JP3448363B2 - 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 that a voice recording memory and a remote signal in a voice signal transmitted through a telephone line are used. Detecting means for outputting a detection signal during the detection period and means for outputting a signal different from the remote signal; means for writing the supplied signal in the audio recording memory; In response to the detection signal output, means for selectively supplying the signal output from the signal output means to the writing means instead of the audio signal during the output.

A second feature is that the voice recording memory, detecting means for detecting a remote signal in a voice signal sent through a telephone line and outputting a detection signal during the detection period, and the remote signal. Means for outputting a signal different from the above, a means for managing a write start address for the memory, a means for storing delay time data from the detection of the remote signal in the detection means to the output of the detection signal, and the detection signal And a means for subtracting the write start address in the management means by a value corresponding to the delay time stored in the storage means in response to the rise of According to the writing, the writing means for sequentially incrementing the writing address in the management means according to the writing, and the detecting means of the detecting means. The signal output from the signal output means instead out in response to a signal output at its output in the audio signal lies in having a selectively supplying means to said writing means.

A third feature is that the frequency error between the remote signal and the signal output from the signal output means is 3% or more.

[0010]

According to the present invention, the remote signal sent through the telephone line during the absence recording operation is replaced with a completely different signal from the remote signal and stored.

[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 a semiconductor random access memory and stores audio data digitized under the control of the control section (1). (3) is a working memory composed of a semiconductor random access memory, in which the write address data indicating the write start address of the voice data to the voice memory (2) is stored in the control unit (1). Various data necessary for control operation 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
It is supplied to (4) and also output to the speaker (12).

(7) is a DTMF detector, which detects a remote signal contained in the analog signal output from the recording amplifier (5). The remote signals in this embodiment are 1209 Hz, 1336 Hz, 1477H.
One of z and 1633Hz and 697Hz, 770H
z, 852 Hz and 941 Hz in combination with one of the well-known DTMF signals, the detection unit includes a filter circuit for each frequency and a high level detection signal while detecting the DTMF signal. Control unit (1)
Output to. The detecting unit (7) also determines the type of the DTMF signal at the same time, and determines the type signal as the control unit (1).
Output to. As such a DTMF detector (7), for example, LC7385 manufactured by Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. can be used.

(8) is an oscillator, which is the above-mentioned D
A dummy signal composed of a combination of two types of dummy frequencies different from the frequencies forming the TMF signal is output. The dummy frequency is preferably at least a frequency that is not detected by any of the filter circuits in the DTMF detection section (7). Generally, the detection tolerance error of the filter circuit with respect to a specific frequency is about ± 1.5%. Therefore,
It is preferable that the dummy frequency has an error of at least ± 3% or more with respect to each frequency forming the DTMF signal. In this embodiment, as the dummy signal, signals having frequencies of 1715 Hz and 662 Hz are combined.

(9) is a switching unit, which is a DTM.
While the high level detection signal is being output from the F detection unit (7), the signal output from the oscillator (8) is used as AD-D described later.
While the high level detection signal is not output, the signal output from the recording amplifier (5) is selectively switched to be supplied to the AD-DA section which will be described later.

(10) is an AD-DA section, and the AD-DA section
When the analog signal is supplied through the switching unit (9), the DA unit converts the analog signal into a digital signal, encodes and outputs the digital signal to the control unit (1), and the digital signal is supplied from the control unit (1). Then, the decoded signal is converted into an analog signal and output to the reproduction amplifier (6).

Reference numeral (11) 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 (11), 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. Thus, the ringing signal will ring the telephone TEL ringer until the telephone TEL is off hooked.

On the other hand, when the answering machine function is set to ON, the control section (1) performs control based on the flow charts 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 out now. 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.
-This is performed by decoding / analog converting in the DA unit (10), amplifying by the reproducing amplifier (6), and then sending out to the telephone line through 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 sent through the switching unit (9) is sequentially converted into a digital signal by the AD-DA unit (10) and the encoded data is written in the working memory (3). The addresses in the voice memory (2) indicated by the embedded address data are sequentially stored in the voice 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 the above-described recording operation and simultaneously executes the processing of step S6 and subsequent 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 (10) 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 being continued, the control unit (1) executes DT in step S7.
The presence / absence of DTMF signal transmission from the other party is determined based on the presence / absence of a high level detection signal from the MF detector (7). If it is determined to be low level in this determination, the processing is S
Return to 6 steps.

When the high level is determined in step S7, this high level detection signal is also supplied to the switching section (9). Therefore, as shown in step S8, AD-D
The output analog signal of the oscillator (8) is supplied to the section A (10) in place of the output analog signal from the recording amplifier (5).

At step S9, D is performed as at step S7.
It is determined whether or not the detection signal from the TMF detection section (7) is at high level, and waits until it becomes low level.

When the output of the DTMF detection section (7) becomes low level, the switching section (9) outputs AD in step S10.
-Disconnect the DA unit (10) and the oscillator (8), and
The D-DA section (10) is connected to the recording amplifier (5).

Therefore, during the processing of steps S8 to S10, that is, while the DTMF signal is being output from the recording amplifier (5), the AD-DA section (10) is replaced with the DTMF signal from the oscillator (8). The output dummy signal is supplied, and the dummy signal is stored in the voice memory (2) in place of the DTMF signal.

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 the present embodiment, the DTMF signal that can be responded during the answering machine operation is only the DTMF signal corresponding to the * key that requests switching from the answering machine function to the remote function, and the other 0-9 and It does not respond to the DTMF signal corresponding to the # key. Therefore, when it is determined in step S11 that the type signal is “*”, the control unit (1) does
In step 2, the rewriting recording is finished by using the save address data in the working memory (3) as the write address data. As a result, the write address data is stored in the immediately preceding S5.
The state before the start of recording at the step is set, and the next recording is 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 unit (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 the telephone TEL using the operation unit (11) or the above-mentioned remote function. The control unit (1) which has received such a reproduction instruction sequentially reads the encoded digital data in the audio memory (2) and decodes it in the AD-DA unit (10) as well as the reproduction of the response message, and at the same time converts it into an analog signal. After conversion, this is amplified by the reproduction amplifier (6) and output to the speaker (12), and also 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 signal does not include a signal detectable by the detecting section (7). Therefore, the detection unit (7) does not detect the DTMF signal.

The reproduction signal output to the speaker (12), telephone line and telephone TEL can be selectively performed. For example, when a reproduction instruction is given from the operation unit (11), it is output only to the speaker (12), 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 (12) by a person who happened to be near the device during reproduction according to a remote reproduction instruction from the outside. It can prevent you from being surprised or confused with a malfunction.

In the above embodiment, the switching between the DTMF signal and the dummy signal is started in response to the rising of the detection signal output from the DTMF detection section (7), but the actual DT
Since there is a slight time difference between the input of the MF signal and the rising of the detection signal as shown in FIG. 4, the DTMF signal input during this time difference (delay time T1) cannot be replaced with the dummy signal. However, this delay time T1 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 a DTMF signal lasting at least 50 ms or longer, so there is basically no problem in Japan. , If there is no such provision, at least the DTM in the voice memory (2)
It is preferable to replace the F signal with a 100% dummy signal.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an embodiment for enabling 100% storage of the DTMF signal in the audio memory (2). 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 bit amount 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 (10). 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 the unit timetable can be reduced. In general answering machine, it is several K from the point of view of sound quality and memory usage.
A coding 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 (11) by the user.

FIGS. 6 and 7 are flow charts showing the operation of the second embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG.
7 and steps S110 to S114 are the same as steps S1 to S12 shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, respectively, and the feature of the second embodiment is that the step S107 corresponding to the rising edge detection of the high level detection signal in step S7 is followed. S108 and S
This is due to the addition of 109 steps.

In step S108, the memory capacity necessary for storing the DTMF signal in the audio memory (2) during the delay time T1 in the DTMF detecting section (7) is calculated. 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 in the working memory (3) as new write address data.

Therefore, even if the DTMF signal is written in the voice memory (2) during the delay time T1, when the oscillator (8) is switched and connected to the AD-DA unit (10), the steps S108 and S109 are performed. Since the write address data is changed to the data indicating the head position of the area in the voice memory (2) in which the DTMF signal is written by the processing of step 1, the dummy signal is also written in the area in which the DTMF signal is already written. Is overwritten, the DTMF signal in the voice memory (2) can be substantially erased.

In this embodiment, the product of the recording rate and the delay time is obtained in step S108. However, if the AD-DA unit (10) 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.

In the first and second embodiments, the switching unit (9) is switched by the detection signal of the DTMF detection unit (8) directly, but the control unit (1) is operated based on the detection signal. ) May be controlled.

[0050]

According to the present invention, since a remote signal composed of a DTMF signal or the like input during message recording is replaced with a completely different dummy signal and stored in the memory, no malfunction occurs during message reproduction. Moreover, since the message storage is not interrupted, all the messages can be surely stored.

Further, since the DTMF signal stored in the memory can be substantially erased due to the rising delay of the detection signal in the DTMF detecting section, malfunction during reproduction can be more reliably prevented.

Further, by setting the error between the dummy signal and the DTMF signal to be 3% or more, the dummy signal detection of the DTMF detecting section can be disabled.

[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 oscillators 9 Switching section 10 AD-DA section

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (58) Fields surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04M 1/64-1/658 H04M 3/42-3/58

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A voice recording memory, detection means for detecting a remote signal in a voice signal sent through a telephone line and outputting a detection signal during the detection period, and a signal different from the remote signal. Output means, a means for writing the supplied signal in the voice recording memory, and a signal output from the signal output means in response to the detection signal output of the detection means instead of the voice signal during output. And a means for selectively supplying a signal to the writing means. 2. A voice recording memory, detection means for detecting a remote signal in a voice signal sent via a telephone line and outputting a detection signal during the detection period, and a signal different from the remote signal. Output means, means for managing a write start address for the memory, means for storing delay time data from the detection of the remote signal in the detection means to output of the detection signal, and 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 supplied signal in the memory according to the write start address in the management means. Writing means for sequentially writing and incrementing the write address in the management means in accordance with the writing, and a detection signal output of the detection means An answering machine according to claim 1, further comprising means for selectively supplying the signal output from the signal output means to the writing means instead of the voice signal during the output. 3. An answering machine according to claim 1, wherein the frequency error between the remote signal and the signal output from the signal output means is 3% or more.