JP3239221B2 - Answering machine - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an answering machine which allows a user to listen to a remotely recorded operation from an outside telephone set via a telephone line.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional answering machine, after a response message is transmitted by receiving a call, a message from a partner is recorded.
During the recording of the message, if the other party's caller lowers the handset due to the end of the message, a busy tone is sent from the exchange to the answering machine. When the busy tone reached a predetermined number of cycles or a predetermined time, the answering machine stopped recording the message and opened the telephone line. At this time, the busy tone was recorded on the message recording tape until the message recording was stopped.

[0003]

When a message recording tape of an answering machine is reproduced, a busy tone is recorded after each message. When a busy tone that was recorded during playback of a message by remote control from an outside location is played, this is detected by the busy tone detection circuit directly or by wraparound, so it is determined that the other party has dropped the handset It malfunctions to open the telephone line. As a countermeasure, the busy sound detection circuit is disabled in the state of reproducing the message so as not to malfunction. For this reason, if the telephone handset is lowered while listening to a recorded message from a remote place while away from home, the telephone line cannot be disconnected due to the busy tone, and the answering machine cannot be opened because the telephone line cannot be opened. There was a problem that it was left standing.

As a countermeasure against the above-mentioned problem, a remote control code for releasing a telephone line is set, and the remote control code is transmitted from an outgoing telephone, so that the telephone line is released even during reproduction of the business. However, if the user forgets to transmit the remote control code and ends the call, the telephone line remains connected as described above. An object of the present invention is to provide a telephone answering machine which does not cause the malfunction described above.

[0005]

The configuration of the present invention is as follows. (1) After automatically answering an incoming call, the other party's message is recorded, and the recorded message can be heard by remote operation via a telephone line. When a busy tone coming from the telephone line is detected a predetermined first number of times by the end of the caller via the telephone, the answering machine which opens the telephone line will call the telephone line when recording a message. The recording of the busy tone arriving from the telephone line due to the end of the call is stopped after detecting the second predetermined number of times less than the predetermined first number, and when the message is reproduced by remote control, the reproduced second sound is stopped. An answering machine, wherein an operation of opening a telephone line is not caused even when a busy tone is detected twice. (2) The answering machine according to the preceding paragraph, wherein the duration of the busy tone arriving from the telephone line is defined by time instead of the first and second predetermined times.

[0006]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart for recording a message of an answering machine according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a flowchart for reproducing a message by remote control. FIG. 3 is a block diagram of relevant parts of an answering machine according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a timing chart showing the control based on the busy tone. 1 is a telephone line, 2 is an incoming call detection circuit, 3
Is a control circuit, 4 is a changeover switch, 5 is a communication circuit, 6 is a handset, 7 is a busy sound detection circuit, 8 is a mute switch, and 9 is a recording / reproducing circuit.

First, the operation of the answering machine as a simple telephone will be described with reference to FIG. When the incoming call detection circuit 2 detects an incoming call from the telephone line 1, the control circuit 3 receives this detection output and controls to generate a ring tone. When the handset 5 is lifted, the control circuit 3 detects this and makes the changeover switch 4 conductive. Then, it becomes possible to talk with the other party by the hand-agent 6 via the communication circuit 5. When the handset 6 is dropped at the end of the call, the control circuit 3 detects this and turns off the changeover switch 4 to open the telephone line.

Next, the operation of recording a message when the answering machine state is set in the control circuit 3 will be described with reference to FIG. 1 and other drawings. When the incoming call detection circuit 2 detects an incoming call from the telephone line 1, the control circuit 3 receives this detection output and controls to generate a ring tone. Since the control circuit 3 is set to the absence state, if there is no response from the handset 6 while the predetermined number of ringing tones are ringing, the control circuit 3 controls the switch 4 to conduct, and the telephone circuit 5 1 (circuits related to the response message are omitted). Next, it controls the recording / reproducing circuit 9 and sends a response message to the telephone line 1 via the communication circuit 5. When the transmission is completed, the recording / reproducing circuit 9 is set to the message recording state, and the message coming from the telephone line 1 is recorded. When the transmission of the other party's message is completed and the handset is lowered, a 400 Hz busy tone shown in FIG.

Since the recording / reproducing circuit 9 of the answering machine 1 keeps the recording operation, the busy tone arriving after the task is also recorded. At this time, the busy sound detection circuit 7 detects the busy sound and sends out a detection output as shown in FIG. In this embodiment, when the control circuit 3 receives the second busy sound detection output, it turns off the mute switch 8 as shown in FIG. When the mute switch 8 becomes non-conductive, the third busy tone is detected by the busy tone detection circuit 7, but is not input to the recording / playback circuit 9; 2) like
Only the first busy tone is recorded.

When the control circuit 3 inputs the third busy tone detection output, it recognizes that the other party has ended the call and turns off the changeover switch 4 to open the telephone line 1 as shown in FIG. I do. Then, the answering machine returns to the initial state. Similarly, several messages are recorded in the recording / playback circuit 9.

Next, the operation of listening to a message recorded on the answering machine from a telephone at a destination will be described with reference to FIG. 2 and other drawings. There is a call from a telephone on the go and there is a dial input of a PIN as in the past,
When the control circuit 3 receives these, the message reproduced from the recording / reproduction circuit 9 is transmitted to the telephone line 1 via the communication circuit 5. After sending the message, the busy tone recorded as shown in FIG. Since the recorded busy tone goes to the busy tone detection circuit via the communication circuit 5 or is directly input, the busy tone detection circuit 7 detects the busy tone and outputs a detection output to the control circuit 3. Put out The communication circuit 5 is a two-wire four
Since the line conversion circuit is included, if the busy sound detection circuit is connected to the 2-wire side, that is, the telephone line 1, the busy sound at the time of reproduction will be directly input. The receiving side 2 of the four lines
If it is connected to a line, the busy sound at the time of reproduction that has wrapped around will be input. As shown in FIG. 4E, the control circuit 3 does not control the changeover switch 4 to be non-conductive because the detection output of the busy tone is input only twice. Therefore, after the reproduction of the busy tone twice in FIG. 4E, the reproduction of the message recorded on the message recording tape in the recording / playback device 9 is started.

If the handset of the telephone at the destination is lowered during the reproduction of the message, a busy tone comes from the telephone line 1.
When the busy sound detecting circuit 7 detects the busy sound and the control circuit 3 receives the detection output three times, the switch 4 is turned off at the timing shown in FIG. 4D to open the telephone line 1. . The telephone line 1 is similarly opened when the handset of the outgoing telephone is dropped after the message reproduction is completed.

As described above, the message reproduction is continued without opening the telephone line 1 due to the wraparound of the recorded busy sound during the message reproduction, and the message reproduction is being performed by remote control of the telephone at the destination. The telephone line 1 is reliably opened when the handset of the telephone at the destination is dropped. In terms of hardware, only one mute switch needs to be added.

In the above embodiment, the number of times of detection and output of the busy sound is shown as an example, and is not limited to this. Further, the output duration of the busy sound may be used instead of the number of times of detection and output of the busy sound.

[00015]

The telephone answering machine according to the present invention reliably distinguishes a busy tone coming from a telephone line from a busy tone reproduced from a recording tape, thereby enabling a message recorded by remote control from a remote place. Even if the handset of the outgoing telephone is dropped during the transmission, the malfunction can be prevented, for example, by reliably detecting this and opening the telephone line. Further, since the added portion is very small, it can be achieved economically.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart of an answering machine according to an embodiment of the present invention when recording a message.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart when a message is reproduced by remote control.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a portion related to the present invention of the answering machine.

FIG. 4 is a timing chart illustrating control based on a busy tone.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1. Telephone line 3. Control circuit 5. Call circuit 7. 7. Busy sound detection circuit Mute switch 9. Recording / playback circuit

Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Yoshinari Nemoto 1-6-1, Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (72) Kennori Yamaguchi 3-1-1, Asahigaoka, Hino-shi, Tokyo Examiner Takashi Shinozuka, Toshiba Hino Factory (56) References JP-A-1-93954 (JP, A) JP-A-53-139404 (JP, A) JP-A-49-94212 (JP, A) JP-A-1 −286556 (JP, A) Japanese Utility Model 2-150856 (JP, U) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04M 1/00 H04M 1/24-1/253 H04M 1/58 -1/82 H04M 11/00-11/10

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. After automatically answering an incoming call, a message of the other party is recorded, and the recorded message can be heard by remote control via a telephone line. An answering machine which opens a telephone line when a caller who has ended the call through the telephone line detects a busy tone coming from the telephone line for a first predetermined number of times. The recording of the busy tone arriving from the telephone line due to the termination of the caller is stopped after detecting the second predetermined number of times less than the first predetermined number, and the reproduction is performed when the message is reproduced by remote control. An answering machine, wherein an operation of opening a telephone line is not caused even if a busy tone is detected the second number of times. 2. The answering machine according to claim 1, wherein the duration of the busy tone arriving from the telephone line is specified by time instead of the first and second predetermined times. apparatus.