JPH01317055A - Automatic answering telephone set - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To avoid disabled listening of a reply message from a caller by comparing a trunk line signal level measured at automatic reply with a prescribed value and starting the transmission of the reply message when the level is smaller than the prescribed value or becomes smaller than the level. CONSTITUTION:A control section 2 uses a loop switching section 3 to close the loop at the automatic incoming call, holds the state for a time till the line connection state is made stable, a trunk line signal level measuring section 4 measures the trunk line signal level and when the signal level is smaller than the trunk line signal level, the reply message is sent immediately via a reply message transmission section 7 and a reply message storage section 8. On the other hand, when the trunk line signal level is larger than the trunk line signal level it is discriminated that a caller makes talking or a coin storage forcing tone for a public telephone set or the like arrives, and no reply message is sent till the signal level is smaller. Thus, the collision between the reply message, the caller message voice and the coin storage urging tone from the caller telephone set is avoided. Then an event of the caller disabling to listen to the reply message is avoided.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Industrial Application] This invention provides a method for preventing the caller from responding from the answering machine because the voice of the caller and the voice of the response message from the answering machine collide immediately after receiving an automatic answering call. The caller may not be able to receive the message, or the caller may not be able to hear the response message from the answering machine due to the signal tone generated by the calling party's public telephone when the answering machine automatically answers when the caller calls from the public telephone. The present invention relates to an answering machine that can avoid unexpected situations.

[Prior Art] When an answering machine is set to an away state when the owner of the telephone is absent or unable to answer the call for some reason, the answering machine automatically closes the loop when an incoming signal arrives and sends a pre-recorded message. It sends a response message. Conventional answering machines are broadly classified into two types depending on the purpose of use. One is called an answering machine,
The response message usually consists of the telephone owner's name, the reason why the telephone owner cannot answer the call, the telephone number of the person who is out of the office, and the expected time of return9. , the line will be opened immediately. The other type is called a response recording answering machine, which in terms of hardware is a response-only answering machine with a caller message recording unit added. In addition to the response message of the answering machine, the response message includes a message at the end that prompts the caller to record a business message, and after the response message is sent, the caller The caller's message is recorded, and the caller's message is stored in the caller's message recording section. A recorded answering machine is
Functionally superior to answering-only answering machines,
Although they are widely used in general, answering-only answering machines are often used when providing business information during closed hours of shops, etc., or when being away for long periods of time, such as when traveling. In addition, some answering machines function as answering-only answering machines by switching the answering message when the caller's message recording section becomes full.

With these conventional answering machines, when an incoming call signal is detected, the loop is closed, and an automatic response is performed, even if the answering machine closes the loop, the exchange connection is completed and the caller and the answering machine are not connected. Since it takes some time for the line condition to stabilize between calls, answering machines begin sending response messages after a certain waiting time has elapsed after the loop is opened.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the above-mentioned conventional answering machine, during automatic answering, the caller's voice and the response message voice from the answering machine collide, and the caller is unable to read the response message. There may be situations where the caller cannot be heard, or when the caller makes a call from a public telephone, the caller may not be able to hear the response message due to interference with the signal tone generated by the calling party's public telephone. The challenge was to avoid this situation.

One reason for the collision between the caller's voice and the response message voice is that the waiting time from opening the loop to sending the response message is estimated to be longer than the average time for the line connection to be stable. Therefore, a blank time may occur between the time the line is connected and the answering machine starts sending a response message. This is because the time from when the answering machine closes the loop until the exchange completes the connection operation and the line status stabilizes depends on the exchange connected, the route, etc., and is not a fixed value. It is. When this blank time occurs, the caller does not know that the answering machine has answered until he/she receives an answering message, so the caller has to confirm that the connection has been made by the exchange, and may not be able to make any utterances because there is no response from the other party. This causes a conflict with the response message voice. Furthermore, in calls from callers who tend to start speaking quickly, or in situations where the caller is in a particular hurry, the caller may be interrupted by the noise generated when the answering machine closes the loop. Confirming that the line is connected and immediately starting to speak is also thought to be a cause of audio collisions.

The causes of the situation where the answering message voice from the answering machine is interfered with by the signal tone of the calling party's public telephone are as follows:
If the caller makes a call from a public telephone by inserting only the minimum charge for the telephone, a money collection reminder tone is output from the public telephone terminal when the connection to the exchange is completed. . In such cases, the caller's voice or the reminder tone from the public telephone terminal collides with the response message sent from the answering machine, resulting in the caller not being able to hear the response message sent from the answering machine. Become.

In normal phone calls between people, if you cannot hear the other party's voice, you can finally understand the voice by reconfirming the message with the other party, but when the answering machine automatically answers If a message is not understood, it cannot be re-listened to. Furthermore, when a collision occurs, the name of the telephone owner, the called party, etc. are often recorded in the first part of the response message that becomes inaudible. This is very important information in confirming whether the telephone number dialed by the caller is correct or not, and if it is missed due to a collision, the problem is serious.

The present invention was devised to solve the above-mentioned problem, and when the automatic answering process is performed, the caller's message voice or the reminder tone from the public telephone used by the caller collides with the answering message of the answering machine. To provide an answering machine that can avoid a situation where a caller cannot hear a response message.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The configuration of the answering machine of the present invention for achieving the above object includes a means for measuring the central office line signal level after automatically receiving a call, and a means for measuring the central office line signal level at the time of automatic answering. Compare with the predetermined value,
The present invention is characterized by comprising means for starting sending the response message when it is smaller than or becomes smaller than the predetermined value.

[Operations] The present invention measures the station line signal level after opening a loop when receiving an automatic call, maintains the line connection for a period of time until it stabilizes, and when the signal level is low, immediately sends a response message. However, if the central line signal level is high, it is determined that the caller is speaking or a coin reminder sound from a public phone is coming, and the system responds until the signal level decreases. By not sending the message, collision between the response message and the caller's message voice or the money storage reminder sound from the calling side telephone is avoided, and a situation where the caller cannot hear the response message is avoided.

[Example] Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described in detail based on the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an answering machine showing an embodiment of the present invention. This embodiment shows a case where the present invention is applied to an answer recording answering machine. 1 is an incoming call detection unit that is connected to the office line LI/L and detects a calling signal from the office line, and 2 is a microcomputer that makes judgments based on signals from each part and gives control commands and instructions to each part. This is a control unit that enables automatic reception and automatic answering of calls. Incoming call detection section! The incoming signal detected by is sent to the control section 2. 3 is a loop opening/closing unit that opens/closes the telephone line and the DC loop according to instructions from the control unit 2; 4 is a central office line via the loop opening/closing unit 3;
A central office line signal level measurement section 5 is connected to the central office line L through the loop opening/closing section 3 and measures the central office line signal level after automatic reception of a call and inputs it to the control section 2. a lockout tone detection unit that detects a lockout tone;
Reference numeral 6 denotes a telephone call circuit section connected to the office line L+''Lm via the loop opening/closing section 3.The telephone call circuit section 6 is connected to the receiving terminal R8.
It has R8 and transmitting terminals T I and T *, and has the function of separating a bidirectional telephone line into a unidirectional receiving line and a transmitting line. 7 is a transmitting terminal 'rt, 'rt of the telephone circuit section 6;
8 is a response message storage section connected to the response message section 7 and configured to store a plurality of response messages.Response message transmission section The unit 7 stores a response message storage unit 8 instructed by the control unit 2.
It has a function of sending out a response message at the timing instructed by the control unit 2. 9 is connected to the receiving terminals R+ and Rt of the telephone communication circuit section 6, and starts or interrupts recording of the caller's message sent via the central office line Ll"Lt at the timing instructed by the control section 2. In the above, the control unit 2, response message sending unit 7, response message storage unit 8, etc. constitute means for starting sending of a response message of the present invention.

The operation of the embodiment configured as above will be described.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of this embodiment, and FIGS. 3(a), (b), (c), and (d) are timing charts for explaining the operation of this embodiment.

The explanation will be given below with reference to FIG. First, when an incoming call signal arrives at the central office line L, the incoming call detection section 1 detects this and activates the control section 2.

After confirming the incoming signal a predetermined number of times, the control unit 2 operates the loop opening/closing unit 3 to close the loop (loop closure). After that, by resetting the timer counter of the control unit 2 and counting a certain waiting time T wait, the TV□
, and waits for the line condition to stabilize. Note that T wail is a sufficient time in a normal line from the time when the loop on the called party side is closed until the line condition between the calling party and the called party becomes stable.

After T va11 has elapsed since the loop was closed, the control section 2 determines the station line level measured by the station line signal level measuring section 4.

The signal level V 1ine and the station line signal value Vth are compared. Based on this result, subsequent operations can be divided as follows.

(1) When V 5i11-< V ah At this point,
It is determined that the caller has not yet started speaking, and that no signal tone, such as a reminder tone to collect money, is being emitted from the telephone used by the caller. In this case, the phone will immediately respond with a response message (for example, "Yes, this is 00 Shoji...")
) starts to be transmitted (Fig. 3(a)).

(2) When Vti--≧Vth, it is determined that the caller has already started speaking, or that a signal tone such as a voice reminding the caller to collect money is being output from the caller's telephone. In this case, if you start sending the response message immediately, the response message will collide with the caller's voice and the coin storage reminder sound from the calling party's phone, so the caller may not be able to hear the response message. Transmission of the response message does not start immediately, and the station line signal level V 1ine continues to be monitored. And V 11ie≧
During Vth, response message transmission is not started, and Vti-
<Vl, a response message is started (FIGS. 3(b) and 3(c)). Also, a certain time threshold Te5
If the state of V 11n*≧Vth continues for more than t, the reason may be that the noise around the caller or the line noise is particularly loud, so in this case, it is best to start sending a response message. suitable. Note that Ttat is set to a value that is longer than the length of time that humans normally talk without pause or the length of the money storage reminder sound sent from a public telephone (Figure 3 (d)). ).

After the above process (1) or (2), the answering machine starts sending out a response message. The response message is stored in advance in the response message storage section 8, and is sent from the response message sending section 7 to the central office line via the communication circuit section 6.
, is sent to. The contents of the response message include [Ring tone name] [Reason for absence] [Duration of absence], etc., and includes a message at the end to remind the caller to record the response request. There is. When the sending of the response message is completed, the caller's business message appearing on the central office line is recorded in the caller's message recording section 9 via the telephone communication circuit section 8. When the recording area of the caller message recording section 9 runs out, or when the lockout tone detection section 5 detects a lockout tone on the central office line, the control section 2 controls the caller message recording section 9. Stop recording operation,
The loop opening/closing unit 3 is operated to open the loop and end the automatic response operation.

It is clear that the present invention can also be applied to answering-only answering machines. As described above, the present invention can be applied in various ways and can take various embodiments in accordance with its gist.

[Effects of the Invention] As is clear from the above explanation, according to the answering machine of the present invention, when the answering machine automatically answers, the caller's message voice or the money collection reminder sound from the calling party's telephone,
It is possible to avoid a situation where the calling party cannot hear the response message due to a collision with the response message of the answering machine.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an answering machine showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of this embodiment.
Figure 3 (a), (b), (C). (d) is a timing diagram for explaining the operation of this embodiment. ! . . . Incoming call detection section, 2. Control section, 3. Loop opening/closing section, 4. Office line signal level measurement section, 5. Lockout tone detection section, 6. Call circuit section. ,7...
Response message sending section, 8... Response message storage section, 9... Caller message recording section.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) Means for measuring the central office line signal level after automatic call reception, and comparing the measured central office line signal level with a predetermined value at the time of automatic answering, and transmitting a response message when it is smaller than or becomes smaller than the predetermined value. An answering machine comprising: means for initiating.