JP2002290574A - Interphone device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a low-cost interphone device, whose customer station calling operability is superior in either a single household or inter-multiple household connections, by selectively using a calling button for either in-own household calling and inter-household calling, according to the presence/absence of the inter-household call setting. SOLUTION: This interphone device is constituted of a mode-setting means 35 for setting at least one of a first customer station calling mode, capable of executing in-own household calling and inter-multiple household calling; an arbitrary mode including a second customer station calling mode capable of executing only the in-own household calling; and a customer station calling button 36 to be depressed so that the in-own household calling and the inter- multiple household calling can be executed, when the first customer station calling mode is set, and to be depressed so that only the in-own household calling can be executed, when the second customer station calling mode is set.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an intercom apparatus capable of connecting between households, and more particularly to an intercom apparatus suitable for use in two-family residences and one-family residences.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a two-family house or the like, two households (for example, a parent household and a child household) can be simultaneously called from the same entrance cordless handset instead of providing two independent intercom units for calling individual households. Or, a call button for each of a plurality of households corresponding to each household may be attached to the intercom unit (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11-17819).
Are those see JP) was.

[0003] In addition, there has been frequently used an inter-house connection so that a call can be made between a door phone master unit of a parent household and a sub-master unit of a child household in a house. A dedicated call button is provided for each call within a household and for calls between a plurality of households.

[0004] Further, when calling from the entrance to the house, 1
In some cases, a switching setting operation unit is provided for switching between calling a household or calling two households simultaneously.

[0005]

However, in the above-described conventional intercom apparatus, a dedicated call button is provided for each of the calls within the home and for calls between a plurality of households. When used in a home where no connection is required, an intercom apparatus provided with extra buttons for functions not to be used is disadvantageous in terms of operability and cost.

Therefore, the present invention sets the presence or absence of inter-household call, and uses the call button according to the setting to selectively use the call within the own household or the call between households. It is an object of the present invention to provide a low-cost intercom apparatus excellent in home call operability regardless of whether it is used in a household or under a connection between a plurality of households.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION To solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention relates to a connecting means capable of making a connection for making a call within a home and a call between a plurality of households, and a screen for displaying a home to be called on a predetermined screen. A first home call mode in which a call within the own household and a call between the plurality of households are possible, and a second call mode in which only a call within the own household is possible. Mode setting means for setting any one of an arbitrary mode including a home call mode, and performing a call in the own household and a call between the plurality of households when the first home call mode is set. Is pressed and the second
And a home call button that is pressed to perform a call only within the home when the home call mode is set.

[0008] In this intercom apparatus, the call button is used alternatively for calling within the own household and calling between households according to the setting state of the presence / absence of inter-household calling. In this case, there is no unnecessary operation button, and the operability is excellent. In addition, by using the common home button and the inter-house call button in common, the number of components can be reduced and the apparatus cost can be reduced.

In the above intercom apparatus,
A function selection operation unit for function setting is provided, and the mode setting means has a function of displaying a plurality of options for function setting on the screen, and any one of the plurality of options displayed on the screen When is selected by the setting operation unit, it is preferable that switching between the first home call mode and the second home call mode can be performed. According to this configuration, by selecting a plurality of options for function setting displayed on the screen by the mode setting means with the function selection operation unit, the home call mode can be set in the same operating environment as for setting other functions. Settings can be made.

Further, in the above intercom apparatus, the display means is constituted by a touch panel capable of displaying the setting operation section for setting the function on the screen. According to this configuration, by selecting a plurality of options for function setting displayed on the screen by the mode setting means with the function selection operation unit, the home call mode setting is performed in the same manner as setting other functions. be able to. Moreover, since the function selection operation unit is part of the touch panel,
There is no possibility that the home call mode is accidentally switched by a normal button operation or the like.

[0011]

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIGS. 1 to 4 show an embodiment of an intercom apparatus according to the present invention, and show a case where the present invention is applied to a door phone system having a plurality of entrance units with a camera in each household. I have.

This intercom system uses intercom master units 10 and 20 whose configuration is schematically shown in FIG. 1, and as shown in FIG. 2, intercom master unit 10 and a plurality of sub units 13 and 14 in the household as shown in FIG. And set the intercom 20
And a plurality of household slave units 23 and 24 are provided.

A plurality of slave units 11 and 12 are connected to the doorphone master unit 10 of the A household. The slave unit 11 is installed at, for example, a front door, and the slave unit 12 is installed at, for example, a service opening. The entrance slave unit 11 and the unattended slave unit 12 make a call from the outside of the house to the door phone master unit 10 side (the inside of the house) with respect to the door phone master unit 10. Further, a household subunit 13 installed at a location different from the doorphone main unit 10 of the A household is connected to the inside of the house from the doorphone main unit 10, and a household subunit 14 in another room is further connected via this. ing. Each of the slave units 13 and 14 in the household can talk with the intercom master unit 10 and can talk with each other.

On the other hand, the door phone master unit 20 of the B household has A
Similar to the household door phone master unit 10, a plurality of, for example, two slave units of an entrance slave unit 21 and a hand-held mouth slave unit 22 are connected,
Furthermore, the child device 23 in the household and the child device 2 in the household via this
4 are connected.

The door phone master units 10 and 2 of households A and B
0 is connected between the households so that they can talk with each other, and the two doorphone master units 10 and 20 can talk with each other between the households. It is also possible to make a call between households using any of the slave units 13, 14, 23, 24 within the household via the intercom master units 10, 20, but a detailed description thereof will be omitted here.

As shown in the functional block diagram of FIG. 1, the intercom master unit 10 includes a control unit 31 having a microcomputer as a main component, and the intercom master unit 10 and each unit according to a household communication control command from the control unit 31. An intra-household communication control unit 32 for controlling line connection between the household units 13 and 14, and the intercom base unit 10 and the intercom unit 20 of another household B according to an out-of-house communication control command from the control unit 31.
And a non-household communication control unit 33 for performing line connection control between the control unit and the external network. Control unit 31 executes a predetermined control program stored in an internal memory (not shown), from a call signal, each household Uchiko machines 13 and 14 of its own household from the entrance door station 11 and Katteguchiko machine 12 of the self households , Or a control signal for line connection is generated in response to either the call signal from the intercom master device 20 of another household B, and the control command is transmitted to the intra-household communication control unit 32 or by being outputted in households out of the communication control unit 33, it is made as required call line connection corresponding to the calling operation.

The control unit 31, the in-house communication control unit 32, and the out-of-house communication control unit 33, together with an interface circuit (not shown), a changeover switch, connection wiring, and the like, perform calls within the home and calls between a plurality of households. The connection means can be connected.

The control unit 31 of the door phone master unit 10 is further provided with a predetermined operation function to a timer means 34 having a timer function, an inter-household connection setting switching unit 35, and an indoor call button 36. multiple general-purpose buttons 37a, 37b, 37c, 37d, 37e, 37f,
37g, 37h, 37i, 37j, 37k (the number of buttons is arbitrary) and a screen display section 38 as a display means are connected to each other.

More specifically, the door phone master unit 10 is used in an installation posture as shown in FIG. 3, and a screen display section 38 composed of a liquid crystal display element or the like is arranged at the upper part in FIG. A setting operation unit 41 having a plurality of soft keys (function selection buttons for function setting; hereinafter, referred to as soft keys) each including general-purpose buttons 37a to 37d is arranged on the right side in the drawing. Here, the screen display section 38 is a display means capable of displaying the household to be called on the screen when a home call described later is made.

Below the screen display section 38, there are provided an audio output section 42 having a built-in speaker, and a button operation section 43 located on the right side of the audio output section 42 in FIG. Is provided with a handset 44.

The button operation unit 43 has a plurality of operation buttons composed of general-purpose buttons 37e to 37k. These operation buttons are an out button 37e, a play button 37f, an F button 37g, a display button 37h, and a camera button. The buttons 37i and 37j and the hands-free button 37k are provided. Here, the out-going button 37e is for enabling the transfer of a call with a visitor to a predetermined mobile phone or the like and the recording of a visitor's image while going out, and the play button 37f is for playing back call recording / image recording information. it is meant to be. Further, the F button 37g is for performing a lock / unlock state display of the electric lock at the entrance, for example.
The display button 37h is used to set the date and time and volume according to the length of the pressing time, and to switch among a plurality of setting screens including a soft key display according to the number of times of pressing.
In addition, the camera buttons 37i and 37j are used for switching the display of the monitoring image by the camera-equipped entrance slaves 11 and 12,
These are pressed when it is desired to display them.

The configuration of the control system as described above and the configuration of the display / operation system of the door phone master unit 10 are as follows.
Is exactly the same, so that the internal configuration of the door phone master unit 20 will also be described below using the reference numerals of the internal function blocks.

On the other hand, in the intercom master units 10 and 20, a mode setting means is constituted by the control unit 31 and the inter-household connection setting switching unit 35, and by this means, the calling in the own household and the A and B households ( Any one of modes including a first home call mode in which inter-household calling between a plurality of households is possible and a second home call mode in which only self-household calling is possible is selected. It is supposed to be set.

More specifically, the control unit 31 and the inter-household connection setting switching unit 35 have a function of displaying a plurality of function setting options (for example, settable function names) on the screen of the screen display unit 38. Then, by appropriately selecting one of a plurality of options displayed on the screen by using the soft keys 37a to 37d, switching between the first home call mode and the second home call mode can be performed. ,
Further, it is possible to make settings on the screen for a plurality of other functions.

When the first in-home call mode is set, the in-home call button 36 is pressed to make a call in the home and a call between a plurality of households, and the second in-home call mode is set. Is pressed, the in-home call button 36 is pressed to perform only the call in the own household.

It is to be noted that the child unit 13, 1 in the household of the door phone device is provided.
Each of 4, 23, and 24 has the same configuration as the intercom master unit 10 or a configuration excluding a part thereof, and differs from the intercom master units 10 and 20 only in the connection form.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described.

(When the connection between households is set to "none": second home call mode)

In the second home call mode in which the inter-household connection is set to "none", when the home call button 36 is pressed on the intercom master unit 10 on the A household side, the home sub unit 13 An indoor ringtone sounds from the audio output unit 42 of the fourteenth embodiment. Thus, it can be understood that the slave units 13 and 14 in the household are called in the household (indoor).

At this time, when the control unit 31 detects that the in-house call button 36 is pressed, the control unit 31 fetches the current mode setting information from the inter-household connection setting switching unit 35 (setting information storage memory) and changes the setting. No connection between households
Figure out that Then, as the home call control under this setting mode, the control unit 31
2 is instructed to output an indoor call command, and the intra-household communication control unit 32 outputs an indoor call command to the household devices 13 and 14.

Similarly, when the home call button 36 is pressed by the door phone master unit 20 on the B household side,
The indoor ringtone sounds from the voice output units 42 of the units 3 and 24, and it can be seen that the in-household handsets 23 and 24 are called within the household.

(When the connection between households is set to "Yes": First home call mode)

On the other hand, in the first home call mode in which the mode setting is "inter-household connection", the home call button 36 is pressed by the intercom master unit 10 on the household A side, and the control unit 31 When detecting that the in-household call button 36 is pressed, the control unit 31 switches the inter-household connection setting switching unit 3.
The current mode setting information is taken in from No. 5, and it is grasped that the setting is "with" connection between households.

After confirming the mode of the connection between the households “Yes”, the control unit 31 displays the connection between the households on the screen display unit 38 as shown in FIG. A plurality of households, including the own household, is displayed, and a household to call in the house can be selected by a specific operation unit, for example, the soft keys 37a to 37d, and then a display prompting the operation is executed on the screen display unit 38. . Therefore, in this embodiment, when the soft key 37c is pressed, the household A is called, and the soft key 37d is called.
When is pressed, the B household is called and the number of households that can be called is two. However, even in the case of three or more households, inter-household calling can be easily performed.

Then, when the own household is designated as the household to be called in the home, for example, the control unit 31 performs the same intra-home calling process as in the case where the above-mentioned inter-household connection is "none" as the next step. Execute. At this time, the display mode of the screen display unit 38 is the doorphone master unit 1 of the selected A household.
0 and all of the slave units 13 and 14 are
7c.

Further, when, for example, the B household is designated as the household to be called at home, the control unit 31 instructs the outside-house communication control unit 33 to output an inter-house call command as the next step, and the outside-house communication is performed. The control unit 33 outputs an inter-household calling command to the intercom master unit 20 of the other household B.

During this time, the control unit 31 operates the clock means 34 to measure the display time of a plurality of households shown in FIG. 4, and receives that the display time has reached a predetermined time as a time instruction. In response to the time instruction, a turn-off instruction is output to the screen display unit 38 to shift the screen display unit 38 to a standby state. That is, when a predetermined time has elapsed without any operation input, the light is automatically turned off.

As described above, in the intercom apparatus of the present embodiment, the call button is used alternatively for calling within the own household and calling between households according to the presence / absence of the inter-household call setting. Therefore, it is necessary whether the household is used alone or separated into households A or B alone, or when both households are used in an environment where households are connected to each other. Since there is no operation button without any operation, the device has excellent operability without causing erroneous operation. Further, since the own-household call button and the inter-household call button are used as common operation parts, the number of parts is reduced, and the apparatus cost can be reduced.

Also, soft keys 37a to 37d and the like are provided as function selection operation sections for function setting, and one of a plurality of options displayed on the screen of the screen display section 38 is selected by these key operations. When the first
Can be switched between the in-home call mode and the second in-home call mode, so that the in-home call mode setting can be easily performed in the same operating environment as when setting other functions.

The screen display unit 38 is not limited to a display-only device such as a liquid crystal display device, but may be a device having an operation input function, for example, a touch panel. In this case, a setting operation section for function setting can be displayed on the screen of the screen display section 38, and the above-mentioned in-home call mode can be set by a direct selection operation. That is, since the function selection operation unit is a part of the touch panel, there is an advantage that there is no possibility that the home call mode is accidentally switched by a normal button operation or the like.

[0042]

According to the present invention, the presence / absence of inter-household call is set, and the call button is selectively used for the call within the own household and the call between the households according to the setting state. Therefore, it is possible to provide a low-cost intercom apparatus with excellent operability regardless of whether it is used by a single household or under a connection between a plurality of households.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of an intercom apparatus according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a system configuration diagram of a door phone system in which the intercom apparatus according to the present invention is connected between households.

External front view of an embodiment of the intercom apparatus according to the present invention; FIG

FIG. 4 is an external front view showing a screen display unit of an embodiment of the intercom apparatus according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

10, 20 Door phone master unit 11, 21 Entrance cordless handset 12, 22 Handy mouth slave unit 13, 14, 23, 24 Household cordless handset 31 Control unit (mode setting means, connection means) 32 Household communication control unit (connection means) 33 Outside-household communication control section (connection means) 34 Clocking means 35 Inter-household connection setting switching section (mode setting means) 36 Home call button 37a, 37b, 37c, 37d Soft keys (general-purpose buttons, function selection operation section) 37e Out button ( 37f Play button (general purpose button) 37g F button (general purpose button) 37h Display button (general purpose button) 37i, 37j Camera button (general purpose button) 37k Hands-free button (general purpose button) 38 Screen display part (display means) 41 Setting operation part 42 Audio output part 43 Button operation part 44 Handset

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Yasuji Nakamura 4-3-1 Tsunashimahigashi, Kohoku-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture F-term in Matsushita Communication Industrial Co., Ltd. (reference) 5K027 AA09 BB01 FF01 FF22 5K038 AA05 CC00 DD08 DD12 FF01

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An intercom apparatus comprising: a connection unit capable of making a connection for making a call within a home and a call between a plurality of households; and a display unit capable of displaying a call target household on a predetermined screen. Any one of a first home call mode in which a call within the own household and a call between the plurality of households are possible and a second home call mode in which only a call within the own household is possible, A mode setting means to be set; and when the first home call mode is set, a pressing operation is performed to perform a call within the own household and a call between the plurality of households, and the second home call mode is set. And an in-home call button that is depressed to perform a call only within the home when the call is in the home. 2. A function selection operation section for setting a function, wherein the mode setting means has a function of displaying a plurality of options for setting a function on the screen, and a plurality of options displayed on the screen. 2. The intercom apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when any one of options is selected by the setting operation unit, switching between the first home call mode and the second home call mode is possible. . 3. The intercom apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said display means comprises a touch panel capable of displaying a setting operation section for setting said function on said screen.