JPH10257162A - Communication equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To use a communication equipment without any limit of an area by realizing the certain operation of an equipped function by exactly discriminating a transmitted signal with characteristics corresponding to a connected line. SOLUTION: A MODEM 12 detects the frequency, cadence, and signal level of a dial tone or a busy tone transmitted through a line at the time of initialization, and also detects the noise level. Then, a parameter corresponding to the signal characteristics is set in a memory 18a for detecting the dial tone or the busy tone at the time of an operation. A CPU 18b exactly captures a signal from the line at the time of the operation of an automatic answering telephone function, immediately stops recording at the time of judging the presence of the busy tone or the noise level, and allows a function for preventing any useless recording to validly operate.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a communication apparatus connected to a communication line for transmitting a signal, for example, a function of transmitting and receiving facsimile data as a signal to be transmitted, and a function of answering a voice signal from a partner. Related to those having.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, signals have been exchanged with a partner via a communication line. In recent years, a device connected to a public telephone network has only a telephone function. Not only that, those having an answering machine function and a facsimile communication function have become widespread.

A communication device of this type is described in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1-152852. In this communication device, when the line of the other party is disconnected during communication,
By detecting the busy tone, it immediately stops operating and disconnects the line it was capturing,
This improves the memory utilization efficiency.

[0004]

However, in such a conventional communication device, the signal characteristic of the busy tone is set in advance and compared with the detected signal characteristic to determine whether the signal is a busy tone. Had been determined. For this reason, there is no problem when connected to a line that transmits a busy tone with fixed signal characteristics, but since the characteristics of the busy tone are not always constant depending on the line, it is not possible to detect the busy tone. Sometimes, it doesn't work properly. For example, there are cases where the standard of a signal to be transmitted differs depending on the country or region, or the degree of the line (for example, signal level or noise level) greatly differs depending on the country or region.

[0005] Therefore, the present invention makes it possible to accurately determine a signal to be transmitted in accordance with a connected line, thereby enabling reliable operation of the provided functions and enabling use without limitation of area. The purpose is to do.

[0006]

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a communication apparatus having a function of transmitting a signal through a connected communication line and processing the signal. A characteristic detecting means for detecting characteristics of a signal transmitted on the communication line; a characteristic setting means for setting information for specifying one or more signal types; and information set in the characteristic setting means. Signal determining means for determining the type of the signal detected by the characteristic detecting means based on the control signal, and control means for controlling operation of a function provided based on the determination result of the signal determining means. is there.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in addition to the configuration of the first aspect, as the characteristic detecting means, a frequency detecting means for detecting a frequency of a signal and a level detecting means for detecting a signal level And a time detecting means for detecting a temporal change of the signal, wherein a frequency, a cadence, and a signal level of a dial tone or a busy tone are detected as characteristics of the signal.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in addition to the configuration of the second aspect of the present invention, an answering machine function is provided as the function, and the characteristic setting means determines whether or not the signal is a voice signal. A threshold value of the signal level is set in advance, and the control means controls the operation of the answering machine by the answering machine function based on the judgment result of the signal judgment means.

[0009] The invention according to claim 4 is the invention according to claims 1 to 3.
In addition to the configuration of the invention described in any one of the above, the control means,
An initial setting mode is provided in which a signal transmitted through a communication line is detected by a characteristic detecting unit when a line is closed or a call is made by itself, and information for specifying the signal type is automatically set in the characteristic setting unit. It is characterized by the following. According to the first to fourth aspects of the present invention, the characteristics of a signal transmitted through a line in a certain state, for example, a dial tone or a busy tone, by manually or automatically performing line closing or self-calling. , Cadence, signal level, and the like, and information for specifying the signal type of the detected signal can be set in association with the signal type. Therefore, at the time of the next operation, the signal type can be reliably recognized by comparing and determining the characteristics of the detection signal based on the setting information, and the facsimile communication function and the answering machine function based on the determination result. And the like can be properly operated.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 to 4 show an embodiment of a communication apparatus according to the present invention, and show an example applied to a facsimile apparatus with an answering machine function. First, the configuration will be described.

In FIG. 1, a facsimile apparatus is connected to a telephone line (public line) and executes a predetermined line control at the time of outgoing / incoming calls to connect or disconnect the line.
(Network control device) 11, a modem 12 for modulating and demodulating image data and various procedural signals and transmitting / receiving (transmitting) the image data via the NCU 11, and an image data to be transmitted / copied from the original image with a contact sensor or CCD. A scanner 13 for reading,
A plotter 14 for recording and outputting an image on a recording paper by a recording medium based on the received image data, and an operation unit for an operator to perform input operations such as a destination telephone number and a drive mode
15, a display unit 16 for displaying various information such as driving conditions, device status or input information on an LCD, and information from a sensor 17 for detecting the presence or absence of a document or recording paper, opening and closing of a cover, and the like. Each of the above parts 11-16 based on input information etc.
Are connected via a bus to a controller 18 that controls the entire system.

This facsimile apparatus has a facsimile communication function and can make a call via a handset (not shown). When an answering machine mode is selected when the user is out of the office, an answering machine for recording a message from the other party is provided. The controller 18 has a telephone function.The controller 18 stores parameters used during operation of the internal memory 18a and data necessary for operation in a nonvolatile or temporary manner, and a built-in CPU 18b is stored in the memory 18a in advance. In accordance with the control program, various processes of the present invention are executed together with the basic operation of the facsimile apparatus and the answering machine function.

As shown in FIG. 2, the modem 12 has a function of receiving a tone signal of a connected line via the NCU 11 and detecting the characteristic of the signal. And the like, its signal level (including noise level), candes, and the like. And the controller 18 is a CPU
18b sets various parameters (information) in the memory 18a in accordance with the characteristics of the signal detected by the modem 12, or compares the parameters with the parameters in the memory 18, and operates based on the comparison result during operation. The type of signal is grasped to control each part of the device. That is, the modem 12 constitutes a characteristic detecting means including a frequency detecting means, a level detecting means and a time detecting means, the memory 18b constitutes a characteristic setting means, and the CPU 18b constitutes a signal determining means and a control means. In addition, candes means ON / OFF of the signal.
OFF time (interval).

Next, parameter setting will be described with reference to FIG.
The operation of facsimile communication and message recording when answering machine is set will be described with reference to FIG.
First, as shown in FIG.
When the initial setting mode is executed, for example, by pressing a button, the state is changed to an off-hook state (line closed) (step P
1) It is confirmed whether or not the modem 12 detects a tone signal transmitted from the exchange of the connected telephone line via the NCU 11 (step P2). Is displayed (step P3).

If the connection has been securely established, the modem 12 detects the dial tone in step P2 (step P2), and checks (detects) the characteristics of the dial tone (step P4). The frequency, level, and cadence of the dial tone are stored in the memory 18a (step P5). Next, in the memory 18a, a plurality of types of frequency range, cadence, and level parameters are prepared in advance for dial tone in order to be able to specify even if the signal characteristics differ depending on the region. An optimum parameter for the band-pass filter of the modem 12 which can recognize the dial tone of the signal characteristic detected from the inside is selected and set in the memory 18a (step P6).

When the dial tone setting is completed (step P7), "Dial tone setting completed" or the like is displayed on the display unit 16 (step P8), and the operator is prompted by the display to enter his / her telephone number. The user inputs his / her own call (step P9). In this call, the exchange sends a busy tone.
Thereafter, similarly, the characteristics are checked together with the storage of the busy tone (step P10), and the parameters for the busy tone are set in the memory 18a (step P11).

Next, when the line connection is not performed for a certain period of time, the line is in a silent state, that is, only the noise signal of the line can be detected. Therefore, the noise level is checked and stored. Then, a threshold value that is determined to be noise is set in the memory 18a (step P13), and this processing ends. Therefore, it is possible to set a dial tone or a busy tone corresponding to the characteristics of the exchange of the line to be connected, and a parameter capable of recognizing the line noise level.

After this initial setting, as shown in FIG.
When there is an incoming call with the answering machine mode selected (step P21), first, a "response message" prompting the recording of a "message message" is sent out, and whether or not the other party is a facsimile is determined by the presence or absence of CNG. Is confirmed (step P22). When it is confirmed that it is a facsimile,
The facsimile communication procedure is executed to start receiving the subsequently transmitted facsimile data (image data) (step P23), and after the reception is completed, the end procedure is executed and the processing is terminated.

On the other hand, if CNG is not detected after a certain period of time, recording of a message transmitted via the line is started according to the instruction of the response message (step P24), and the transmitted signal is transmitted. When the voice level is lower than the threshold value for determining whether the level is noise or not, it is determined that no message has been sent (step P25), and the recording is immediately stopped (ended) (step P26). , And this process ends.

If the transmitted signal level is higher than the threshold value and the sound level is higher than the preset recording time and no busy tone is detected (step P27). , P28), the recording is continued, but when the recording time has elapsed or when it is determined that the other party has gone on-hook (line disconnected) by detecting a busy tone, the recording is immediately stopped (step P29), and this processing is performed. finish.

Therefore, the optimum parameters are set in the memory 18a based on the busy tone actually detected at the time of the initial setting and the noise level in the silent state, and the type of the signal transmitted from the exchange of the connected line is determined. Since the busy tone and noise level differ depending on the region and country, it is not possible to determine whether the line has been disconnected or disconnected, etc. It is possible to prevent the recording from continuing for a certain period of time, and it is possible to effectively use the memory 18a.

As described above, in this embodiment, parameters according to the characteristics of a signal transmitted through a communication line, such as the frequency, cadence, and signal level of a dial tone or a busy tone, are set, and during the next operation, the line is disconnected from the line. The transmitted signal can be accurately grasped and the answering machine function can be operated properly. Therefore, even if the installation region or country is changed, it is possible to prevent the provided functions from being disabled by the easy initial setting operation. For this reason, it is not necessary to design and prepare the device for each specific region or country, and the cost can be reduced by reducing the number of models.

In another embodiment of the present invention, an automatic call is made without performing steps P8 and P9 by using the own telephone number set for use in facsimile communication. However, the initial setting work may be fully automated, and the parameters are not prepared in advance, but are based on the actually detected values. A range may be set. With this configuration, it is possible to reduce the initial setting work of the operator, and it is also possible to operate a function to provide a more reliable function by accurately grasping a signal transmitted in an installed area or the like. .

Although the present embodiment describes the busy tone and the noise level, the present invention is also effective when a function using a dial tone is provided, and is not limited thereto. It goes without saying that the signal can be detected accurately.

[0025]

According to the first to fourth aspects of the present invention, information for specifying a signal type to be transmitted on a communication line, such as a dial tone frequency, a busy tone frequency, cadence, and a signal level, is manually stored in advance. Or set it automatically,
By comparing and judging the characteristics of the signal detected at the next operation, the signal transmitted at the time of operation and the state of the line according to the type of signal transmitted on the communication line can be grasped reliably, and the facsimile communication function and answering machine Functions such as a telephone function can be properly operated. Therefore,
It can be used in any country or region without becoming unusable, and it is not necessary to design and manufacture for a specific region.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of a communication apparatus according to the present invention, and is a block diagram showing a schematic overall configuration of an example applied to a facsimile apparatus with an answering machine function.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the exchange of signals of the main part.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a process at the time of initial setting.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a process when the answering machine function operates.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 NCU (network control unit) 12 Modem (characteristic detecting means, frequency detecting means, level detecting means, time detecting means) 13 Scanner 14 Plotter 15 Operation unit 16 Display unit 18 Controller 18a Memory (characteristic setting means) 18b CPU (signal judgment Means, control means)

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A communication device having a function of transmitting a signal through a connected communication line and processing the signal, wherein: a characteristic detecting means for detecting a characteristic of a signal transmitted on the communication line; A characteristic setting unit for setting information for specifying one or more signal types; a signal determining unit for determining a type of a signal detected by the characteristic detecting unit based on the information set in the characteristic setting unit; Control means for controlling the operation of a function provided based on the result of the determination by the signal determination means. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the characteristic detecting means includes a frequency detecting means for detecting a frequency of the signal, a level detecting means for detecting a signal level, and a time detecting means for detecting a temporal change of the signal. 2. The communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a frequency, cadence, and signal level of a dial tone or a busy tone are detected as characteristics of the signal. 3. An answering machine function as the function, wherein a threshold value of a signal level for determining whether or not the signal is a voice signal is preset in the characteristic setting means, and the control means is a signal determination means. The communication device according to claim 2, wherein the operation of the answering machine by the answering machine function is controlled based on the result of the determination. 4. The characteristic setting means, wherein the control means detects a signal transmitted on the communication line at the time of connection with a line or at the time of self-calling by a characteristic detecting means, and transmits information for specifying the signal type to a characteristic setting means. 4. The communication device according to claim 1, further comprising an initial setting mode for automatically setting the communication mode in the communication device.