JPH04321353A - Automatic answering telephone system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To realize the excellent automatic answering telephone system in which the presence of an ICM(In Coming Message) is displayed in picture on a display device and outline of a reply message is displayed thereon by detecting the voiced/unvoiced state of a recorded ICM. CONSTITUTION:An ICM sent from a line is recorded on a tape recording section 20 and an unvoiced ICM is detected by an invoice detection circuit 22, the result of detection is stored in a ROM 13, the content read from the ROM 13 is converted into character information by a character information generating circuit 14 and the information is displayed on a display device 17 by using a display device controller 15. Only the ICM detected to be the voiced ICM is selected by a CPU 11 and the ICM recorded on the tape recording section 20 is reproduced by a reproduction section 21 by operating a keyboard 16.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an answering machine that sends a response message to a calling party when it detects a call, and then records a business message from the calling party.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional answering machine is broadly divided into a response message sending section and a message recording/reproducing section. This response message sending unit sends a response message (OGM: Outgoing Message) to the calling party by injecting a message into the answering machine in advance when the operator is at home, and prompting the calling party to record the message.
is stored and sent out. In addition, the business message recording and playback unit records the business message (ICM: InComing) issued from the calling party in accordance with the response message described above.
Message) is recorded and played back. A magnetic tape recording/reproducing device is generally used as this recording/reproducing section. When reproducing recorded messages, the magnetic tape is played back using a magnetic tape recording/reproducing device, and the recorded message messages can be listened to in sequence.

0003

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the above-mentioned conventional answering machine, recorded ICMs are played back in the order in which they were recorded. However, there was a problem in that users had to listen to messages that were silent and meaningless. In addition, conventional answering machines employ a method of reciting a recorded OGM message when the answering machine is used, but there is a problem in that it makes the operator feel uncomfortable.

[0004] An object of the present invention was to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and it detects the presence or absence of a recorded ICM and displays the presence or absence of a message.
To provide an answering machine capable of displaying the contents of a message when setting M.

[0005]

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a recording unit that sequentially records business messages sent via a telephone line, and a recording unit that sequentially records business messages sent via a telephone line, and a silence detection circuit that detects silence for a predetermined period of time or more in a message, a playback section that plays back the message from the recording section as audio, and a response message storage means that collects and stores a response message from an answering machine using a microphone. and a data storage means for recording sound or silence information detected by the silence detection circuit or for storing an abbreviated mode name of a response message to be sent to the other party, and a data storage means for storing information read out from the data storage means. a display means for displaying the text information as an image; and a reproduction section for reproducing only the audible business message recorded in the recording section when a reproduction operation of only the audible message is selected by the display of the display means. or when a certain response message is selected by the display on the display means, and when a call is made, the response message corresponding to the selected mode name is retrieved from the response message storage means and sent to the calling party. The present invention is characterized by comprising a control means.

[0006]

[Operation] Therefore, according to the present invention, by detecting silence in the message, it is possible to display on the display that the message is silent, and to reproduce only the message with sound. can. Therefore, silent messages can be omitted and only messages with sound can be selected and listened to. That is, since this is a method of listening to all the business messages recorded on the magnetic tape as in the conventional example, it is possible to eliminate the drawback of listening to meaningless business messages.

Further, according to the present invention, it is possible to display on the display what kind of response messages are stored, and when one of them is selected, a summary of the response message is displayed, and When a call is made, the response message is played back and sent. Therefore, when setting the answering machine, there is no need to listen to each response message.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a business message recording/reproducing section and a response message sending section. The business message recording and reproducing section will be explained using FIG. 2, and the response message sending section will be explained using FIG. 5.

[ICM Recording and Reproducing Unit] FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an ICM recording and reproducing unit according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 2, a central processing unit (hereinafter referred to as CPU) 11 is connected to a bus 12 and constitutes a control means. Bus 12 has ROM1
3, character information generation circuit 14, and display controller 1
5 and a keyboard 16 are connected. ROM13
The is a program that can be written to as well as memorize the program, and can be used to store ICM “Yes” or “No” information and O
This is a data storage means for storing character information such as GM's "out of home". The character information generation circuit 14 is designed to generate character information according to the contents stored in the ROM 13. The keyboard 16 is a function for selecting ICM message numbers and the like. Further, a display 17 for displaying character information is connected to the display controller 15. The character information generation circuit 14, the display controller 15, and the display 17 constitute a display means.

A telephone circuit 19 is also connected to the line 18 . The telephone circuit 19 includes a tape recording section 20.
is connected. The tape recording section 20 is connected to the bus 12 via a silence detection circuit 22. telephone circuit 1
9 is directly connected to the bus 12, and is also connected to a playback section 21 that plays back the audio on the tape.

Next, the operation of the ICM recording and reproducing section will be explained using the flowchart shown in FIG. 3 and the diagram shown in FIG. 4.

[0013] In the above-mentioned ICM recording and reproducing section, there is an incoming call while the caller is on the answering machine, and a message from the other party, that is, an ICM, is input from the line 18 (step S1). At this time, I.C.
M passes through the telephone circuit 19 and is sequentially recorded on the tape recording section 20 (step S2). If there is silence for a certain period of time or more in the message recorded on the tape recording unit 20, the silence detection circuit 22 detects this (step S3) and selects "None".
The information is stored in the ROM 13 via the bus 12 (step S4). If the silence detection circuit 22 does not detect the silence, information indicating "present" is stored in the ROM 13 via the bus 12 (step S5). and,"
When the information "A" is input to the character information generating circuit 14, two character information "A" and "RI" are sent to the display controller 15 via the bus 12 (Step S6).

[0014] In this way, the message has "Yes" and "
When "None" is stored (steps S4, S5), display 1
7, as shown in FIG. 4, an image is displayed such as "Yes" for the first message and the third message, "No" for the second message and the fourth message, etc. (Step S7)
.

After seeing the message displayed on the display 17, the operator presses the play button (
(not shown), the CPU 11 instructs the telephone circuit 19 to reproduce only the first and third messages (step S8). The reproducing unit 21 sequentially reproduces the first and third messages recorded on the tape recording unit 20 in accordance with this instruction (step S9).

If you wish to hear the second message for which silence has been detected, press the letter key "1" and number key "2" (not shown) on the keyboard 16 in sequence (step S
10). As a result, the first and second messages are played back in sequence (step S10).

According to the first embodiment, the silence detecting circuit 22 can immediately detect a silent ICM on the display 17. Further, only the ICM with sound can be played back by the playback unit 21.

[Response Message Sending Unit] FIG. 5 shows the configuration of the response message (OGM) sending unit according to the embodiment of the present invention. Components that are the same as those shown in FIG. 2 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and their explanations will be omitted.

In FIG. 5, a microphone 23 is connected to the telephone circuit 19.
used to record OGM. The OGM taken in from the microphone 23 is stored in the IC memory 24 as a message storage means via the telephone circuit 19. This IC memory 24 is connected to the bus 12 so that the contents of a plurality of OGMs can be displayed on the display 17.

Next, the operation of the OGM sending section of the above embodiment will be explained using the flowchart of FIG. 6 and the operation diagram of FIG. 7.

[0021] The ROM 13 stores mode information of ``outing'', ``sleeping'', and ``bathing'' as types of OGM (step S11). Using the keyboard 16, the CPU 11 records the recording content corresponding to "outside".
For example, "I'm out of town right now. I'll be back at 7 p.m."
Record this message with the microphone 23 and store it in the IC memory 2.
4 (step S12). The rest of the "sleeping"
, the recording content corresponding to ``bathing'' is ``already...''.
I have slept. Please call me tomorrow. ", "I'm taking a bath now. Please call back later."
This message is recorded with the microphone 23 and stored in the IC memory 24 (step S13). In Figure 7, the IC
The contents stored in memory 24 are shown.

[0022] Here, the mode information "outside" is read from the ROM 13 and sent to the character information generation circuit 14 (step S14). At this time, character information such as "outside", "outside", and "inside" is output from the character information generating circuit 14 to the display controller 15 through the bus 12 (step S15). As a result, the characters "Out of home" are displayed as the first message on the display 17 (Step S16).

The remaining character information "sleeping" and "bathing" are displayed on the second screen by the display 17 in the same manner as in the above operation order.
``Sleeping'' is displayed in the first message, and ``Bathing'' is displayed in the third message (see Figure 7).

[0024] If the operator wants to select message 1, press the letter key "O" and number key "1" on the keyboard 16.
are pressed one after another (step S17). At this time, the display controller 15 erases the second and third messages from the screen and displays only the first message "Out of town" on the display.
7 to display an image (step S18).

[0025] When a call arrives after this setting, the recorded content corresponding to the first message, ie, "out of home" is read from the IC memory 24 and sent to the other party via the line 18 (step S19).

[0026] According to such an OGM sending section, the mode selected by the keyboard 16 among the plurality of OGMs is displayed (here, "out of home" is displayed), and thereby the contents of the current OGM are displayed. You can understand what it is at a glance.

[0027] In the OGM sending section of the above embodiment, "
Although the three modes are set as "going out,""sleeping," and "bathing," it goes without saying that other modes may be used.

FIG. 5 shows another configuration example. This configuration example is
A timer 25 is added to the OGM sending section. The timer 25 is a means for setting after how many hours a plurality of messages are to be switched. For example, suppose that the first message is set to "out of home" at first, and the second message is changed to "sleeping" after 6 hours.

The operator presses the letter key "O" on the keyboard 16.
and press the number key "1", then press the number key "6" which is the set time, then press the letter key "O" and the number key "
2".

[0030] When the settings are made in this way, the display 17 displays "out of home" and sends a message in accordance with this. Six hours after the setting, the display 17 displays "Sleeping", and a message corresponding to this is switched and sent.

[0031] This allows the ICM to be used in a variety of ways,
If you know in advance the time to change from going out to sleeping, you can save yourself the trouble of setting the time each time. Furthermore, since the display 17 displays which mode the current mode is in, it can be confirmed. Note that the present invention is useful even for people with hearing problems because they can see and understand the display 17.

[0032]

Effects of the Invention As is clear from the above embodiments, the present invention detects silence in the message recorded on the tape recording unit and displays whether there is a sound or no sound on the display. At the same time, the presence or absence of each task message can be determined at once and quickly, and only messages with audible messages can be listened to with priority, which has the effect of improving efficiency.

Furthermore, the present invention displays a plurality of stored response messages on the display, making it easy to operate, and after selecting a desired response message, only the selected response message is displayed on the display. It is convenient because you can see the setting mode at a glance.

Furthermore, according to the present invention, the order of the plurality of response messages can be freely set, and the message switching time can also be freely set.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an answering machine according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Fig. 2] A block diagram showing the ICM recording and playback section of the answering machine in the same embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the ICM recording and playback section of the answering machine in the same embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the state displayed on the display of the ICM recording and playback section of the answering machine in the same embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the OGM recording and reproducing device of the answering machine in the same embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the OGM recording and reproducing device of the answering machine in the same embodiment.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of the operation of the OGM recording and reproducing device of the answering machine in the same embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 CPU (control means) 12 Bus 13 ROM (data storage means) 14 Character information generation circuit 15 Display controller 16 Keyboard 17 Display 18 Line 19 Telephone circuit 20 Tape recording section 21 Playback section 22 Silence detection circuit 23 Microphone

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A recording unit that sequentially records business messages sent via a telephone line; a silence detection circuit that detects silence for a certain period of time or more in the business messages recorded in the recording unit; a playback unit that plays back the business message from the recording unit as voice; a response message storage unit that collects and stores a response message from an answering machine using a microphone; a data storage means for storing an abbreviated mode name of a response message to be recorded or sent to the other party; a display means for sequentially converting the information read from the data storage means into character information and displaying it as an image; and the display means When the reproduction operation of only the voiced message is selected by the display, the reproduction unit reproduces only the voiced message recorded in the recording unit, or a certain response message is selected by the display of the display means. 1. An answering machine comprising: control means for extracting a response message corresponding to the selected mode name from the response message storage means and sending it to the calling party when a call is made.