JPH036059Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Industrial application field] This invention detects an incoming call, closes the telephone line, and then drives a recording/playback device to play back a pre-recorded response message and send it to the telephone line. Related to automatic telephone answering device.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, some devices of this type have a monitoring function that amplifies the voice of a caller coming into a telephone line and allows the called party at home to answer the call himself only when necessary. In that case, in order to find out who the caller is as soon as possible, the answering tape should include a first message asking the caller to identify himself and a second message indicating that the call cannot be answered. The caller's response message is recorded, a non-recording section is provided for a certain period of time, and after the first response message is sent, the contents of the caller's speech are monitored during the non-recording section ( Tokukai 1986
-38959).

[Problem that the invention attempts to solve]

However, with this method, there is a waste of unrecorded parts on the response tape, and the caller's response time is limited to the running time of the unrecorded parts, so that, for example, a confused caller can There was a problem in that if an appropriate response was not given, the intended purpose of quickly confirming the caller could not be achieved.

[Means for solving problems]

In order to solve these problems, the present invention includes a voice switch circuit that monitors the presence or absence of the caller's voice coming into the telephone line, and a first response message that asks the caller to state his or her name. A recording medium of a recording and reproducing device that sequentially records second response messages indicating that an incoming call cannot be answered, a detection circuit that detects the end of reproduction of the reproduced first response message, and a detection output of this detection circuit performs recording and reproduction. The apparatus is provided with a recording/reproducing apparatus control means for stopping the reproduction operation of the apparatus, and starting the reproduction operation by the soundless output of the audio switch circuit after the stop, thereby reproducing the second response message.

[Effect]

The reproduction operation is stopped upon detection of the end of the reproduced first response message, and after confirming by the voice switch circuit that the calling party has finished responding, the reproduction operation is shifted to reproduction and transmission of the second response message. This ensures that the caller's name can be verified.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, TEL is this phone,
This automatic telephone answering device is inserted into the line terminal L in parallel with the above-mentioned telephone TEL. _l1 is a contact point of line relay _L1 , which will be described later, and T is a line transformer.

Here, 1 is a control circuit equipped with a processor unit such as a well-known microprocessor, a fixed memory storing programs to be executed by the processor unit, a variable memory, input/output ports, etc., and an incoming call detection circuit. 2, when an incoming call is detected, control operations as shown in FIG. 2 are performed.

That is, the control circuit 1 first operates the line relay (L ₁ ) 3 to close the contact l ₁ and close the DC loop to the telephone line (step 1).
201). Next, the response message (OGM) cassette deck 5 is operated for reproduction via the deck controller 4. Here, the response tape attached to the deck 5 has been previously recorded in the format shown in FIG. That is, in FIG. 3, 31 is the first response message area;
2 is the second response message area, whereas 3
3A is a first control signal area inserted between both response message areas, 33B is a second control signal area provided at the end of the second response message area, and 33B is a second control signal area inserted between the first and second response message areas. There is no particular non-recording section.

Therefore, by the playback operation of the deck 5, the first response message, that is, the message requesting the caller to give his or her name, is first sent from the head 6 to the telephone line via amplifiers 7 and 8 and the hybrid circuit 9 (step 5). 202). Then, when the first control signal indicating the end of the first response message is detected by the control signal detection circuit 10 (step
203), the control circuit 1 stops the playback operation of the deck 5 (step 204), and then proceeds to the caller confirmation process. That is, the control circuit 1 starts the timer 11 (step 205), turns on the analog switch 12 (step 206), and starts the voice detection circuit 13 (step 207). When the analog switch 12 is turned on, the caller's voice coming into the telephone line is outputted amplified from the speaker 15 via the amplifier 14. . As described above, reproduction and transmission of the response message is stopped, and the caller can be confirmed by the amplified sound output. Therefore, if necessary, you can respond by raising the handset of this telephone. When the off-hook is detected by the switch HS (step 209), the control circuit 1 does not perform the normal control operation described below, but immediately shifts to the device recovery operation, and restores the line relay 3 (step 217).
and rewinding the response tape (step 218).

If there is no off-hook, control circuit 1 uses timer 1.
Unless the predetermined time set to 1 has elapsed (step 208), the output of the voice detection circuit 13 is checked (step 210). The voice detection circuit 13 outputs a voice interruption output when the voice interruption state continues for a predetermined period of time, in other words, it cuts off the voice detection output. You can know what happened. timer 11
is provided for protection when voice interruption cannot be detected due to surrounding noise, music, etc. even if the caller stops speaking. The control circuit 1 turns off the voice detection circuit 13, timer 11, and analog switch 12 (steps 211
212, 213). Note that the timer time may be variably set using a volume knob or the like. Also,
It goes without saying that the timer may be a so-called soft timer.

Thereafter, the control circuit 11 causes the deck 5 to play again, and a second response message, that is, a message informing that the called party is unable to respond, is sent to the telephone line (step 214). Then, when the second control signal is detected (step
215), the control circuit 1 stops the playback operation (step 216), restores the line relay 3 (step 217), then rewinds the response tape to the beginning (step 218) and waits for the next call. do.

In the embodiment described above, the monitoring operation is performed unconditionally after the end of the first response message, but this may be controlled by the output of the voice detection circuit 13. That is, the processes of steps 205 to 212 in FIG. 2 are replaced as shown in FIG. 4, and after stopping the reproduction and transmission of the first response message, the timer 11 and the voice detection circuit 13 are activated (steps 401 and 402). ,
Based on the detection output from the voice detection circuit 13 (step 405), the analog switch 12 is turned on and a monitoring operation begins (step 406). If there is an off-hook (step 404), the system immediately moves to the recovery operation, but if there is no off-hook, the detection output of the audio detection circuit 13 is cut off (step 405) or the output of the timer 11 (step 403) causes the audio detection circuit 13 and the timer 1 to switch off.
1 and analog switch 12 are turned off (steps 407, 408, 409).

Furthermore, although the audio detection circuit 13 is activated after detecting the first control signal, it may be activated at an earlier timing or may remain in operation at all times. That is, the control circuit 1
If the output of the voice detection circuit 13 is sensed only after the control signal is detected, the same result as described above can be obtained.

Furthermore, in the above-described embodiment, if the caller does not go off-hook within a predetermined period of time, for example, 5 seconds, from the time the caller introduces himself until the output of the voice detection circuit 13 changes, the caller will no longer be able to turn off the phone regardless of telephone operation. The second response message is reproduced and transmitted, but even after the second response message starts being reproduced and transmitted,
The output of the hook switch HS may be checked, and if an off-hook is detected, the playback operation may be stopped at that point and the recovery operation may be started.
Furthermore, a click detection circuit or a busy tone detection circuit may be added, and if the caller goes on-hook midway through the call, the click sound or the busy tone sent from the exchange side may be detected and the system immediately moves to the recovery operation. .

Above, we have explained the response-only example, but the second
After the second response message is finished, the cassette deck 5 or a separate dedicated cassette deck is operated to record the message from the caller that arrives on the telephone line. It may also be configured to record.

[Effect of idea]

As explained above, according to the present invention, there is a voice switch circuit that monitors the presence or absence of the caller's voice, a first response message indicating that the caller is required to state his or her name, and a second response indicating that the incoming call cannot be answered. A recording medium of a recording/playback device that records messages in sequence, a detection circuit that detects the end of playback of the first response message, and a detection output that stops the playback operation of the recording/playback device and an audio switch after the stop. By providing a control means for starting the playback operation by the non-audio output of the circuit and reproducing the second response message, the monitor function is activated after the first response message is sent to ensure that the caller responds. While this can be confirmed, it is also possible to eliminate wasteful provision of unrecorded sections on recording media such as response tapes.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an example of the control program in the control circuit, FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the format of the response tape, and FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing another example of the control program. 1...Control circuit, 2...Incoming call detection circuit, 3...
Line relay, 5... Cassette deck, 10...
Control signal detection circuit, 13...Audio detection circuit, 31
...First response message area, 32...Second
response message area, 33A, 33B... control signal, L... line terminal, l ₁ ... line relay contact.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] In an automatic telephone answering device that detects an incoming call and closes the telephone line, it drives a recording and reproducing device to play and sends the reproduced response message to the telephone line,
A voice switch circuit that monitors the presence or absence of the caller's voice coming into the telephone line, and a recording that sequentially records the first response message requesting that the caller state his or her name and the second response message indicating that the call cannot be answered. A recording medium of a playback device, a detection circuit for detecting the end of the played first response message, and a detection output of this detection circuit to stop the playback operation of the recording and playback device, and a sound switch circuit after the stop. 1. An automatic telephone answering device comprising: a recording/playback device control means for starting a playback operation by outputting no sound and playing back a second response message.