JPH02172354A - Telephone conference equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To eliminate the need for the electric coupling of modular jack connection or the like by using an acoustic coupler, and connecting a telephone conference equipment to a telephone line via a telephone set with acoustic coupling. CONSTITUTION:A voice signal collected by a microphone 8 as a sound collection section is reproduced once by a speaker 10a of an acoustic coupler 10 toward a transmitter 4a of a telephone set 4 and sent through a telephone line 1 connecting to the telephone set 4. On the other hand, the voice signal received by the telephone set 4 through the telephone line 1 is reproduced once by a receiver 4a and outputted as a voice, the voice is collected by a microphone 10b, sent to a voice reproduction section 6, where the voice is reproduced again. Thus, without electric coupling such as modular jack connection, the voice is connected to the telephone line 1 via the telephone set 4 by acoustic coupling by the acoustic coupler 10 to attain telephone conference in simultaneous 2-way communication.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a telephone conference device that makes it possible to conduct a conference through simultaneous two-way communication between remote locations using a telephone line.

[Prior Art] Generally, a teleconference device has a microphone (sound collection section) and a speaker (sound reproduction section), and is connected to a telephone line. Then, the audio signal collected by the microphone is transmitted to a remote location (such as another conference room) via a public telephone line, and the audio signal received from the remote location is played back by the speaker. Conferences are now being held with simultaneous two-way calls.

Conventionally, such a telephone conference device is connected to a public telephone line as shown in FIG. In Figure 2,
1 is a public telephone line, 2 is a modular outlet (or rosette), 3 is a telephone conference device, 4 is a telephone set,
The telephone conference device 3 is connected to the public telephone line 1- by inserting a modular jack (not shown) into a modular outlet 2 (or connecting it to a rosette). A normal telephone 4 is connected to the telephone conference device 3, and after calling the other party of the conference using this telephone 4, by operating a switch etc. on the telephone conference device 3, the telephone conference device 3 This allows for simultaneous two-way calls and conference calls. Note that if the teleconference device 3 itself includes a network control unit (NCU), there is no need to provide the telephone 4.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the conventional dual telephone conference device 3,
Since it is necessary to make a modular jack connection, a modular outlet 2 must be installed in a conference room or the like equipped with a telephone conference device 3 by construction.

In addition, in the case of analog transmission in key telephones that use in-home switching equipment, in addition to the normal voice transmission wires (two wires), there are two data transmission wires for transmitting control signals, etc. for internal line processing. In addition to four wires, in the case of digital transmission, four wires are usually provided regardless of whether it is for voice transmission or data transmission, so the electrical standards of the modular outlet 2 are different.
The telephone conference device 3 could not be electrically connected and could not be used.Furthermore, in conventional telephone conference devices, the microphone (sound collection section) is either connected to the device body with a cord or the like, or is installed inside the device body. Since it is built-in, if the location where the actual meeting is to be held is far from the modular outlet 1 to 2, it is necessary to extend the telephone line 1 and the microphone connection pressure cord.

The present invention aims to solve such problems,
To provide a telephone conference device which can be easily connected to any telephone without using a modular outlet 1 and which can eliminate the troublesome wiring.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the objective 1-, the telephone conference device of the present invention (
Claim 1) comprises an acoustic coupler connected to a transmitter and a receiver of a telephone, and connects the acoustic coupler to a speaker for reproducing sound signals collected by a sound collector toward the transmitter, and a receiver. The device is characterized by being equipped with a microphone that collects audio from the computer and transmits it as an audio signal to the audio reproduction section.

Further, the telephone conference device (claim 2) of the present invention is provided by claim 1.
The feature is that the sound collection part is a wireless microphone.

[Function] In the above-mentioned telephone conference device of the present invention, the audio signal collected by the sound collection unit is once reproduced by the speaker of the acoustic coupler toward the transmitter of the telephone, and then transmitted through the telephone line connected to the telephone. sent through.

On the other hand, the voice signal received by the telephone through the telephone line is once played back by the handset and output as voice.
This voice is collected by a microphone, transmitted to the voice reproduction section, and reproduced again by the voice reproduction section. In this way,
The telephone conference apparatus of the present invention is connected to a telephone line via a telephone by acoustic coupling using an acoustic coupler, without electrical coupling such as a modular jack connection, and a telephone conference is carried out through simultaneous two-way communication.

Further, by using a wireless microphone as the sound collection section of the telephone conference device, the trouble of wiring the telephone conference device main body and the sound collection section using a cord is eliminated.

[Embodiment of the Invention] A telephone conference device as an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing its configuration, and in this FIG. 1, 1 is a public telephone line;
4 is a telephone connected to the public telephone line 1, 4a is a transmitter of the telephone 4, 4b is a receiver of the telephone 4, and 5 is the main body of the telephone conference apparatus of this embodiment. Further, 6 is a speaker (sound reproduction unit) that reproduces the audio signal, 7 is an acoustic coupler (to be described later), an amplifier that amplifies the audio signal from 0 and sends it to the speaker 6, and 8 is a sound collection unit that collects the audio. A microphone with a small transmitter (wireless microphone) 9 is a radio wave receiver that receives radio waves transmitted from the microphone 8 and sends them to an acoustic coupler [○] to be described later.

1o is the transmitter 4a and receiver 4b of the telephone 4.
This acoustic coupler '-0 is connected to
It consists of a speaker 10a and a microphone 3-Ob. Speaker] ○a is for reproducing the audio signal collected by the microphone 8 and received by the radio wave receiver 9 toward the transmitter 4a, and the microphone 10b is for collecting the audio from the receiver 4b. , and is transmitted as an audio signal to the speaker 6 via the amplifier 7.

In this embodiment, the acoustic coupler 10 is manufactured to correspond to the size of the telephone set.

Also, the voice of the other party output from the speaker 6 is transmitted to the microphone 8.
In order to prevent howling and echo from occurring due to the formation of a loop in the signal, the apparatus of this embodiment is equipped with an echo canceller (not shown). This echo canceller generates a pseudo sound output from the speaker 6 and subtracts it from the signal coming in from the microphone 8 to eliminate the echo signal.

Since the telephone conference apparatus as an embodiment of the present invention is configured as a double series, when holding a telephone conference, first, the transmitter 4a and receiver 4b of the telephone 4 are connected to the acoustic coupler 10 through the speakers. 10a and microphone], Ob
The telephone 4 is placed so as to face the other party, and then the telephone 4 is used to call the other party. In this manner, when a call is established, the audio signal collected by the microphone 8 is transmitted as a radio wave to the radio wave receiver 9 in the conference phone main body 5, and from this radio wave receiver 9 to the speaker in the acoustic coupler 10. 10a, and this speaker 1. The message is once played back to the transmitter 4a of the telephone 4 at Oa. As a result, the sound collected by the microphone 8 is transmitted to the public telephone line 1 connected to the telephone 4.
is sent to the other party through.

On the other hand, the voice signal received by the telephone 4 through the public telephone line 1 is once reproduced by the handset 4) and output as voice. This sound is collected by the microphone 10a in the acoustic coupler 10, amplified by the amplifier 7, and reproduced again by the speaker 6.

In this way, the telephone conference device of this embodiment has the acoustic coupler 1
0 is connected to the public telephone line via the telephone 4 by acoustic coupling using the air as a medium, and allows simultaneous two-way phone calls without the need for electrical coupling such as a modular jack connection as in the past. This eliminates the need for any construction work such as installing modular outlets, and it is extremely easy to connect the teleconferencing device to multi-function telephones, key telephones, etc. whose telephone line standards differ from normal ones. can.

In addition, in this embodiment, since a small transmitter listening microphone 8 is used, there is no need to wire the conference phone main body 5 and the microphone 8 with a cord, and the main body 5 can be installed near the telephone 4. By installing the microphone 8 near the center of the conference desk, the device will not interfere with the conference and the hassle of wiring can be eliminated. Furthermore, even if the telephone 4 is located far from the location where the conference is actually held, there is no need to extend the wiring.

Note that in the above embodiment, the speaker 6 is used as the audio reproduction section.
Although the case has been described in which earphones are used, earphones may also be used. Further, in the above embodiment, a case is explained in which the public telephone line 1 is used, but it may also be an extension phone line or a dedicated line, and in this case, the same effects as in the above embodiment can be obtained. . Furthermore, although the above embodiment describes the case where only one microphone 8 is used,
By using multiple channels of radio waves, you can use multiple microphones at the same time.

[Effects of the Invention] As detailed above, according to the telephone conference device of the present invention,
Since the telephone conference device is configured to connect to the telephone line via the telephone by acoustic coupling using an acoustic coupler, there is no need for electrical coupling such as a modular jack connection, and construction work such as installing a modular outlet is eliminated. This eliminates the need for a conference call device at all, and provides the advantage that the teleconference device can be connected to any telephone very easily.

In addition, by using a wireless microphone as the sound collection section, there is no need to connect the teleconference device and the sound collection section by wire using a cord, and it is also possible to eliminate the hassle of wiring.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a teleconference device as an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram for explaining the connection state of a conventional teleconference device to a telephone line. In the figure,] - public telephone line, 4 - telephone, 4a - transmitter, 4b - receiver, 5 - telephone conference device body, 6 -
Speaker (audio playback section), 7-amplifier, 8--microphone with small transmitter as sound collection section (wireless microphone), 9
-Radio wave receiver,]〇-Acoustic coupler, 10a.-Speaker, 1. Ob-Mike. Patent applicant Recruit Co., Ltd.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) In a teleconferencing device that includes a sound collection unit that collects sound and an audio reproduction unit that reproduces audio signals, an acoustic coupler that is connected to the transmitter and receiver of the telephone is provided, and the audio The coupler includes a speaker that plays back the audio signal collected by the sound collection unit toward the handset, and a microphone that collects the sound from the handset and transmits it as an audio signal to the audio playback unit. A telephone conference device comprising: (2) The telephone conference device according to claim 1, wherein the sound collecting section is a wireless microphone.