JPH06169339A - Automatic answering telephone set - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide an automatic answering telephone set which can collect only the message of the same telephone number and then can continuously reproduce the messages. CONSTITUTION:Receiving means 2, 3 and 5 are provided to receive the message from the originating destinations and the telephone numbers of the originating destinations, together with a sound recording means 14a which records the received messages in the incoming order, an originating destination telephone number storage means 13a which stores the telephone number of the originating destinations in response to the messages to be recorded, a sound recording frequency counter means 12 which counts the recording frequency of the messages to be recorded in the incoming order, and the reproduction control means 11, 13b, 13c and 13d which select the messages of the same telephone number of the originating destinations in the incoming order and then reproduce these messages.

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 an improved method of reproducing a recorded message.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when a message recorded on an answering machine is automatically played back after returning home, in the case of a magnetic tape type recording, it is rewound to a place set as an answering machine and played back. There is. That is, the messages are played back from the oldest message in time. In contrast, in recent years,
A digital recording method has been adopted in which both response recording and message recording are recorded in a dedicated audio memory. According to this method, message playback can be performed instantaneously by memory access, so that time It is possible to reproduce a new recorded message from an old message (for example, 10th → 9th → ... → 1st). Such a reproducing method makes the best use of the characteristics of the memory recording method, and responds to the demand for responding to such a message as soon as possible by reproducing from a message near the time of returning home.

[0003]

However, even in the answering machine which employs the above-mentioned memory recording method, it is not possible to record the telephone number from which the call came from at the same time as the message. For this reason, when two or more messages are received from the same person during a long absence, a message of positive content and a message of negative content regarding a certain matter are recorded at different times. In some cases (such as when there is a message stating where you want to meet at what time and for how many minutes, and then you want to change the meeting place or time after a while). , Collect only messages from the same person and play continuously,
I was not able to meet the demand for listening while organizing the content of the story.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an answering machine capable of collecting only message messages from the same telephone number and continuously reproducing them. .

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, an answering machine according to the present invention has a message receiving unit for receiving a message from a callee and a telephone number of the callee, and a received message for a message. Recording means for recording in order of incoming call, and telephone number storage means for storing callee's telephone number in association with each message to be recorded, and recording for counting the number of recorded message messages to be recorded in order of arrival It is characterized in that it is provided with a number-of-items counting means and a reproduction control means for selecting and reproducing the message messages having the same telephone number as the callee in the order of arrival.

[0006]

According to the above construction, the receiving means allows the receiving means to be in the absence.
The message from the callee and the phone number of the callee are received. And regarding the received message,
Recording is performed by the recording means in the order in which they arrive. Further, the received destination telephone number is stored by the destination telephone number storage means in association with the message to be recorded. Furthermore, the number-of-recorded-records counting means counts the number of recorded message messages recorded in the order of arrival.

On the other hand, when reproducing the message, the reproduction control means selects the message having the same telephone number of the callee in the order of reception and reproduces it. As a result, the recorded message is reproduced on the answering machine as follows. That is, when the reproduction of the first message is completed, the second and subsequent messages are searched for the same telephone number as the first message, and if found, the message is reproduced subsequently. After that, if the same telephone number is not found until the last message, the message corresponding to the telephone number that is different from the first one is reproduced in the second and subsequent cases.
Then, when the reproduction of the message ends, similarly, the operation of searching for a message having the same telephone number as the telephone number is performed. By operating in this way, even if messages from the same person are recorded at different times,
It becomes possible to play them all at once, and to play all the message messages without omission.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of an answering machine according to the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an answering machine according to the present invention. This answering machine has an incoming call detecting section 2 for detecting an incoming call from the outside centering on a control section 1 for controlling the entire system, and an "outgoing caller telephone number transmission" conducted by a telephone company. Data demodulation unit 3 for demodulating telephone number data transmitted by "service"
And a hook control unit 4 for controlling the line capturing / disconnecting operation in order to answer an absence, and a voice detection unit 5 for detecting whether or not a person calling from outside is sending a message.
And a voice analysis unit 6 that analyzes the voices of both messages in order to record the response message used when an answering is made and the message of the person who called the phone, and the voice analysis data of both messages is recorded as a voice memory. A voice memory unit 14 including a message recording voice memory unit 14a and a response recording voice memory unit 14b, and conversely, a voice synthesizing unit which reads voice memories of both recorded messages from the voice memory unit 14 and performs voice synthesis. 7 and a signal detector 8 for detecting a message end signal for ending both messages
, A voice output unit 9 for outputting both voice-synthesized messages by a speaker SP and an amplifier, and an operation unit 10 having a message reproduction start key K for starting reproduction of a message and other operation keys. And specify the message to be played according to the order of arrival of the message,
In order to reproduce the message number in a predetermined reproduction order, a reproduction number counter unit 11 for counting the number of reproductions, a recording number counter unit 12 for counting the number of incoming message messages and recording the total number of recordings, In order to compare the telephone number memory unit 13a for each number storing the corresponding telephone number with the telephone number of the message to be reproduced and the telephone number of the message to be reproduced later, the message to be reproduced is reproduced. A telephone number comparison memory unit 13b for storing the telephone numbers of the above, and an inconsistency number memory unit 13c for storing the number numbers which are inconsistent in the recording order in order to reproduce the message for each telephone number in the order of reception. , A playback order control device including a played-back number memory 13d that stores the number of the played-back message so that it is not played back again. And a processing section 13.

Further, the above "caller telephone number sending service" is one in which the caller's telephone number is sent from the telephone exchange while the call is being received. Currently, it is implemented by some telephone companies in the United States and Canada. Has been done. According to this service, information such as the telephone number, the time, and the name of the caller is simultaneously sent at a communication speed of 1200 bits per second during the first and second ringing pauses of the ringing tone.
Therefore, by displaying the telephone number, time, name, etc. on the display unit based on such information, it is possible to know the called party before answering the call. And in Japan, toward the implementation of "caller phone number transmission service" by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation 2-3 years later,
The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications is at the stage of studying legislation.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a case where the answering machine according to the present invention is used to record and play an answering machine. In (a), the total number of recordings is 10, and A, B,
The example of the absence recording when a call is received from three persons having different phone numbers of C is shown. Also,
The recording start address in the message recording voice memory unit 14a for starting the recording of the message at each reception is also described. In this example, a count value “10” is entered in the recording number counter unit 12.

[0011] (b) shows an example of the reproduction order of the message when reproducing the recorded message shown in (a). In this example, the message messages of the persons B and C are reproduced in order from the message message of the person with the telephone number A that was first received. That is, the message received from the person with the telephone number A that is first received is continuously reproduced in the order of 1, 3, and 7 according to the order of reception, and then,
The second message received by the person with the telephone number B is
Similarly, in the order in which they were received, 4, 5, 6, and 7 were played back in succession, and subsequently, the fourth message received by the person with the telephone number C was 8, 9, 1 in the same order in which they were received.
It is played continuously with 0. The example of the above-mentioned absence recording and reproduction will be used in the description of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing the operation procedure of the answering machine shown in FIG. In this flowchart, “recording” means storing the voice-analyzed data in the voice memory unit 14, and “playing” means reading the stored voice data from the voice memory unit 14 and performing voice synthesis. I shall. First, the number-of-records counter section 12, the number-of-reproductions counter section 11, and the number-of-mismatched-number memory section 13c, the telephone number comparison memory section 13b, and the number-of-reproduced number memory section 1 in the reproduction order memory section 13.
3d is initialized to 0 (S1). Next, the presence / absence of an incoming call is detected (S2), and if there is an incoming call, the process of recording the message from S3 to S13 is performed, and if there is no incoming call, the process of reproducing the message from S14 to S36 is performed. It is like this.

The process of recording a message is as follows. When there is an incoming call during standby (Yes in S2), the telephone number data of the callee is received (S3). When the reception is completed (Yes in S4), the line is captured, that is, off-hook (S5), and the recording number counter 12 is counted up to count the number of incoming calls (S).
6). Then, in order to demodulate the received telephone number data by the data demodulation unit 3 and record it in the message recording voice memory unit 14a together with the message of the person, the recording start address and the telephone number are arranged in the order in which they are received. Number memory unit 13
The data is stored in a (S7). After that, the content of the response recording voice memory unit 14b, that is, the response message is reproduced (S
8). The determination of the end of reproduction is performed by detecting this signal by the signal detection unit 8 because the message end signal recorded in advance with the response message is reproduced (S
9). When the message end signal is detected (S9
In the case of Yes), the message is recorded in the message recording voice memory unit 14a from the recording start address (that is, the address recorded together with the telephone number in the telephone number memory unit 13a for each number in S7) (S10). ). The determination of the end of recording the message is made while monitoring whether or not the message is being transmitted by the voice detection unit 5,
If there is no sound for 5 seconds or more, it is considered to have ended (S11
In the case of Yes), the message end signal is recorded (S12). After that, the recording of the message is stopped and the line is disconnected, that is, on-hook (S13), and the incoming call waiting state of S2 is returned to.

Next, as shown in FIG. 2 (a), an example is given in which the total number of recordings is 10, and calls are made from three different telephone numbers having telephone numbers A, B and C. Now, the reproduction process of each message will be described.
In this processing, the end of reproduction is determined by detecting the recorded message end signal by the signal detector 8. In the flowchart, "play the message message indicated by the number-of-played-item counter" is written in the telephone number memory unit 13a for each number of items indicated by the incoming order (the count value of the number-of-played-item counter unit 11). This means that the message message is reproduced from the recorded recording start address of the recorded message recording voice memory unit 14a. For example, in the case of FIG. 2A, to reproduce the fifth case indicated by the reproduction number counter unit 11 means to reproduce from the recording start address 30 of the message recording voice memory unit 14a.

The process of reproducing the message is as follows. If there is no incoming call in S2 and the message reproduction start key K is pressed (Yes in S14), the reproduction number counter unit 11 is incremented by 1 (S15). That is, here, the reproduction number counter unit 11 is set from 0 to 1, and the first reproduction message is designated. When it is confirmed that the reproduction number counter unit 11 is set to 1 (Yes in S16), the first telephone number A is used for comparison with the telephone number of the later message. The telephone number comparison memory unit 1
It is stored in 3b (S17). Then, the first message message is reproduced (S18). Further, in order to prevent the message that has been reproduced once from being reproduced again, the contents of the reproduction number counter unit 11 (that is, the count value 1) is stored in the reproduced number memory unit 13d.
Is stored in memory (S19). Then, the contents of the reproduction number counter unit 11 and the recording number counter unit 12 are compared (S2
0), it is determined whether these values match (S2).
1). In this case, since the respective count values are 1 and 10, the result in S21 is No, and the process returns to S15 to count up the number-of-reproductions counter unit 1 by 1 and set 1 to 2. As a result, No is obtained in S16, and the process proceeds to S22.

In S22, it is checked whether or not the value of the reproduction number counter section 11 is stored in the reproduced number number memory section 13d. In this case, since the second message message has not been reproduced, S22 returns No, and the telephone number indicated by the reproduction number counter unit 11 and the contents of the telephone number comparison memory unit 13b are compared (S23). That is,
The telephone number of the second message received and the telephone number of the first message received are compared. In this case, since the second telephone number is B, S24
Then, the result is No, and the process proceeds to S26. Succeedingly, in a step S26, it is checked whether or not the second case is a reproduced matter. Since the second message message has not been reproduced, S26 returns No, and S
Proceed to 27. S27 is a process for storing the number of cases of the telephone number B to be reproduced next after all the cases of the telephone number A are reproduced. In this case, the number of reproduction cases is counted in the inconsistent case number memory unit 13c. The count value of the unit 11 is stored. Further, the subsequent S28 and S29 are processings for determining whether or not the reproduction is performed up to the last number or whether or not the same telephone number is inspected.
Since it is the case, S29 is No.

Therefore, the reproduction number counter unit 11 is incremented by one (S32), and then the third number is telephone number A.
Is checked (S33 and S34). In this case, since the third telephone number is A, the answer in S34 is Yes and the third message message is reproduced (S35), and the reproduction number counter unit 1 is reproduced in the reproduced case number memory unit 13d.
The content of 1 (here, the count value is 3) is added to the previous 1 and stored (S36). Furthermore, S28 and S29
Returning to the determination of No., after performing the processing from S32 to S36,
From the remaining number of cases (4th to 10th cases), a message whose telephone number is A is searched for and reproduced, and the number of reproduced cases is added to the reproduced case number memory section 13d. In this way, if up to 10 inspections are performed, S29 returns Y.
It becomes es, and at this point, message 1 of telephone number A,
This means that the reproduction of the messages 3 and 7 is completed.

The following S30 and S31 are initial setting processing for collectively reproducing the message of the telephone number B, and S3
When it is 0, it is 2 in the non-matching number number memory unit 13c.
The telephone number B designated by the subject is newly replaced with the telephone number A and stored in the telephone number comparison memory unit 13b. Further, in S31, a value obtained by subtracting 1 from the value in the number-of-mismatch-numbers memory unit 13c is copied to the number-of-reproductions counter unit 11 as a preparatory work for the convenience of the subsequent processing. Then, S20
→ When the process proceeds from No in S21 to S15, the reproduction number counter unit 11 is set to the second item. Next, in S22,
No since the second message is unplayed, S
The sequence proceeds from 23 to S24, Yes to S25, and the second message message is reproduced. After that, the process of S19 is performed, and the second number is added to the number-of-reproduced-number memory unit 13d. That is, at this time point, 1, 3, 7, 2 are stored in the reproduced number memory 13d.

Next, the third and subsequent cases are inspected, but since the third case has been reproduced, the process proceeds from S20 → No of S21 → S15 → No of S16 → Yes of S22,
To perform the fourth inspection, S20 → No in S21 →
Proceeding to S15, the fourth case is set. The fourth case has not been reproduced, but the phone number is C, so No in S16 → S22
No → S23 → S24 No → S26 No → S27
After the inspection is completed up to the tenth case, the reproduction number counter value (fourth case) to be reproduced is newly rewritten in the mismatched case number memory unit 13c. The reproduction of the sixth, eighth and tenth cases of the telephone number B is performed in S35. The seventh telephone number A is the telephone number comparison memory unit 13
By comparison with b, the process proceeds to No in S34, and the reproduction is not performed. When the reproduction of the 10th B is completed, S36 → S28
→ Proceed to Yes in S29, and initialization processing is performed so that the fourth telephone number C is reproduced (S30, S3).
1). Subsequent operations are performed by the same method as the above-mentioned reproduction processing of the telephone number B.

For the fourth case, S30 → S31 → S2
0 → No in S21 → S15 → No in S16 → N in S22
o → S23 → Yes of S24 → S25 → S19 → S20
→ S21 No → S15
5 → No in S16 → No in S22 → S23 → Y in S24
es → S25 → S19 → S20 → No of S21 → S15
In the order of, for the sixth case, S15 → No of S16 → S2
2 Yes → S20 → S21 No → S15
Regarding the subject, S15 → No of S16 → Yes of S22
→ S20 → No of S21 → S15, in order of the 8th case, S15 → No of S16 → Yes of S22 → S20 →
In the order of No of S21 → S15, for the ninth case, S15
→ No of S16 → No of S22 → S23 → Ye of S24
s → S25 → S19 → S20 → No of S21 → S15 in the order of S15 → No of S16 → S2 for the 10th case
By performing the processing in the order of Yes of 2 → S20 → Yes of S21 → S1, the reproduction of all the messages is completed, and the process returns to the initial setting operation S1.

As described above, the message is reproduced with the reproduction order shown in FIG. 2 (b). Therefore, even if the messages from the same person are recorded differently in time, it is possible to reproduce them all together, and it is possible to reproduce all the messages without omission.

[0022]

As described above, according to the present invention, a plurality of message messages from persons having the same telephone number can be collected and continuously reproduced. Therefore, even if you are out of the office for a long time, you can grasp the relevance of the content of the message from the person with the same phone number a little more reliably, and prevent mistakes and omissions by listening to the received message more quickly. It becomes possible to take various measures and it becomes very easy to use.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an answering machine according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a case where an answering machine according to the present invention is used to record and play an answering machine.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure of the answering machine shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 control unit 2 incoming call detection unit 3 data demodulation unit 5 voice detection unit 11 playback number counter unit 12 recording number counter unit 13 playback order control memory unit 13a telephone number memory unit for each number of items 13b telephone number comparison memory unit 13c disagreement number number Memory part 13d Number of replayed numbers memory part 14 Voice memory part

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A receiving means for receiving a message from a callee and a telephone number of the callee, a recording means for recording received message messages in the order of arrival, and a recording means for recording the callee's telephone number. The destination phone number storage means that stores the corresponding message, the recording number counting means that counts the number of recorded message messages that are recorded in the order received, and the message messages that have the same destination phone number are received in the order received. An answering machine, comprising a reproduction control means for selecting and reproducing.