JPH05268323A - Automatic answering telephone system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To select whether a call is made again or it is waited until another line is made idle by a caller by outputting a message showing a state under automatic answering by using the other line even when one line is under automatic answering. CONSTITUTION:When it is detected through line wire interfaces 1 that a call is incoming to the other line while one line performs a recording operation, a CPU 3 drives a voice synthesizing IC 6 and transmits the message showing 'under automatic answering' so as to judge whether the call is made again to the communicating party or it is waited, and any important message is prevented from disabling recording.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an answering machine having only one tape or IC for recording a message in an answering machine function of a telephone containing two or more office lines.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Who is the caller in order to be able to receive a unilateral request from the caller even if there is an incoming call when he / she is absent or to contact the caller again after returning home. An answering machine is used as a device for checking. In this case, since an answering machine with an answering machine that accommodates two or more office lines has a low probability of using the answering machine at the same time, only one tape or IC for recording a message is mounted in consideration of economy. Will be done.

[0003]

However, such a conventional apparatus cannot output a response message even if there is an incoming call from another line during a long period of recording a message on one line. Since the caller connected to the line did not respond even though the line was connected, he misunderstood it as a failure and disconnected the line, which had the problem that he could not record even if there was an important message.

The present invention has been made in view of such a situation. Even if one line is answering an answer, a message indicating that another line is answering an answer is output and redialed or another line is sent. It allows the caller to choose whether to wait until a call is available.

[0005]

In order to solve such a problem, the present invention selectively connects one of a plurality of accommodated telephone lines to a message sending section or a message recording section. A call path switch and a judgment means for judging whether or not the message recording section is responding to other lines except the incoming line according to an incoming call to each telephone line If it is determined that the call is received, the call path switch is controlled to connect the incoming line to the message sending unit, and the message sending unit sends a message indicating that the caller is a response-only operation. And a control means.

[0006]

When one of the lines is in the recording operation and the other line receives an incoming call, the voice synthesis IC 6 sends a message "Absent recording" to call the other party again or wait. To make decisions,
Prevent important messages from becoming unrecordable.

[0007]

1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an apparatus to which the present invention is applied. An incoming call to the outside lines L1 to Ln is detected by the outside line interfaces 1a to 1n, and the detection output is supplied to the CPU 3. As a result, the CPU 3 drives the communication path switch 2, the recording / reproducing IC (recording / reproducing IC) 5, the voice synthesizing IC 6, and the cassette mechanism 7 to notify the caller that he / she is absent, but informs the caller of the absence. After a predetermined timing has passed, the recording operation is performed. On the other hand, if an incoming call is received on another line during this answering response, the CPU 3 drives the speech path switch 2 and the voice synthesis IC 6, and the one line is now answering the answer. , Output a fixed message that you want to redial,
If the caller disconnects the line within a predetermined timing, the corresponding process is terminated, and if not, the hold melody I
The C8 is driven to output the hold tone and record the message after the recording on the other line is completed.

On the other hand, when the answering machine function is not set, an incoming call is answered by the key telephones 20a to 20n via the telephone interfaces 9a to 9n or a cordless telephone cord connected via the radio telephone interface 10 and the antenna 11. The machine answers the incoming call. When a call is made from the key telephone set 20a to 20n or a cordless handset (not shown), the dial signal from the device is detected by the PB receiver 12 or the tone detection circuit 4, and the call path switch is turned on. Two
Make a call to the station side via.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing the operation of this device. Step 1 is that there is an incoming call in FIG.
00, and when it is detected that the incoming call rings for the set number of times as shown in step 101, step 10
Answer the incoming call as shown in 2.

When it is determined in step 103 that another line is not in the hold response, a response message is output as shown in step 104, and in step 105, the completion of the message is waited. When the other party performs the call termination process as shown in step 110 before the message ends, the call termination process is performed in step 111.

If the other party does not finish talking by the end of the message, the message recording is started in step 106, and if the other party finishes the talking in step 115 before the time-up is confirmed in step 107, the processing ends. If it is not in phase, step 10 by time up
The termination processing is performed as shown in 8.

At this time, when it is detected in step 103 that another line is in the hold response, a fixed response message is output as indicated by 120. This message is, for example, "Answering response is being made on another line now. If it is good, please wait for a while because the other line will be ready for recording as soon as it is available. Or please try again later." belongs to.

For example, after repeating this message two to three times, if it is detected in step 130 that the other party has executed the call ending process before the message output in step 121 ends, the call ending process shown in step 131. I do. However, if the other party has not finished talking at the time when the message output ends, a holding tone is sent in step 122, and the process waits in step 123 until the recording of the other line ends.

After the recording of the other line is completed, the recording of the message is performed in step 124, and when the completion of the recording is detected in step 125, the recording function is released in step 126 and the process is completed.

In the above embodiment, the fixed response message is output. However, when the recording / reproducing IC and the fixed message amplifying circuit are the same, the response message cannot be output when one of them is recording. However, in this case, the hold message may be transmitted.

[0016]

As described above, according to the present invention, when one line is answering an answer, when a call is received on the other line, a message indicating that the answering process is being performed is output. Therefore, the caller will not be mistaken for a failure, and can choose whether to wait or call again after a while, even if there is a time lag if there is an important requirement. It has the effect of recording reliably.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an apparatus to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the apparatus of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 External line interface 2 Call path switch 3 CPU 4 Tone detection circuit 5 Recording / playback IC 6 Voice synthesis IC 7 Cassette mechanism 8 Hold melody 9 Telephone interface 10 Wireless telephone interface 11 Radio telephone 20 Button telephone

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An answering machine including a message sending unit for sending a predetermined message after automatically answering an incoming call to a housed telephone line, and a message recording unit for recording a message from a caller. A call path switch for selectively connecting one of the telephone lines of the above to the message sending unit or the message recording unit, and the message recording unit responds to the incoming call to each of the telephone lines. A judging means for judging whether or not a response is made to other lines except the line, and when the judging means judges that the response is being made, the call path switch is controlled to make the receiving line concerned. An answering machine according to claim 1, further comprising a control unit connected to the message sending unit and sending a message from the message sending unit to the caller indicating that the operation is a response-only operation.