JP2001028646A - Recorder for telephone line - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a recorder that clears suspicion about a telephone charge and verifies frequency of use of a telephone line possessed by a user himself by collating its own recording with a speech recording of services sent from a telephone company through the sequential recording of a state of use or the telephone line or a telephone set. SOLUTION: The recorder is connected to a telephone line or a telephone set and builds in a CPU 21, a clock section 22, a storage section 23, and a sensor 25 monitoring a signal delivered through a telephone line 24. When the sensor 25 senses the arrival of an incoming call to the telephone line and call transmission, the CPU 21 inquires of the clock section 22 about a current time, stores a time returned from the clock section 22 as a line use start time to the storage section 23, and when the sensor 25 senses the end of the arrival of an incoming call to the telephone line or of the call transmission, the CPU 21 inquires of the clock section 22 about a current time, stores a time returned from the clock section 22 to the storage section 23 a line use end time and the recorder can electrically output a list of the line use start time and the line use end time stored in the storage section 23.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for recording a call time and a call destination in a general home telephone and recording the use time of a telephone or the like which allows the user to refer to the recorded contents by himself. is there.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Recently, not only a telephone but also a facsimile apparatus or a modem connected to a personal computer are often connected to a home telephone line.

[0003] Among these, some facsimile machines have a function of receiving and transmitting a document by normal image transfer, and of automatically printing a communication record every fixed number of times of communication.

[0004] On the other hand, some ordinary telephones simply have an answering machine recording function and a redialing function, but there is no model such as the facsimile apparatus described above in which a call record is printed and remains.

[0005]

The record of the telephone history printed by the facsimile apparatus is only the communication record of the facsimile, and the usage time of other telephones and modems is not recorded. I had no idea how much the family used the phone.

Some telephone companies have a service that allows call records to be sent at regular intervals, such as every month. If this service is used, the usage frequency and charge of the telephone and the like at one's home can be determined at a glance.

[0007] However, even if the user tries to verify or confirm the contents of the communication record sent from the telephone company himself, there is no record of the telephone call or communication other than by the facsimile machine, so even if he tries to confirm it, it is impossible. It was possible.

For this reason, for example, even if a call record from a telephone company includes a call record that the user does not remember, the only option is to pay the fee by believing the record of the telephone company.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above circumstances, the present invention records the use of telephone lines at home one by one, thereby collating with telephone call records of services sent from a telephone company to raise doubts about telephone charges. It is an object of the present invention to provide a device which can eliminate the problem or verify the frequency of use of the telephone line at home.

[0010]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention relates to an apparatus for connecting to a telephone line or a telephone, and includes a CPU, a clock unit, a storage unit, and a telephone line. A built-in sensor that monitors the signal.When the sensor detects the start of incoming and outgoing calls on the telephone line, the CPU queries the clock unit for the current time, and the time returned from the clock unit is stored in the storage unit as the line use start time. When the sensor detects the termination of the incoming and outgoing calls of the telephone line, the CPU inquires the clock unit of the current time, and stores the time returned from the clock unit in the storage unit as the end of the line use. Is a telephone line recording device capable of electrically outputting a list of line use start time and line use end time stored in the telephone line.

Further, the sensor may detect a dial or tone signal flowing after the telephone line goes off-hook, recognize the destination telephone number, and store the destination telephone number in the storage unit.

[0012]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a connection state of a recording apparatus according to the present invention. In this case, a serial cable 10 is connected to an existing telephone 6, a facsimile apparatus 7, and a personal computer 9. The connected modem 8
When viewed from the modular jack 5 side, a bus is connected to the telephone line 4 in the order of the modem 8, the facsimile device 7, and the telephone 6.

When the recording apparatus 1 is introduced, the terminal 2 is connected to the modular jack 5 of the telephone line 4 and the terminal 3 is connected to the modem 8 between the modular jack 5 and the modem 8 connected first. Connection between the modular jack 5 in the telephone line 4 and various communication devices.

When the recording apparatus 1 uses each device,
A signal flowing between the terminals 2 and 3 is monitored to detect on-hook and off-hook when each device uses the telephone line 4 and to detect a tone or pulse signal for dialing.

As shown in FIG. 2, the recording device 1 has a C
PU 21, clock unit 22, storage unit 23, and sensor 25
The sensor 25 monitors various signals flowing through the telephone line 24 between the terminal 2 and the terminal 3, and the CPU 21 transmits a command corresponding thereto.

The clock section 22 recognizes the current time, and returns the current time according to an instruction from the CPU 21. If a calendar function is incorporated, the clock section 22 can recognize the date. Has become.

The time required for a call can be as short as a few seconds to as long as several hours.
It is preferable that the time can be recognized in units of hours, minutes, seconds, and hairs. However, if high accuracy is not required, the unit may be in units of hours, minutes, and seconds.

The storage unit 23 is composed of a rewritable element such as a FEEPROM, which has a storage durability and
In a predetermined pattern, it is possible to record a time signal from the clock unit 22 and a destination dial number recognized from a tone or pulse signal flowing through the telephone line 24.

First, a case where an incoming call is received on a telephone line will be described.

When the telephone 6 has a ring tone, the recording device 1 of the present invention reads the incoming signal by the sensor 25 and enters a standby state.

Next, when the sensor 25 detects an off-hook state of picking up the receiver of the telephone 6, the CPU 21 of the recording device 1
Inquires of the clock unit 22 about the current time, and stores the time returned from the clock unit 22 in the storage unit 23 as the call / communication start time.

Further, when the sensor 25 detects on-hook after the end of the call, the CPU 21 inquires of the clock unit 22 about the current time, and stores the time returned from the clock unit 22 in the storage unit 23 as the call / communication end time. I do.

When the facsimile machine 5 automatically receives an incoming call, the recording apparatus 1 sets the time when the facsimile machine starts receiving operation and the time when the facsimile machine ends reception in exactly the same procedure as when the telephone 6 receives a call. In the storage unit 23.

Next, the operation at the time of making a call on the telephone line will be described.

First, when the receiver of the telephone set 6 is picked up, the sensor 25 in the recording apparatus 1 immediately enters a standby state when receiving an off-hook signal, and detects a pulse signal or tone signal transmitted continuously to detect the off-hook signal. The destination telephone number is specified, and the telephone number is stored in the storage unit 23 via the CPU 21.

Further, a signal responded by the other party is sent to the sensor 25.
Is detected as the call / communication start time by the storage unit 23.
To memorize.

Further, when the sensor 25 detects the on-hook after the end of the call, the recording device 1 stores the on-hook time as the call / communication end time in the storage unit 23 and ends the operation.

The above operation is performed when an image is transmitted by the facsimile machine 7 or when the modem 8 is transmitted using the personal computer 9.
Recording is performed in exactly the same procedure when communication is performed via the.

Next, a method of checking the usage history recorded by the recording device 1 will be described.

The reception or transmission recording inside the recording device 1 may have a function of printing by the recording device 1 itself, but it is costly to provide the printing function, so that the recording device 1 has another printing means. Printing may be performed by connecting a device.

For example, as in the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, the printing function of the printer 12 connected to the personal computer 9 is used to connect the recording device 1 and the personal computer 9 to a standard serial cable 11 (RS232C or the like). ), The received / transmitted data stored in the storage unit 23 of the recording device 1 is sent to the personal computer 9, and the personal computer 9 receives / receives the data.
The transmission data is stored in the printer 12 in a list format shown in Table 1.
May be printed.

In some cases, the data may be displayed on the monitor of the personal computer 9 in a list form as shown in Table 1 without confirming the data, without outputting the data to the printer 12.

[0033]

[Table 1] Phone number Date Time 0XX-1234-XXXX 1999-07-01 11: 40: 08.44 Call / communication start 0XX-1234-XXXX 1999-07-01 11: 44: 12.02 Call / communication end 0XX-2345- XXXX 1999-07-02 08: 46: 02.77 Call / communication start 0XX-2345-XXXX 1999-07-02 08: 51: 09.21 Call / communication end

In some cases, the data output is set to "04
5-6789-**** "may be selected so that it can be hidden and displayed with the display of" * ".

The operation section for performing the above-described series of operations may be provided in the recording apparatus 1 itself. However, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, the operation section is connected to a personal computer and is operated by the personal computer. Thus, the cost of the recording apparatus 1 itself can be reduced.

It is preferable that data access, reset, and the like be protected by a password or the like so as to prevent erroneous operations and data theft.

The functions of the recording apparatus 1 are not limited to those described in the above embodiment, and various functions can be added. For example, only the storage of the destination telephone number by dialing or transmitting a pulse signal is performed. Alternatively, the number display function may be used to record the destination telephone number at the time of incoming call or before the incoming call.

It is also conceivable to incorporate a built-in error warning buzzer such as a line disconnection failure after the end of a call or communication.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing another example of the connection state of the recording device. In this case, by directly connecting the recording device 1 to the telephone 6, the usage record of only the telephone 6 is recorded. Has become.

In this way, even if a plurality of devices are connected to the indoor telephone line, it is possible to record the usage status for each device (the telephone 6 in this case), not for the entire telephone line.

In this case, the telephone 6 has the recording device 1
Requires an output terminal in the line state to connect to
When the telephone 6 is located at the end of the telephone line, a similar effect can be obtained by connecting a recording device to the telephone line immediately before the telephone 6.

[0042]

According to the apparatus of the present invention, the data such as the start time and end time of the call / communication obtained from the telephone line is recorded in the storage unit and printed later, or the display function or the print function is provided. By outputting data to a personal computer, etc., you can check the number of times the phone has been used and the time it has been used, check the frequency of using the phone yourself, and compare it with the usage history sent from the telephone company. Thus, doubts regarding telephone charges can be eliminated.

Further, since the apparatus of the present invention records the line use time and the like by detecting various signals by connecting to a telephone line or a telephone, it does not use the recording function of each model as in the prior art. Since the usage status can be grasped for each telephone line or each telephone, for example, even in a communication environment where a facsimile with a recording device or a telephone without a recording device is mixed, the usage records of all communication devices can be left. This makes it easy to compare the usage history with each telephone line sent from the telephone company.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a connection diagram of a recording apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a structural diagram of the inside of the recording apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a connection diagram of the recording apparatus of the present invention and a personal computer.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing another connection example of the recording apparatus of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Recording device 2, 3 terminal 4 Telephone line 5 Modular jack 6 Telephone 7 Facsimile device 8 Modem 9 Personal computer 10, 11 Serial cable 21 CPU 22 Clock unit 23 Storage unit 24 Telephone line (inside device) 25 Sensor

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A device for connecting to a telephone line or a telephone, which internally includes a CPU, a clock unit, a storage unit, and a sensor for monitoring signals flowing through the telephone line, and starts receiving and originating a call on the telephone line. When the sensor detects,
The CPU inquires the clock unit of the current time, stores the time returned from the clock unit in the storage unit as the line use start time, and when the sensor detects the termination of the incoming / outgoing call of the telephone line, the CPU sends the current time to the clock unit. The time is inquired, the time returned from the clock section is stored in the storage section as the line use end time, and a list of the line use start time and the line use end time stored in these storage sections can be electrically output. A recording device for a telephone line. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the sensor detects a dial or tone signal flowing after the telephone line goes off-hook, recognizes the destination telephone number, and stores the destination telephone number in a storage unit. Item 2. The telephone line recording device according to Item 1.