JPH05316200A - Automatic answering telephone set - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide an automatic answering telephone set whose operability is improved by devising the telephone set such that a recordable speech time duration is notified on a telephone caller side in the recording of the incoming call message in the automatic answering mode. CONSTITUTION:When a communication circuit 100 detects the arrival of a phone call through a communication line K, a message for automatic answering stored in a storage circuit 102 is sent to the communication line K via the communication circuit 100, a storing period of time preset by a timer circuit 103 is compared with a storable period of time based on a residual capacity of the storage circuit 102 and the shorter period of time is converted into an audio signal as a residual storage enabling period of time at an audio signal generating circuit 104 and the signal is transmitted to the communication line K via the communication circuit 100.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an answering machine having a voice recording function.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, telephones have been frequently used, and the number of important calls even when absent is being increased. Along with this, an answering machine with a function of automatically recording an answering machine and recording the contents of communication when absent is used.

[0003]

However, when voice recording is performed when an answering machine is used by using the above-mentioned answering machine, the recording time that can be stored in one call is a time preset by the receiving side of the telephone or a device-specific recording time. Although there is a time limit such as time due to the capacity of the memory circuit, it is not possible to notify the calling party of the time limit. this is,
For the caller, that is, the sender of the voice message, there is a problem that the line is unilaterally disconnected before all the communication contents are recorded.

The present invention has been made to solve this problem. By notifying the calling side of the recordable time, the calling side is warned of the time limit and the operation is performed. It is intended to improve the sex.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention comprises a communication means connected to a communication line for receiving a voice signal and transmitting a voice or control signal, and a storage means for storing the voice signal received by the communication means. Measuring means for measuring the time of the voice signal stored in the storage means and successively measuring the remaining storable time which can be stored in the storage means, and the remaining storable time of the voice signal measured by the measuring means And a remaining storable time notifying unit which converts the signal into a signal and transmits the signal via the communication unit.

[0006]

The communication means is connected to the communication line to receive a voice signal and transmit a voice or control signal, the storage means stores the voice signal received by the communication means, and the measurement means stores the voice stored in the storage means. The time of the signal is measured, the remaining storable time that can be stored in the storage means is sequentially measured, and the remaining time notification means converts the remaining storable time measured by the measuring means into a signal representing the remaining storable time and transmits it through the communication means. To do.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A first embodiment of an answering machine of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. Figure 1
It is a schematic block diagram of the answering machine which concerns on the 1st Example of this invention. In the figure, T is an answering machine, which is connected to a communication line K. The answering machine T is connected to the communication line K via a communication circuit 100 as a communication unit, a voice input circuit 101 for inputting voice as a voice signal, and a voice signal input by the voice input circuit 101 and the communication circuit 100. And a storage circuit 102 as storage means for storing the voice signal received from the communication line K.
Timer circuit 103 as a measuring means for measuring the time of the audio signal stored in 2 and measuring the remaining storable time.
And a voice generation circuit 104 as a remaining storable time notifying means for changing the remaining storable time measured by the timer circuit 103 into a voice message indicating the time, and a control circuit 105 connected to each functional element and controlling the entire operation. It has and.

FIG. 2 shows a case where an answering machine having such a structure is connected to an answering machine having the same structure, and the remaining storable time is sent as a voice message to the other terminal when a call is received when the user is at home. While explaining. FIG. 2 is a flow chart for explaining the operation of the first embodiment of the answering machine of the present invention.

The control circuit 105 stores the answering machine corresponding message inputted by the voice input circuit 101 in advance in the storage circuit 10.
2, and the communication circuit 100 starts monitoring the incoming call (step 200). Then, when the control circuit 105 detects an incoming call from the communication line K in the communication circuit 100 (step 201), it controls the communication circuit 100 and performs a communication start procedure such as a response to confirm the connection of the line, and the storage circuit 1
The answering machine corresponding message stored in 02 is transmitted to the communication line K through the communication circuit 100 (step 20).
2). Further, the control circuit 105 causes the timer circuit 103 to compare the storage time preset by an operation circuit (not shown) with the storage time by the remaining capacity of the storage circuit (step 203), and the shorter one is used as the remaining storage time. The generation circuit 104 converts it into a voice message (step 204). Then, the control circuit 105 causes the voice message to be transmitted to the communication line K via the communication circuit 100 (step 205). The control circuit 105 stores the communication content received from the communication line K via the communication circuit 100 in the storage circuit 102 (step 206). The storage of the communication content does not have to wait for the completion of transmission of the remaining storable time, and may start at an arbitrary timing after the communication line is connected.

When the timer circuit 103 detects the passage of the remaining storable time from the start of the storage by the timer circuit 103 or the communication circuit 100 detects the communication interruption from the communication partner (step 207), the control circuit 105 stores the data in the storage circuit 102. The storage of the voice signal is stopped, the communication ending procedure is performed, and the state of waiting for an incoming call is restored. A second embodiment of the answering machine of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration diagram of an answering machine according to a second embodiment of the present invention. The same parts as those in FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals and the description thereof will be omitted. This embodiment is shown in FIG.
The difference from the above is that the remaining storable time is not converted into a voice message, but is converted into a control signal such as a specific code.
00 and a restoration circuit 301 for restoring the received control signal to an audio signal.

In the answering machine having such a structure, a case in which the remaining storable time is sent to the partner terminal as a specific code when an incoming call is received will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 4 is a flow chart for explaining the operation of the second embodiment of the answering machine of the present invention.

The control circuit 105 stores the answering machine corresponding message inputted by the voice input circuit 101 in the memory circuit 102, and starts monitoring the incoming call by the communication circuit 100 (step 400). Then, when the control circuit 105 detects an incoming call from the communication line K in the communication circuit 100 (step 401), it controls the communication circuit 100 and performs a communication starting procedure such as a response to confirm the line connection, and the storage circuit 102.
Answering machine corresponding message stored in the communication circuit 10
0 to the communication line K via 0 (step 40
2). Further, the control circuit 105 causes the timer circuit 103 to compare the storage time preset by an operation circuit (not shown) with the storage time by the remaining capacity of the storage circuit (step 403), and control the shorter one as the remaining storage time. The signal generation circuit 106 converts it into a control signal such as a specific code (step 404). Then, the control circuit 105 transmits the control signal to the communication line K through the communication circuit 100 (step 405). The control circuit 105 stores the communication content received from the communication line K via the communication circuit 100 in the storage circuit 102 (step 406).
The storage of the communication content does not have to wait for the completion of transmission of the remaining storable time, and may start at an arbitrary timing after the communication line is connected.

When the control circuit 105 detects the passage of the remaining storable time from the start of storage in the timer circuit 103 or the communication cutoff from the communication partner from the communication circuit 100 (step 407), the control circuit 105 stores the data in the storage circuit 102. The memory is stopped, the communication ending procedure is performed, and the state of waiting for an incoming call is restored. On the other hand, on the calling side, the control circuit 105
Is a control signal such as a specific code which indicates the remaining storable time received from the communication line K via the communication circuit 100 and is converted into an audio signal by the restoration circuit 107 using a correspondence table of the control signal and the remaining storable time which is not shown. It is restored and output by an audio output circuit (not shown).

In the above embodiment, the control signal such as the specific code indicating the remaining storable time is restored to the voice signal on the calling side, but not limited to this, the remaining storable time is controlled by the control signal. May be set as a timer and the timer may be started to visually notify the speaker of the remaining time of the record on the side receiving the call on the display circuit. Further, in the above embodiments, the voice mail only answering machine is targeted, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the present invention can be applied to, for example, an answering machine video telephone, a video conference system, and a facsimile.

Further, in the above embodiments, as the storage means, the internal storage circuit is used and the storage circuit for storing the absence message and the storage circuit for storing the communication content are integrated, but the present invention is not limited to this. , For example, an external storage device such as a tape recorder or an external memory can be used,
A storage circuit that stores the message for answering machine and a storage circuit that stores the communication content may be provided individually.

[0017]

As is apparent from the above description, the present invention has the following advantages.
When there is an incoming call to the answering machine during answering machine, the timer circuit detects the remaining storable time of the memory circuit that stores the communication contents of the answering machine, and informs the calling party in the form of a voice message. As a result, it is possible to call attention to the side making a call for the time limit and improve operability.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an answering machine according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart diagram for explaining an operation according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration diagram of an answering machine according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart diagram for explaining an operation according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 T answering machine K communication line 100 communication circuit 101 voice input circuit 102 storage circuit 103 timer circuit 104 voice signal generation circuit 105 control circuit 106 control signal generation circuit 107 restoration circuit

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A communication unit connected to a communication line for receiving a voice signal and transmitting a voice or control signal, a storage unit for storing a voice signal received by the communication unit, and the storage unit stored in the storage unit. Measuring means for measuring the voice signal long time and successively measuring the remaining storable time which can be stored in the storage means;
An answering machine, comprising: remaining storable time notifying means for converting the remaining storable time of the voice signal measured by the measuring means into a signal representing the remaining storable time and transmitting the signal via the communication means. 2. The remaining time notifying means includes a voice signal generating means for converting the remaining storable time measured by the measuring means into a voice message.
Answering machine as described. 3. The answering machine according to claim 1, wherein said remaining time notifying means comprises control signal generating means for converting the remaining storable time measured by said measuring means into a control signal consisting of a specific code. Telephone.