JP3448360B2 - 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.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Currently, an increasing number of communication devices such as telephones and facsimiles with telephones are equipped with an answering machine that automatically records a message of the other party in response to an incoming call even when the recipient is absent. is there.

Further, in this kind of equipment, not only the message of the other party is recorded, but also, for example, a predetermined remote control composed of a DTMF signal from the telephone of the destination is provided so that the recorded message can be confirmed from the destination. Remote control function to play in response to a signal (hereinafter,
It is also equipped with a remote function), which is more convenient for users.

However, in a device having both the above-mentioned answering machine function and remote function, if a remote signal is included in a recorded message, there is a problem in that the remote signal causes a malfunction during reproduction. For example, DTMF that instructs deletion of all messages in a recorded message
If the signal is included, all the messages in the memory will be erased during the reproduction of the message.

As a method for solving such a problem,
For example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 58-12786 (HO4M1 / 6)
As suggested in 4), the rising of the DTMF signal in the received message is detected and the operation of the recording amplifier is immediately stopped,
Further, a method has been proposed in which the operation of the recording amplifier is restarted at the time when the falling edge of the signal is detected so that the DTMF signal is not substantially recorded.

[0006]

However, in the above method, there is a delay between the fall of the DTMF signal and the restart of the operation of the recording amplifier, and there is a problem that a message cannot be recorded during this delay period. there were.

[0007]

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and a first feature thereof is a random access type voice recording memory capable of storing digital data,
Detecting means for detecting a remote signal in the analog signal sent via the telephone line and outputting the detection signal during the detection period, and the remote signal during the output in response to the output of the detection signal of the detecting means Means for outputting a signal different from the above, and the analog signal sent through the telephone line during the output period of the detection signal and the signal output by the signal output means are superposed and output, A superimposing unit that outputs only the analog signal during the output period, a unit that converts the signal output from the superimposing unit into a digital signal and outputs the digital signal, and a unit that writes the digital signal output from the conversion output unit into the memory. It is equipped with and.

A second feature is that a random access type voice recording memory capable of storing digital data, a means for managing a write start address for the memory, and an analog signal transmitted via a telephone line are used. Detecting a remote signal and outputting a detection signal during the detection period, a means for storing delay time data from the detection of the remote signal in the detecting means to the detection signal output, and a rising edge of the detection signal. In response, means for subtracting the write start address in the management means by a value corresponding to the delay time stored in the storage means, and during the output period in response to the output of the detection signal by the detection means. Means for outputting a signal different from the remote signal, an analog signal sent via the telephone line during the output period of the detection signal, and the signal Superimposing means for superimposing and outputting the signal output from the output means, and outputting only the analog signal during the non-output period of the detection signal, and means for converting the signal output from the superimposing means into a digital signal and outputting the digital signal. Writing means for sequentially writing the digital signal output from the conversion output means to the memory according to a start address managed by the management means and sequentially incrementing a write start address in the management means according to the writing. Is equipped with.

A third feature is that the intensity of the signal output from the signal output means is equal to or higher than the remote signal intensity.

[0010]

In the present invention, the remote signal stored in the memory is superposed with a signal different from the remote signal.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. (1) is a control unit composed of, for example, a microcomputer, and the control unit is based on a built-in control program. Take control.

(2) is an audio memory, which is composed of a semiconductor random access memory and stores the audio data digitized under the control of the control section.
(3) is a working memory composed of a semiconductor random access memory, and the voice memory (2) is used as the working memory.
Various data necessary for the control operation of the control unit (1) including the write address data indicating the write start address of the voice data to the audio data are stored.

Reference numeral (4) is an NCU, which is provided with an incoming call detection circuit (not shown) for detecting a ringing signal sent via a telephone line, and when an incoming call is detected, a control unit (1)
A signal to that effect is sent to, and the line is captured after waiting for an instruction from the control unit (1). In addition, the above NCU (4)
Thus, the telephone line is branched and connected to the recording amplifier (5), the reproduction amplifier (6) and the telephone TEL which will be described later.

(5) is a recording amplifier, and the amplifier is N
The analog signal output from the CU (4) is amplified and output. (6) is a reproduction amplifier, which is an AD described later.
-Amplifies the analog signal output from the DA unit and NCU
(4) and outputs to the speaker (13).

(7) is a DTMF detector, which detects a remote signal contained in the analog signal output from the recording amplifier (5). Since the remote signal in the present embodiment uses a well-known DTMF signal composed of a pair of specific frequencies, the above-mentioned detection section is provided with a plurality of filter circuits, and while the DTMF signal is being detected, a high-level detection signal is output to the control section (1 ) Is output. In addition, this detection unit (7)
Simultaneously determines the type of the DTMF signal and outputs it to the control unit (1) as a type signal.

(8) is an operational amplifier having a gain of "1", and the output of the recording amplifier (5) is connected to the input of the operational amplifier. Therefore, the operational amplifier (8) acts as a buffer buffer for the output of the recording amplifier (5). Reference numeral (9) is an oscillator, and the oscillator outputs a tone signal of a frequency different from the frequency forming the DTMF signal under the control of the control unit (1). Reference numeral (10) is a two-input type OR gate, the output of the operational amplifier (8) is supplied to one input of the gate, and the output of the oscillator (9) is supplied to the other input. Therefore, when the oscillation of the oscillator (9) is stopped, the analog signal output from the recording amplifier (5) is output from the OR gate (10), and when the oscillator (9) is oscillating. A signal obtained by superimposing the tone signal output from the oscillator (9) on the analog signal is output from the OR gate (10).

(11) is an AD-DA section,
When the analog signal is supplied from the OR gate (10), the DA unit converts it into a digital signal, encodes it and outputs it to the control unit (1), and when the digital signal is supplied from the control unit (1). After encoding, it is converted into an analog signal and output to the reproduction amplifier (6).

Reference numeral (12) denotes an operation unit, which includes a key switch for inputting various data and a key switch for designating ON / OFF of the answering machine function.

Next, the operation of the apparatus of this embodiment will be described.

When the answering machine function is turned off in the operation unit (10), the ringing signal sent through the telephone line is detected by the incoming call detection circuit in the NCU (4) and the control unit (1) receives the signal. Although a signal indicating the effect (incoming call detection signal) is transmitted, the control unit (1) does not instruct the NCU (4) to capture the line because the answering machine function is set to OFF. Therefore, the ringing signal will ring the ringer of the telephone TEL until the telephone TEL is off hooked.

On the other hand, when the answering machine function is set to ON, the control unit (1) performs control based on the flowcharts of the control programs shown in FIGS. 2 and 3.

When the incoming call detection signal is output from the NCU (4) in step S1, the control unit (1) outputs the control signal to the NCU (4) to capture the line in step S2.

In the subsequent step S3, for example, a response message "I am currently out of the office. I will contact you later, so please tell me what you need." Is output to the other party. Specifically, the control unit (1) reads a response message stored in advance in the voice memory (2) and AD this.
Decoding / analog conversion is performed by the DA unit (11), amplification is performed by the reproduction amplifier (6), and then the data is sent to the telephone line via the NCU (4).

When the sending of the response message is completed,
In step S4, the control unit (1) copies the write address data stored in the working memory (3) to a save area separately provided in the memory (3), and starts recording operation in subsequent step S5. The data in the save area will be referred to as save address data below.

In this recording operation, the analog signal output from the OR gate (10) is sequentially converted into a digital signal in the AD-DA section (11), and the encoded data is used as the write address data of the working memory (3). The addresses in the audio memory (2) shown are sequentially stored in the audio memory (2) as the head address. At this time, the write address data is also sequentially incremented in synchronization with the storage of the data, and always indicates the address in the memory (2) to be stored next.

The control unit (1) executes such a recording operation, and simultaneously executes the processing of step S6 and the steps shown in FIG. 3 in parallel.

In step S6, it is determined whether or not the recording operation can be ended. Specifically, the control unit (1) is AD
-Silence data of the encoded digital data output from the DA unit (7) is sequentially detected, and when this silence data continues for a predetermined time or longer, it is considered that the message transmission from the other party has ended and the recording operation is performed. finish.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S6 that the recording is continuing, the control unit (1) executes DT in step S7.
The presence / absence of the DTMF signal is determined based on the presence / absence of the high level detection signal output from the MF signal (7). If it is determined to be low level in this determination, the process returns to step S6.

When it is determined that the level is high in step S7, the control section (1) proceeds to step S8 to start the oscillation of the oscillator (9).

In the following S9 step, it is determined whether the detection signal from the DTMF detecting section (6) is at the high level or not, as in the S7 step, and the waiting process until the detection signal becomes the low level is performed in S1.
Proceed to step 0 and stop the oscillation of the oscillator (9).

Therefore, during the processing of steps S8 to S10, the DTMF signal output from the operational amplifier (8) is superimposed on the analog tone signal output from the oscillator (9) in the OR gate (10), and the superimposed analog signal is obtained. After being digitally encoded in the AD-DA unit (11), it is stored in the audio memory (2).

Following the process of step S10, step S11
The step is processed. In step S11, it is determined whether or not the DTMF signal is a predetermined signal based on the signal indicating the type of the DTMF signal output from the DTMF detection unit (7) at the same time when the high level detection signal is output. Specifically, in the apparatus of this embodiment, the DTMF signal that can be responded during the operation of the answering machine function is only the DTMF signal corresponding to the * key requesting the switching from the answering machine function to the remote function, and the other 0 to 0 DT corresponding to 9 and # keys
It does not respond to MF signals. Therefore, when it is determined in step S11 that the type signal is "*", the control unit (1) ends the rewriting recording using the saved address data in the working memory (3) as write address data in step S12. As a result, the write address data is in the state before the start of recording in the immediately preceding step S5, and the next recording will be repeated recording, which means that the data recorded immediately before is substantially erased.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S11 that the value is other than "*", the control section (1) returns to step S6 and continues the recording operation.

Next, the reproduction of the data stored in the audio memory (2) will be described.

The instruction for this reproduction can be issued from the external telephone or telephone TEL using the operation unit (2) or the above-mentioned remote function. The control unit (1) receiving such a reproduction instruction sequentially reads the encoded digital data in the audio memory (2) and decodes it in the AD-DA unit (11) as well as the reproduction of the response message, and at the same time, outputs the analog signal. After being converted into, the signal is amplified by the reproduction amplifier (6) and output to the speaker (13) and output to the telephone line and / or the telephone TEL via the NCU (4).

At this time, the reproduced signal is also supplied to the DTMF detecting section (7) through the NCU (4), but the reproduced D
Since the tone signal is superimposed on the TMF signal and is different from the predetermined DTMF signal, the detection section (7) does not detect it. still,
In order to surely disable the detection of the superimposed signal by the detector (11), the intensity of the tone signal is about the same as the intensity of the DTMF signal output from the operational amplifier (8), or
It is preferable to make it more than that.

The reproduction signal output to the speaker (13), the telephone line and the telephone TEL can be selectively performed. For example, when a reproduction instruction is given from the operation unit (12), it is output only to the speaker (13), and when it is given from an external telephone via a telephone line, it is output only to the telephone line, and from the telephone TEL. If so, the control unit (1) controls the reproduction amplifier (6) and the NCU (4) so as to output only to the telephone TEL. As a result, the reproduction is performed only for the user who has requested the reproduction, so that, for example, a reproduction sound output from the speaker (13) by a person who happened to be near the device during reproduction according to a remote reproduction instruction from the outside. It is possible to prevent the user from being surprised or feeling wrong with the trouble.

In the above embodiment, the superimposition of the tone signal on the DTMF signal is started in response to the rise of the detection signal output from the DTMF detection section (7), but the actual input of the DTMF signal and the detection What is a signal rise?
Since a slight delay occurs as shown in, the delay time T
The tone signal cannot be superimposed on the DTMF signal input during 1). However, this delay time is 2
It is about 0 to 30 ms, and according to the regulations of the Telecommunications Business Law, it is obligatory to respond only to DTMF signals that continue for at least 50 ms or more, so there is basically no problem in Japan. However, if there is no such provision, at least the audio memory (2)
It is preferable to superimpose a 100% tone signal on the DTMF signal inside.

FIG. 5 shows D stored in the voice memory (2).
It is a block diagram which shows the Example for enabling a 100% tone signal to be superimposed on a TMF signal. The structural difference from the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1 is that delay time data and recording rate data are added to the working memory (3).

The above delay time data corresponds to the above delay time T1, and this time T1 is the above DTM.
Since it is an eigenvalue determined by the circuit forming the F detection unit (7), it can be stored in the working memory (3) in advance.

The recording rate is a value indicating the amount of bits required when an analog signal is converted into a digital signal per unit time, and this rate is AD-DA.
It is determined by the encoding method of the section (11). That is, a large amount of coding (bit amount) for an analog signal having a unit time length is required to perform coding in a form closer to a real voice,
On the other hand, if the sound quality of the reproduced voice is sacrificed to some extent, the encoding amount for the analog signal of unit time length can be reduced. In general answering machine, it is several k from the point of view of sound quality and memory usage.
An encoding method having a recording rate of bit / s to several tens of kbit / s is widely used. It is also possible to provide a plurality of such systems and allow the user to select the maximum recording time, for example. Therefore, the recording rate data may be stored in the memory (3) in advance similarly to the delay time data, or may be set in response to the selection from the operation unit (12) by the user.

6 and 7 are flow charts showing the second embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 5. Steps S101 to S107 and S110 to S114 are the same as steps S1 to S12 shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, respectively. The characteristic of the second embodiment is that S108 and S109 are followed by S107 step corresponding to the rising edge detection of the high level detection signal of S7 step.
There is a step added.

The step S108 is for calculating the memory capacity required for storing the DTMF signal in the audio memory (2) during the delay time T1 in the DTMF detecting section (7). Specifically, this is performed by obtaining the product of the recording rate data in the working memory (3) and the delay time data.

The calculation result obtained in step S108 is stored in the working memory (3) in the following step S109.
It is used as data for changing the write address data inside. Specifically, the write address data subtracted by the above calculation result is written as new write address data in the working memory (3), and the oscillation of the oscillator (9) is started in the subsequent step S110.

Therefore, the tone signal is superimposed on the DTMF signal input after the end of step S109, and the DTMF signal is written from the head address of the DTMF signal already stored in the voice memory (2) before the detection of step S107. . Therefore, only the DTMF signal on which the tone signal is superimposed exists in the voice memory (2).

In this embodiment, the product of the recording rate and the delay time is obtained in step S108. However, when the AD-DA unit (11) has only one encoding method, the recording is performed. Since the rate also becomes a fixed value,
The product value is always constant. Therefore, in such a case, the product value may be stored in the working memory (3) in advance, and step S108 can be omitted.

[0047]

According to the present invention, it is possible to avoid erroneous operation during reproduction based on a remote signal such as a DTMF signal without interrupting recording.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram for explaining the operation of the first embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the second embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the operation of the second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 control unit 2 voice memory 3 working memory 7 DTMF detector 8 operational amplifier 9 oscillators 10 OR gate 11 AD-DA section

Continuation of front page (56) Reference JP-A-5-252258 (JP, A) JP-A-5-244645 (JP, A) JP-A-2-179150 (JP, A) JP-A-2-134971 (JP , A) (58) Fields surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04M 1/64-1/658 H04M 3/42-3/58

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A random access type voice recording memory capable of storing digital data, and a detection for detecting a remote signal in an analog signal sent via a telephone line and outputting a detection signal during the detection period. Means, a means for outputting a signal different from the remote signal during the output in response to the output of the detection signal of the detection means, and an analog signal sent through the telephone line during the output period of the detection signal And a signal output from the signal output means by superimposing and outputting the analog signal only during a non-output period of the detection signal, and a signal output from the superimposing means converted into a digital signal and output. An answering machine, comprising: means for writing and a means for writing the digital signal output from the conversion output means into the memory. 2. A random access type voice recording memory capable of storing digital data, a means for managing a write start address for the memory, and a remote signal in an analog signal sent via a telephone line. Detecting means for detecting and outputting a detection signal during the detection period, means for storing delay time data from the remote signal detection to the detection signal output in the detecting means, and the above-mentioned in response to the rise of the detection signal Means for subtracting the write start address in the management means by a value corresponding to the delay time stored in the storage means, and the remote signal during the output period in response to the output of the detection signal by the detection means. Means for outputting different signals, an analog signal sent via the telephone line during the output period of the detection signal, and an output from the signal output means. Superimposing means for superimposing and outputting the input signal and outputting only the analog signal during the non-output period of the detection signal, means for converting the signal output from the superimposing means into a digital signal and outputting the digital signal, and the converting means. The digital signal output from the output means is sequentially written into the memory according to the start address managed by the management means, and the writing start address in the management means is sequentially incremented according to the writing. An answering machine that is characterized. 3. An answering machine according to claim 1, wherein the strength of the signal output from said signal output means is equal to or higher than the remote signal strength.