JPH073984B2 - Communication terminal device having call extension means - Google Patents

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a telephone communication terminal device, and more particularly to a telephone communication terminal device having call extension means.

(Prior Art) Conventionally, various telephones have been used as telephone communication terminal devices, as is well known, and the telephone converts the voice of the caller into an electric signal and transmits the electric signal to the other side through a telephone line. It has a function to reproduce the electric signal sent from the telephone through the telephone line to a voice and to make a call, and a function to send a signal to select and connect the desired subscriber from a large number of subscribers and call it. As the calling parts for the subscriber, there are a magnet electric bell, a buzzer, a tone ringer, and recently, an IC which generates a melody.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, in the conventional technology, the existing telephone network,
In a private telephone network or the like, there was no means for transmitting the intention of the called party to the calling party before the call was started between the calling party and the called party. Therefore, even if the called party is ready to answer when the calling state has passed to some extent, the called party may recognize that the called party is absent and the caller may abandon the call. As a result, communication could not be established even though both parties existed.

In this case, the caller will be forced to call back, and in the case of important communication, etc. that the caller must respond to when there is an incoming call, it will cause trouble to the caller. However, there is a problem that there are many inconveniences in communication such as being lost.

An object of the present invention is to increase the probability that a communication will be established by notifying the caller or the terminal device on the calling side (hereinafter referred to as a terminal) during a call that the caller is ready to answer an incoming call. is there.

(Means for Solving the Problems) In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a simple signal generated by a called party who is trying to answer, in order to realize a call extension request, which has not been conventionally solved by the present invention. The receiving side terminal is provided with means for recognizing the fact and communicating the fact to the calling side terminal. The terminal having the call extending means is configured as follows. That is, when a call arrives,
In a communication terminal equipped with a call extension request circuit, a signal recognition circuit for recognizing arrival of the requested voice, and means for transmitting voice information indicating a call extension request based on the recognition, the ringer tone for an incoming call is paused. During the period, a receiving circuit that receives and detects a call extension request signal by a voice or sound emitted by the callee, a signal recognition circuit that determines the presence or absence of the call extension through the circuit, opens and closes a gate, and background noise. Means for suppressing level setting, means for integrating the call extension request signal to detect an input voltage of the call extension request signal, means for determining an amplitude level of the call extension request signal, and means for determining the amplitude level of the call extension request signal. A communication terminal device having call extension means provided with a signal recognition circuit configured to recognize that the judgment output has exceeded a predetermined number of times is configured.

(Operation) Since the terminal having the call extending means is configured as described above, when the terminal receives a simple signal by sound or voice generated by the called party during the period when the ringing of the incoming call ringing is stopped, the background of the called side Even if there is noise, by automatically answering the incoming call, the signal recognizing means that is less likely to malfunction is provided, and the voice information is sent to the switching network accommodating the terminal device. By automatically notifying the calling terminal, the calling state can be extended, and the call can be started to the called party during this extension.

Embodiment An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an explanatory block diagram of a configuration of a communication network according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a configuration block diagram of a signal recognition circuit 1f (hereinafter abbreviated as circuit 1f) of FIG. 3 and 2 are the second circuit.
It is a signal waveform diagram in 1f.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 is a terminal, and the terminal 1 is a terminal having a call extending means according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which the circuits and the like shown below are housed and connected.

1a is a handset, and the handset 1a is for making a call.

1b is a hook switch, and the hook switch 1b operates depending on the presence or absence of the handset 1a. 1c is a hybrid circuit (hereinafter abbreviated as circuit 1c, and the same applies to others), and the hybrid circuit 1c is a circuit for preventing interference between transmitted voice and received voice in the handset 1a. 1d is an electronic ringer,
The electronic ringer 1d is for calling the called party. Reference numeral 1e is a signal receiving circuit, and the signal receiving circuit 1e receives a call extension signal emitted by the called party. 1f is a signal recognizing circuit, and the signal recognizing circuit 1f recognizes a call extension signal issued by the called party. Reference numeral 1g is a terminal control circuit, and the terminal control circuit 1g is a terminal control circuit for controlling each function of the terminal 1 and transmitting voice information requesting extension of a calling state to the switching network 2 which will be described later.
1h is a line corresponding circuit, and the line corresponding circuit 1h is the terminal 1
And the switching network 2 are electrically matched. Reference numeral 1i is a display circuit, and the display circuit 1i is a display circuit for notifying the called party that the terminal 1 is transmitting a call extension request voice toward the switching network 2.

Reference numeral 2 denotes a switching network, and the switching network 2 is a telephone network or the like accommodating the terminal 1, and the range is indicated by a chain line. 2a is a call path switch (hereinafter abbreviated as switch 2a) of the terminating exchange,
2b is a call path switch of the originating exchange (hereinafter abbreviated as switch 2b), 2c is a ringer drive generation trunk (hereinafter abbreviated as trunk 2c), 2d is a ringback tone generation trunk (hereinafter abbreviated as trunk 2d), They are housed in the exchange network 2, respectively. Reference numeral 3 denotes a calling side terminal, and the calling side terminal 3 is an existing telephone terminal or the like.

In FIG. 2, 4 is a preamplifier circuit with an automatic gain adjusting function (hereinafter abbreviated as amplifier 4) 5, a band elimination filter (hereinafter abbreviated as filter 5) 6 is a background noise level monitoring / holding circuit ( 7 is a signal pulse level detection circuit (hereinafter abbreviated as circuit 7) 8 is a signal pulse integration circuit (hereinafter abbreviated as circuit 8) 9 is an integration level determination timing defining circuit (hereinafter referred to as a circuit) 9
10 is an integrated level determination circuit (hereinafter abbreviated as circuit 10) 11 is a signal pulse interval timing defining circuit (hereinafter circuit 11)
12 is a signal determination circuit (hereinafter abbreviated as circuit 12) 13, a background noise level monitoring / holding inhibition delay circuit (hereinafter abbreviated as circuit 13) 14, a missing number 15 is a ringer signal end timing specification Circuit (hereinafter circuit 15
16 is a signal input regulation circuit (hereinafter abbreviated as circuit 16) 17 is a gate circuit (hereinafter abbreviated as circuit 17) The operation of one embodiment of the present invention configured as described above will be described.

In order to explain these operations, for example, the terminal 3 is the terminal 1
Suppose you make a call to.

When the originating exchange including the switch 2b detects a call from the terminal 3, an incoming signal arrives from the originating exchange to the destination exchange including the switch 2a. At the destination exchange, trunk 2c
To send a ringer signal to the terminal 1 and generate a ringback tone by the trunk 2d,
This ringback tone is returned to the calling terminal 3 via the switch 2b. This state is ringing.

In the terminal 3, this ringer signal sounds the electronic ringer 1d via the circuit 1h and the hook switch 1b. If the called party cannot immediately respond, the called party issues a call extension request signal to the terminal 1. As a call extension request signal with high feasibility at the present time, for example, a clap with a specified number of times,
Shocking voices (such as puck and chuck) are continuously generated, and the sound when a specific object is struck a specified number of times, etc.

This call extension request signal is detected by the circuit 1e and reported to the circuit 1f. The circuit 1e may be composed of a general microphone, a preamplifier, or the like.

When the circuit 1f detects that the reported information matches the amplitude, continuous time, and number of repetitions of the voice burst that characterizes the call extension request signal specified in the operation of the circuit 1f, the circuit 1f notifies the circuit 1g. Notify that the call extension request signal has been detected.

When the circuit 1g recognizes the detection of the call extension request signal, it makes a loop of the subscriber line in the same way as when the called party picks up the handset 1a and notifies the switch 2a side of the response, so that the ringer signal stops and the terminal 3 A call channel is set between the terminal 1 and the terminal 1.

Then, the circuit 1g sends out the voice information, which is a request for extension of the calling state and is composed of, for example, talkie, music, etc., which is installed in its own circuit, to the switching network 2 via the circuit 1h. As a concrete audio holding / outputting method, there is an endless tape reproducing circuit, a reading circuit for digitally encoded audio data stored in a non-volatile memory, or the like. This voice information reaches the terminal 3 on the calling side via the switches 2a and 2b and is recognized by the caller, so that the extension of the calling state can be expected.

At this time, by notifying the called party that the operation of the above circuits is normally performed, the called party prepares for a response with peace of mind. Operate 1i. It is desirable that the circuit 1i has a visual notification function using, for example, an LED or a lamp.

After that, when the called party picks up the handset 1a, the operation of the circuit 1g is stopped, the call path is changed from the circuit 1g to the handset 1a, and the called party can talk with the caller.

Now, in the present invention, the construction method and operation of the circuit 1f of FIG. Below, FIG. 2 and FIG.
The operation of the circuit 1f will be described with reference to FIGS.

First, a method of recognizing the call extension request signal will be described.

The reception signal arriving from the circuit 1e passes through the circuit 17 (the operation of the circuit 17 will be described later. Here, it is assumed that the circuit is conducting) and enters the amplifier 4. Here, the amplitude of the input signal is kept almost constant, and in particular, a pulse signal such as a call extension request signal is automatically gained by the operation of the AGC circuit so that the maximum amplitude a ₂ that can be handled by the circuit 1f is about _2. Adjust.

Next, the signal passes through the filter 5 if necessary, and it is effective to reduce the level of the frequency band having a particularly strong spectrum in the background noise to facilitate the determination of the presence or absence of the signal.
The waveform after passing through the filter 5 is shown in.

Next, the signal is divided into three directions, one of which is input to the circuit 7. Here, as a first step for determining the presence or absence of a signal, the determination based on the amplitude is performed. That is, the circuit 6 described later
Background noise level a ₀ and amplitudes a ₀ and a ₂
The signal amplitude falls between the levels a ₁ to be adjusted and set by the level actual operation relatively close to a ₂ between the cut out like.

What is detected by the circuit 6 is the background noise level of the signal, and the level when the control conditions of the circuit 7 and the circuit 16 match and the operation of the circuit 6 is permitted is constantly monitored as the background noise level. When a pulsed signal such as a ringer signal or a call extension request signal reaches the terminal 1, the operation is prohibited and the background noise level before that is recorded and held. In circuit 6, the level monitoring method is always 0.5
It is necessary to reduce the influence of pulse-like noise contained in the background noise by a method such as obtaining the root mean square power within an observation time of about 1 second. As will be described later, since the operation of the circuit 6 is prohibited until the ringer starts ringing, it is necessary to set the level a ₀ to nearly a ₁ in advance as an initial state in the state where there is no incoming call. is there.

On the other hand, the circuit 8 time-integrates the input signal only when there is a signal from the circuit 7, and outputs the result as a voltage change. At this time, for the purpose of the present invention, it is desirable to perform integration as an absolute value regardless of whether the amplitude is positive or negative. The reason why the integration is performed is that if only the magnitude of the amplitude is used to detect the call extension request signal, there is a high risk of malfunction due to pulsed noise, which is not practical.To prevent this, time integration is performed. This is to effectively use the energy of the call extension request signal.

The integrated waveform output from the circuit 8 is as follows. Here, the presence or absence of the signal pulse is determined.

The circuit 9 is set in advance with a little margin from 0 potential. The operation is started from the time when the integrated potential reaches the level y _0, and the level determination command as at the time when tm seconds have elapsed is issued to the circuit 10. At this point, the circuit 10 recognizes that the first pulse of the call extension request signal has arrived when the integrated potential is between y ₁ and y ₂ . The reference potential y ₁ is
When the integrated potential is less than this, it is for ignoring as noise, and when the integrated potential exceeds this, the reference potential y ₂ is for ignoring as continuous noise or a signal which is not a call extension request signal. It is a thing.

The output of circuit 10 is shown in. Next, the interval of this signal pulse is measured. The circuit 11 starts operation from the time when the first pulse of the call extension request signal arrives, and within the time when t ₁ to t ₂ seconds have elapsed, the next signal pulse comes as shown to the circuit 12. Instruct to monitor whether or not. If in the time elapsed t ₁ ~t ₂ seconds, if it is detected next signal pulse,
The result is detected as a G-like signal,
1g will be notified.

By the way, it should be noted that this series of operations should be executed while the ringer sound is at rest. The reason is that if there is a ringer sound, it becomes difficult to detect the call extension request signal, and it is necessary to add a circuit such as an echo canceller to solve this, which complicates the configuration of the terminal, and as a result of the experiment, As a characteristic of human behavior, it is extremely unlikely that a ringing extension request signal will be issued to the telephone during the ringing ringing time, and the ringing extension request signal will be concentrated when the ringing ringing is paused. There is a strong tendency to emit. The ringer signal is 16 in the telephone network.
It is an electric signal that sends intermittent pulse of Hz for 1 second and rests for 2 seconds. During this 2 seconds, it is possible to conclude that the caller's intention is sufficiently displayed and the receiving terminal can be processed. .

FIGS. 3A and 3B show the signals generated by actually generating the above signals.
From s to several ms, the amplitude decreases exponentially and then 10 ms to
It has a shape that returns to a silent state in several tens of ms. Note that the description of waveforms and the like is given in the figure.

Also, if there is another telephone that is receiving a call at a close range, it is expected that the call extension request terminal may malfunction.
In such a situation, waveform analysis was performed. As a result, the waveform is not attenuated at the rising of several tens of ms, the time-integrated potential by the circuit 8 is very likely to exceed the level y ₂ in the circuit 10, and the ringer sound is hardly recognized as the call extension request signal. It became clear that the risk of malfunction does not matter in practice. However, since the call extension request signal cannot be recognized while the other telephone is ringing, it is usually preferable that the distance is about 5 to 6 m.

Now, the circuit 15 and the circuit 16 are used to operate the circuit 1f during the period when the ringer ringing is stopped.

That is, when the ringer signal is detected by the circuit 15, its output becomes and is input to the circuit 16. Circuit 16
Is set to close the gate 13 and the gate 17 in the absence of incoming call, and the function of the circuit 1f including the circuit 6 is stopped.
And circuit 4 as if to operate to open gate 17
After that, the circuit 1f is continuously operated unless the circuit 7 detects a large amplitude which may be a signal pulse at this time.

In this way, the call state extension terminal 1 which is the receiving terminal,
It is possible to request the calling terminal 3 to extend the calling state.

The circuit operation described above is an operation example using signal processing by an analog circuit, but the function equivalent to the above can be realized by other methods.

For example, when the call extension request signal to be processed is digital, it is necessary to change the circuits 1h, 1g and 1f to be digital. In particular, in the circuit 1f, it is necessary to replace the circuit 7, the circuit 10 and the circuit 12 with a numerical comparison circuit using a digital subtraction circuit, the circuits 9 and 11 with a counter circuit, and replace the circuit 8 with a digital numerical addition circuit.

However, the circuit 4 is not indispensable because it is easy to judge the magnitude by the numerical value due to the reproducibility of digital numerical values. Also, circuits 15 and 16 may be as described above unless the subscriber line is digital.

Further, a signal processing method using a program such as a microprocessor is also possible. In this case, when the call extension request signal to be processed is digital, it can be realized by replacing the processing of the changed circuit with the processing of at least one place of the program.

According to the most programmed processing method, 1f is not necessary for the circuit, and the program outputs the output waveform of 1e +
Since the above-mentioned waveform is observed by monitoring every s to several hundreds of μs, the process detailed in the circuit 1f may be performed for the observed waveform numerical value.

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, when a call extension signal having a specific format that a callee can easily generate toward the terminal is issued to the terminal in the incoming call ringing condition, By providing the signal recognizing means that is unlikely to malfunction even if there is background noise on the called party side during the period when the ringing is paused, the terminal recognizes this signal and once responds by proxy and makes a ringer ringing sound. During the rest period, the caller can be informed that the caller has the intention of "I will be able to respond soon, so please wait for a while".

As a result, the parties involved in the communication can reduce the number of redial calls, which is advantageous in improving the serviceability. Further, for the administrator of the communication network, the number of incomplete calls is reduced, so that the suspension of invalidation of the communication equipment is reduced, and the effective use of the equipment can be promoted.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 is an explanatory block diagram of a configuration of a communication network according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a configuration block diagram of a circuit 1f in FIG. 1, and FIGS. 3A to 1C are signal waveform diagrams in the circuit 1f in FIG. , Fig. 3-2
FIG. 3 is a signal waveform diagram in the circuit 1f of FIG. 1 ... communication terminal device, 1a ... hanzon set, 1b ... hook switch, 1c ... hybrid circuit, 1d ... electronic ringer, 1e ... signal receiving circuit, 1f ... signal recognition circuit, 1g ...
… Terminal control circuit, 1h …… Line compatible circuit, 1i …… Display circuit, 2 …… Switching network, 2a …… Call path switch of destination exchange, 2b …… Call path switch of originating switch, 2c …… Ringer Drive signal generating trunk, 2d ...... ring back tone generating trunk, 3 ... communication terminal device on transmitting side, 4 ... preamplifier circuit with automatic gain adjustment function, 5 ... band elimination filter, 6 ... background noise level Monitoring / holding circuit, 7 ... Signal pulse level detection circuit, 8 ... Signal pulse integration circuit, 9
...... Integral level judgment timing regulation circuit, 10 ... Integral level judgment circuit, 11 ... Signal pulse interval timing regulation circuit, 12 ... Signal judgment circuit, 13 ... Background noise level monitoring
Hold prohibit delay circuit, 14 ... Missing number, 15 ... Ringer signal end timing regulation circuit, 16 ... Signal input regulation circuit, 17 ...
Gate circuit.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (72) Inventor Hideyuki Koike 1-2356 Take, Yokosuka City, Kanagawa Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, Information and Communication Processing Laboratory (56) Reference JP-A-55-105461 (JP, A) Kai 53-97305 (JP, A) JP 59-39154 (JP, A)

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A communication provided with a call extension request circuit when a call is received, a signal recognition circuit for recognizing the arrival of the requested voice, and means for transmitting voice information indicating a call extension request based on the recognition. In the terminal, while the ringer sound of the incoming call is paused, the receiving circuit that receives and detects the call extension request signal by the voice and sound emitted by the callee and the presence or absence of the call extension is determined through the circuit, and the gate extension A signal recognition circuit for opening and closing, means for suppressing the setting of the background noise level, integrating the call extension request signal,
It comprises means for detecting the input voltage of the call extension request signal, means for determining the amplitude level of the call extension request signal, and means for recognizing that the determination output of the means has exceeded a predetermined number of times. A communication terminal device having call extension means provided with a signal recognition circuit.