JP3518458B2 - Telephone equipment - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a telephone device,
Particularly, it relates to a telephone device having an answering machine function.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, some home telephones have an answering machine function. This is a function that automatically answers an incoming call from an outside line and records the caller's message on a recording medium such as a magnetic tape or an IC memory. In addition to being able to play the message when the owner of the telephone returns home, You can also listen by calling the terminal at home from the beginning.

On the other hand, NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
Started a service (name: Magic Box) to provide the above answering machine function on the network side from July 1999. The magic box will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a magic box.
As shown in the figure, when a call is made from the caller's terminal 20 to the contractor's terminal 10 and the contractor is busy or absent and does not answer the call after a predetermined number of times. The voice storage device installed in the center 22 responds instead and records the caller's message. The sender's message is the NTT network 21 (contractor accommodation exchange 2
3 and the center accommodation exchange 24) and is recorded in the voice storage device, and when the recording is completed, the voice storage device notifies the subscriber that the message has been registered.

If the call is busy, the call is immediately made to the contractor after the call ends. When the contractor responds, for example, "This is NTT. I have two messages now.", One message from the caller I recorded earlier, after announcing the synthesized voice. Play the eye message. After that, "This message was posted on November 1
This message was sent from 03-3456-7890 at 9:03 a.m. The announcement is made in the same manner as ". At that time, the contractor can delete or store the message by performing a predetermined key input from the terminal 1 as necessary. Then, after this operation, the second message flows in the same manner as described above, and the message can be erased or stored by a predetermined key input.

[0005]

However, since the telephone device and the magic box having the above-mentioned answering machine have a limited message storage capacity and a limited number of registrations (in the case of the magic box, one minute is three minutes). Up to 20 messages can be stored and held), which may make it difficult to record for a long time or record a large number of messages. Therefore, we would like to try to lengthen the recording time by using a telephone device equipped with such an answering machine and a magic box in combination, but when these are combined, it will be recorded on the terminal at home from the outside. There is a problem that you cannot hear the message. That is, when the recording capacity of the terminal at home becomes full, recording cannot be performed any more, the answering machine function is stopped, and the incoming call cannot be answered. Therefore, in such a case, even if you call the home terminal to listen to the recorded message, the home terminal does not respond, and the Magic Box responds instead. Can't play. The present invention is intended to solve such a problem, and makes it possible to use both the answering machine function of a terminal and the answering machine function provided by the network side, and answering machine function without worrying about the number of recordings or the recording capacity. It is an object of the present invention to provide a telephone device capable of utilizing the.

[0006]

In order to achieve such an object, a telephone device according to the present invention is a telephone device having an answering machine and a caller number detecting section for detecting the telephone number of a caller. A first storage unit for storing and holding a pre-registered access number; a second storage unit for storing and holding a voice; a recording unit for recording a received voice in the second storage unit; Reproduction means for reproducing the voice recorded in the second storage means, and (a) reproduction or deletion of the voice recorded in the second storage means when the incoming telephone number matches the access number. Control the
(B) a control unit that accepts only incoming calls from the access number and rejects other incoming calls when it is determined that recording in the second storage unit is impossible. Further, the control unit may determine whether or not the recording is impossible based on the recording time. Further, the control unit may control the reproduction of the message already recorded in the second storage unit based on the remote signal received from the transmission side after responding to the incoming call. The access number is ISD
It may be N sub-addresses.

With this configuration, the present invention provides
By using the new service of NTT as well as the memory of the telephone device, the message can be stored on the network side, and there is an advantage that the number of recordings and the recording capacity do not have to be as important as before. Therefore, user convenience is improved.

[0008]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Next, one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows one embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, the terminal 1 owned by the contractor includes a line 2, an incoming call detection unit 3, and a switch 4.
A telephone number sending unit 5, a key input unit 6, a recording / playback unit 7 for recording and playing a voice, a caller number detection unit 8, a RAM, a ROM, etc. A memory 9 used for recording a program, a predetermined access number and a message, a control unit 10 for controlling and calculating each unit, and a remaining recordable time,
Switch 11, hook switch 12, and call circuit 13
1, an amplifier 14, a sound source unit 15, a display device 16 including an LCD, a fluorescent display tube, and the like, a handset 17, and a speaker 18.

The recording / playback unit 7 takes in the call voice from the line 2 under the control of the control unit 10, and stores it in the memory 9
It is a means for digitally recording to or reproducing the digital voice recorded in the memory 9. Also, a memory different from the memory 9 may be provided in the recording / playback unit 7 or the like, and voice may be recorded in this memory. Further, the access number may be the telephone number of the terminal 1 having the answering machine function, or by setting the number of the user's own mobile telephone, remote control such as reproduction / deletion of a message can be performed from outside. become able to. Of course, a plurality of telephone numbers designated by the user may be set as the access numbers.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. 2 and 3 are flowcharts showing the operation when the terminal 20 according to FIG. 5 makes a call to the terminal 1.

First, when a call is made from the caller's terminal 20 to the contractor's terminal 1 (step 101), NT
The network 21 of T transmits a signal for calling the terminal 1 of the contractor (step 102). At this time, the "caller number notification service" provided by NTT notifies the terminal 1 of the telephone number added to the caller's terminal 20. If the notified caller number matches the access number recorded in the memory 9 (FIG. 1), the process proceeds to step 201 (FIG. 3) described later (step 103). If they do not match, the number of calls is counted (step 104), and the terminal 1 or the center 22 responds according to the counted number of calls. For example, as a default, the terminal 1 responds eight times and the center 2
The number of responses for 2 is set to 9 times.

Therefore, in the default state, if there are eight calls, and the contractor of the terminal 1 does not respond, the answering machine function operates after the eighth call and the terminal 1 automatically operates. Respond (step 106). Then, after making an announcement composed of a predetermined synthetic sound, a message from the caller is recorded (step 107). When the recording is completed (step 108), the control unit 10 determines whether or not the remaining recordable time in the terminal 1 is equal to or longer than a predetermined set time (step 110), and if there is not, the response count set in the center 22 is set. The value is changed to a value smaller than the number of responses set in the terminal 1 (for example, 5 times) (step 111). The set time may be set to a fixed length when the terminal 1 is shipped from the factory, or may be arbitrarily set by a user operation.

By so doing, the center 22 will respond from the next time when the determination in step 105 is made. As a result, the incoming call to the terminal 1 will be rejected,
The call is forcibly transferred to the center 22 (step 11
2) The center 22 responds (step 113). Then, the center 22 responds by issuing a synthetic voice announcement.
Record the message from the caller (step 11)
4). The recording process at this time follows the usual Magic Box procedure.

On the other hand, in step 103, when the caller's telephone number matches the access number, the caller transmits a remote signal by pressing a predetermined key to erase or reproduce the message recorded in the terminal 1. be able to. That is, when the remote signal is the erasing process (step 201), the recorded message is erased (step 202), and then the control unit 10 determines whether the remaining recordable time in the terminal 1 is a predetermined value or more. The determination is made (step 203). If the number of responses is greater than or equal to the predetermined value, the number of responses registered in the center 22 is restored,
The next message recording will be performed on the terminal 1 (step 2).
04). If the remote signal is reproduction processing (step 2)
05) The recorded message is reproduced (step 206).

Recording from a registered access number person is performed as follows. That is, when receiving a remote signal for instructing recording, if the telephone itself can record, the telephone side records. On the other hand, if you cannot record any more due to insufficient memory capacity, open the line once and do not answer the incoming call when you receive the incoming call from a registered access number person within a predetermined time. To As a result, since the magic box responds instead of the telephone, it becomes possible to record a message from the registered access number person on the network side.

FIG. 4 is a sequence diagram for explaining the operation shown in FIGS. As shown in FIG.
The recording is performed after the incoming call from the network 21, and when the recordable time in the terminal 1 becomes equal to or less than the set value when the recording is finished, the control unit 10 sets the number of responses set in the center 22 to the terminal. It is set smaller than the number of responses set to 1. When the center 22 records a message, the number of responses set in the center 22 is smaller than the number of responses set in the terminal 1, and therefore the center 22 responds first to record the message. When receiving an incoming call from a predetermined access number, the terminal 1 accepts the incoming call regardless of the presence or absence of the recordable time, and erases or reproduces the message according to the received instruction. In the case of erasing, if the recordable time becomes equal to or longer than the set time after the end notification from the terminal 1, the number of responses set in the center 22 is restored, and the terminal 1 responds first at the next incoming call. To do so. A normal call is made between the network 21 and the terminal 1.

In the above description, the originator terminal is specified by using the originator number detecting section, and remote control such as reproduction / deletion of a message is performed. However, by using the subaddress of ISDN, such originator number can be obtained. There is no need to use a detector. That is, the remote function may be activated when an incoming call arrives at a predetermined sub-address. Further, which of the terminal 1 and the center 22 responds is performed by changing the number of responses set in the center 22, but instead of changing the number of responses of the center 22, the number of responses of the terminal 1 is set. It may be variable.

[0018]

As described above, according to the present invention, when the incoming telephone number matches the predetermined access number, the second
The reproduction or deletion of the voice recorded in the storage means is controlled, and when it is determined that the recording in the second storage means is impossible, only the incoming call from the access number is accepted and the other incoming calls are rejected. With such a structure, the present invention can be applied not only to the memory of the telephone device but also to the NTT.
By using the new service, it is possible to store messages on the network side, and there is an advantage that you do not have to worry about the number of recordings and recording capacity as before. Therefore, user convenience is improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure.

FIG. 4 is a sequence diagram showing an operation procedure.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a magic box provided by NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation).

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Terminal, 2 ... Line, 3 ... Incoming call detection section, 4 ... Hook switch, 5 ... Telephone number sending section, 6 ... Key input section, 7 ... Recording / playback section, 8 ... Caller number detection section, 9 ... Memory 10, ...
Control unit, 11 ... Switch, 12 ... Switch, 13 ... Communication circuit, 14 ... Amplifier, 15 ... Sound source unit, 16 ... Display device, 1
7 ... Handset, 18 ... Speaker, 20 ... Terminal, 21
... NTT network, 22 ... center, 23 ... contractor accommodation exchange, 24 ... center accommodation exchange.

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ identification code FI H04M 11/00 303 H04M 11/00 303 H04Q 7/38 H04B 7/26 109L (56) Reference JP-A-1-238354 (JP , A) JP-A-8-214056 (JP, A) JP-A-62-294357 (JP, A) JP-A-49-40604 (JP, A) JP-A-62-257249 (JP, A) JP-A 2-67053 (JP, A) JP-A-2-79550 (JP, A) JP-A-5-227274 (JP, A) JP-A-6-303313 (JP, A) JP-A-10-257166 (JP, A) A) Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 5-110661 (JP, A) Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 7-273862 (JP, A) Actual exploitation Sho 63-59443 (JP, U) Actual exploitation Sho 63-12964 (JP, U) (58) Survey Fields (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04M 1/64-1/658 H04M 3/42-3/58 H04M 11/00-11/10

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A telephone device having an answering machine function, a caller number detecting section for detecting a telephone number of a caller, a first storing means for storing and retaining a pre-registered access number, and a voice for storing and holding. A second storage unit that enables the recording, a recording unit that records the received voice in the second storage unit, a reproduction unit that reproduces the voice recorded in the second storage unit, and (a) an incoming call When the telephone number matches the access number, the reproduction or deletion of the voice recorded in the second storage means is controlled, and (b) it is determined that the recording in the second storage means is impossible. And a control unit that accepts only incoming calls from the access number and rejects other incoming calls. 2. The telephone device according to claim 1, wherein the control unit determines whether the recording is impossible based on a recording time. 3. The control unit according to claim 1, wherein the control unit controls reproduction of a message already recorded in the second storage unit based on a remote signal received from a calling side after responding to an incoming call. Telephone equipment. 4. The telephone device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the access number is a subaddress of ISDN.