JPH02132955A - Voice mail processing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reproduce the arbitrary place of a voice message by providing an index providing part, an index position storing part and a voice data accumulating part and storing a receiving index and voice message accumulating position information. CONSTITUTION:When a voice message is accumulated in a voice main device 1 and the index inputted from a data terminal 5 does not show the accumulating completion, an index providing part 11 of a control part 10 sets the receiving index information to an index position storing part 13. Next, the voice data sent from a telephone set 3 are accumulated to voice data accumulating part 50 by a voice data processing part 20, the accumulating position is informed to the part 13 and thus, the accumulating position information is set to the part 13. At the time of reproducing a voice message, by designating the same index at the time of accumulating from the terminal 5, only the index corresponding part in a voice message through the part 13 can be heard. Thus, without hearing all the sentences of the message, the outline of a message can be known by skip-hearing, the title, etc., of the message.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a voice mail communication service system, and particularly to a method for storing and reproducing voice messages.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, as a method for adding an index to a voice message in a voice mail device, there is a "voice mail processing method" described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 62165457, which adds an index during playback. Adding an index to a message means that by marking an arbitrary position in a message and assigning an identifier indicating the position, the position within the message can be determined from now on by that identifier.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing the system configuration described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 62-165457. In the figure, 4
2 is a telephone, 2 is a circuit switching device, 7 is a central control unit, and ■ is a voice mail device.
have.

The control unit 10 of the voice mail device 1 controls when the telephone 4 plays back the voice message stored in the voice mail device 1.
an indexing means 70 that indexes any part of the message to be read by a specific indexing signal from the telephone 4; and an indexing means 70 for indexing any part of the message to be read by a specific forward or backward signal from the telephone when replaying the voice message from the telephone 4; , an advancing means 71 and a retreating means 72 for determining the location to which indexes are to be added, forward or backward, out of the locations indexed by the indexing means 70. An index is added to the part of the voice message using an indexing signal from the telephone 4, and when replaying, a forward signal is used to skip the unindexed part of the voice message, and the voice message is played from the next highest indexed part, and a backward signal is used to play the voice message from the indexed part. , the voice message is repeatedly played back from the second lowest indexed location.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

The conventional voice mail processing method described above has a problem in that, since an index is added when a voice message is played back, the entire message must be listened to once when the message is played back. Furthermore, since indexing cannot be performed at the time of storage, the content of the message is not indexed as intended by the person who stored the message.
Lack of accuracy in message communication.

Furthermore, when playing back a voice message, the forward and backward means for the indexed portion of the message being played back can only play back the previous or next index position. There is a problem in that it is not possible to reproduce parts.

An object of the present invention is to provide a voice mail processing method that solves these problems.

[Means to solve the problem]

The present invention provides a mail device that connects various communication terminals and has at least a control section, a voice data processing section that stores or plays back voice messages under the control of the control section, and a voice data storage section. When storing a voice message in the device, an index is specified by the index specifying means of the data terminal connected to the mail device, and then the voice message corresponding to the index is sent from the voice message input/output device connected to the mail device. input the index and the voice message to the mail device, store the received index and the storage position information of the voice message in the index position storage means by the indexing means in the mail device, and when playing the voice message; for,
The index specified at the time of storage is inputted from the index specifying means of the data terminal connected to the mail device, the mail device is caused to receive this index, and the storage position of the voice message to which the received index is assigned is determined by the index position determining means. , the voice message is read from the storage location and transmitted to the voice message input/output device connected to the mail device.

[Effect]

When storing voice messages from a telephone housed in a communication network to a mail device that stores and plays back voice messages, a data terminal and a voice message input/output device are connected to the mail device, and an index is specified using the index specifying means of the data terminal. Then, by inputting the corresponding voice message and recording the corresponding information of the index and voice message storage position, the voice message is accumulated. Similarly, by connecting a data terminal and a voice message input/output device to a mail device and specifying the same index as when storing from the index specifying means of the data terminal, the storage position of the voice message that matches the specified index can be determined. Play the message from.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a voice mail processing system implementing the voice mail processing method of the present invention. In this system, a data terminal that performs index specification is connected to a voice mail device via a circuit switching device within a communication network.

The voice mail device 1 includes a control section 10 and a voice data processing section 2.
0, and a voice data storage unit 50, and is connected to the line switching device 2. The control unit 10 includes an index assignment unit l1, an index position determination unit 12, an index position storage unit 13, a telephone-data terminal correspondence table 15, and a line connection control unit that controls the connection between the voice mail device 1 and the line switching device 2. 16, and an audio data processing section 20
has a data terminal connection section 30 consisting of a text information reception section 31 and a text information analysis section 32, and a voice processing section 40 that performs storage and playback processing of voice messages.

The line switching device 2 accommodates general telephones 3 and 4, is controlled by a central control unit 7 to realize the switching operation, and further accommodates data terminals 5 and 6.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the control during voice message storage in the voice mail processing method 2 of this embodiment, FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the memory configuration of the index position recording section 13, and FIG.
Regulations when playing voice messages? Flowchart showing ffl, 5th
The figure shows the memory structure of a telephone-to-data terminal correspondence table 15 showing the correspondence between telephones that store and reproduce voice messages and data terminals that control the telephones.

Here, information is set in the telephone-to-data-terminal correspondence table 15 indicating the correspondence between the telephone 3.4 that stores and reproduces messages and the corresponding data terminals 5 and 6 for its control.
It is assumed that this has been done in advance, such as when starting up the system. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 5, the data terminal corresponding to the telephone with terminal number 3 is the data terminal with terminal number 5, and the data terminal corresponding to the telephone with terminal number 4 is the data terminal with terminal number 6. Assume that there is.

The present embodiment will be explained below along with the flowchart.

In FIG. 2, when a user of voice mail device 1 requests storage of a voice message to voice mail device 1 using telephone 3 connected to collar switching device 2, central control unit 7 of line switching device 2 The control unit 10 of the voice mail device l receives the connection request, and the line connection control unit 16 of the control unit 10 connects the communication path between the telephone 3 and the voice mail device 1 to the central control unit 7.
(Step S300). From the telephone-to-data terminal correspondence table 15 (Fig. 5) of the control unit IO,
It is determined that the data terminal corresponding to the telephone 3 is the data terminal 5, and a connection request from the data terminal 5 is waited for (step S301). Subsequently, the user connects the data terminal 5 to the voice mail device 1 via the central control section 7 of the line switching device 2.
When a connection request is made to the line connection control unit l of the control unit 10,
6 causes the central control unit 7 to set up a communication path between the data terminal 5 and the voice mail device 1 (Step S 302), and waits for input of an index from the data terminal 5.

Next, when the user inputs an index such as a message title or sender's name using the text information input means of the data terminal 5, the text information receiving section 31 in the data terminal connection section 30 receives the index (step S
303), the text information analysis section 32 in the data terminal connection section 30 checks whether the information is an input for terminating the accumulation (step S304). If the information does not indicate the end of accumulation, the indexing section 11 of the control section 10 sets the received index information in the index position storage section l3 (step S305), and then the voice sent from the telephone 3 The audio data processing unit 20 stores the data in the audio data storage unit 50 (S306).

By notifying the storage position of this voice message to the indexing unit l1, the indexing unit 1
1, M product position information corresponding to this index information set in the index position storage unit 13 is set in the index position storage unit 13 (step S 307).

FIG. 3 shows the index position stored in the index position storage unit l3.
This figure shows a memory structure indicating the storage position of the voice message/message corresponding to the index information. The figure shows that the voice message corresponding to the index "Hyodai" is stored in the data storage position 1000 of the voice data storage section 50. Here, the data storage location indicates positional information such as disk track, sector, etc. if the storage device for storing audio data is a disk device, or indicates address information, etc. if it is a memory. Same hereafter}L
Thus, the index "Nohachi Noshin Shamei" indicates that the menu message corresponding to the index "Honbun" is stored at the storage location iZ1050, and the menu message corresponding to the index "Honbun" is stored at the storage location 1100. Also, “Hongbun”
Further detailed indexes such as "Settings 1", "Settings 2", and "Settings 3" are given to indicate that the storage position of the voice message corresponding to each index is stored.

Returning to FIG. 2, steps S303 to 307 are performed until it is detected in step S304 that the accumulation has ended. If the end of storage is detected in step S304, processing for ending message storage is performed (step S308), and the storage process is completed.

Next, reproduction of a voice message will be explained.

In FIG. 4, the user of voice mail device 1 uses telephone 4
When playing a voice message using
The line connection control unit 16 of the control unit IO receives
connects the communication path between the telephone 4 and the voice mail device 1 to the central control unit 7 (step S400). Then, from the telephone-data terminal correspondence table 15 of the control unit 10, it is determined that the data terminal corresponding to the telephone 4 is the data terminal 6, and a connection request from the data terminal 6 is waited for (step S4).
01). Subsequently, when the user requests data terminal connection from the data terminal 6 via the central control unit 7 of the line switching device 2, the line connection control unit 16 of the control unit IO connects the data terminal 6 and voice mail. Centrally control communication path with device 1 iff
j section 7 (step S402), and waits for index input from the data terminal 6.

Next, when an index is specified by the text information input means of the data terminal 6, the text information receiving section 31 in the data terminal connecting section 30 receives the sent index information (step S403). Then, the text information analysis unit 32 in the data terminal connection unit 30 checks whether the information is an input for ending playback (step S
404). If the input does not indicate the end of reproduction, the index position determination section 12 of the control section 10 reads out the storage position corresponding to the specified index from the index position storage section 13 (step S405). and,
The voice processing section 40 of the voice data processing section 20 is instructed to read the voice data at the storage position from the voice data storage section 50, and the read voice data is sent to the telephone 4.
(Step 3 406). Step S below
Steps 403 to 406 are performed until the end of playback is detected in step S404. Step S4
In step S404, if an input to end the playback is detected, processing to end the message playback is performed (step S407).
, completes the playback process.

In this embodiment, an example has been described in which an index is specified by the text information input means of the data terminal when playing back a voice message. By displaying the index information on the display of the data terminal and then specifying the index, operability can be improved.

Further, in this embodiment, an example is shown in which a data terminal and a telephone are used and are individually connected to a voice mail device, but the terminal may have a data transmitting/receiving function section and a voice transmitting/receiving section, for example. At this time, the connection operation between the mail device and the terminal only needs to be performed once.

In addition, in this embodiment, a telephone-data terminal correspondence table 1 showing the correspondence between a telephone that stores and plays back voice messages and a data terminal for system 1''iII that corresponds to this telephone.
In Section 5, we described how to set the correspondence between a telephone and a data terminal in advance in the voice mail device, but there is also a method to set correspondence between a telephone and a data terminal in advance by inputting the number of the corresponding telephone when connecting a data terminal to the voice mail device. It is also possible to adopt a method of determining.

Furthermore, in this embodiment, an example was shown in which a data terminal that performs index specification is connected to a voice mail device via a line switching device in a communication network, but a CSMA/CD bus type LAN
There is also an example in which a data terminal accommodated in a packet-type communication network, such as the Internet, is connected to a voice mail device. An embodiment in which index designation is performed from a data terminal accommodated in a packet type communication network will be described with reference to FIG. In the figure, a voice mail device 1 includes a line switching device 2 accommodating telephones 3 and 4, and a packet type communication device 2 accommodating a data terminal 5.6. i
18, and the line connection control unit 1 of the control unit 10
6 controls the connection between the line switching device 2 and the voice mail device 1,
The Pakesoto communication control unit 17 controls the connection between the Pakesoto type communication line 8 and the voice mail device 1, and the telephones 3, 4, and
and communication with the data terminal 5.6.

In this embodiment, the process performed by the line connection control section 16 that controls the connection of data terminals in the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 can be implemented by the bucket communication control section 17.

Although a voice mail device is used in the two embodiments described above, a multimedia mail device capable of handling voice mail may be used instead of the voice mail device.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, when storing voice messages from a telephone in a mail device connected to a communication network that stores/plays voice messages, an index is specified from a data terminal connected to a communication network. Then input the corresponding voice message, and when playing the voice message, specify the same index from the data terminal as when it was stored, so that you can listen to only the part of the voice message that corresponds to the index, so the sender of the message can By dividing a message into several parts, accumulating the message title and sender's name as an index, and keeping the meaning of the index unified between the sender and receiver, the message receiver can read the entire message. The effect is remarkable because you can skip through the message without listening to it, and you can get an overview of the message based on the title and sender's name.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a voice mail processing system for explaining the first embodiment of the voice message processing method of the present invention; FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing the control when storing voice messages; FIG. 3 4 is a flowchart showing the control during playback of voice messages. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the memory structure of the telephone-to-data terminal correspondence table 15. FIG. FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a system configuration of a conventional voice mail processing system. l...Voice mail device 2...Line switching device 3.4...Telephone 5.6...Data terminal 7...'Central control unit 8 of the switching device... ... Packet type communication network IO ... Control section 11 ... Index assigning section l2 ... Index position determining section 13 ...
Index position storage unit l5...Telephone-data terminal correspondence table 16...Line connection control unit 17...Bakesoto communication control unit 20...Audio data processing unit 30... ...Data terminal connection section 3l...Text information receiving section 32...Text information analysis section 40...Speech processing section 50, 70, 7l, 72.Speech data storage section indexing means Forward means Reverse means

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A mail device connected to various communication terminals and having at least a control section, a voice data processing section that performs storage or playback processing of voice messages under the control of the control section, and a voice data storage section, the mail device When storing voice messages, an index is specified by an index specifying means of a data terminal connected to the mail device, and then a voice message corresponding to the index is inputted from a voice message input/output device connected to the mail device. and causing the mail device to receive the index and the voice message, causing the index assigning means in the mail device to store the received index and the storage position information of the voice message in the index position storage means, and when playing back the voice message. teeth,
The index specified at the time of storage is inputted from the index specifying means of the data terminal connected to the mail device, the mail device is caused to receive this index, and the storage position of the voice message to which the received index is assigned is determined by the index position determining means. , a voice mail processing method characterized in that a voice message is read from the storage location and transmitted to a voice message input/output device connected to a mail device.