JP2001016300A - Hand-free phone system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an inexpensive hand-free phone system with excellent operability. SOLUTION: This hand-free phone system is a phone system that is connected to a mobile phone to which registration data relating to a plurality of telephone numbers or the like are registered in advance while being made to correspond to a registration number through a harness. When closing of a switch for retrieving telephone number by a user is detected (ST1), a memory read request including a registration number selected in response to the switch operation is sent to the mobile phone (ST2) and the registration data corresponding to the registration number transferred from the mobile phone are stored in a memory (ST3). The registration data stored in this memory are notified by the user by a voice output, for example (ST4).

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a hands-free telephone device used for a vehicle or the like, and more particularly to a hands-free telephone device having a function of receiving and processing data such as telephone numbers registered in a memory provided in a portable telephone or the like. Related to free telephone equipment.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, automobile telephones have become extremely popular, and in addition to conventional handset telephones, hands-free telephones have been developed in order to avoid one-handed driving during the operation of the handset.

[0003] In this case, since a car-dedicated telephone cannot be used once it has left the car, a conventional general-purpose portable telephone is configured to be connectable to a hands-free set telephone device so that it can be used as a car telephone while riding. so,
There has also been proposed one that can be used as a mobile phone when leaving a car.

A portable telephone generally has a telephone number registration function (phone book function), in which a telephone number and a name (or a name) of the other party are registered in advance in correspondence with the registration number, and the display is operated by button operation. By displaying them, it is possible to eliminate the need to fully dial the telephone number when making a call, thereby improving operability.

[0005] Since the display may not be visible while riding, in a hands-free telephone device, the telephone number or name registered in the telephone is notified by voice output, and the telephone number of the communication partner is searched.・ You can make calls.

In a conventional hands-free telephone device,
When the mobile phone is electrically connected via the harness or a predetermined initial operation is performed after the connection, a memory read request (transfer request) is sent to the mobile phone via a predetermined control line of the harness. In response to the memory read request, the mobile phone reads out all registered data, such as a telephone number and a name, registered in a predetermined area of the memory, and collectively transfers the data to the hands-free telephone device.

[0007] Upon receiving this, the hands-free telephone device
It stores all the registered data transferred to its own memory. When the user operates (presses) a predetermined switch provided in the switch box, the hands-free telephone device firstly registers the registration data corresponding to the registration number (for example, the number corresponding to the number of times the switch is pressed). Then, if the data includes a name, the name is output from the speaker, and if the data does not include the name, the telephone number is output from the speaker. The user judges the name and telephone number output by voice, and if the user is an appropriate call partner, presses the hook switch to make a call, and if not appropriate, performs a similar operation to perform a search. Can be.

[0008]

However, according to the conventional hands-free telephone device, when a portable telephone is connected, all the registered data registered in the portable telephone are transferred to the hands-free telephone device collectively. Since the data is stored in the memory of the hands-free telephone device, it is necessary to secure a sufficient capacity to store all of the registered data transferred in a batch, and a large-capacity memory must be mounted. However, there is a problem that the cost increases.

Similarly, since the data transfer takes a long time, the initial waiting time (the time required until a portable telephone can be connected to a hands-free telephone device to make a call, etc.) is long, and the usability is poor. There was also a problem.

[0010] Further, when the registration contents of the portable telephone are added or changed while the portable telephone is connected to the hands-free telephone device, the registered contents of the portable telephone differ from the registered contents of the hands-free telephone device. There is a problem that a so-called wrong call may be made.

The present invention has been made in view of such problems of the prior art, and has as its object to provide a low-cost, easy-to-use, hands-free telephone device.

[0012]

In order to achieve the above object, in a hands-free telephone device (1) of the present invention, a plurality of registration data are registered in advance in correspondence with identification information (for example, registration number). In the hands-free telephone device to which the telephone (2) is connected, when a user performs a predetermined input operation (ST1), a transfer request including identification information selected by the input operation is sent to the telephone (ST2). The registration data corresponding to the identification information transferred from the telephone is stored in a memory (ST3).

In this case, although not particularly limited,
The content of the registration data stored in the memory may be output as audio. If the user does not perform an operation for making a call after a predetermined period of time has elapsed since the registration data transferred from the telephone is stored in the memory, the registration data is stored in the memory. The registered data can be deleted.

According to the hands-free telephone device of the present invention,
When the user performs an input operation, the registration data corresponding to the identification information selected by this operation is individually transferred from the telephone and stored in the memory. As described above, since the registered data is individually transferred at the time of the input operation and stored in the memory, compared with the conventional method in which all the registered data is collectively transferred and stored in the memory, The amount of memory used can be significantly reduced, a small-capacity memory can be employed, and costs can be reduced.

Further, since the registration data is individually transferred, the time required for the processing accompanying this transfer is short, and the initial waiting time can be shortened, so that the usability can be improved.

Further, even if the registered contents of the portable telephone are added or changed while the portable telephone is connected to the hands-free telephone device, the latest registration data of the portable telephone is stored in the memory of the hands-free telephone device. , So that scheduled processing can be performed without any problem.

[0017]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an external view showing a hands-free telephone device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a circuit block diagram of the embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a main part of processing in the embodiment.

The hands-free telephone device 1 of the present embodiment is
The mobile phone 2 can be connected to be used as an automobile phone or as a general-purpose mobile phone itself, and includes a controller 11 and an operating device 12.

The operating unit 12 has a built-in external microphone 121 for taking in a voice of a user (a user of the hands-free telephone device, for example, a driver) to be transmitted to the other party. Further, a hook switch 122 operated at the time of making and receiving a call, and an up switch 123 and a down switch 124 for searching and selecting the other party's telephone number using a telephone directory function when making a call and selecting various operations. Is provided as a button-type switch. For example, in the case of a right-hand drive vehicle, the operating device 12 is attached to a right front pillar in a room, so that the driver can operate the operating device as it is.

As shown in FIG. 2, the operating device 12 and a controller 11 described later are connected by a harness 125 having a 4-pole pin jack. Two of the four poles are a power line 125a and a ground line. 125d, and the remaining two poles are signal lines 125b and 125c.

One of the signal lines 125b is connected to the external microphone 121, and transmits the audio signal input to the external microphone 121. On the other hand, the other signal line 125c transmits switch signals from three operation switches 122, 123, and 124 provided on the operation device 12.

On the other hand, the controller 11 has a built-in external speaker 111 for outputting a voice from a communication partner, guidance of a telephone number, and the like to the room, and the controller 11 is disposed at an appropriate place in the vehicle compartment. I will The controller 11 is supplied with 12V power from a vehicle-mounted battery by a power harness 115 and is connected to the mobile phone 2 by a telephone harness 116 having a 16-core connector 116Z.

The voice signal of the other party received by the mobile telephone 2 reaches the reception voice terminal 116a through the telephone harness 116, is subjected to voice processing by the voice processing circuit 117, and is subjected to echo for preventing howling. The signal is output from an external speaker 111 via an attenuator control circuit 118 as a cancel circuit and a power amplifier 119.

On the other hand, the external microphone 12 of the operating device 12
The driver's voice signal input from 1 is transmitted through a signal line 12.
5b, the signal reaches the audio processing circuit 117, where the audio is processed, and then transmitted from the transmission audio terminal 116b to the mobile phone 2 through the telephone harness 116.

Incidentally, of the signal line terminals of the telephone harness 116, 116c is a reception serial signal terminal, 1
Reference numeral 16d denotes a transmission serial signal terminal for exchanging control signals and data between the mobile phone 2 and the communication processing circuit of the microcomputer 114.

In the operating device 12, two signal lines 12 of the harness 125 having a 4-pole pin jack are used.
5b and 125c are connected to the first input port 112 and the second input port 113 of the microcomputer 114, respectively, and the three operation switches 122, 123, and 124 are determined using these two signal lines.

The microcomputer 114 of the controller 11
Are the operation switches 122, 123, and 124 of the operation device 12.
In addition to various controls in accordance with operation signals from the user, the driver's voice signal input to the external microphone 121 is transmitted to the mobile phone 2.
, And control to output the voice signal of the other party sent from the mobile phone 2 to the external speaker 111.

The hands-free telephone device 1 has a telephone number search function by voice guidance in cooperation with the telephone directory function (telephone number registration function) of the portable telephone 2. The telephone directory function of the mobile phone 2 registers a telephone number and a partner name (or name) in a memory in advance corresponding to a registration number (identification information) such as a memory address, and designates a registration number or the like as necessary. This function sets the corresponding telephone number as a calling telephone number. Although not particularly limited, in this embodiment, it is assumed that the number of registration data is 100 and the registration numbers are “00” to “99”.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing processing by the microcomputer 114 of the hands-free telephone device 1 when the telephone number search function is realized by voice guidance.

First, the user performs a predetermined operation for instructing a telephone directory search (here, for example, an operation of turning on (pressing) the up switch 123 or the down switch 124 of the operation device 12). Note that the default registration number at this time is “00”, and when the up switch 123 is turned on once at a predetermined interval, the registration number becomes “0”.
The registration number can be designated by the number of times the up switch 123 is turned on, such as "1" turned on twice, "02" turned on three times, "03" turned on three times, and so on. Each time the up switch 123 is turned on once, the designated registration number increases (increases) by one. On the contrary, each time the down switch 124 is turned on, the designated registration number decreases (decreases) by one. It has become. However, the method of specifying and inputting the registration number is determined by the switches 123 and 124.
The input is not limited to the operation described above, but may be designated and input in another method or according to other specifications.

In FIG. 3, the switch 12 is
3 and 124 are turned on (here, the up switch 123
Alternatively, when the down switch 124 is turned on once, the microcomputer 114 detects this (ST1) and requests the memory read request including the registration number (here, “00”) selected and confirmed by this operation. (Transfer request) is sent to the mobile phone 2 (ST2).

Control device (not shown) of mobile phone 2 that has received a memory read request from microcomputer 114
Reads out the registration data (here, the telephone number and the name of the other party) corresponding to the registration number “00” from the memory of the mobile phone 2 and transfers it to the microcomputer 114. The microcomputer 114 receives the registration data from the mobile phone 2,
The registration data is stored in a RAM (random access memory) 114a (ST3).

Next, the microcomputer 114
Regarding the registered data transferred and stored in the RAM 114a, the contents of the registration number (that is, the registration number set in the memory read request) and the contents of the registered data transferred from the mobile phone 2 and stored in the RAM 114a are transmitted to the speaker 111. A process for outputting voice through the terminal is performed (ST4).

This audio output processing is executed as follows. That is, in the speech synthesis ROM 114b of FIG.
Speech data is stored in correspondence with so-called 50 tones (including voiced sounds, semi-voiced sounds, murmurs, etc.) and specific character strings. The voice data is extracted and the microcomputer 11
The audio signal is converted into an audio signal by a sound source circuit (not shown) included in the power amplifier 4, and is sent to the power amplifier 119, and a corresponding audio guide is output from the speaker 111.

In this embodiment, the telephone number and the name of the other party are registered as registration data.
The audio output in this case is performed for the name of the other party. If the registration data contains only the telephone number and does not include the name of the other party, voice output is performed for the telephone number.

Next, it is determined whether or not the hook switch 122 has been pressed (ST5).
The telephone number in the registration data stored and held in the AM 114a is set as a calling telephone number, and a predetermined calling process is performed (S
T6), and then proceed to ST8. If the hook switch 122 is not pressed in ST5, it is determined whether or not a predetermined time has elapsed (ST5).
7) If the predetermined time has not elapsed, the process returns to ST5, and if the predetermined time has elapsed, the process proceeds to ST8, where R
The registration data stored and held in the AM 114a is deleted (memory clear), and this process ends.

According to the above-described embodiment, when the user performs an input operation using the switches 123 and 124, the registration data corresponding to the registration number (identification information) selected and confirmed by the operation is individually stored in the mobile phone. 2 and stored in the RAM 114a (memory). As described above, the registered data is individually transferred according to the input operation by the user and stored in the memory, so that a plurality of registered data are collectively transferred and stored in the memory as in the related art. In comparison, the memory usage can be significantly reduced. Therefore, a small-capacity memory can be used, and cost can be reduced.

Further, when the user performs a predetermined input operation, the single registration data is individually transferred, so that the time required for the processing accompanying this transfer is very short, and the operability is low. Does not impair. In addition, in the initial processing executed immediately after the mobile phone 2 is connected to the hands-free telephone device 1, there is no need to transfer the registration data of the mobile phone 2 to the hands-free telephone device 1. It can be shortened, and usability can be improved.

Further, even when the registration data registered in the memory of the portable telephone 2 is added or the contents thereof are changed while the portable telephone 2 is connected to the hands-free telephone device 1, the portable telephone 2 may be used. The latest registration data of the telephone 2 is stored in the memory (RAM 11) of the hands-free telephone 1.
Since it is stored in 4a), there is no possibility that voice guidance of contents different from the registered contents of the mobile phone 2 is performed and a so-called wrong call is made.

The embodiments described above are described for facilitating the understanding of the present invention, and are not described for limiting the present invention. Therefore, each element disclosed in the above embodiment is intended to include all design changes and equivalents belonging to the technical scope of the present invention.

For example, in the above-described embodiment, the registration data relating to the telephone number registered in the memory of the portable telephone is transferred and stored in the memory of the hands-free telephone device. However, the present invention is not limited to this. Of course, other data stored in the memory of the mobile phone may be transferred and stored in the memory.
Further, the present invention is not limited to the case where the content of the data is guided by voice, and may be the case where the content is displayed on a display.

[0042]

As described above, according to the present invention, an inexpensive hands-free telephone device having good operability is provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external view showing an embodiment of a hands-free telephone device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a circuit block diagram showing an embodiment of the hands-free telephone device of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a main part of processing in the hands-free telephone device of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Hands-free telephone apparatus 11 ... Controller 111 ... External speaker 114 ... Microcomputer 114a ... RAM (memory) 114b ... Voice synthesis ROM 12 ... Operating device 121 ... External microphone 122 ... Hook switch 123 ... Up switch 124 ... Down switch 2 … Mobile phone (telephone)

Claims (3)

[Claims] In a hands-free telephone device to which a telephone having a plurality of registered data corresponding to identification information registered in advance is connected, when a user performs a predetermined input operation, the selected data is selected by the input operation. A hands-free telephone device, comprising: transmitting a transfer request including identification information to the telephone; and storing registration data corresponding to the identification information transferred from the telephone in a memory. 2. The hands-free telephone device according to claim 1, wherein the contents of the registration data stored in the memory are output as voice. 3. If the user does not perform an operation for making a call even after a predetermined period of time has elapsed after storing the registration data transferred from the telephone in the memory, 3. The hands-free telephone device according to claim 1, wherein the registration data stored in the memory is deleted.