JPH10271206A - Automatic answering telephone system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an automatic answering telephone system which can reduce the occurrence rate of transmission message erasing due to erroneous operation. SOLUTION: An incoming call is detected by connection to a telephone line through a line control part 20, and a line is connected in accordance with incoming for absence setting to store a transmission message in a RAM 70 for voice data, and an erase attribute showing.whether this transmission message can be erased or not is set in a RAM 71 for management information by a control part 40, and the control part 40 individually erases transmission messages while discriminating whether they can be erased or not based on erase attributes. Thus, the occurrence rate of transmission message erasing due to erroneous operation is reduced to improve the convenience for transmission message erasing.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an answering machine, and more particularly to an answering machine capable of individually deleting recorded voice messages.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in this type of answering machine, when an incoming call is set, an incoming call is detected, a connection with a partner device is established in accordance with a predetermined procedure, and a transmission message from the partner device is transmitted. It is stored in an audio recording medium. The stored transmission message can be reproduced via an output device such as a speaker, and the operator confirms the transmission message, and the unnecessary transmission message is determined based on a predetermined key operation. Had been individually erased.

[0003]

The above-mentioned conventional answering machine has the following problems.

Since a transmitted message is erased based on a predetermined key operation, an erroneous operation sometimes erases an originally required transmitted message. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and has as its object to provide an answering machine that can reduce the occurrence rate of transmission message deletion due to erroneous operation.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 is connected to a telephone line, detects an incoming call, connects the line according to the incoming call at the time of setting of absence, and sets the connection destination. An answering machine for storing an outgoing message sent from a telephone in a predetermined storage medium; an erasing attribute storing means for storing an erasing attribute indicating whether or not the utterance message stored in the answering machine can be erased; An erasure attribute setting means for setting an erasure attribute in the erasure attribute storage means; and
A transmission message erasing means capable of individually erasing transmission messages while judging whether or not erasure is possible based on the erasure attribute is provided.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, when the answering machine detects an incoming call from the telephone line when the answering machine is set, the answering machine connects to the line, and transmits a transmission message from the connection destination to a predetermined storage medium. Remember. The deletion attribute setting means can set a deletion attribute indicating whether or not deletion is possible for the transmission message stored as described above,
The erasure attribute set here is stored in the erasure attribute storage means. Needless to say, the erasure attribute setting means can not only add the erasure attribute to a transmission message having no erasure attribute but also change the erasure attribute once set.

By the way, the erasure attribute is simply information indicating whether or not a recorded transmission message can be erased.
Either “erasable” or “non-erasable” information is set. Therefore, the invention according to claim 2 is
2. The answering machine according to claim 1, wherein said erasing attribute setting means assigns a predetermined erasing attribute to said outgoing message when said answering machine stores the outgoing message. The configuration is such that it is stored in the storage means.

That is, when the answering machine stores the transmitted message, the erasure attribute setting means sets one of "erasable" and "erasable" as a default erasure attribute for the transmitted message. An erasure attribute is set and stored in the erasure attribute storage means. Therefore,
The deletion attribute is changed by the deletion attribute setting means only for the transmission message for which the default deletion attribute is to be changed. As a specific example of the invention according to claim 2 having the above-described configuration, the invention according to claim 3 is characterized in that, in the answering machine according to claim 2, the deletion attribute setting means is configured to store the transmission message when the transmission message is stored. In this configuration, an erasable attribute is set uniformly, and erasing is disabled individually.

That is, if a transmitted message that can be deleted is compared with a transmitted message that the user wants to keep without being deleted, the latter is generally rarer. “Erasable” is set as an attribute, and “deletable” is set for each outgoing message as needed. In addition, various configurations can be considered as a specific configuration for setting the erasure attribute. As an example, the answering machine according to claim 4 is an answering machine according to any one of claims 1 to 3. In the apparatus, the answering machine can reproduce the stored transmission message, and the deletion attribute setting unit sets the deletion attribute of the transmission message during reproduction of one transmission message by the answering machine. There is a configuration to do.

[0010] In the invention according to the fourth aspect, the answering machine plays back the stored transmission message, and the erasure attribute setting means performs playback of one transmission message in the answering machine. Set the deletion attribute of the transmission message. That is, it is inevitable for the operator to play back the transmitted voice message recorded during the absence, and the reproduction of the transmitted voice message and the setting of the deletion attribute are performed in parallel. By the way, the transmission message stored by the answering machine can be individually deleted by the transmission message deletion unit, but what is deleted here is set as "deletion possible" in the deletion attribute. Sent messages set only to transmission messages and set to “deletion impossible” cannot be deleted unless the deletion attribute is changed by the deletion attribute setting means. If the transmission message is deleted, it goes without saying that the deletion attribute corresponding to the transmission message is also deleted from the deletion attribute storage means.

[0011] Further, the transmission message erasing means includes:
The transmitted messages can be deleted individually, and of course, the transmitted messages can be collectively deleted. Although the term "collective erasure" is used herein, it does not only mean that all the transmission messages stored by the above-mentioned answering machine are deleted, but also includes that a certain amount of transmission data is collectively deleted. . As an example of a preferable configuration using such batch erasing, the answering machine according to claim 5 is the answering machine according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the transmission message erasing means includes:
In the above-described deletion attribute, the transmission message that can be deleted is collectively deleted.

[0012] In the invention according to claim 5 having the above configuration, when the transmission message erasing means deletes the transmission message, the transmission message erasing means refers to the erasure attribute stored in the erasure attribute storage means, and sets the erasure attribute to the same. To delete all transmitted messages set as "clearable".

[0013]

As described above, the present invention reduces the occurrence rate of transmission message deletion due to erroneous operation,
It is possible to provide an answering machine that can improve the convenience when deleting a transmission message.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the transmission message to be recorded is provided with "erasable" as a default erasure attribute, so that the transmission message that the operator wants to keep without deleting it. It is only necessary to change the erasing attribute of the user and the operation is not troublesome. Further, according to the third aspect of the present invention, the reproduction of the transmission message and the deletion attribute can be performed in parallel, resulting in high efficiency. Furthermore, according to the fourth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to collectively delete the transmission messages for which the deletion attribute is set to be erasable, so that the operability can be improved.

[0015]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an answering machine according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, the answering machine 10 is connected to a general telephone line via a line control unit 20, detects an incoming call, makes a ringing device (not shown) ring the sound, and a hook-type transmission / reception unit 30. When the user goes off-hook, the line is connected and transmission / reception with the connection destination is enabled.

Further, the answering machine 10 is provided with a control unit 40 for performing various controls as described later, and an operation panel 50 is connected to the control unit 40. The operation panel 50 includes four push-down operation keys and a liquid crystal display 55 as shown in FIG.
0 at a predetermined location on the surface of the housing. Here, the absence setting key 51 can be set by alternately switching between the absence setting state and the non-absence setting state each time the key is depressed once. After the ringing is counted a predetermined number of times without being off-hook, the line controller 20 is connected to the line. Then, voice data for guidance during absence recorded in a ROM (not shown) is taken out, and D / A
After conversion and conversion to an analog audio signal, the signal is transmitted via the line control unit 20 to enter a recording standby state. Thereafter, when a transmission message, which is an analog voice signal, is transmitted from the connection destination via the line control unit 20, the transmission message is converted into digital voice data by the A / D conversion unit 60. Are input to the control unit 40.

A voice data RAM 70 for storing digital voice data is connected to the control unit 40. The control unit 40 stores the input digital voice data in the voice data RAM 70. In this sense, the line control unit 20 and the control unit 40 to the voice data R
The AM 70 constitutes the answering machine. In the present embodiment, it is assumed that connection is made to an analog line, but connection to a digital line such as ISDN is also possible and may be changed as appropriate. However, in this case, it is needless to say that it is necessary to arrange the D / A converter in an appropriate position and to remove an unnecessary A / D converter as needed.

Further, the present embodiment has a so-called voice memo function that can record an operator's voice instead of a memo, and when a predetermined key operation is performed while the transmission / reception unit 30 is in an off-hook state, control is performed. The unit 40 detects that the voice memo function is used, and stores the voice input by the operator via the transmission / reception unit 30 in the voice data RAM 70 in the same manner as described above. Therefore, in the voice data RAM 70, there are two types of voice data, that is, a transmission message from the connection destination stored during the absence setting and a voice memo stored by the voice memo function.

The control unit 40 stores the voice data in the voice data RAM 70 as described above,
A management information RAM 71 is provided to store individual management information for each audio data. For details, RAM 7 for management information
The memory space of No. 1 is tabulated as shown in FIG. 3, and includes a voice type indicating a transmission message (“message” in the figure) or a voice memo (“memo” in the figure), and a voice data erasure. An erasure attribute indicating whether or not the recording is possible, a recording start time, and an audio data R
A record consisting of four fields with the storage address in the AM 70 is stored for each audio data. Therefore, in this sense, the management information RAM 71 corresponds to an erasure attribute storage unit. In the present embodiment, the audio data RAM 70 and the management information RAM 71 are provided separately, but needless to say, it is not necessary to physically separate the two, and they may be constituted by one RAM. It can be changed as appropriate.

The procedure for storing the management information is performed according to the flowchart shown in FIG. In the figure, first, the control unit 40 detects whether the voice data input in step S100 is a transmission message or a voice memo at the time of the absence setting, and stores it in a memory (not shown) in the control unit 40.
At 110, an attribute of "erasable" is set as the erase attribute in the same memory. That is, here, the audio data RAM 7
For the audio data stored in 0, an erasure attribute of “erasable” is given as a default erasure attribute. Of course,
Although it is possible to set “cannot be erased” as the default erase attribute, the latter is rarer if you compare the audio data that can be erased with the audio data that you want to keep without erasing. It is advantageous to set an erasure attribute of “erasable” in advance and change the erasure attribute as needed.

Thereafter, in step S120, the current time is obtained from a clock circuit (not shown) and stored in the memory. In step S130, the audio data RAM 70 for the audio data is obtained.
Is obtained and stored in the memory similarly. Then, in step S140, the voice data is stored in the voice data RAM 70 based on the storage address. When the storage of the voice data is completed, the information held in the memory in steps S100 to S130 is stored in step S150. It is written into the management information RAM 71 as one record.

On the other hand, the control unit 40 has a program execution environment such as a CPU and a work RAM (not shown), and executes a monitoring program having a flowchart shown in FIG. Is always monitored. In the figure, the pressing of the lock key 52 is monitored in step S210, and when the pressing is detected, a locking process described later is executed in step S210. If the press is not detected here, the process shifts to step S220 to move the monitoring target to the erase key 53 and monitor the press of the erase key 53. Then, step S2
When the depression of the erase key 53 is detected at 20, an erase process described later is executed at step S230. On the other hand,
If the press of the erase key 53 is not detected in step S220, the press of the play key 54 is monitored in step S240.
Although the reproduction process described later is performed at 250, if the press is not detected, the process loops back to step S200 to repeat the above-described process. That is, if the processing speed of the control unit 40 is sufficiently high, the lock key 52 to the reproduction key 5
As long as none of the four keys are depressed, step S2
00, step S220, and step S240 are shifted at high speed. Therefore, the program shown in FIG. 5 always monitors the lock key 52 to the reproduction key 54. When one of the keys is depressed, the program is temporarily stopped, and the processing corresponding to the depressed key is performed. become.

FIG. 6 shows the reproduction process (step S250).
FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the lock process (step S230), and FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the erasure process (step S210). In FIG. 6, when the reproduction key 54 is depressed, it is detected whether or not there is audio data recorded in step S300. That is, in this step S300, the management information RAM 71 is searched to detect the presence or absence of management information. When it is detected that the management information is present, the reproduction of the audio data is started based on the storage address of the audio data RAM 70 stored as the management information in step S310, and the reproduction process is started normally. If so, a predetermined return value is returned to the monitoring program. Then, the monitoring program starts monitoring the pressing operation of the lock key 52 to the reproduction key 54 again as described above.

On the other hand, the reproduction process is continued,
The audio data is sequentially read out based on the storage address, converted into an analog audio signal by the D / A conversion unit 80, and then reproduced via the reproduction unit 90. Then, when the reproduction of the audio data corresponding to all the management information stored in the management information RAM 71 is completed, the reproduction processing ends. In the present embodiment, when the storage address of the audio data RAM 70 is taken out from the management information, the data is reproduced in ascending order in ascending order using the recording start time in the management information as a key. Audio data is also output in the order of the recording start time. Of course, the method of reproducing the audio data is not particularly limited, and various modes can be applied as long as at least the audio data stored in the audio data RAM 70 can be reproduced. In this embodiment, the transmitted message and the voice memo are reproduced without distinction. However, in view of the fact that the management information has a voice type for identifying the both, only the transmitted message is considered. Can be reproduced, and conversely, only the voice memo can be reproduced, and may be appropriately changed.

When the lock key 52 is depressed during the reproduction of the audio data as described above, the lock processing shown in the flowchart of FIG. 7 is executed. This lock process changes the erasure attribute in the management information for the audio data being reproduced, and in this sense, the control unit 40 constitutes an erasure attribute setting unit. In the figure, it is determined whether or not audio data is being reproduced in step S400. On the other hand, if it is determined in step S400 that audio data is being reproduced, the process proceeds to step S410.
Then, the erasing attribute of the audio data being reproduced is detected. If the erasing attribute is "erasable", the erasing attribute is rewritten to "erasable" in step S420, and the operation is performed in step S430. The information is displayed on the liquid crystal display 55 of the panel 50. On the other hand, if the deletion attribute of the audio data being reproduced is detected as “deletion impossible” in step S410, the process proceeds to step S440.
After the erasing attribute of the audio data is rewritten to "erasable" in step S450, the fact is displayed on the liquid crystal display 55 in step S450.

As described above, in the initial state, the erasure attribute of all audio data is set to "erasable".
For audio data that should not be erased, the lock key 52 is depressed during the reproduction of the audio data, and the erasure attribute is set to “non-erasable”. As a result, even if an erroneous operation is performed, the voice data is not directly deleted, so that it is less likely that necessary voice data is deleted by mistake.

After the voice data is reproduced as described above and the necessary voice data erasure attribute is set to "erasable", the voice data for which the erasure attribute is set to "erasable" are collectively erased. It is preferable if it can. Therefore, such batch erasing is performed by the above erasing process, and in this sense, the control unit 40 constitutes a transmission message erasing unit. In FIG. 8, in step S500, the management information RAM 71 is searched to determine whether or not there is audio data. When there is audio data, in step S510, a memory pointer is set in the first management information (record). . Then, step 52
0, the erasure attribute is acquired based on the memory pointer. If the erasure attribute is “erasable”, the storage address of the audio data stored in the audio data RAM 70 is acquired in step S530, and Delete the audio data based on the audio data. When the erasure of the audio data is completed, the management information in which the memory pointer is set is erased, and it is detected in step S540 whether or not the management information still remains. Here, if the management information does not remain, the process ends. If the management information remains, the procedure S
At 550, the memory pointer is set in the next management information, and the process loops back to step S520. On the other hand, in the management information in which the memory pointer is set in the step S520, if the erasure attribute is “erasable”, the step S530 is skipped so that the corresponding audio data is not erased, and the process proceeds to the step S540. , And the above-described processing is repeated. By adopting such a processing flow, it is possible to collectively delete only the audio data for which the deletion attribute is set to “erasable”, thereby improving operability.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. The answering machine 10 is operated by a setting key 51 on the operation panel 50.
Each time is depressed once, it is possible to switch between the absence setting state and the non-absence setting state, and the control unit 40 determines that there is an incoming call in the absence setting state, after ringing for a predetermined number of times. Then, the line controller 20 is connected to the line and responds with a predetermined absence guidance to enter a state for recording a transmission message. The transmission message received from the connection destination via the line control unit 20 is converted into digital voice data by the A / D conversion unit 60 and input to the control unit 40.

When storing the input audio data in the audio data RAM 70, the control unit 40 sets the audio type of the audio data, the recording start time, the audio data RAM
At the same time as obtaining the storage address of 70, "erase possible" is set as the erase attribute, and these four types of information are collectively held as one management information. Then, the audio data is stored in the audio data RAM 7 based on the acquired storage address.
0 and store the management information in the RA for management information.
Store it in M71.

To reproduce the audio data stored in this manner, the user depresses the reproduction key 54 of the operation panel 50. Then, the control unit 40 searches the management information RAM 71 to detect whether or not there is recorded audio data (step S300), and if there is the audio data, starts reproducing (step S310). At this time, since the control unit 40 sorts the management information stored in the management information RAM 71 in ascending order using the recording start time as a key, the storage addresses of the audio data RAM 70 are sequentially extracted from the earliest audio data. Will be. Then, the control unit 40 extracts audio data from the audio data RAM 70 based on the extracted storage address, converts the audio data into an analog audio signal in the D / A conversion unit 80, and outputs the audio via the reproduction unit 90. . When the reproduction of one audio data is completed in this way, the control unit 40 retrieves the storage address of the next audio data, and reproduces the audio data in the same manner.

At the time of reproducing such audio data,
To change the deletion attribute, the lock key 52 of the operation panel 50 is depressed during the reproduction of the audio data. Then, the control unit 40 rewrites the voice data so as to invert the deletion attribute (steps S420 and S44).
0), the fact is displayed on the liquid crystal display 55 of the operation panel 50 (step S430, step S450). After the erasure attribute is set as described above, when the voice data for which the erasure attribute is set to “erasable” is to be collectively erased, the erase key 53 is depressed. Then, the control unit 40 sets a memory pointer in the top management information of the management information RAM 71 (step S5).
10), the erasure attribute in the management information is acquired, and it is detected whether or not “erasable” is set (step S520). If “erasable” is set here, the storage address of the audio data corresponding to the management information is obtained, and the corresponding audio data is deleted based on the storage address and the management information is deleted (procedure S530) On the other hand, if “deletion impossible” is set, the audio data is not deleted. When the erasing process is completed for one audio data in this way, it is detected whether or not the management information still remains (step S540). If the management information remains, the memory pointer is set to the next management information and the above-mentioned memory information is set. The same processing as that described above is repeated, and when the last management information is reached, the processing ends.

As described above, the telephone line is connected to the telephone line via the line control unit 20 to detect the incoming call, and the line is connected according to the incoming call when the answering machine is set to send the voice message to the voice data RAM.
70, and the control unit 40 stores a deletion attribute indicating whether or not the transmission message can be deleted in the management information RAM 7.
1 and the control unit 40 individually deletes the transmitted messages while judging whether or not deletion is possible based on the deletion attribute, thereby reducing the rate of occurrence of transmitted message deletion due to erroneous operation. In addition, it is possible to provide an answering machine that can improve the convenience when deleting a transmission message.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a front view of an operation panel.

FIG. 3 is a table showing a storage format of management information.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a procedure for storing management information and audio data.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a monitoring program.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a procedure of a reproduction process.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of a lock process.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of an erasing process.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Answering machine 20 ... Line control part 30 ... Transmission / reception part 40 ... Control part 50 ... Operation panel 60 ... A / D conversion part 70 ... RAM for audio data 71 ... RAM for management information 80 ... D / A conversion part 90 … Reproduction unit

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. An answering machine connected to a telephone line for detecting an incoming call, connecting to a line in response to an incoming call during an answering setting, and storing a transmission message from a connection destination in a predetermined storage medium; An erasing attribute storing means for storing an erasing attribute indicating whether or not erasing is possible for the transmitted message stored in the answering machine; an erasing attribute setting means for setting an erasing attribute in the erasing attribute storing means; A means for erasing the transmitted message stored by the means, wherein the transmitted message can be individually deleted while determining whether or not the transmitted message can be deleted based on the deletion attribute. Answering machine. 2. The answering machine according to claim 1, wherein said erasure attribute setting means sets a predetermined erasure attribute to said outgoing message when said answering machine stores said outgoing message. An answering machine, wherein the information is provided and stored in the erasure attribute storage means. 3. An answering machine according to claim 2, wherein said erasure attribute setting means uniformly sets an erasable attribute for erasure when storing said outgoing message, and individually sets erasure disabled. An answering machine characterized by the above-mentioned. 4. The answering machine according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein said answering machine is capable of reproducing the stored transmission message, and said erasing attribute setting means is capable of reproducing said stored message. An answering machine which sets an erasure attribute of a transmitted message during reproduction of the transmitted message by the recording means. 5. The telephone answering machine according to claim 1, wherein said transmission message erasing means deletes the erasable transmission messages collectively in said deletion attribute. Featured answering machine