JP3276670B2 - Voice mail system - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a voice mail system and, more particularly, to a voice mail system which accesses a host computer through a telephone line and converts desired mail into a voice by a voice synthesizer and reads it out.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art At present, a voice mail reading service is realized by a commercial network such as NIFTY Server, and a mail addressed to the user can be heard in a synthesized voice by a push telephone. This system makes it possible to listen to voice mail even in places where there is no personal computer terminal, such as a business trip destination, and the convenience of the electronic mail system has been improved.

[0003]

However, in the conventional voice mail system, a mail addressed to the user can be read aloud. I couldn't reply. Further, in the conventional voice mail system, since the reading speed of the mail is constant, it is difficult to hear the mail while being unfamiliar, and it feels slow when used, and the usability is poor.

Some e-mails have important contents and some require urgent response.
These need to be confirmed before the general email,
On the system, I could only listen in the order in which they were received. Furthermore, there is a risk that important matters cannot be understood only by reading out the mail once, and important matters (for example, contact information) may not be heard. In order to confirm again, it is necessary to listen again from the beginning. Was very inconvenient.

[0005] It is, therefore, a primary object of the present invention to provide a replyable voice mail system. Another object of the present invention is to provide a voice mail system capable of reading out mail at a desired speed. Still another object of the present invention is to provide a voice mail system capable of reading out mails in order of importance.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a voice mail system capable of accurately confirming important matters.

[0007]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a voice mail system in which a host computer is accessed through a telephone line and a desired mail stored in a memory is converted into voice by a voice synthesizing means and read out. The voice mail system is provided with a repetitive reading means for reading a certain designated portion repeatedly.

A second invention is a voice mail system in which a host computer is accessed through a telephone line and a desired mail stored in a memory is converted into voice by voice synthesis means and read out, and a specific word is registered in the host computer in advance. In addition, the voice mail system includes a repetitive reading means for reading a specified number of characters from a specific word in the mail repeatedly.

[0009]

[0010]

In the first invention, for example, the start position, the end position, or the start and end positions of the designated portion of the mail are designated by push buttons, and the designated portion is separately stored in any of the storage means. It is read aloud at any time as needed.

In the second invention, a specific word is registered in advance, and when a specific word is detected in the e-mail to be read, it is regarded that important items are described after the specific word, and the specific word is repeatedly read out by the reading means. Speak out the specified number of characters slowly and repeatedly.

[0012]

[0013]

According to the present invention, important items in a specified portion or a specific phrase of a mail are read out slowly and repeatedly, so that these important items can be confirmed more accurately.
Also, since it is not necessary to re-listen to the e-mail for reconfirmation, the call time can be reduced.

[0014] According to the third aspect, since the user can preferentially listen to important mail having a high priority, the efficiency of information transmission is improved. In addition, since it is not necessary to listen to unnecessary e-mails, call time can be reduced. According to the fourth aspect, the specified portion of the mail can be copied to another file and can be checked at any time, so that information transmission is ensured.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, important items are read out slowly and repeatedly, so that the important items can be confirmed more accurately. Further, since it is not necessary to listen to the mail again from the beginning for reconfirmation, the call time can be reduced. . The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of embodiments with reference to the drawings.

[0016]

Referring to FIG. 1, a voice mail system 10 of this embodiment includes a host computer 12 such as "VAX". The host computer 12 has a memory 1 such as a hard disk in which mail is stored.
4 are connected. In addition, the host computer 12
A hernet (Ethernet) 16 is connected to a personal computer 18 which also serves as an interface. The personal computer 18 includes a telephone multifunctional board 20 and is connected to a telephone line 22 via the telephone multifunctional board 20. The telephone multifunction board 20 is an LSI having a function of compressing a pre-registered fixed phrase or voice into a pattern (ADPCM).
And performs processing such as recognition of a push button of a telephone and on-hook / off-hook of a telephone. Examples of the telephone multifunctional board 20 include “Denki Board” (Japan
Business System). The “Denki board” converts (decodes) a dual tone signal into a number or symbol and inputs it to the host computer 12, and also converts voice synthesized by a voice synthesizer 26 (described later) into a telephone line 22.
Plays a role. The application program of the personal computer 18 includes a program for operating the telephone multifunctional board 20.

Further, one end of a voice synthesizer 26 is connected to the personal computer 18 via a transmission line (for example, RS232C) 24, and the other end of the voice synthesizer 26 is connected to the personal computer 18 via an audio line 28. When a character code string is input to the voice synthesizer 26, a voice corresponding to the character code string is output. As the voice synthesizer 26, for example, "A
I-Talk2 "(manufactured by Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.) is used. The telephone line 22 is connected to the outside line 3 via the exchange 30.
Connected to 2.

The operation of the voice mail system 10 of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. First, in step S1, the personal computer 18 outputs a character code string to the voice synthesizer 26, and the voice synthesized by the voice synthesizer 26 is output as a voice signal to the telephone line 22 via the telephone multifunction board 20. . That is, as an initial message response, for example, "Yes, Sanyo."
Message is output. Then, step S
In step 3, the user who made the call in the same manner as in step S1 is requested to input a name code and a password.
For example, a request such as "enter name code" or "enter password" is made. On the other hand, the user inputs data with a push button (not shown). Then, in step S5, the host computer 12 determines whether or not the data is correct. If the data is incorrect, the process returns to step S3, and if correct, the process proceeds to step S7. In step S7, the host computer 12 logs in to the user who made the call.

Then, in step S9, a menu such as "1. mail readout, 2. schedule readout, 3. end" is read out and transmitted to the user. In step S11, the user selects “*” from among the push buttons.
It is determined whether or not the button has been pressed. If the "*" button has been pressed, the speed is set at the level following the "*" button in step S13, and the flow proceeds to step S15. On the other hand, if the "*" button has not been pressed in step S11, the process directly proceeds to step S15. In step S15, an instruction is given to select the menu number read out in step S9.

Then, in step S17 shown in FIG. 3, it is determined whether or not the selected number is the mail number "1". If the number "1" is selected, the mail menu is read out in step S19. That is, “1.
Menu reading, 2. Then, in step S21 and S23, after performing the same processing as in steps S11 and S13, a request is made in step S25 to select the menu number read out in step S19. I do.

When the mail reading number "1" is selected in step S27, a character code string corresponding to the mail from the host computer 12 is provided to the speech synthesizer 26 via the personal computer 18 in step S29. Then, after the speech is synthesized by the speech synthesizer 26,
The mail is read out at the speed set in step S23, and the process returns to step S19. On the other hand, if the number "1" has not been selected in step S27, it is determined whether or not the voice reply number "2" has been selected in step S31. If not, the flow returns to step S9. On the other hand, when the number “2” is selected, the voice reply subroutine shown in FIG. 4 is executed in step S33.

In step S35 shown in FIG. 4, it is determined whether or not a pre-registered fixed phrase number has been selected. Here, for example, sentences with the following numbers “1 to 5” are registered in the user area of the host computer 12 for each user. 1. O. K. 2. Yes 3. No. 4. confirmed.

5. I will contact you later. Therefore, in this example, it is determined whether the numbers 1 to 5 have been selected in step S35. If one of the numbers 1 to 5 has been selected, the content of the selection is read out in step S37, and in step S39, the user is asked to judge whether or not this is sufficient. If the user does not judge this, the procedure returns to step S35. If the user decides that this is the case, the fixed form sentence is subjected to pulse code compression and returned as mail to the other party, and the procedure returns to step S19.

If no fixed sentence number has been selected in step S35, re-input is instructed in step S41, and it is determined in step S43 whether re-input has been performed. If there is a re-input, step S
Proceeding to 35, if there is no re-entry, return and return to step S19. In the case where the same LSI is used for ADPCM for both transmission and reception, in addition to the above-mentioned fixed text, if the user replies by voice, the other party can hear the reply by voice, and more detailed and correct information can be obtained. Can be conveyed to the other party.

If the mail number "1" is not selected in step S17, it is determined in step S45 whether the schedule number "2" is selected. If the number “2” is selected, the schedule process is performed in step S47, and then the process returns to step S17. If the number “2” is not selected, that is, if the number “3” is selected, the process ends. At this time, a sound such as "Thank you for your help" is output.

In order to automatically change the reading speed of the mail, steps S49 and S51 shown in FIG. 5 are inserted between steps S7 and S9 in FIG. First, in step S49, user usage status data such as the number of times of telephone use and the time interval from the previous use is loaded. Then, in step S51, the optimum reading speed is calculated and set from these data, and the mail is read. If the number of uses by telephone is large or the time interval from the previous use is small, the speed is increased.

Steps S9, S19 and S29
If the skip operation is performed by pressing only the push button "*" button once or a predetermined number of times during the reading operation, the user is assumed to be familiar with the voice mail system 10 and the reading speed set in steps S13 and S23. Is automatically increased by one level (learning function). For this purpose, for example, a specific command may be sent to the voice synthesizer 26 to increase the synthesized clock frequency in the voice synthesizer 26.

Further, in order to re-sort the priority of the mail, after step S7 in FIG. 2, steps S53 and S53 in FIG.
Insert S55 and S57. First, in step S53 shown in FIG. 6, whether or not there is an e-mail addressed to the user is searched, and in step S55, it is determined whether or not there is an e-mail. If there is no mail addressed to the user, step S9
Return to step S5 if there is an e-mail addressed to the user.
Go to 7. In step S57, the mails are re-sorted according to the priorities registered by the user in advance, and in step S9, important mails are read out according to the priorities.

As the priority, for example, the following 1 to 3
These are registered as initial settings. 1. ★★ (represents urgency) ★ (significant, urgent), [important], [urgent] (these are at the same level) General mail Here, mails of the same level are given higher priority when received at an earlier date and time. In addition, each user sets a priority using a code assigned to each user by using a priority setting menu in advance on his / her personal computer 18. Therefore, a specific user name (sender) and a specific mark can be separately registered for each user at an arbitrary priority. For example, the user name of the boss is registered in a priority order between 1 and 2 described above. The priority is
It is stored in a table of the host computer 12 together with a password and the like.

However, in this case, in step S29, the first priority is read out first, and then another mail is read out in accordance with the priority in the next step S29. In order to copy a specified portion of the mail to another file and read it out as needed, the operations shown in FIGS. 7 to 9 are executed as modifications of step S29, respectively.
There are three methods of specifying the specified portion of the mail: a method of specifying the start and end positions, a method of specifying only the start position, and a method of specifying only the end position.

In the method of designating both the start and end positions shown in FIG. 7, first, in step S59, a mail is output to the speech synthesizer 26 character by character. Then, in step S61, it is determined whether or not the “#” button of the push buttons has been pressed. If the “#” button has not been pressed, the process returns to step S59. If the “#” button has been pressed, the process returns to step S63. Increment the number of times the "#" button was pressed. Then, in step S65, "#"
It is determined whether or not the number of times the button has been pressed is the first time, that is, whether or not the count value is 1. If it is 1, the process proceeds to step S67.
Starts the designation at, and returns to step S59. On the other hand, if the count value is not 1 in step S65, the designation is terminated in step S69, and
At 71, the designated portion of the mail is output to a file.
That is, in the user area of the host computer 12, 1
The contents of the mail output to the voice synthesizing device 26 are output until the second "#" button is pressed after the second "#" button is pressed. Then, it is determined whether or not to read the contents of the mail output to the file in step S73. At this time, the user, for example, reads “1” when reading.
If the user does not read "#", the user presses "0 #" to give an instruction, and if the user wants to read the contents of the mail, the output contents to the file are read out in step S75 and the process returns to step S73. If not, the counter is cleared in step S77, the number of times the "#" button is pressed is returned to 0, and the process returns to step S19. In this way, the position where the “#” button is pressed first is set as the start position, the position where the “#” button is pressed second time is set as the end position, and the designated portion between the positions is output to the file.

Next, in the method of designating only the start position shown in FIG. 8, first, in step S79, a mail is output to the speech synthesizer 26 one character at a time. Then, step S
At 81, it is determined whether or not the "#" button of the push buttons has been pressed. If not, the process returns to step S79. If pressed, the start position is specified in step S83, and 50 characters from the specified position are output to the file as the specified portion in step S85.
Next, it is determined whether or not to read the contents output to the file in step S87.
Step 9 reads out the output contents of the file
Return to 87. If it is determined in step S87 that the document is not read, the process returns and returns to step S19. Thus, the position where the “#” button is pressed is set as the start position,
Output the specified number of bytes from there to a file.

Further, as a method of designating only the end position shown in FIG.
The data is output to the speech synthesizer 26 character by character. In step S93, it is determined whether the "#" button has been pressed. If the "#" button has not been pressed, step S93 is performed.
Returning to step 91, if pressed, an end position is specified in step S95. Then, in step S97, the file is output to the file 50 characters before counting from the designated position. In step S99, it is determined whether or not to read the content output to the file. If it is determined that the content is to be read, the output content to the file is read out in step S101, and the process returns to step S99. On the other hand, if it is determined in step S99 that the document is not read, the process returns to step S1.
Return to 9. In this way, the position where the “#” button is pressed is set as the end position, and the previous specific number of bytes is output to the file from there. This method is useful for reconfirming the content read once.

Next, in order to repeatedly read out a specific portion of the mail, the operation shown in FIG. 10 is executed as a modification of step S29. First, a mail is searched in step S103. Then, in step S105, it is determined whether or not there is a specific word. Here, the specific words include, for example, telephone number, contact information, TEL, name,
There are an address, a date, a date, a date and a time, which are registered in advance in the user area of the host computer 12 of the voice mail system 10 and prepared. Further, the user can additionally register a specific word separately.

If there is a specific word in step S105, the specified number of characters is searched from the specific word in step S107. Here, the number of characters to be read repeatedly for each word is set as an initial value. However, the number of characters can be registered again by each user. In addition, for a mail sent with a part which the sender recognizes to be urgent, for example, put between ★ marks, the part between ★ marks is repeatedly read out. Alternatively, a mark may be used as a start position and, for example, 50 characters may be repeatedly read out therefrom.

Then, in step S109, the designated number of characters after the specific phrase are read out slowly and repeatedly.
In step S111, it is determined whether the "#" button has been pressed. If not, the process proceeds to step S109.
Returning to step S103, if the button is pressed, the process returns to step S103, and it is determined that repeated reading is not necessary, and the continuation of the mail is read. If it is determined in step S105 that there is no specific phrase, the process returns and returns to step S19.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of this embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a continuation of the operation shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of a voice reply subroutine.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an operation required for automatic setting of a reading speed.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an operation required to re-sort mail priorities;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an operation of a modified example of step S29 necessary for outputting a designated portion of a mail to a file.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an operation of another modified example of step S29 required to output a designated portion of a mail to a file.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing an operation of another modified example of step S29 necessary for outputting a designated portion of a mail to a file.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing an operation of another modification of step S29 necessary for repeatedly reading out a specific part of the mail.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 10 voice mail system 12 host computer 14 memory 16 Ethernet 18 personal computer 20 telephone multifunctional board 22 telephone line 24 transmission line 26 voice synthesizer 28 audio line

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-3-244258 (JP, A) JP-A-59-105749 (JP, A) JP-A-3-252257 (JP, A) JP-A-1- 218156 (JP, A) JP-A-3-18763 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04M 3/42-3/58 H04M 11/00-11/10

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A voice mail system in which a host computer is accessed via a telephone line and a desired mail stored in a memory is converted into voice by voice synthesis means and read out. A voice mail system comprising a reading means. 2. A voice mail system in which a host computer is accessed via a telephone line and a desired mail stored in a memory is converted into a voice by a voice synthesizing unit and read out. A specific word is registered in the host computer in advance. A voice mail system comprising: a repetitive reading means for reading a specified number of characters from a specific word in the mail repeatedly.