JP2512904B2 - Answering machine - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial field of use] The present invention relates to an answering machine system which records or transfers a call received during an absence.

[Conventional technology]

A conventional answering machine has a telephone 1 as shown in FIG.
It consisted of 1, control circuit 12 and recorder 13. The control circuit 12 has a function of detecting an incoming call to the telephone 11 during the answering machine and a function of controlling the recorder 13.

In this answering machine, the control circuit 12 is set to the answering machine mode when the subscriber leaves the machine due to going out or the like. When the control circuit 12 detects an incoming call to the telephone 11 in the answering machine mode, the subscriber reproduces a message from the recorder 13 to inform that the subscriber can record a message to the subscriber while the answering machine is absent. When the caller receives this message and speaks the message, the message is recorded.

Further, as a service similar to the answering machine service, there is a transfer telephone service for processing a call received while the user is away.

The transfer telephone service according to the conventional technique has been realized by the transfer telephone 2 including a telephone 21 and an automatic dial control circuit 22, as shown in FIG. The automatic dial control circuit 22 has a function of detecting an incoming call to the telephone 21 in the answering machine mode and a function of generating a telephone number of a transfer destination registered in advance.

The transfer telephone 2 puts the automatic dial control circuit 22 in the answering machine mode when the subscriber is out due to going out or the like. When the automatic dial control circuit 22 detects an incoming call to the telephone 21 in the answering machine mode, it generates a telephone number of a forwarding destination registered in advance and forwards the incoming call.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

However, in the conventional answering machine service configured as described above, there is a problem in that all the important and unimportant matters for the subscriber are recorded. Furthermore, when there were a lot of calls during the absence, there was a problem that the required message could not be selected without listening to all the recorded messages.

Further, in the transfer telephone service according to the conventional technique configured as described above, there is a problem that all the important and unimportant matters for the subscriber are transferred.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems in the conventional answering machine service, and to record only the calls that the subscriber has registered in advance and that are important to the subscriber. Or to provide an answering machine service that allows forwarding.

[Means for solving problems]

In order to achieve the above object, the answering machine system of the present invention is (i) a destination that the user arbitrarily selects and sets in the answering machine system that records the incoming call when the called user is absent. Specific destination registration means for registering the identification information of the telephone answering service function and the identification information of a predetermined answering service function including at least recording or transfer of a call selected and set by the user in correspondence with the identification information of the other party. (Subscriber service table memory 35) and destination detection means (central control device 33, voice recognition device 34) for detecting the identification information of the calling party at the time of an incoming call when the user is absent are provided. If the other party's identification information detected by the central control unit 33 is already registered in the subscriber service table memory 35,
It is characterized in that one of the answering service functions including call recording or transfer is selected and performed based on the identification information of the answering service function set corresponding to the detected identification information of the other party.

Further, (ii) the central control device 33 and the voice recognition device 34 are characterized by performing voice recognition to detect the other party identification information on the calling side.

Further, (iii) if there is identification information of the calling side by voice from the calling side that has received the call at the absence, the result of detection of the identification information of the calling party by the voice recognition of the central control device 33 and the voice recognition device 34. However, the call recording is performed even when the subscriber service table memory 35 is not registered.

In addition, (iv) providing an incoming call history recording means (a central control device 33, a call recording memory 36) for recording the incoming call history when the user is absent and outputting the recorded incoming call history based on an instruction operation from the user. Is characterized by.

Further, (v) the incoming call history recording means (the central control device 33, the call recording memory 36, the voice synthesis output device 38) is characterized by outputting the incoming call history by voice.

Further, (vi) the incoming call history recording means (the central control device 33, the call recording memory 36, the facsimile response conversion device 39, the facsimile device 41) is characterized in that the incoming call history is printed and output.

Further, (vii) means for registering specific destination identification information in the subscriber service table memory 35 by voice recognition of the user's utterance (central control device 33, voice recognition device 3
4. A voice synthesis output device 38) is provided.

In addition, (viii) means for registering specific destination identification information in the subscriber service table memory 35 by character recognition of the description created by the user (central control device 33, character recognition device 42, facsimile device) 41) is provided.

[Action]

According to the present invention, in an answering machine service, it is determined whether a call received at a telephone of a service subscriber is recorded or transferred according to the importance of the caller registered in advance by the subscriber. This is different from the conventional technique in that it realizes a function of determining the originator of a call.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the first embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 20 is a telephone, 30A is an answering machine service device, and 32 is a subscriber exchange. The answering machine service device 30A includes an input / output control device 31 and a central control device.
33, voice recognition device 34, subscriber service table memory 35,
It is composed of a call recording memory 36, a voice memory 37, and a voice synthesis output device 38.

The input / output control device 31 has a function of multiplexing voice signals of a plurality of voice mail service subscribers inputted via the subscriber exchange 32 and transferring them to the voice recognition device 34 or the voice memory 37. Further, the input / output control device 31 has a function of outputting, via the subscriber exchange 32, a response voice to the answering machine service subscriber of the central control device 33, which is synthesized and output by the voice synthesis output device 38.

The voice recognition device 34 has a function of recognizing a name, a telephone number, and a symbol indicating importance, which are registered in advance. There are two forms of connection of a voice signal between the input / output control device 31, the voice recognition device 34, the voice memory 37, and the voice synthesis output device 38: an analog signal and a digital signal.

In this embodiment, the input / output control device 31 includes an AD converter.
It is assumed that the voice signal in the answering machine service device 30 is digitized by including a DA converter. When connecting with an analog signal, between the input / output control device 31 and the voice recognition device 34, the voice memory 37, the voice synthesis output device 38,
It requires a signal line for analog audio signals.

The answering machine service according to this embodiment is realized by the following five steps. That is, the start / end of the registration service of the importance of the customer or friend etc. is specified. Recording or transfer processing Call report recording and playback of recorded call.

 Hereinafter, the details of the above-mentioned 5 steps will be described.

Registration of importance of customer or friend etc. The central control unit 33 for the telephone answering service and the telephone 20 are connected via the subscriber exchange 32 with a special number set for the telephone answering service from the telephone set 20. When connected to the telephone set 20 of the subscriber, the central control unit 33 drives the voice recognition unit 34 and the voice synthesis output unit 38 to determine by the question form what the subscriber is going to do.

In Fig. 2, between the subscriber and the answering machine service device,
An example of activation of the answering machine service device 30 using a special number and a question format will be shown. As shown in the figure, if the importance of a customer or friend is to be registered, the central controller 33
Instructs the subscriber via the voice synthesis output device 38 to speak out the name, telephone number and importance of the customer or friend. The subscriber inputs the name or telephone number and importance of the customer or friend by voice from the telephone set 20.

The following is an example of the utterance format at the time of importance registration. Here, the subscriber is named "Ichiro Sato" and telephone number "03-444-5".
Central control unit 3 to register 151 ”, importance“ A ”
According to the instructions from 3, it is assumed that he uttered "Satouichirou, Zerosan-Young-Young-Gogo Strawberry".

As shown in FIG. 3, the above-mentioned importance is registered in advance by combining the rank of the importance and the required handling method, and the subscriber selects and specifies it. The central control unit 33 recognizes the utterance input by the voice recognition unit 34 and registers it in the subscriber service table memory 35. FIG. 4 shows an example of the recording format of the subscriber service table memory 35.

Designation of start / end of service In the same manner as above, the subscriber connects the central control unit 33 and the telephone set 20, and requests the start or end of the answering machine service. When receiving the request for starting the answering service, the central control unit 33 switches the connection inside the subscriber exchange 32 so that the call to the telephone set 20 of the subscriber is received by the central control unit 33. Upon receiving the request for termination of the answering service, the central control unit 33 switches the connection inside the subscriber exchange 32 so that the call to the telephone set 20 of the subscriber does not arrive at the central control unit 33.

Recording or transfer processing When a call to the subscriber arrives at the central control unit 33, the central control unit 33 uses the voice recognition unit 34 and the voice synthesis output unit 38 to confirm the caller in the form of a question and join. A call is recorded or transferred to the voice memory 37 according to the service content registered in advance by the person. At the same time, the fact of the incoming call is also recorded in the call recording memory 36.

Call record report In the same manner as above, the subscriber connects the central control unit 33 and the telephone set 20 and requests a call record report. Upon receiving the call record report request, the central control unit 33 retrieves the call received at the subscriber's telephone set 20 and the processing result for the call from the call memory 36 and converts it into voice through the voice synthesis output unit 38. And respond to the subscriber. For example, it is performed as follows.

"We will inform you of the call record on the * month ** day.

10:35 Called by Ichiro Sato and recorded.

11:40 Called by Taro Suzuki and transferred. ...... ”Reproduction of recorded call In the same manner as above, the subscriber connects the central control unit 33 and the telephone set 20 and requests notification of the recorded call. Upon receiving the call take-out request, the central control unit 33 takes out the recorded call from the voice memory 37 and outputs it to the subscriber's telephone set 20.

According to the present embodiment, it is possible to provide an answering machine service which records or transfers only calls that are registered in advance by the subscriber and are important to the subscriber.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a second embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, symbols 20, 31 to 38 indicate the same components as those shown in FIG. 1, 30B indicates an answering machine service device, 39 indicates a facsimile response conversion device, and 41 indicates a facsimile device.

This embodiment is different from the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1 described above in that the answering machine service device 30B is provided with a facsimile response conversion device 39, and a telephone device 20 is provided with a facsimile device 41. The subscriber to the facsimile machine 41
This is the point that enables response such as call recording using.

The input / output control device 31 is, in addition to the one shown in the first embodiment,
As will be described below, the facsimile response conversion device 39 synthesizes the facsimile signal and controls the facsimile signal output through the subscriber exchange 32.

The difference from the five-step procedure shown in the first embodiment is the call record report. Hereinafter, this will be described in detail.

Call record report In the same manner as in the case of registering the importance of a customer or friend in the first embodiment, the subscriber connects the central controller 33 and the telephone set 20 and requests a call record report. Upon receiving the call record report request, the central controller 33 retrieves the call received at the subscriber's telephone set 20 and the processing result for the call from the call memory 36, and lists the call records in the subscriber's facsimile device 41. Respond in the form of a table.

FIG. 6 shows an example of the format of a call record made by a facsimile. Of course, by specifying the subscriber, it is also possible to convert the call record into voice and respond to the subscriber via the voice synthesizing output device 38 as in the previous embodiment.

According to this embodiment, only the call that the subscriber has registered in advance and is important to the subscriber is recorded or transferred, and
It is possible to provide an answering machine service in which call records are provided as a list by facsimile.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a third embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, symbols 20, 31 to 39 and 41 indicate the same constituent elements as shown in FIGS. 1 and 5, 30C indicates an answering machine service device, and 42 indicates a character recognition device.

The difference between this embodiment and the second embodiment shown in FIG. 5 is that the answering machine service device 30C has a character recognition device 42.
The subscriber is provided with the facsimile device 41 in addition to the telephone 20 and is capable of registering the importance of the customer, friend, or the like by inputting characters using the facsimile device 41.

The input / output control device 31 is, in addition to the one shown in the second embodiment,
As described below, the control is performed to multiplex the facsimile signals of a plurality of voice mail service subscribers inputted via the subscriber exchange 32 and send them to the character recognition device 42.

What is different from the five-step procedure shown in the first embodiment is the registration of the importance of the customer, friend, or the like. Hereinafter, this will be described in detail.

Registration of importance of customer, friend, etc. In the same manner as in the case of registration of importance of customer, friend, etc. in the first embodiment, the subscriber connects the central control unit 33 and the telephone set 20, and the customer, friend, etc. Register the importance of.

The central control unit 33 provides the subscriber 20 with the customer's or friend's name, telephone number and importance to the telephone 20 or a facsimile device.
The subscriber is instructed to input using the voice synthesis output device 38. The subscriber equipped with the facsimile device 41 receives the name of the customer or friend from the facsimile device 41,
Enter a list of telephone numbers and importance created in a pre-specified format. FIG. 8 shows a format example of the list.

The central control unit 33 recognizes the list by the character recognition unit 42 and registers it in the subscriber service table memory 35.

According to this embodiment, only the call that the subscriber has registered in advance and is important to the subscriber is recorded or transferred, and
It is possible to provide an answering machine service in which call records are provided as a list by facsimile.

The above-described embodiments are merely examples, and the present invention should not be limited to these.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the present invention, a terminal device composed of a telephone, an exchange accommodating the terminal device, a central control unit connected to the exchange, and an input / output control controlled by the central control unit. A voice recognition device and a voice synthesis output device, and the input / output control device controls the multiplexing and distribution of voice signals between the exchange and the voice recognition device and the voice synthesis output device. In the system for recognizing the voice input by the voice recognition device, a subscriber service table memory connected to the input / output control device is provided, and the importance of the caller to the subscriber and designation of recording or transfer to the subscriber are added. Using the voice recognition device and the voice synthesizing output device for the caller of the call received by the subscriber during the answering service, which is recorded in the person service table memory. The caller's name and telephone number are recognized by an interactive response format, and the recognition contents are compared with the contents of the subscriber service table memory to transfer the specified call or record the call, and at the same time, the caller is called. Since the call record of the name, telephone number, processing result, etc. is output by voice, it is possible to realize an answering machine service that records or transfers only calls that are registered to the subscriber in advance and that are important to the subscriber. It has a remarkable effect.

As a side effect, since unnecessary calls are not recorded or transferred, it is possible to streamline call processing and use the function to judge the call originator of a call. There is also an effect that it becomes possible to let a machine answer a so-called nuisance call.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining a registration form of importance, and FIG. 3 is a combination of importance ranks and necessary response methods. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of registration in advance, FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a recording format of a subscriber service table memory, FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram showing a second embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 6 is a list by facsimile. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a format example of the call record, FIG. 7 is a configuration diagram showing a third embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 8 is a format example of a list of customers to be registered, friends' telephone numbers, and importance levels. FIG. 9 is a diagram showing the configuration of a conventional answering machine, and FIG. 10 is a diagram showing the configuration of a conventional transfer telephone service. 20: Telephone, 30A30B, 30C: Answering machine service device, 31:
Input / output control device, 32: subscriber exchange, 33: central control device,
34: voice recognition device, 35: subscriber service table memory,
36: call recording memory, 37: voice memory, 38: voice synthesis output device, 39: facsimile response conversion device, 41: facsimile device, 42: character recognition device.

Claims (8)

(57) [Claims] 1. In an answering machine in which an incoming call is recorded when the called user is absent, the identification information of the other party which the user arbitrarily selects and sets, and the identification information of the other party. A specific destination registration means for registering identification information of a predetermined answering machine service function including at least recording or forwarding of the call selected and set by the user, and an incoming call when the user is absent At the same time, a destination detecting means for detecting the identification information of the calling party is provided, and if the identification information of the destination detected by the destination detecting means is already registered in the specific destination registering means, the detection is performed. Based on the identification information of the answering service function set corresponding to the identification information of the other party, one of the answering service functions including call recording or transfer is selected and performed. Phone system. 2. The answering machine according to claim 1, wherein the other party detecting means performs voice recognition to detect the other party identifying information on the calling side. 3. If there is identification information of the calling side by voice from the calling side that has received the call when the user is absent, the detection result of the destination identification information of the calling side by voice recognition of the other party detecting means, The call recording is performed even if the call is not registered by the specific destination registration means.
Answering machine described in section. 4. An incoming call history recording means for recording an incoming call history when the user is absent and outputting the recorded incoming call history based on an instruction operation from the user. The answering machine according to any one of items 1 to 3. 5. The answering machine according to claim 4, wherein the incoming call history recording means outputs the incoming call history by voice. 6. The incoming call history recording means prints and outputs the incoming call history.
Answering machine described in section. 7. The device according to claim 1, further comprising means for registering the specific destination identification information in the specific destination registration means by recognizing a voice of the user. The answering machine according to any one of items 6 to 6. 8. A means for registering the specific destination identification information in the specific destination registration means by character-recognizing the written content created by the user is provided. The answering machine according to any one of items 1 to 7.