 is an LED display, and 29 is a CPU In the control circuit, there are an S-RAM and a ROM as storage elements inside. 30
Is an input terminal of a power adapter of an external power supply, 31 is a power supply circuit for supplying power for operation of each circuit, 32 is a T relay for monitoring power supply, t is its contact, and 33 is a control circuit 29 when the power is turned on / off. This is a reset circuit that outputs a reset signal.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram for explaining the recording position search of the recording tape.

Next, the operation will be described. First, at the time of recording a response message, when the response message recording button of the keyboard 9 is pressed, the response message is taken into the control circuit 29 via the KB I / F 10. The control circuit 29 operates the voice synthesizer 24 and the D-RAM 25 to record a response message. The audio signal is input through the path of [microphone 20 → recording / reproducing circuit 17 → voice synthesizer 24], and the analyzed result is stored in the D-RAM 25.

When the IC recording is completed, the control circuit 29 dubs the recorded content of the response message to a tape. During this operation, when the control circuit 29 detects the end of recording, the control circuit
29 operates the voice synthesizer 24, the D-RAM 25, the recording / playback circuit 17, and the cassette deck 21 to perform cueing of the tape, and the D-RA
The audio data stored in the M25 is converted into an audio signal by the audio synthesizer 24, and is recorded on the tape in the cassette deck 21 via the recording / playback circuit 17. In this case, the storable time of the D-RAM 25 is 32 seconds, which is divided into two and assigned to two response messages, a response message and a response message. However, the maximum recordable time of each response message is 15 seconds at maximum. This is to take into account the positional deviation when performing a dubbing operation from the tape to the IC when the power is restored.

Here, in the method of locating the recording area of the response message, the tape position can be known from the tape start end of the cassette tape by the number of rotations of the take-up reel (or supply reel). For a specific example of the positioning operation, reference may be made, for example, to Japanese Patent Application No. 59-268659 "voice message telephone" submitted by the present applicant.

FIG. 2 is a detailed drawing of the positioning, wherein the dubbing area of the response message is arranged for a necessary time from the beginning of the tape. Here, there are two response messages and the recording time is 15 seconds each, so that the area is taken for 32 seconds including the positioning error. Control circuit 29
First, take out the beginning of the tape by rewinding. Next, silent recording is performed for 0.5 seconds, and the response message is dubbed. Since the recording time of the response message is 15 seconds, silent recording is performed for 0.5 seconds after the reproduction is completed. Similarly, the response message is recorded for 0.5 seconds before and after. The business message is provided after the response message recording area.

A general automatic answering operation of an answering machine will be described. The call signal from the central office is [Phone connection terminal 1 → capacitor 12
→ Diode bridge 13 → Tone ringer circuit 14], a ringtone output is obtained. This output is input to the incoming signal detection circuit 16 via the transformer 15. Where the voltage monitoring relay 32
Is operating during energization, and its contact t is connected to the incoming signal detection circuit 16 side. The incoming signal from the tone ringer circuit 14 is converted to a direct current here and output to the control circuit 29. Based on this signal, the control circuit 29 operates the transistor 3 for closing the DC when determining the incoming of the telephone line to form a DC loop for the telephone line. This is formed by [telephone line connection terminal 1 → diode bridge 2 → transistor 3 → communication circuit 4].

The control circuit 29 includes a voice synthesizer 24, a D-RAM 25, and a recording / reproducing circuit 17.
To send the response message stored in the D-RAM to the telephone line. This is done by converting the audio data in the D-RAM 25 into an audio signal by the audio synthesizer 24,
17 → dial circuit 7 → call circuit 4 → transistor 3 → diode bridge 2 → telephone line connection terminal 1].

The message from the telephone line is routed through the telephone line connection terminal 1 → diode bridge 2 → transistor 3 → recording / reproducing circuit 17 → cassette deck 21.
It is recorded on the recording tape in 21. The message recording for the next incoming call is recorded after the previous message recording.

 The present invention will be described in detail based on the above description.

FIG. 3 shows an embodiment of the present invention, wherein 1 is a connection terminal (L ₁ / L ₂ ) of a telephone line, 3 is a line control circuit for closing and opening the line, 7 is a dial circuit, and 4 is a dial circuit. Talking circuit, 5 is a receiver, 6 is a transmitter, 17 is a recording / reproducing circuit, 21a is a recording / reproducing circuit such as a tape recorder, 22 is a zero cross which outputs an output every time an input signal passes a predetermined level. A circuit 29 is a CPU that obtains the output from the zero-cross circuit 22, determines the cycle thereof, discriminates the type of signal, and controls the overall operation of the answering machine according to the type of signal. , Release, dial control, recording and playback, etc.

First, a specific operation of signal discrimination performed by the zero cross circuit 22 and the CPU 29 will be described. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of the operation of the zero-cross circuit, where (a) and (b) show the input,
(A) 'and (b)' show the outputs of (a) and (b), respectively.

If the threshold point of the zero cross is OV, for example,
If the signal exceeds OV, the circuit will output.

If the signal input at this time is a busy tone, the signal frequency is 400 Hz and the cycle is 60 IPM (inter / min). Therefore, the output is 1.25 msec ON and 1.25 msec as shown in (a) '.
This pulse turns OFF, and this signal block turns ON every 500 msec.
/ OFF.

When the signal input is voice, the signal waveform has no regularity as shown in FIG. Therefore, the output is also a random pulse as shown in FIG.

CPU 29 measures the period of this output, and the signal of 400 Hz is 0.5
If it is turned on / off every second, it is determined that the sound is busy, and if there is an irregular signal for a certain period, it is determined that the voice signal is not mixed with the busy sound. The reason why the signal is monitored for a certain period of time is to prevent the signal from being determined as an audio signal due to, for example, line noise.

The general zero-crossing circuit 22 can determine the presence or absence of voice and the busy tone, and is used to determine whether or not there is a message recording of an answering machine.

Having described that the presence / absence of audio can be determined by the zero cross circuit 22 and the CPU 29, the operation according to the present invention will be described next. Generally, an answering machine is provided with a function of calling a pager (transfer function) to promptly notify the owner of the message when the message is recorded. The owner called with a pager calls the answering machine and listens to the message using the remote control.
Since a series of these operations is not directly related to the present invention, the description is omitted.

This will be described below with reference to the flowchart of FIG. In order for the answering machine to perform the transfer, first, the CPU 29 operates the line control circuit 3 to close the line (S1). Next, CPU29
Operates the dial circuit 7 to dial the telephone number of the transfer destination registered in advance (S2). The data such as the telephone number of the transfer destination is written in the memory in the CPU 29, and the dial circuit 7 sends a dial signal to the telephone line according to the value. The CPU 29 enters a timer monitoring state upon completion of dialing of the dial circuit 7 (S3), and a zero-cross circuit to which a line signal is inputted through a route of [telephone line 1 → diode bridge 2 → line control circuit 3 → recording / reproducing circuit 17]. Monitor 22 outputs.

Here, if there is a response from the other party and the voice signal from the line can be determined, it is determined that there is a response from the other party (S4, S5, S6), and the transfer is not recalled (S11, S12, S13). If the other party is busy, the signal from the line during the timer monitoring time is a ringing tone or busy tone, so it is not determined that there is voice (S4), it is determined that the other party is busy (S7), and the CPU 29 The control circuit 3 is restored (S8), the line is released (S11), and the transfer operation is repeated again (S12, S1, S2, S3).

The CPU 29 can determine that the other party is absent (S4, S7, S9) when the other party is not responding (when only the ring tone is heard during timer monitoring) (S10). In this case, whether to call again or not can be used depending on the usage status of the device.

(5) Effects of the Invention As described above, the present invention has an advantage that the retransmission of a transfer can be easily and reliably determined by using a voice determination circuit in an answering machine.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the general structure of an answering machine to which the present invention is applied, FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram for explaining a recording position locating of a recording tape using the present invention, and FIG. 3 is an answering machine according to the present invention. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the device, FIG. 4 is a time chart for explaining the operation of the zero-cross circuit,
FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the present invention, and FIG. 6 is an example diagram of a counterpart response judging circuit according to a conventional method. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Connection terminal of telephone line, 2 ... Diode bridge, 3 ... Transistor for direct current connection, 4 ... Speech circuit, 5 ... Handset, 6 ... Speaker, 7 ... Dial circuit, 8 ... Power supply, 9 ... Keyboard, 10 ... Keyboard interface, 11 ... Hook switch, 12 ... Capacitor, 13 ... Diode bridge, 14 ... Tone ringer circuit, 15 ... Transformer, 16 ... Incoming signal detection circuit , 17
…… Recording / playback circuit, 18 …… Speaker amplifier, 19 …… Speaker, 20 …… Microphone, 21 …… Cassette deck, 22
…… Zero cross circuit, 23 …… Receiver, 24 …… Speech synthesizer, 25 …… D-RAM, 26 …… Fixed message IC, 27 ……
Liquid crystal display, 28 …… LED display, 29 …… Control circuit, 30…
... Input terminal of external power supply, 31 ... Power supply circuit, 32 ... T relay for power supply monitoring, 33 ... Reset circuit.

Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Takeo Oba 1-7-141 Kugayama, Suginami-ku, Tokyo Inside Iwasaki Tsushinki Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Mamoru Shinohara 1-1-6 Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (72) Inventor Masaki Nito 1-6-1 Uchisaiwai-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (56) References JP-A-57-34595 (JP, A) JP-A-61-147639 ( JP, A) JP-A-2-126758 (JP, A) JP-A-2-184163 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) H03H 17/00-17/08 H04M 1/26-1/57 H04M 1/64-1/65 H04M 3/42

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A line closing means for closing and opening a telephone line, a dialing means for sending a telephone number registered in advance to the telephone line, a timer means, and a unit for monitoring a signal from the telephone line. A signal discriminating means for discriminating whether the one frequency signal is an unmixed audio signal or a mixed signal obtained by mixing an audio signal with the single frequency signal, and a control means; Closing the telephone line with the connection means, performing a dial operation with the dial means, holding the telephone line for a fixed time with the timer means, monitoring the signal of the telephone line with the signal identification means for the fixed time, If it is discriminated by the signal identification means that the audio signal in which the single frequency signal is not mixed is opened by the line closing means, the telephone line is opened, Telephone answering apparatus characterized by being configured to stop the re-transmission operation.