JPH05227272A - Automatic telephone reception device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain the automatic telephone reception device which calls a called party desired by a caller in response to a phone call from the caller automatically or informs it to the caller when a called party is not available. CONSTITUTION:A voice recognition section 3 recognizes a name of a called party desired by a caller based on an uttered voice of the caller. An information storage section 4 stores information (e.g. resident in a room or not, a contact place in the case of absence, and a company return schedule time or the like) relating to plural called parties being possible called parties and a system control section 2 retrieves the information storage section 4 based on the name of the called party to be recognized to read the information of the called party and calls the called party from sound output from a speaker 7 when the called party is resident in its room. When the called party is absent, it is informed to the caller through a telephone line that the called party is absent and also to the caller about the contact location of the called party and the returning time or the like. Thus, the telephone reception device is obtained, in which no relay of phone call is required at the arrival of the call from the caller and the caller is not kept waited long.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic telephone answering apparatus which automatically answers a telephone call from an arbitrary caller.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In general, a company or the like often uses a one-line telephone by a plurality of people, and in recent years, telephones have become more and more multifunctional, and a plurality of handsets for a parent-child telephone and a single telephone. A telephone having a (slave unit) is also used at home.

When making a call to a company or a home using such a telephone, the intended callee does not always come out directly to the call made by the caller, and the person on the spot makes the call for the time being. They are arranged to call the called party.

[0004]

However, when there is no person near the telephone, the caller is made to wait for a long time, and even if the person is near the telephone, the caller is called until the caller is answered. Since the called party does not know who the called party is, the person who answers the call confirms the intended party (called party) of the calling party, confirms the location of the called party, and then the called party If there is a person, there is a need for troublesome labor such as intermediary with the called party, and if there is no person, the fact is told to the calling party.

The present invention automatically answers a call from a calling party to call the called party which the calling party should seek, or when the called party is absent, the calling party is called. It is an object of the present invention to provide an automatic telephone answering device capable of transmitting a message.

[0006]

An automatic telephone answering apparatus of the present invention includes a voice recognition unit 3 as a voice recognition unit for recognizing a voice of a caller, and a storage unit for storing information about a plurality of called parties. The information storage unit 4 as a reference, and the information of the called party stored in the information storage unit 4 according to the uttered voice of the calling party recognized by the voice recognition section 3 is referred to, and according to the information, The system control section 2 as a control means for making a response is provided.

The automatic telephone answering device can further include a voice response unit 5 as a calling unit which is controlled by the system control unit 2 and calls a predetermined called person according to the recognition result of the voice recognition unit 3. ..

[0008]

In the automatic telephone answering device having the above structure, the voice recognition unit 3 recognizes the name of the called party requested by the calling party from the voice of the calling party. The information storage unit 4 stores information about a plurality of called persons who may use a telephone (for example, whether or not the person is in the room, contact information when the person is absent, scheduled return time, etc.), and the system control unit. 2 retrieves the information of the called party from the recognized name of the called party and reads the information of the called party, and if the called party is in the room, the voice response section 5
To call the called party, and if there is not, inform the calling party through the telephone line that the called party is absent and the contact information and return time of the called party. ..

Therefore, it is possible to provide an automatic telephone answering apparatus which does not require any intermediary when the caller makes a call and does not make the caller wait longer than necessary.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the construction of an embodiment of an automatic telephone answering apparatus of the present invention. A telephone 1 on the called side.
Is connected to the telephone set 6 on the caller side through a telephone line, and controls the disconnection of the line of the telephone set 1 on the callee side, the transmission of messages to the caller, the reception of messages from the callee, and the like. Are controlled by the system control unit 2 as a control means.

The system control unit 2 includes a voice recognition unit 3 as a voice recognition unit for recognizing the voice of the calling party, and information about each of a plurality of called parties who may use the called party telephone 1. Is connected to an information storage unit 4 serving as a storage unit that stores therein a voice response unit 5 that stores a predetermined message for reception and a message for calling.

Further, the system control section 2 includes a tape recorder for recording the voice (message) of the caller,
A message storage unit 8 including a solid-state memory and a speaker 7 are connected.

The name of the called party is registered in the voice recognition unit 3 in advance as voice data. If the speech recognition method is, for example, a phoneme recognition method for an unspecified speaker, only the speech data corresponding to the reading of the user's name need be registered, and the recognition data (standard pattern) is stored for each word. In the case of an unspecified speaker word recognition method that recognizes each user's name by uttering the names of multiple users, converting them into digital signals, and using this as a standard pattern. Register.

A voice for output is registered in the voice response unit 5 for transmitting a predetermined message to a calling party or a called party, which will be described later.

In the above configuration, the system control section 2 recognizes the name of the called party announced by the calling party by the voice recognition section 3, confirms the recognized name of the called party, and then confirms the name of the called party. Whether the caller is in the room or absent, the contact information and return time when the caller is absent is read out by searching the information storage unit 4, and when the caller is in the room, the voice response unit 5 calls the caller's message And calls the called party by driving the speaker 7, and if not present, reads a message from the voice response unit 5 indicating that the called party is absent, contact information, return time, etc. Communicate to the caller over the line.

The above operation will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, when the caller makes a call from the caller side telephone 6 to the callee side telephone 1, the system control unit 2 automatically controls the callee side telephone 1 to establish a line in step S1. After connecting (off-hook), in step 2, a message prompting the other party to call from the voice response section 5, for example, "This is XX Co., Ltd., YY section, ZZ section. Who are you calling? After the dial tone. ,
Send a message such as "Please tell me the name of the person you are talking to" to the caller through the telephone line.

When the calling party announces the name of the other party to be called according to the message in step S3, the system control section 2 uses the name announced by the calling party and the data of the name registered in advance in the voice recognition section 3. And perform recognition work for the name announced by the caller.

For example, when the name “Yamada” is recognized, the name “Yamada” registered in the voice recognition unit 3 and the voice response unit 5 are registered in the voice recognition unit 5 so that the caller can confirm the name. In step S4, the synthesized voice in which the registered “?” Is combined is transmitted to the caller.

In the case where the caller answers the voice, the system control unit 2 recognizes the voice by the voice recognition unit 3 and the caller gives a negative answer such as "No" or "No" ( In step S17), the process proceeds to step S18,
A request to the caller such as "Please name again" registered in the voice response unit 5 is transmitted. Steps S3, S4, S17, S until the name of the called party is confirmed
The process of 18 is repeated.

On the other hand, after the execution of step S4, if the caller answers "Yes" (step S5), the system control unit 2 searches the information storage unit 4 to obtain information about "Mr. Yamada". In step S6, it is determined whether Mr. Yamada is in the room or not. The user registers in the information storage unit 4 in advance whether he is in the room or not. In the case of being in the room, the process proceeds to step S7, and a refusal such as "please wait for a while" stored in the voice response unit 5 is transmitted to the caller. Further, the system control unit 2 drives the speaker 7 to output a synthetic voice in which "Yamada" registered in the voice recognition unit 3 and "Mr. phone" registered in the voice response unit 5 are combined. Yes (step S8). Of course, a call message including “Yamada” may be registered in the voice response unit 5.

Thereafter, it is determined in step S9 whether or not the called person has picked up the handset of the called party telephone 1, and if the handset is picked up, the called party telephone 1 is connected to the telephone line in step S10. After connecting, the same usage pattern as a normal telephone is taken after that.

On the other hand, if the called party does not answer the call, the system control unit 2 monitors in step S11 whether the calling time has passed a predetermined time. If the predetermined time has not passed, the system control section 2 starts from step S8. Repeat the process of.

When it is determined in step S11 that the predetermined time has passed from the first call, the system control unit 2 registers "Very sorry," which is registered in the voice response unit 5 in step S12.
And, the caller of the synthetic voice saying "I'm just out of my seat." And the above "Yamada" are combined, "I'm very sorry, Yamada is out of seat." Send to.

In step S11, it is determined whether or not a predetermined time has passed since the first call. However, when the number of calls exceeds the predetermined number of times, the number of calls is determined. You may make it advance to S12.

After step 12, in step S13, the system control unit 2 calls up the message "Please talk after the dial tone if there is any message" registered in the voice response unit 5,
Communicate to the caller. The message from the caller is recorded by the message storage unit 8.

Upon confirming that the caller hangs up, the system control unit 2 puts the called party telephone 1 on-hook (opens the telephone line) in step S16.

On the other hand, in step S6, when the system control section 2 determines that the called party requested by the calling party is absent, the system control section 2 registers in the voice response section 5 in step S14. "I'm very sorry," and "is out now."
"I'm very sorry, Yamada is just out now."
To the caller.

Further, the system control unit 2 follows the message transmitted in step S14, and based on the data stored in the information storage unit 4, if the contact information of the called called party is stored, then in step S150.
"The phone number you are going to is xxx-xxxx, so please call that". If the return time is stored, you will get the message "Yamada is planning to return around X o'clock" in step S151. If only the absence is determined, the message of "Please talk after the dial tone if there is any message" of step S152 is transmitted to the caller.

The messages in steps S150 to S152 are also included in the voice recognition unit 3, the information storage unit 4, and the voice response unit 5.
The name, the data, the message, etc., respectively stored in the above are combined appropriately and transmitted.

After any one of steps S150, S151 and S152 is executed, the process proceeds to step S16 and the telephone line is opened.

[0033]

As described above, according to the automatic telephone answering apparatus of the present invention, the uttered voice of the caller is recognized, and the received voice stored in the storage means according to the voice-recognized voice of the caller is recognized. By referring to the information of the caller and responding to the caller according to the information, the control means responds automatically even if the caller does not answer the call, and the called party is absent. In this case as well, the information regarding the called party is automatically transmitted to the calling party, so that it is possible to omit the labor of checking the contact information of the called party each time a call is received.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of an automatic telephone answering device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the automatic telephone answering device of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Telephone of Callee Side 2 System Control Unit (Control Means) 3 Voice Recognition Unit (Voice Recognition Means) 4 Information Storage Unit (Storage Means) 5 Voice Response Unit (Calling Means) 6 Caller Side Telephone 7 Speaker 8 Message Storage Department

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A voice recognition unit for recognizing a voiced voice of a calling party, a storage unit for storing information about a plurality of called parties, and a voiced voice of the caller recognized by the voice recognition unit. An automatic telephone answering apparatus, comprising: a control unit that refers to the information of the called party stored in the storage unit and makes a response to the calling party according to the information. 2. The automatic telephone answering device according to claim 1, further comprising a calling unit which is controlled by the control unit and calls a predetermined called party in response to a recognition result of the voice recognition unit. ..