JPH04159846A - Telephone call transmitter - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To perform necessary information interchange associated with facsimile communication through telephone by detecting that a conversation reservation is settled on a transmitting station side and that a conversation reservation request is made on a transmitted station side. CONSTITUTION:Facsimile equipment 1 is connected to the exchange 2 of a public line through two telephone lines 31 and 32. A dial number storing means 7 and conversation reservation detecting means 10 which detects that a conversation reservation is settled in the facsimile communication made through the telephone line 31 and that a conversation reservation request is made are provided. Then the reserved telephone set is called and the telephone lines 31 and 32 are coupled with each other after detecting the answer to the call by informing the opposite station that the necessary line is secured in response to a detecting signal and, at the same time, calling the reserved telephone set by sending the dial number registered in a dial number storing means 7. Therefore, the conversation can be performed by using any nearby telephone set even when the operator is far from the facsimile equipment after transmitting a document.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a telephone transfer device, and more particularly to a telephone transfer device for efficiently carrying out telephone contact associated with facsimile communication.

(Prior Art) After a document is sent by facsimile communication, a telephone call may be made to notify the sending of the document, provide supplementary explanation of the sent document, etc. If such a telephone contact is required, a conversation reservation mode can be set at the transmitting station, and after the text is sent, the operator of the other station can be called and the telephone contact can be made.

However, the document sender at the transmitting station who manually inputs the conversation reservation request has to wait by the facsimile machine until the transmission of the image information is completed. Further, since the receiving station cannot predict when the document will be received, the person or operator with whom the document sender wishes to talk may not necessarily be near the receiving facsimile machine. As a result, the receiving station may not be able to respond to the call based on the conversation reservation request.

To address these problems, a device has been proposed that calls the extension telephone of the receiving station based on instructions from the transmitting station and transmits a prerecorded message (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 195974/1983). and JP-A-64-
16163).

(Problem to be solved by the invention) The above conventional technology has the following problems.

In conventional devices, the extension telephone of the receiving station is called according to instructions from the transmitting station, so the transmitting station is limited to facsimile machines having such special functions. The transmitting station also needed to know the telephone extension number associated with the receiving station.

Another problem was that only fixed messages could be transmitted.

The purpose of the present invention is to solve the above problems, and to
To provide a telephone transfer device that allows a person to have a conversation from a nearby telephone even if he or she is at a seat far from a facsimile machine.

(Means and operations for solving the three leaps) The present invention solves the above three problems and achieves the objectives by at least two steps.
that a conversation reservation has been established based on a real telephone line, a dialed number storage means for registering dialed numbers, and a conversation reservation procedure in facsimile communication performed on the first telephone line among the telephone lines; a conversation reservation detecting means for detecting that a reservation request has been made; and in response to a detection signal outputted from the conversation reservation detecting means, notifying the other party that the line is on hold; The dial digits registered in the dial numeral storage means are sent using a line to call a scheduled telephone call, and a response to the call is detected to connect the first and second 14-talk lines. The points are distinctive.

In the present invention having the above features, when a conversation reservation request is made or a conversation reservation request is received, the telephone registered in the dial number storage means can be automatically called.

Therefore, the party sending the document can conduct a conversation at a place where the main business is performed, which is away from the facsimile machine, and the party who receives the document can also receive a telephone call at a predetermined place, which is away from the facsimile machine. .

(Example) The present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. First, the outline of this embodiment will be explained with reference to FIG.

In the figure, a facsimile machine 1 has two telephone lines 3.
1 and 32 are connected to the general public line exchange a2. And fax machine! 1 is provided with a line coupling section 4 for coupling these two telephone lines. The line coupling section 4 is coupled in response to a line coupling signal, which will be described later.

Of course, the general public circuit exchange 2 has telephones 5-1, 5-2. . . 5-n and many other communication devices such as facsimile machines (not shown) are connected.

In addition, it is in facsimile packaging! ! 1 has various functions necessary for transmitting and receiving image information, but these are not shown because they are well-known configurations.

With the above configuration, conversation with the other station is carried out as follows. Assume that you are currently communicating with a partner station using the telephone line 31. Therefore, when the transmission and reception of image information with the partner station is completed, in the case of transmission, a conversation reservation procedure is executed based on the conversation reservation.

In this conversation reservation procedure, establishment of the conversation reservation is detected, and the other telephone line 32 is used to call the telephone 5-1 registered as the scheduled communication contact point. [2 aircraft 5-1
appears, the line connection unit 4 connects the telephone port 113.
1 and 32 are combined.

In the case of reception, after detecting a conversation reservation request, the other telephone port wA32 is used to call the scheduled telephone. In this way, it is possible to have a conversation after transmitting and receiving image information by telephone that is scheduled to be remote from the facsimile machine 1.

Next, the configuration of this embodiment for performing the operations outlined above will be described in detail. FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a transmitting section of a facsimile machine, showing the configuration of essential parts of this embodiment.

In the figure, the conversation reservation procedure execution unit 6 stores that a conversation is to be held after the image information is transmitted, that is, there is an instruction to request a conversation reservation. Further, a telephone number for a conversation based on the conversation reservation request is registered in the dial number storage section 7. The conversation reservation request instruction and registration of the telephone number are performed by key operations from the input section 8 on the operation panel.

The image information transmission end detection section 9 detects that all scheduled image information has been sent, and outputs a transmission end signal to the conversation reservation procedure execution section 6. Meeting: If the conversation reservation request instruction is stored in the reservation procedure execution unit 6, in response to the transmission end signal, the conversation reservation request, that is, the procedure interruption signal P r 1-
EOP is output.

The conversation reservation establishment detection unit 10 receives the procedure interruption signal P r
In response to a paging based on k-EOP, a procedure interrupt affirmation signal PIF sent from the receiving station is detected. The line hold notification unit 11 responds to the detection signal of the procedure interruption confirmation signal PIF output from the conversation reservation establishment detection unit 1O and sends out a notification sound for instructing the other station, that is, the receiving station, to hold the line.

On the other hand, the detection signal of the procedure interruption confirmation signal PIF is also supplied to the dial number storage section 7. The dial number storage section 7 is
In response to this detection signal, the registered dial numbers are output to the dial number sending section 12. The dialed number sending unit 12 sends the dialed number to a telephone line (in this embodiment, the telephone line 32) different from the telephone line currently in use.

The closure detection unit 13 monitors the ringback tone (ringback tone) sent from the exchange after sending the dialed digits, and determines that the line with the scheduled telephone has been closed when the ringback tone is interrupted. Detect that. This closure detection signal becomes a line coupling signal to close the line coupling section 4 and connect the two telephone lines 31 and 3 connected to the facsimile machine 1.
Connect 2.

When the two telephone lines are connected in this manner, a conversation can be carried out using a designated telephone set other than the facsimile machine 1 after transmitting the image information.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the facsimile machine in this embodiment.

In the figure, in step S1, image information is transmitted. When the transmission of the image information is completed, the process advances to step S2'.

In step S2, it is determined whether there is a conversation reservation request, and if a conversation reservation request has been made, the process advances to step S3.

In step S3, a conversation reservation procedure is executed, that is, a procedure interruption signal Pr1-EOP is sent.

In step S4, it is determined whether the conversation reservation has been established, that is, whether the procedure interruption affirmative signal PIP has been detected. If the procedure interruption affirmative signal PNP is detected, step S'
Proceed to step 5.

In step S5, the telephone number registered in advance by the operator is set in the dialed number sending section 12, and the dialed number is sent out to a line other than the line currently in communication.

Furthermore, if the procedure interruption affirmative signal PIF is not detected even after the procedure interruption signal P r i -EOP is sent out a predetermined number of times or more, it is determined that the conversation reservation has not been established and the process ends.

In step S6, the connection detection unit 13 detects whether the ring tone has disappeared, and based on the detection result, it is determined whether the line with the scheduled telephone has been closed.

If the determination in step S6 is affirmative, the process proceeds to step S7, where the line coupling section 4 is energized to connect the telephone lines 31 and 32.

Furthermore, if the closure detection unit 13 does not detect the closure of the line even after the scheduled time has elapsed, the determination in step S6 is negative and the process ends.

As described above, in this embodiment, when instructing a conversation reservation request, the telephone number to be transferred is registered. By doing so, after the image information transmission is completed, the conversation reservation procedure is executed, and when the conversation reservation is established, the facsimile device M1
The registered telephone can be called using a line different from the line currently in communication among the two lines connected to the telephone.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. In the second embodiment, it is possible to deal with cases where the called telephone is busy or does not respond.

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram of the main parts of the second embodiment, and the same reference numerals as in FIG. 1 indicate the same or equivalent parts.

In the second embodiment, a plurality of telephone numbers are registered in the dialed number storage section 7, and a priority order is assigned to each telephone number.

The closure detection unit 13 detects a ringback tone output from the exchange 2 to the facsimile machine 1 at the same time as a telephone call. The counter 14 is activated when the closure detection unit 13 detects a ringing tone, and counts the number of times the ringing tone is intermittently emitted. When the number of intermittent ringing reaches the predetermined number, the counter 14 outputs a count-up signal. In response to this count-up signal [7], the dialed number sending unit 12 stops sending out the dialed numbers. The count-up signal is also supplied to the dialed number storage section 7, and the dialed number storage section 7 stores the dialed number of the telephone 5-2 to which the next priority of the telephone 5-1 that was calling earlier is added. Dial number sending section 12
supply to. The dialed number sending unit 12 sends the supplied dialed numbers to the line 32. If no response is received from the registered telephone 5-1, abandon the call; 7
sends an off-footer signal and ends the communication.

In this way, all registered telephones are called in order according to their priorities until a response is received from the called party.

In the second embodiment, the criterion for calling the next priority telephone was based on whether or not intermittent ringing was detected a predetermined number of times. However, the determination criterion may be whether this time has reached the scheduled time.

Furthermore, even if it is determined that the telephone is busy based on the busy tone, the next priority telephone may be called in the same way as in the embodiment.

Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described. In the third embodiment, the transfer destination telephone can be selected depending on the time of communication, so that the transfer is made to a telephone that is likely to receive a reliable response. Therefore, the dialed number storage section 7 is configured to store a plurality of telephone numbers and scheduled times corresponding to each telephone number. An example of the information stored in the dial number storage section 7 is shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a third embodiment, showing the main parts of the facsimile machine 1. As shown in FIG. Note that the same reference numerals as in FIG. 1 indicate the same or equivalent parts.

In the figure, when the conversation reservation establishment detection unit 10 detects the establishment of the conversation reservation, the detection signal is output to the clock device 15. The clock device 15 outputs the current time to the dial number storage section 7 in response to the detection signal that the conversation reservation has been established.

The dial number storage unit 7 supplied with the current time searches the stored information (time) for the time closest to the current time. Then, the telephone number corresponding to the searched time is set in the dialed number sending unit 12 and sent to the first line 32.

In this way, in the third embodiment, it is possible to call a telephone from among the registered telephones, depending on the time, from which a response is likely to be obtained reliably.

Incidentally, although the time is stored in the dialed number storage section 7, the scheduled time zone is registered, the time zone to which the current time belongs is detected, and the telephone corresponding to that time zone is called. Good too.

Next, a fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described. In the third embodiment, a call is made to a telephone that is likely to receive a response depending on the time or time zone, but in order to further increase reliability, in the fourth embodiment, a call is made at each time or time. Add priority to bands 1. You can now register multiple phone numbers.

An example of the information stored in the dial number storage section 7 in the fourth embodiment is shown in FIG.

In the fourth embodiment, the time in the dial number storage section 7 is searched based on such stored information. Then, a call is made to the phone whose phone number is stored first in the priority order according to the time.

If there is a response, all you have to do is connect the line and start a conversation.
If there is no response or if the phone is busy, the phone stored with the second priority is called. Thereafter, the registered telephones are successively called in order of priority until a response is received.

Note that the main functions of the fourth embodiment are the same as those of the second embodiment and the third embodiment.
Since this is obtained by combining the functions shown in both embodiments, illustration and description will be omitted.

Hereinafter, in the first to fourth embodiments, the explanation has been given using an example of calling an extension telephone [7] at the transmitting station, but it is possible to similarly call a telephone [7] at the receiving station.

In other words, when the receiving station detects that there is a conversation reservation request from the transmitting side after receiving the image information, it connects to a line different from the line currently being used for communication, as explained above regarding the transmitting station. Use (7) to make a scheduled call.

In order to perform such an operation, the receiving station is provided with conversation reservation request detection means as a part corresponding to the conversation reservation establishment detection section 10 of the transmitting station. This conversation reservation request detection means detects the procedure interruption signal Pr1-EOP sent from the transmitting station.
It is detected that a conversation request has been made. In order to call the scheduled telephone number in response to the conversation reservation request detection signal, a pre-registered dial number is output.

In this way, by simply replacing the conversation reservation establishment detection section 10 with the conversation reservation request detection means, the receiving station can also perform the first to fourth
Call transfer based on conversation reservations can be performed by operations similar to those described in connection with the embodiments.

At the transmitting station, when making a conversation reservation request, the telephone number can be entered and registered; however, at the receiving station, since it is not possible to predict when the reception will be received, the dial number storage unit 7 stores the number of the telephone number to be transferred. number must be memorized in advance.

In each of the embodiments described above, the telephone to which the transfer is made is a telephone connected to the exchange of the general public line network.
An extension telephone connected to the local exchange may be registered as a transfer destination. This case can also be implemented in the same manner as in the above embodiment.

(Effects of the Invention) As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, the transmitting station can detect that a conversation reservation has been established, and the receiving station can detect that a conversation reservation request has been made. This allows users to call registered telephones in response to each detection signal.

Therefore, by registering a time when you are relatively certain that you will be able to answer the phone and the most suitable phone number, you can exchange the necessary information incidental to facsimile communication over the phone without reducing the efficiency of your main business. It can be carried out.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing a first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing connections between a facsimile machine, a forwarding destination telephone, and an exchange, and FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the first embodiment. , FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram showing the second embodiment, FIG. 5 is a functional block diagram showing the third embodiment, and FIGS. 6 and 7 are diagrams showing storage examples of the dial number storage section. 1...Facsimile machine, 2...Exchange machine, 4...
Line coupling unit, 5-1 to 5-n telephones, 6... Conversation reservation procedure execution unit, 7... Dial number storage unit, 8... Input unit, 9... Image information transmission end detection unit, 10... Conversation reservation establishment detection unit, 11... Line hold notification unit, 12...
・Dial number sending section, 13... Closure detection section, 14.
...Counter, 15...Clock device agent Patent attorney
Michito Hiraki and 1 other person 1111i11 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 Figure 6 IT diagram

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A conversation reservation is established based on at least two telephone lines, a dial number storage means for registering dialed numbers, and a conversation reservation procedure in facsimile communication performed on the first telephone line among the telephone lines. a conversation reservation detection means for detecting either that the conversation reservation request has been made or that a conversation reservation request has been made; means for transmitting dialed numbers registered in said dialed number storage means to a second telephone line in response to a detection signal outputted from said dialed number storage means; A telephone transfer device comprising: a line coupling unit that couples first and second telephone lines.