JPH05199295A - Automatic answering telephone set - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To allow a reception destination with direct relation to a message not reproduced yet later by allowing a command section to command messages during response to be reproduced handling or unreproduced handling when stored messages are all reproduced in the lump. CONSTITUTION:The location of a recorded message on a storage medium is stored by a message location storage section 9 and the messages as above are set to be unreproduction handling messages. Then the messages recorded on the storage medium are sequentially retrieved to seek unreproduced messages. When any unreproduced message is in existence, one unreproduced message is reproduced and when the reproduction end command is in existence, the unreproduced message during reproduction is set to be the reproduced handling. Then one message number is counted down to seek the succeeding unreproduced message. Furthermore, when no reproduction end command comes, whether or not an unreproduction end command is in existence. When the unreproduced end command comes, the unreproduction message during reproduction is set to the unreproduced handling. Furthermore, when no reproduction end command comes and the reproduction of the message is finished, the continuous operating time of the medium in the message storage section 5 is limited.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an answering machine in which a method of reproducing a message recorded by a caller at the time of absence is improved.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional answering machine, there are two types of message recording systems when absent. One is a method that does not specify the recipient of the message (hereinafter, usually referred to as answering machine), and the other is a method that specifies the recipient of the message shown in JP-A-2-281860 (hereinafter, individual It is called an answering machine).

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an answering machine having a normal answering machine function, FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a normal answering machine operation by this answering machine, FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an answering machine having an individual answering machine function, and FIG. Is a flow chart showing an individual answering machine operation by this answering machine.

In the figure, reference numeral 1 is an answering machine, and 2 is a line control unit for connecting or disconnecting with a telephone line 3, to which a handset 4 for transmitting / receiving a call is connected. 5 is a message storage unit for storing the message from the caller to the answering machine 1 in a storage medium such as a magnetic tape, 6 is a speaker for outputting the message in the message storage unit 5 as voice, 7
Is an operation unit for instructing various operations such as message reproduction in the message storage unit 5, 8 is a message number display unit for displaying the number of messages stored in the message storage unit 5, and 9 is a message storage unit 5 3 is a message position storage unit that stores the position of a message stored in the storage medium.

Reference numeral 10 is an overall control unit for controlling the entire answering machine 1, 11 is a DTMF receiver for receiving a DTMF signal transmitted by a caller using a dial button or the like, 12
Is a personal identification number storage unit for storing the personal identification number for identifying the recipient indicated by the DTMF signal, and 13 and 14 are message number display units for each recipient provided for a plurality of recipients.

Next, the operation will be described. First, FIG.
The operation of normal answering machine will be described with reference to FIG. Since the number of messages recorded in the message storage unit 5 is 0 in the initial state of the answering machine 1 in step 21, step 2
In 2, the number of cases is displayed as 0 in the case number display section 8. Next, in step 23, the presence or absence of an incoming call to the outside line is detected. If there is an incoming call to the outside line, the process proceeds to step 24, and the line control unit 2 closes the telephone line 3 to perform an automatic incoming call. Then, if the condition of the automatic incoming call is satisfied, the process proceeds to step 25, the message from the caller is recorded in the message storage unit 5, and the number of messages in the message number display unit 8 is counted up by one. Then, the number of cases counted up in step 26 is displayed on the case number display portion 8, and then the process returns to step 23.

If there is no incoming call to the outside line in step 23, the process proceeds to step 27, and it is confirmed whether or not the message reproduction is designated by the operation unit 7, and if there is designation, step 2
8, the message in the message storage unit 5 is reproduced from the speaker 6, the number of messages is set to 0 after the reproduction, 0 is displayed in the message number display unit 8 in step 29, and the process is returned to step 23. Return.

If the message reproduction is not designated in step 27, the process proceeds to step 30, and the processes other than the incoming call to the outside line and the message reproduction are performed, and the process returns to step 23 again. As described above, in normal absence recording, messages from outside lines are recorded without distinction between recipients, and when messages are played, the recorded messages are played in the order of recording, and playback of all messages is completed. If so, the number of cases will be 0.

Next, the operation of the recorded message will be described with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7. Answering machine 1 at step 31
In the initial state of, the number of messages recorded by specifying the recipient in the message storage unit 5 is naturally 0,
At step 32, 0 messages are displayed on the message display sections 8, 13, and 14, respectively. Next, in step 33, the presence or absence of an incoming call to the outside line is detected. If there is an incoming call to the outside line, the process proceeds to step 34,
The line control unit 2 closes the telephone line 3 to automatically receive an incoming call.
Then, if the condition of the automatic incoming call is satisfied, the process proceeds to step 35, and the instruction of the recipient of the message is input from the caller to the DTMF receiver 11 as the personal identification number by using the DTMF signal or the like. If no instruction is given, it will be treated as a message for all recipients. In step 36, the message from the caller is recorded in the message storage unit 5, and the number of messages in the message display unit of the designated recipient is counted up by one. Then, in step 37, the counted-up number of messages is displayed on the message display part of the recipient designated by the caller, and the process returns to step 33 again.

If there is no incoming call from the outside line in step 33, the process proceeds to step 38, and it is confirmed whether or not there is a designation for reproducing the message for each recipient by the operation unit 7. If there is designation, the process proceeds to step 39. First of all, the recipient is confirmed by a personal identification number such as a DTMF signal. Then, in step 40,
Further, if it is confirmed that the message reproduction is designated, the message in the recorded message storage section of the recipient specified in step 41 is output from the speaker 6, and after the reproduction, the number of the recipient's message is output. Is 0. At step 42, 0 messages are displayed on the message display part of the recipient, and at step 33 again.
Return to.

If it is confirmed in step 38 that the message reproduction for each recipient is not designated, the process proceeds to step 43, the processes other than the external line incoming and the message reproduction for each recipient are performed, and the process returns to step 33 again.

[0012]

Since the conventional answering machine has the above-described structure, when a plurality of people use a single answering machine in a general household or the like, an individual person can use the answering machine. Even though many messages addressed to it are recorded, in normal absence recording, when one person plays the message, all the recorded messages will be played together and other messages will be played. Since the message addressed to the person is also reproduced at the same time, and the number of messages recorded after the reproduction is displayed as 0, there is a problem that the message is not transmitted to other people.

Further, in the individual answering machine, although the personal identification number by the DTMF signal or the like can be used to instruct the recipient of the message, since the calling party is unspecified, the personal identification number instructing means is not known. Since the calling party cannot specify the recipient, the individual answering machine does not operate effectively, and the same problem as described above occurs.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and even if the messages addressed to a plurality of persons are mixed and recorded, it is possible to surely convey the message to each person. The purpose is to get an answering machine.

[0015]

An answering machine according to the present invention is a storage medium for storing a line control unit for closing or opening a telephone line and a message received from the telephone line via the line control unit. A message storage unit for storing in the message storage unit, a message number display unit for displaying the message number stored in the message storage unit, an operation unit for instructing reproduction of the message in the message storage unit, and the operation unit When playing back a message, the message being played is treated as playback and the number of messages displayed in the message count display section is subtracted, or the message being played is treated as unplayed and the message count in the message display section remains displayed. And an instruction unit for instructing either of the following.

[0016]

In the answering machine according to the present invention, when all the stored messages are reproduced together, the instruction unit instructs the message being reproduced to be treated as reproduced or unreproduced. Even if the recipients are different,
When replaying, messages that are directly related to each recipient are deleted as replays, unrelated messages are not replayed, and are not deleted. Allow playback later.

[0017]

EXAMPLES Example 1. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an answering machine showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing the entire answering machine operation, and FIG. 3 is a detailed flow chart showing the message reproducing operation. In the figure, the same or corresponding parts as those of the conventional example are designated by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof will be omitted.
11 is whether to treat the currently playing message as playing at the time of playing the message,
Play / indicate whether to treat as unplayed /
It is an unreproduced instruction button and indicates an instruction section.

Next, the operation will be described with reference to FIG.
Since steps 51 to 54 are the same as the conventional example, the description thereof will be omitted. In step 55, regardless of the recipient, the message from the caller is first recorded in a storage medium in the message storage unit 5, and the number of messages in the message display unit 8 is counted up by the number of messages. At step 56, the positions of the recorded messages on the storage medium are stored in the message position storage unit 9, and these messages are naturally treated as unreproduced messages. Then, the message counted up in step 57 is displayed on the message number display portion 8, and the process returns to step 53 again.

If there is no incoming call to the outside line in step 53, the process proceeds to step 58, and it is confirmed whether or not there is an instruction to reproduce the message from the operation unit 7, and if there is an instruction, step 59.
Proceed to and play the recorded message (described later). Then, the process returns to step 53 again.

Further, if the message reproduction is not designated in step 58, the process proceeds to step 60, the processes other than the incoming call to the outside line and the message reproduction are performed, and the process returns to step 53 again.

Next, regarding the message reproduction in step 59,
This will be described in detail with reference to FIG. First, in step 71, the messages recorded in the storage medium are searched in the order in which they were recorded, and the first unplayed message is searched. If there is an unreproduced message in step 72, the process proceeds to step 73, and the reproduction of one unreproduced message is started from the position of the recorded message. At this time, the operation of the timeout timer {timer for continuous operation time limit (timeout) of storage medium} is stopped.

In step 74, it is determined whether or not the time-out timer has reached the time-out. However, since the time-out timer is stopped in step 73, step 7
The process proceeds to step 5 and it is confirmed whether there is a reproduction completion instruction from the reproduction / non-reproduction button 11 during reproduction. If there is a reproduction completion instruction, the process proceeds to step 81, and the unreproduced matter being reproduced is treated as reproduction. Then, in step 82, the number of messages is counted down by one, in step 80, the next unreproduced message is searched for, and the process returns to step 72 to confirm the existence of the unreproduced message.

If there is no reproduction completion instruction in step 75, the process proceeds to step 76, and it is confirmed whether there is an unreproduction completion instruction from the reproduction / non-reproduction button 11 during reproduction.
If there is a non-reproduction completion instruction, the process proceeds to step 79, and the non-reproduction matter being reproduced is treated as non-reproduction. And step 8
0, and returns to step 72.

If there is no unplayback completion instruction in step 76, it is confirmed in step 77 whether or not the playback of the message is completed, and if completed, the operation of the timeout timer is started in step 78, and the message is restarted. The continuous operation time of the medium in the storage unit 5 is limited. Then, the process returns to step 74, and it is confirmed whether or not a time-out has occurred. If a time-out has occurred, the process proceeds to step 81, and the unreproduced matter currently reproduced is regarded as already reproduced. Then, the process returns to step 72 via step 82 and step 80.

If there is no unreproduced message in step 72, the process proceeds to step 83, the number of unreproduced messages is displayed, and the message reproduction process is terminated. In addition, the play / unplay button 11 during the operation of the timeout timer after the completion of message playback
Since various operations based on the reproduction completion instruction and the reproduction incomplete instruction by are similar to the operations during the reproduction of the message, the description thereof will be omitted.

The above operation is performed for all unreproduced messages in the order in which they were recorded, and if the message has no relation to the recipient, the instruction "unreproduced" indicates that the message is related to other recipients. The relevant recipient can play back the message later.

Example 2. In the above embodiment, the replay / non-reproduction instruction button 11 is used to instruct the reproduction treatment or the non-reproduction treatment of the matter being reproduced. However, the DTMF signal from the outside is used. Even when the remote controller is operated, by assigning an instruction of whether the message is reproduced or not reproduced to a specific DTMF signal, reproduction / non-reproduction can be performed.

[0028]

As described above, according to the present invention, at the time of reproducing a message, the instruction unit instructs whether the message being reproduced is treated as reproduced or not reproduced. If you do so, the number of messages in the message display section is not subtracted, and you can leave it as it is. If there are multiple recipients of the message and each recipient plays the message, Delete the messages that are related to the above, and delete the messages that are not related to the ones that are not related to the reproduction, and leave them undeleted. Since it is possible to set multiple recipients with one answering machine, the required message for each recipient is not deleted when the message is played back, and the remaining message count is displayed reliably. We have obtained an easy-to-use answering machine that can reliably display the message on the message display. There is that effect.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing the entire answering machine operation according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a message reproducing operation showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a conventional answering machine having a normal answering machine function.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a conventional normal answering machine operation.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a conventional answering machine having an individual answering machine function.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a conventional individual answering machine operation.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Answering machine 2 Line control unit 3 Telephone line 5 Message storage unit 7 Operation unit 8 Message count display unit 11 Play / Unplay instruction button

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A line control unit for connecting or disconnecting a telephone line, a message storage unit for storing a message received from the telephone line via the line control unit in a storage medium, and a message storage unit for storing the message. A message number display section for displaying the number of messages stored in the message storage section, an operation section for instructing the reproduction of the message in the message storage section, and a message being reproduced at the time of message reproduction by this operation section. And an instruction section for instructing either to subtract the number of cases in the number-of-messages display section, or to treat the message being reproduced as unreproduced and keep the number of cases in the number-of-messages display section displayed. Answering machine with.