JP2005142871A - Voice communication device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a voice communication device that enables a calling side to learn the degree of reach of a voice to a called side without placing a load on a network. <P>SOLUTION: When a telephone call is made by using IP telephone sets 10 both connected to the IP network, each IP telephone set 10 obtains the sequence number of a voice packet 50 from the voice packet 50 sent from a telephone call party and calculates the reception rate of the voice packet 50 sent from the telephone call party on the basis of the obtained sequence number. Then an RTP extension header 50d including information on the reception rate is added to a voice packet 50 which is to be sent to the opposite party. The IP telephone set 10 receiving the voice packet 50 acquires the information on the reception rate from the RTP extension header 50d and displays the rate of reach of the voice packet 50 to the opposite party on a display 16 on the basis of the information on the reception rate. Consequently, to what extent the voice of the calling side reaches the opposite party can be learned without placing any excessive load on the network. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a voice communication apparatus, and more particularly to a voice communication apparatus that performs voice communication by transmitting and receiving voice packets, for example.

  An example of a conventional voice communication apparatus of this type is disclosed in Patent Document 1.

In the IP telephone as the voice communication apparatus of Patent Document 1, it is possible to know the degree of arrival of the voice packet from the caller to the callee by the callee by monitoring the error rate of the voice packet. This makes it possible for the user to recognize that the poor voice quality is not due to a malfunction of the IP telephone but a communication path problem.
JP2002-232475 [H04L 12/56 H04M 3/00 11/06]

  In the prior art of Patent Document 1, it is only possible to know how far the other party's voice has reached. Therefore, it is impossible to check whether or not your voice reaches the other party, and even though your voice does not reach the other party, you continue to talk unilaterally and you cannot communicate There is a problem that an unnoticeable situation occurs.

  IP telephones transmit and receive voice as voice packets in accordance with a protocol called RTP (Real Time Protocol), and the arrival rate of voice packets to a call destination can be known by a protocol called RTCP (RTP Control Protocol). However, in the method using RTCP, as shown in FIG. 4, when a call is made between IP telephones 60, voice packet 70 and RTCP packet 80 having information on the arrival rate of voice packet 70 flow on the line. Therefore, there is a problem that the network is burdened.

  Therefore, a main object of the present invention is to provide a voice communication apparatus capable of knowing the degree of voice arrival at a call destination without burdening the network.

  The invention of claim 1 is a receiving means for receiving a voice packet transmitted from a communication partner, a specifying means for specifying a reception rate by a receiving means of a voice packet transmitted from the communication partner, and a voice packet transmitted to the communication partner. Based on the degree information included in the voice packet received by the first packet adding means, the sending means for sending the voice packet to which the degree information is added to the communication partner, and the receiving means. A voice communication apparatus comprising display means for displaying a state of arrival of a transmitted voice packet at a communication partner.

  In the first aspect of the invention, the receiving means receives a voice packet transmitted from the communication partner, and the special-purpose means specifies the reception rate of the voice packet transmitted from the communication partner by the receiving means. The first addition means adds reception information indicating the reception rate to the voice packet transmitted to the communication partner, and the transmission means transmits the voice packet to which the degree information is added to the communication partner. The display means displays the arrival status of the voice packet transmitted from the own apparatus to the communication partner based on the degree information included in the voice packet received by the receiving means. Therefore, according to the present invention, the user can know how much his / her voice is transmitted to the other party. In addition, since the degree information is included in the voice packet, an excessive burden is not imposed on the network used for communication.

  The invention according to claim 2 is the voice communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the specifying means includes a calculating means for calculating a reception rate based on a sequence number of the voice packet.

  In the invention of claim 2, the calculating means calculates the reception rate of the voice packet based on the sequence number of the voice packet originally held by the voice packet. Therefore, the user can know by a specific numerical value how much his / her voice is transmitted to the communication partner.

  The invention according to claim 3 is the voice communication apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the display means includes character display means for displaying the arrival status by characters.

  In the invention of claim 3, the character display means displays the arrival status by characters. Therefore, the user can recognize by text how much his / her voice is transmitted to the communication partner.

  The invention according to claim 4 is the voice communication apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the display means further includes an image display means for displaying the arrival status by an image.

  In the invention of claim 4, the image display means displays the arrival status by an image. Therefore, the user can intuitively recognize how much his / her voice is transmitted to the communication partner from the image.

  The invention according to claim 5 is the voice communication apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the image includes facial expressions having different aspects.

  In the invention of claim 5, the image includes facial expressions having different aspects. Therefore, the user can recognize how much his / her voice is transmitted to the communication partner by the facial expression.

  The invention according to claim 6 is the voice communication device according to claim 4 or 5, wherein the image includes a gauge expression.

  In the invention of claim 6, the image includes a gauge expression. Therefore, the user can recognize how much his / her voice is transmitted to the communication partner from the image representing the instrument.

  According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the voice communication device according to any one of the first to sixth aspects, the display means displays the reception status of the voice packet transmitted from the communication partner on the basis of the degree of reception. is there.

  According to the seventh aspect of the invention, the display means displays the reception status of the voice packet transmitted from the communication partner on the basis of the reception level. Therefore, the user can know how much the voice of the communication partner has reached him.

  The invention of claim 8 further comprises warning means for including a warning sound in a voice packet transmitted to the communication partner when the reception rate calculated by the calculation means is equal to or less than a predetermined ratio. The voice communication apparatus according to claim 1.

  In the invention of claim 8, the warning means includes a warning sound in the voice packet transmitted to the communication partner when the reception rate calculated by the calculating means is equal to or less than a predetermined ratio. Therefore, the user can recognize through hearing that his / her voice is not transmitted to the communication partner.

  The invention according to claim 9 further includes a determination unit that determines the device type of the communication partner based on the voice packet received by the reception unit, and an activation unit that activates the warning unit according to the determination result of the determination unit. A voice communication apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 8.

  According to the ninth aspect of the present invention, the judging means judges the device type of the communication partner based on the voice packet received by the receiving means, and the activating means activates the warning means according to the judgment result of the judging means. . Therefore, when the communication partner is a voice communication apparatus that does not have a display means, or a voice communication apparatus having a structure in which the display means cannot be seen during a call even if it has a display means, the reception rate of voice packets Can be notified to the communication partner by a warning sound.

  The invention of claim 10 further comprises second adding means for adding type information indicating the device type of the own device to the voice packet transmitted by the transmitting means, and the judging means determines the device type of the communication partner based on the type information. The voice communication apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the voice communication apparatus determines.

  In a tenth aspect of the present invention, the second adding means adds type information indicating the device type of the own device to the voice packet transmitted by the transmitting means. Then, the determining means determines the device type of the communication partner based on the presence / absence of the type information and the content of the type information. Therefore, the device type of the communication partner can be determined in more detail based on the type information.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to know how much one's voice reaches the other party without placing an excessive burden on the network.

  The above object, other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of embodiments with reference to the drawings.

  As shown in FIG. 1, IP telephones 10 as voice communication apparatuses to which the present invention is applied are connected to each other by an IP network including the Internet network. The IP telephone 10 can communicate with an IP telephone, a general fixed telephone, a mobile phone, etc. (not shown) to which the present invention is not applied. When a telephone call is made between IP telephones 10 including those to which the present invention is not applied, voice is transmitted and received by voice packets according to RTP (hereinafter simply referred to as “packets”). When a call is made between the IP telephone 10 and a general fixed telephone, a VoIP (Voice Over IP) gateway is disposed between the IP network and the general telephone line network (telephone switching network). RTP packets are transmitted / received only to / from the VoIP gateway. That is, the VoIP gateway receives a packet transmitted from the IP telephone 10, converts the received packet into analog voice data, and transmits the analog voice data to a general fixed telephone or the like. The VoIP gateway also receives analog voice data transmitted from a general fixed telephone or the like, converts the received analog voice data into a packet, and transmits the packet to the IP telephone 10.

  Specifically, the IP telephone 10 is configured as shown in FIG. As can be seen from FIG. 2, the IP telephone 10 includes a CPU 12. Connected to the CPU 12 are a DSP 14, a display 16, a keypad 18, a flash memory 20, a RAM 22, and a network controller 24. The DSP 14 is connected to the speaker 30 provided in the receiver 36 via the D / A converter 28, and is connected to the microphone 34 also provided in the receiver 36 via the A / D converter 32.

  The network controller 24 is connected to a communication connector 26, and the communication connector 26 is connected to the IP network by a predetermined cable. Therefore, the CPU 12 can transmit and receive data to the IP network via the network controller 24 and the communication connector 26.

  As shown in FIG. 1, as a telephone to which the present invention is applied, in addition to a fixed IP telephone (base phone) 10, a cordless cordless handset 10a or a portable IP telephone 10b for the base phone (IP telephone) 10 is used. and so on. When the IP phone 10 is simply described, the cordless handset 10a and the portable IP phone 10b are included.

  As shown in FIG. 3A, a packet 70 transmitted and received in a conventional IP telephone is composed of an IP header 50a, a UDP (User Datagram Protocol) header 50b, an RTP header 50c, and voice data 50e.

  In the IP telephone 10 of this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3B, a packet 50 in which an RTP extension header 50d is provided in the RTP header 50c is generated. When a call is made between the fixed IP telephones 10, the fixed IP telephone 10 transmits a packet transmitted from the partner fixed IP telephone 10 based on the sequence number of the packet 50 included in the RTP header 50 c of the received packet 50. 50 reception rates are calculated. Then, the calculated reception rate is added as reception status information 50dr (degree information) to the RTP extension header 50d of the packet 50 (data of own voice) transmitted to the other party. Further, the fixed IP telephone 10 adds information indicating whether the own apparatus is the fixed IP telephone 10, the cordless handset 10a, or the portable IP telephone 10b to the RTP extension header 50d as terminal type information 50dk. The reception status information 50dr may be information indicating discrete stages such as “A”, “B”, “C”, and the like determined based on the reception rate, not the reception rate itself. . Since such a packet 50 is transmitted and received between the fixed IP telephones 10, the fixed IP telephone 10 that has received the packet 50 knows how much its own voice reaches the other party based on the reception status information 50 dr. be able to.

  Unlike the conventional IP telephone 60 shown in FIG. 4 in which the packet 70 including voice data and the RTCP packet 80 including the reception rate information are separately transmitted, the IP telephone 10 of this embodiment has a reception rate. The packet 50 to which the RTP extension header 50d (see FIG. 1) is stored is transmitted / received. Therefore, since the number of packets 50 does not increase beyond the number of voice data, an excessive load is not imposed on the network.

  A display as shown in FIG. 1 is performed on the display 16 of the fixed IP telephone 10 based on the reception rate calculated from the reception status information 50dr included in the received packet 50 and the sequence number of the received packet 50. As shown in FIG. 1, the display 16 displays how much one's voice has reached the other party by a face mark 16a, a percentage display 16b, and a gauge display 16c. This display is performed based on the reception status information 50dr included in the received packet 50. Similarly, the face mark 16d, the percentage display 16e, and the gauge display 16f indicate how much the other party's voice has reached him. This display is performed based on the reception rate calculated from the sequence number of the received packet 50.

  The face mark 16a represents, for example, a modeled facial expression of about three stages in the arrival state of the packet 50 (the arrival state of the packet 50 from the user to the other party), and when the arrival rate is high A cheerful expression is displayed, and a cloudy expression is displayed when the arrival rate decreases. The face mark 16d is an image representing the facial expression of the face modeled in, for example, about three stages of the reception status of the packet 50 (the reception status of the packet 50 from the other party), and a cheerful facial expression when the reception rate is high. Is displayed, and a cloudy expression is displayed when the reception rate decreases. The face shown in the image is not modeled like a face mark but may be a real human face. The percentage displays 16b and 16e respectively represent the arrival status and reception status of the packet 50 with numbers indicating percentages. Each of the gauge displays 16c and 16f represents the arrival status or reception status of the packet 50 as a ratio of the shaded portion occupying the inside of the gauge, and the higher the arrival rate and the reception rate, the higher the occupation rate of the shaded portion. Also gets higher. This gauge display may be an instrument display indicating the degree by a needle.

  The above description is for the case of fixed IP phones 10. When one of the devices that is making a call is the cordless handset 10a or the portable IP phone 10b, even if the arrival status and reception status of the packet 50 are displayed on the display 16, the display cannot be seen during the call. Therefore, in the case of the cordless handset 10a and the portable IP phone 10b, the arrival status and the reception status are not displayed even when the packet 50 including the reception status information 50dr is received. However, when the call source is the IP phone 10 to which the present invention is applied and the call destination is the cordless handset 10a or the portable IP phone 10b, the call source sets the reception rate of the packet 50 from the call destination. If the reception rate is calculated to be 50% or less, for example, warning sound data is added to the packet 50 instead of voice data, and the packet is transmitted to the cordless cordless handset 10a or the portable IP telephone 10b. As a result, the cordless handset 10a and the portable IP phone 10b can also know that their voice has not reached the other party. Also in this case, since the packet 50 including the reception status information 50dr is transmitted from the cordless handset 10a and the portable IP phone 10b, the arrival status and the reception status are displayed on the display 16 of the other fixed IP phone 10. Is done.

  In the case of a call between the fixed IP telephone 10 and a telephone to which the present invention is not applied, since the packet 50 received by the fixed IP telephone 10 does not include the reception status information 50dr, the arrival status is displayed. Absent. However, since the sequence number is assigned to the packet 50 by the VoIP gateway described above, the reception rate is calculated based on the sequence number and the reception status is displayed. Further, when the reception rate becomes 50% or less, the packet 50 including the warning sound data is transmitted.

  In the case of a call between the cordless handset 10a or the portable IP phone 10b and a phone to which the present invention is not applied, the reception rate of the packet 50 in the cordless handset 10a or the portable IP phone 10b is 50% or less. In this case, only the alarm sound data is transmitted.

  The operation of the CPU 12 of the IP telephone 10 during a call will be described below using the flowcharts of FIGS. The packet reception process and the packet transmission process will be described using separate flowcharts, but the packet reception process and the packet transmission process are executed in parallel at the same time.

  In step S 1 of FIG. 5, when the packet 50 including the voice data of the other party is received, the sequence number is acquired from the RTP header 50 c of the packet 50 and recorded in the RAM 22 in step S 3. In step S5, it is determined whether or not the RTP extension header 50c exists in the received packet 50, that is, whether or not the other party is the IP telephone 10 to which the present invention is applied.

  If NO is determined in step S5, in step S25, the partner type indicating the type of terminal of the communication partner is recorded in the RAM 22 as “11” indicating that the present invention is not applied. Then, the process proceeds to step S13.

  On the other hand, if YES is determined in the step S5, the terminal type information 50dk is acquired from the packet 50 and recorded in the RAM 22 in a step S7. The terminal type information 50dk is binary “00” when the communication partner is the fixed IP telephone 10, “01” when the communication partner is the cordless handset 10a, and the portable IP telephone 10b. Is sent as “10”. The base value of this terminal type information 50dk ("00", "01" or "10", simply called "own device type") is stored in the flash memory 20 of the IP telephone 10 that is the source of the packet 50. It is recorded.

  In step S9, referring to the own device type recorded in the flash memory 20, it is determined whether or not the own device is the parent device (fixed IP telephone) 10, that is, whether or not the own device type is “00”. To do. If YES is determined in step S9, in step S11, the reception status information 50dr is acquired from the RTP extension header 50d of the received packet 50, and the arrival status of the packet 50 from the own device to the other party based on the acquired reception status information 50dr. (Face mark 16a, percentage display 16d and gauge display 16c) are displayed on the display 16.

  If NO is determined in step S9, the call partner is the cordless handset 10a or the portable IP phone 10b, so that the arrival status display in step S11 is skipped and the process proceeds to step S13.

  In step S <b> 13, the reception rate of the packet 50 is calculated based on the sequence number acquired from the received packet 50 and recorded in the RAM 22, and the calculated reception rate is recorded in the RAM 22. This reception rate is used in packet transmission processing described later. The reception rate is calculated based on, for example, the latest 100 sequence numbers (including those in which the packet 50 is not lost and received) among the sequence numbers sequentially recorded and accumulated in the RAM 22. That is, 100 sequence numbers are counted up from the latest sequence number, and the ratio of the sequence numbers existing on the RAM 22 out of the 100 sequence numbers is defined as the reception rate. More than 100 sequence numbers may be deleted from the RAM 22 in order from the oldest.

  In step S15, the own device type recorded in the flash memory 20 is referred again to determine whether the own device is the parent device (fixed IP telephone) 10 or not. If YES is determined in step S15, the reception status (face mark 16d, percentage display 16e, and gauge display 16f) of the packet 50 from the partner to the own device is displayed on the display 16 based on the reception rate recorded in the RAM 22. .

  If NO is determined in step S15, the own device is the cordless child device 10a or the portable IP phone 10b, and therefore the reception status display in step S17 is skipped and the process proceeds to step S19.

  In step S19, the audio data 50e is extracted from the received packet 50. In step S21, the DSP 14 is instructed to reproduce the audio data 50e. In step S23, it is determined whether or not the telephone call is finished. If NO is determined in step S23, the process returns to step S1 to receive the packet 50 again. On the other hand, if YES is determined in step S23, the packet reception process is terminated. In this way, the packet 50 is received.

  In the packet transmission process, first, the output (audio data) from the microphone 30 is captured in step S31 of FIG. In step S33, it is determined whether or not the captured output of the microphone 30 is silent, that is, whether or not a sound that can be recognized as speech is included. If NO is determined in step S33, the process proceeds to step S37. On the other hand, if “YES” is determined in the step S33, it is determined whether or not the silent period is continued for a certain period in the step S35.

  If NO is determined in step S35, the process returns to step S31 to take in the output from the microphone 30 again. On the other hand, if YES is determined in the step S35, the process proceeds to a step S37. Through the above processing, the packet 50 to be transmitted is not generated when there is no input to the microphone 30, and the packet 50 is generated when there is no input to the microphone 30 for a certain period. By doing so, the burden on the network is reduced by avoiding transmission of useless packets 50. Such a process is called silence compression.

  In step S37, the call partner is referred to as the master unit with reference to the partner type ("00", "01", "10" and "11") recorded in the RAM 22 in step S7 or step S25 of the packet reception process of FIG. It is determined whether (fixed IP telephone) 10, that is, whether the other party type is “00”.

  If YES is determined in the step S37, the process proceeds to a step S39. On the other hand, if NO is determined in step S37, in step S47, the reception rate of the packet 50 calculated based on the sequence number in step S13 of the packet reception process of FIG. Judge whether it is 50% or less.

  If YES is determined in step S47, warning sound data is generated based on data recorded in advance in the flash memory 20 in step S49, and the generated warning sound data is replaced with sound data in step S51. The warning sound data may be a single sound such as “pi, pi, pi”, or may be voice data such as “the arrival rate of the voice to the other party is low”.

  In step S39, the device type is read from the flash memory 20 to create terminal type information 50dk, and the latest reception rate is read from the RAM 22 to create reception status information 50dr. The terminal type information 50dk and the reception status information 50dr are obtained. Is added to the audio data to create the RTP extension header 50d.

  In step S41, the transmission packet 50 is generated by adding the RTP header 50c, the UDP header 50b, and the IP header 50a to the audio data to which the RTP extension header 50d is added. In step S43, the generated packet 50 is transmitted to the other party.

  In step S45, it is determined whether or not the call has ended. If NO is determined in step S45, the process returns to step S31 to acquire the output from the microphone 30 again. On the other hand, if YES is determined in step S45, the packet transmission process is terminated. In this way, the packet 50 is transmitted.

  As described above, the IP telephone 10 of this embodiment calculates the reception rate of the packet 50 from the sequence number included in the received packet 50 and transmits the reception status information 50dr indicating the reception rate to the other party. It is added back to the packet 50 including 50e and sent back. Then, the arrival rate of the packet 50 from the own device to the other party is displayed on the display 16 based on the reception status information 50dr added to the received packet 50. Therefore, the user of the IP telephone 10 can know how much his / her voice is transmitted to the other party and does not place an excessive burden on the network.

  In addition, the above-mentioned Example can be changed suitably. For example, in the above-described embodiment, the IP telephone 10 is described as an example of the voice communication apparatus. However, the voice communication apparatus is not limited to the IP telephone 10 and may be any device that transmits and receives voice packets. It may be an IP adapter or the like that is connected in between.

It is an illustration figure which shows the whole structure of one Example of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structural example of an IP telephone. (A) is an illustration figure which shows the data structure of the conventional packet, (B) is an illustration figure which shows the data structure of the packet in the Example of FIG. It is an illustration figure which shows the mode of transmission / reception of the packet in the conventional IP telephone. It is a flowchart which shows the operation | movement of the packet reception process of CPU of the IP telephone in the Example of FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the operation | movement of the packet transmission process of CPU of the IP telephone in the Example of FIG.

Explanation of symbols

10 ... IP phone (fixed IP phone / base phone)
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10a ... Cordless cordless handset 10b ... Portable IP telephone 12 ... CPU
16 ... Display 50 ... Packet 50d ... RTP extension header 50dk ... Terminal type information 50dr ... Reception status information 50e ... Audio data 50h ... Header

Claims (10)

Receiving means for receiving a voice packet transmitted from a communication partner;
A specifying unit for specifying a reception rate by the receiving unit of the voice packet transmitted from the communication partner;
First addition means for adding information indicating the reception rate to a voice packet to be transmitted to the communication partner;
Transmitting means for transmitting the voice packet to which the degree information is added to the communication partner; and to the communication partner of the voice packet transmitted from the own device based on the degree information included in the voice packet received by the receiving means. A voice communication apparatus comprising display means for displaying the arrival status of the voice communication device.   The voice communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the specifying unit includes a calculation unit that calculates the reception rate based on a sequence number of a voice packet.   The voice communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display unit includes a character display unit that displays the arrival status by characters.   The voice communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display unit further includes an image display unit that displays the arrival status as an image.   The voice communication apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the image includes facial expressions having different appearances.   The voice communication device according to claim 4, wherein the image includes a gauge expression.   The voice communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display unit displays a reception status of the voice packet transmitted from the communication partner on the basis of the reception degree.   The warning means according to any one of claims 2 to 7, further comprising warning means for including a warning sound in a voice packet transmitted to the communication partner when the reception rate calculated by the calculating means is equal to or lower than a predetermined ratio. Voice communication device.   The apparatus further comprises: a determination unit that determines a device type of the communication partner based on a voice packet received by the reception unit; and an activation unit that activates the warning unit according to a determination result of the determination unit. The voice communication apparatus according to any one of 1 to 8. A second adding unit for adding type information indicating a device type of the own device to the voice packet transmitted by the transmitting unit;
The voice communication device according to claim 9, wherein the determination unit determines a device type of the communication partner based on type information.

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