JPH06188969A - Automatic answering telephone set - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To confirm the presence of a fault in the home of an absent subscriber by closing a telephone line when a sensor indicates the fault and sending a message representing the occurrence of the fault upon the detection of a remote signal inputted from the telephone line. CONSTITUTION:When an infrared ray sensor 18 detects a fault, a control means 22 allows a storage means 8 to store it. When a ring signal comes from a telephone line 1 in this state, the control means 22 references the means 8 to close the line 1 immediately. When a remote signal detection means 7 detects a remote signal from the line 1 and an ID code of the remote signal indicates the coincidence, the means 8 is referenced for the discrimination of the occurrence of a sensor fault. When the fault takes place, a 2nd reply message being a sent message representing 'infrared ray sensor detects a fault' is read from a message data storage means 6 and sent. Thus, the presence of occurrence of a fault in the user's house is confirmed from a remote location.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention detects an abnormal situation such as a fire or illegal intrusion in a home or an office,
The present invention relates to an answering machine that allows the contents of the abnormal situation to be heard from a remote place via a telephone line.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there has been used a service (hereinafter referred to as a security service) that detects an abnormal situation such as a fire, illegal intrusion, or gas leak in an office or a building and notifies the security company of the abnormal situation. Has been done. This security service is designed to detect when an abnormal situation like the one above occurs in an office or a building that has a contract with a security company, and the sensor installed there will notify the security company via a telephone line. The staff of the security company responds automatically to the abnormal situation.

An automobile antitheft device as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-274642 is also considered. This is because when a car is parked in a general parking lot away from home, if this car is moved or the door is forcibly opened, the sensor detects that and it was installed in the car. A mobile phone automatically calls the owner's home of the car to notify the car of an abnormal situation.

[0004]

However, both the above security service and the anti-theft device for automobiles notify the security company or the owner only when an abnormality occurs, and an abnormal situation occurs in the security service. Although there is the advantage that the security company will respond whenever it occurs, the service charge is high and it is not suitable for ordinary households.

In addition, in the anti-theft device for automobiles,
Although the service charge as described above does not occur, there is a drawback that if there is no person at home due to absence etc., even if a telephone call is sent to notify of an abnormal situation, it cannot respond at all.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned prior art, and by using the remote control function of the answering machine, no special high cost is incurred and it is possible to easily and at any time regardless of where they are going. It is an object of the present invention to provide an answering machine which can confirm whether or not an abnormal situation has occurred with a message.

[0007]

In order to achieve this object, an answering machine according to the present invention outputs a ring signal detecting means for detecting a ring signal input from a telephone line and the ring signal detecting means. An interface circuit for closing the telephone line by a signal, and a remote signal detecting means for detecting a remote signal input from the telephone line,
A sensor for detecting an abnormality; and a response message sending means for sending a response message indicating that the sensor has output the detection signal when the remote signal detection means detects the remote signal when the sensor outputs the detection signal. The control means controls the above-mentioned means.

[0008]

With this configuration, when the ring signal detecting means detects a ring signal when the sensor outputs a signal indicating an abnormality, the control means controls the interface circuit to immediately close the telephone line, thereby closing the telephone line. When the remote signal detecting means subsequently detects a remote signal input from the telephone line, the control means sends a message to the response message sending means indicating that an abnormal situation has occurred.

[0009]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an answering machine according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIGS. 2 and 3 are flow charts showing the operation thereof, and FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the installation status of this device. . In FIG. 1, 1 is a telephone line, 2 is an interface circuit with the telephone line 1, 3 is a ring signal detecting means for detecting a ring signal inputted from the telephone line 1, 4
Is an amplifier circuit that amplifies an input signal and sends it out to the telephone line 1 through the interface circuit 2. Reference numeral 5 is a voice synthesis circuit that converts a digital voice signal into an analog signal.
6 is message data storage means for storing message data of a response message, 7 is remote signal detection means for detecting a remote signal input from the telephone line 1, 8 is storage means for storing data necessary for control operation, and 9 is Incoming message recording means for recording a message input from the telephone line 1, which comprises a cassette tape, a tape deck for driving the cassette tape, and a recording / reproducing head for recording and reproducing a voice signal on the cassette tape. Reference numeral 10 is a switch for switching the signal path of the incoming message recording means 9, 11 is rotation detection means for detecting the running amount of the cassette tape, 12 is an end-of-call detection means for detecting the end-of-call of the calling party, 13
Is an analog / digital conversion means (hereinafter, referred to as A / D conversion means) for converting an analog signal into a digital signal, 14
Is a microphone, 15 is a switch for switching the signal path of the microphone 14, 16 is an amplifier circuit, 17 is a speaker, and 18 is an infrared sensor installed at the entrance to detect the intrusion of a person. 1
A gas leak sensor 9 installed in the kitchen detects a gas leak. A temperature sensor 20 installed in the kitchen detects the occurrence of a fire. Reference numeral 21 is an operation unit, and 22 is a control means, which is constituted by a microcomputer.

As for the sensors, various sensors have already been put into practical use, and although detailed description thereof is omitted here, each sensor outputs a signal of logic level "0" when no abnormality is detected. When an abnormality is detected, a signal of logic level "1" is output.

The operation of the answering machine having the above structure will be described below. First, this device is installed at home as shown in FIG. 4, and each sensor is wirelessly connected to the answering machine.

Next, the recording of the response message will be described. The answering machine of the present invention can record a total of six messages, and the maximum recording time of the first message is 20.
Second, the maximum recording time of the second to sixth messages is 8 seconds. Therefore, the message data storage means 6 for storing the message data of the response message is divided into six message recording areas from first to sixth. Also, the second message is preprogrammed in the control means 22 so as to be sent to the telephone line 1 when the sensor connected to the port 1 (P1) of the control means 22 outputs the signal of the logic level "1". There is. Similarly, the third message is the sensor connected to port 2 (P2), the fourth
Is a message sent to the telephone line 1 when a signal of the sensor logic level "1" connected to the port 3 (P3) is output. The sensor can be added via the connection terminal provided on the main unit. The fifth message is when the sensor is connected to port 4 (P4) and a signal of logical level "1" is output from the sensor. This is a message sent to the telephone line 1. The sixth message is a message sent to the telephone line 1 when neither sensor outputs a detection signal indicating an abnormality.

When the recording button of the operation unit 21 is pressed once in order to instruct the first response message to be recorded from the operation unit 21, the control means 22 detects this, and after a certain time, the switch 15 is turned to the a side. In the connected state, the microphone 14 is made conductive and the display means (not shown) is lit to give the user a first indication.
Display that the message is ready to be recorded.
When the user utters a message to the microphone 14, "Yes, this is XX. I am absent now. Please talk after the oscillating sound."
4 converts it into an electric signal and outputs it to the A / D conversion means 13 via the switch 15. The A / D conversion means 13 converts the analog signal into a digital signal, and the control means 22 stores the output signal in the first message area of the message data storage means 6. When the recording of the message is finished and the record button is pressed again, the microphone 14 is made non-conductive, and the message end address of the message data storage means 6 is stored in the storage means 8. Next, when recording the second message "The infrared center at the entrance has detected an abnormality." If the recording button is pressed twice in succession, the control means 22
Records the message data in the second message area of the message data storage means 6, and when the recording ends, stores the end address of the message in the storage means 8. Less than,
Similarly, when recording the third message "The gas leak sensor has detected an abnormality.", Press the record button 3
4 times, when recording the fourth message "The kitchen temperature sensor detected an error.", Press the record button 4 times to record the message.

In addition, as described above, pressing the record button 6 times causes the sixth message "There is no abnormality in the sensor."
To record.

Next, the incoming call response operation will be described with reference to FIGS. After recording the response message as above,
By pressing the standby button on the operation unit 21, the apparatus is set to the standby state. When set to the standby state, the control means 22 causes the ring signal detection means 3 and the sensors 18, 1
Based on the signals output from 9 and 20, it is monitored whether the ring signal is not input from the telephone line 1 (step 1) and whether the sensor detects an abnormality (step 2). When the ring signal detection means 3 detects that the ring signal is input from the telephone line 1, the control means 22 refers to the storage means 8 to check whether the sensors 18, 19, 20 detect an abnormality (step 4), and It is determined whether or not an incoming message input from the telephone line 1 is recorded after putting the apparatus in a standby state (step 5). In this incoming call, if the sensor does not detect any abnormality and the incoming message is not recorded even once after the standby state, the ring signal is detected five times by the signal output from the ring signal detecting means 3. When the control means 22 detects the input (step 7), it controls the interface circuit 2 to close the telephone line 1 (step 8). Next, the control means 22 sends the first message from the first message area of the message data storage means 6 "Yes, this is XX. I am currently out. Please talk after the oscillating sound. Data is read out and output to the voice synthesis circuit 5. The voice synthesis circuit 5 converts the input digital signal into an analog signal and outputs it as a voice signal to the telephone line 1 via the amplifier circuit 4 and the interface circuit 2 (step 9). The control means 22 monitors the remote signal detection means 7 for input of a remote signal from the telephone line 1 during transmission of the response message (step 10). When the message data is read to the end address of the first response message stored in the storage means 8 without detecting the remote signal and the transmission of the response message ends (step 11), the control means 22 causes the amplifier circuit 4, the interface. An oscillating sound is sent to the telephone line 1 via the circuit 2. When the transmission of the oscillating sound is completed, the control means 22 operates the incoming message recording means 9 with the switch 10 connected to the side a, and records the voice input from the caller through the telephone line 1 ( Step 12). The remote signal input from the telephone line 1 is monitored during the recording of the incoming message (step 13). When the call termination detecting means 12 detects the busy signal input from the telephone line 1 or the continuation of the silent state for a certain period of time without the remote signal being detected, the control means 22 terminates the recording of the message by the caller. (Step 14), the interface circuit 2 is controlled to open the telephone line 1 (step 1).
5) After the apparatus is in the standby state, the fact that a new message has been recorded is stored in the storage means 8.

Next, a case where a message recorded as described above is remotely heard will be described. It is assumed that each sensor does not output a detection signal indicating an abnormality.

First, when the ring signal detecting means 3 detects that a ring signal has been input from the telephone line 1, the control means 22 refers to the storage means 8 and, after the present apparatus enters the standby state, the incoming message is received. It is determined whether or not the recording has been made (step 5). Since a new incoming message has been recorded for this incoming call, when the ring signal is input three times (step 6), the telephone line 1 is closed (step 8). Here, when the user of the device calls the device, when the device closes the telephone line 1 at the time of hearing the ringback tone three times, the user knows that a new incoming message is recorded. If the telephone line 1 is closed when the ringback tone is heard five times, it is possible to know that the new incoming message is not recorded. Therefore, if a call is made to this device for remote listening of incoming messages, no telephone charges will be incurred if the call is cut when four ringback tones are heard and no new message is recorded. You can know

When the telephone line 1 is closed in step 8, after transmitting the first response message as described above, the operation shifts to the operation of recording the incoming message input from the telephone line 1. When the remote signal detecting means 7 detects the remote signal during the sending of the response message or the recording of the incoming message (steps 10 and 13), the control means 22 determines that the remote signal is the ID code previously stored in the storing means 8. It is determined whether they match (steps 16 and 17), and if it is determined that they match, the storage unit 8 is referenced to see if the sensor has detected an abnormality (step 18). The control means 22 switches the switch 10 to the b side, controls the incoming message recording means 9, rewinds the tape to the tape starting point, and reproduces the incoming message from the tape starting point. The reproduced incoming message is sent to the telephone line 1 through the interface circuit 2 (step 19). When the message is reproduced to the end position, the control means 22 switches the switch 10 to the side a and stops the incoming message recording means 9,
It will be in the standby state for the next remote signal for a certain period of time. Here, the end position of the incoming message is the rotation detection means 11 which is output along with the rotation of the tape reel of the cassette deck during recording.
This is detected by the control means 22 counting the additional points pulse from and the storage means 8 storing the count value of the recording end position.

When the caller sends a remote signal for confirming the state of the sensor during the standby state for the next remote signal,
The remote signal detecting means 7 detects this remote signal,
The control means 22 collates with the signal previously stored in the storage means 8 (step 21). When the control means 22 determines that it is a remote signal for confirming the state of the sensor, it reads the sixth message data from the message data storage means 6 and the sixth message "No abnormality in the sensor" is sent to the telephone line 1. It is sent (step 20). When the message is transmitted, the standby state for receiving the next remote signal is resumed, and the next remote signal is not detected within a certain time (step 29), or the call-end detecting means 12 detects the call-end of the caller (step 30). ), Causing the interface circuit 2 to open the telephone line 1 (step 3)
1).

Next, the case where the sensor outputs a detection signal indicating an abnormality will be described. Here, a case where the infrared sensor 18 installed at the entrance detects an abnormality will be described.

When the infrared sensor 18 detects an abnormality in step 2 and outputs a signal of logical level "1", the control means 22 indicates that the infrared sensor 18 installed at the entrance of the storage means 8 has detected an abnormality. It is stored (step 3). When a ring signal is input from the telephone line 1 in this state (step 1), the control means 22 refers to the storage means 8 and determines whether an abnormality has occurred in the sensor (step 4). Since an abnormality has occurred in the infrared sensor 18 here, the process proceeds to step 8 and the telephone line 1 is immediately closed. Therefore, when the user of the apparatus makes a call to the apparatus and hears the first ringback tone, if the telephone line 1 is closed, it can be known that the sensor detects an abnormality. When the telephone line 1 is closed, the operation shifts to sending a response message and recording an incoming message.
As described above, the remote signal detecting means 7 detects the remote signal input from the telephone line 1 (steps 10, 1).
3) If the remote signal coincides with the ID code (steps 16 and 17), the storage means 8 is referred to and it is determined whether or not an abnormality has occurred in the sensor (step 18). Since the occurrence of the abnormality in the infrared sensor 18 is stored in this incoming call, the second response message data, which is a message sent when the abnormality occurs in the infrared sensor 18, is read from the message data storage means 6. But
The second response message "The infrared sensor at the entrance has detected an abnormality" is sent to the telephone circuit 1 (step 2).
0). After the second response message is transmitted, the next remote signal is received for a certain period of time, and when a signal for instructing the reproduction of the incoming message is received during this state (step 22), the incoming message recording means 9 is stored in the same manner as described above. The recorded message is reproduced and sent to the telephone line 1.

Further, when a remote signal for instructing a so-called room monitor function, that is, a function of amplifying a voice signal input from the microphone 14 of the apparatus and transmitting the amplified voice signal to the telephone line 1 is received while the next remote signal is being received. (Step 23), the control means 22 brings the microphone 14 into conduction, switches the switch 15 to the b side, and sends the signal input from the microphone 14 to the telephone line 1 via the amplifier circuit 4 and the interface circuit 2 (step 24). ). When, for example, a voice of an intruder is heard while the room monitor function is operating, when the caller sends a remote signal instructing a function of recording the voice input from the microphone 14 to the incoming message recording means 9, the remote control is performed. The signal detection means 7 detects this signal (step 25), the control means 22 switches the switch 10 to b, operates the incoming message recording means 9, and records the signal input from the microphone 14 (step 2).
7). When a signal instructing the end of the room monitor function is input (steps 26 and 28), the next remote signal is accepted again, and the next remote signal is not detected within a certain time (step 29). Means 12
When the call end of the caller is detected (step 30), the interface circuit 2 opens the telephone line 1 (step 31).

In the same manner as above, when the gas leak sensor 19 detects an abnormality, that is, a gas leak, the third message "The gas leak sensor has detected an abnormality." The fourth message "The temperature sensor detected an abnormality." Is sent.

In the above embodiment, when the sensor detects an abnormality, the response message indicating that is sent to the telephone line 1. However, only a signal sound for some alarm is generated and sent to the telephone line 1. It may be done.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to easily know the status of the absence home, that is, whether or not there is an abnormality, from outside the home, and if an abnormality occurs, call a neighbor or the like. Then, I asked the state of the absence home to be seen, the image of the intruder,
Alternatively, if a disaster or the like is discovered, you can take prompt action by contacting the police station or fire station.

When the sensor detects an abnormality, the telephone line 1 is closed by the first ring signal, and when no abnormality is detected, the telephone line 1 is closed by the ring signal three or five times. If you hang up when you hear two tones, you can check whether there is an abnormal situation in your home without calling charges.

[0028]

As described above, according to the present invention, a ring signal detecting means for detecting a ring signal inputted from a telephone line and an interface circuit for closing the telephone line by a signal outputted from the ring signal detecting means. A remote signal detecting means for detecting a remote signal input from a telephone line, a sensor, and a response message when the remote signal detecting means detects the remote signal when the sensor outputs the detection signal. By the response message sending means and the control for controlling each of the above means, no special communication means is required, so no special high cost is incurred, and whether or not there is an abnormal situation in the absence home at any time regardless of where you are going Can be confirmed in the message.

Further, when the sensor detects an abnormality, the telephone line is closed with a ring signal of a smaller number of times than when the sensor does not detect an abnormality, so that no call charge is generated and an abnormal situation in the absence home is detected. You can check the occurrence.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the same operation.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the same operation.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the installation situation of the same answering machine.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Telephone Line 2 Interface Circuit 3 Ring Signal Detection Means 4 Amplification Circuit 5 Voice Synthesis Circuit 6 Message Data Storage Means 7 Remote Signal Detection Means 8 Storage Means 9 Incoming Message Recording Means 10 Switches 11 Rotation Detection Means 12 End Call Detection Means 13 A / D conversion means 14 Microphone 15 Switch 16 Amplification circuit 17 Speaker 18 Infrared sensor 19 Gas leak sensor 20 Temperature sensor 21 Operation part 22 Control means

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A ring signal detecting means for detecting a ring signal inputted from a telephone line, an interface circuit for closing the telephone line by a signal outputted from the ring signal detecting means, and a first response to the telephone line. Response message sending means for sending a message, incoming message recording means for recording an incoming message input from the telephone line after sending the first response message, and remote signal for detecting a remote signal input from the telephone line Detection means,
A sensor for detecting an abnormality, and a control means for controlling the sensor to output a signal indicating that the sensor has output the detection signal when the remote signal detection means detects the remote signal when the sensor outputs the detection signal. An answering machine that is equipped with an answering machine. 2. When the sensor outputs a detection signal and the remote signal detecting means detects the remote signal, the response message sending means sends a second response message indicating that the sensor has output the detection signal. The answering machine as set forth in claim 1. 3. When the ring signal detecting means detects a ring signal when the sensor outputs a detection signal, the interface circuit closes the telephone line in a shorter time than when the sensor does not output the detection signal. 2. The answering machine according to claim 1, wherein the control means controls so as to do so.