JPH06244906A - Digital telephone system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the quality of a holding tone by storing coded data of human voice or synthesized human voice to a storage element and selecting a switch so as to send the stored holding tone data to a line. CONSTITUTION:A voice of a talker is transduced into an electric signal by a microphone 3 during talking, the signal is amplified by an amplifier 2, coded by a code 1, and its voice signal is outputted to a line. On the other hand, in the holding state, that is, when the talker operates a key 5, holding information is sent from the key 5 to a controller 4, the controller 4 receives the holding information to send a control signal to a switch 6. The switch 6 is switched by the control signal to connect a storage element 7 and the line. Then in the holding state, the storage element 7 is controlled by the controller 4 and holding data subject to voice coding stored in advance are outputted, The holding tone data resulting from human voice or synthesized voice similar to human voice are coded simultaneously by the coder 1 and the resulting signal is reproduced with high quality as the holding tone.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a digital telephone device, and more particularly, to a digital telephone device that employs a voice encoding method using a human voice generation model as a voice encoding method. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the spread of telephones in recent years, telephones are required to have various conveniences. Among them, a hold sound generation function is widely used to generate a hold sound using a music box sound when temporarily holding a call during a call.
In general, in a telephone having a conventional held sound generation function, a music box or electronic music is used as a held sound regardless of the generation method.

On the other hand, as digitalization of telephones has progressed recently, digital car telephones, digital mobile telephones,
In digital telephone systems such as digital cable telephones,
As a voice information compression method, a voice encoding method that uses a human voice generation model may be used. As an information compression method using a speech generation model, a code excitation linear prediction method (CELP) using linear prediction analysis,
VSELP and the like are known. For example, in the domestic digital automobile mobile phone system, the VSELP system is adopted as a standard system.

[0004]

The conventional method of using a music piece such as a music box or an electronic sound as a holding sound is basically an analog type wired or wireless telephone device for transmitting the sound source waveform as it is. , And P
There is no problem in a digital telephone device using waveform coding such as CM. However, in a digital telephone that uses a voice encoding method that uses a human voice generation model, the encoding method assumes a voice uttered by a human as a sound source, and has been conventionally used as a hold tone. Musical music and electronic music are not assumed. Therefore, when a music box or electronic music is transmitted by a digital telephone using a voice encoding method using a human voice generation model, there is a drawback that the quality of reproduced sound quality is essentially deteriorated.

The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a digital telephone using a voice encoding system using a human voice generation model.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a digital telephone device that can easily transmit a high-quality hold tone without requiring any special change on the telephone system itself or on the side that receives the hold tone.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The above object is to provide a speech produced by a human or an artificial voice in a digital telephone device equipped with a coding device for coding a voice by utilizing a human voice generation model. Means for generating on-hold sound data that is obtained by encoding a voice that is similar to a human voice and that has been encoded by the same encoding method as that used by the encoding device; And a means for supplying.

[0007] Further, the above-mentioned object is to utilize a human voice generation model, and in a digital telephone device equipped with a coding device for coding a voice, a voice uttered by a human or artificially synthesized. It is also achieved by a digital telephone device comprising means for generating a voice similar to a human voice as a holding tone and means for supplying the holding tone to the encoding device.

[0008]

According to the above-mentioned first configuration, when the voice is put on hold, the voice uttered by a human or the voice artificially synthesized and similar to the human voice is encoded by the encoding device. The on-hold sound data encoded by the same method is generated and transmitted to the receiving side through the line. Here, the hold sound data is obtained by encoding a voice uttered by a human or an artificially synthesized voice similar to a human voice by the same method as the encoding method adopted by the encoding device. Therefore, it is possible to easily reproduce a higher-quality hold sound than the hold sound using music boxes and electronic music that have been conventionally used without any change on the side of receiving the hold music.

According to the above-mentioned second configuration, during the holding, the voice uttered by the human or the artificially synthesized voice similar to the human voice is generated as the holding sound, and the above-mentioned encoding device is provided. Supplied. The held tone is encoded by the encoding device and transmitted to the receiving side through the line.
Here, since the held sound is a voice that is the same as or similar to the voice of a human, it is at the same level as the voice of the caller in encoding and is suitable for the voice encoding method. In the present invention, which uses a voice uttered by a human or an artificially synthesized voice similar to the human voice as a music on hold of a telephone, it is possible to easily perform a conventional operation without changing the music on hold. It is possible to play a music with a higher quality than the music with which the music box and electronic music are used.

[0010]

Embodiments Three embodiments of the digital telephone terminal of the present invention will be described below.

[Embodiment 1] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of an embodiment in which a voice-holding function is built in a telephone terminal.

In this embodiment, a microphone 3 for converting a voice of a caller into an electric signal, an audio amplifier 2 for amplifying and outputting an input voice signal, and a voice encoding device 1 using a voice generation model are provided. , A key 5 for supplying holding information, a control device 4 for outputting a switching signal in accordance with the holding information from the key 5, a switch 6 for switching between a normal voice and a holding sound by a switching signal from the control device 4, and a utterance by a human. Storage device 7 for storing the stored voice data or the artificially synthesized voice similar to the human voice as the previously stored voice data and outputting the voice data by a switching signal from the control device 4. Composed of and.

The operation of the digital telephone having the holding tone generating function having the above configuration will be described in detail below.

During a call, the voice of the caller is converted into an electric signal by the microphone 3 and supplied to the audio amplifier 2. The converted signal is amplified by the audio amplifier 2 and sent to the encoding device 1 at the next stage. The encoding device 1 encodes the input signal and outputs it to the switch.
During a call, since the switch 6 connects the encoder 1 to the line, the encoded voice signal is output to the line. On the other hand, when the call is put on hold, that is, when the caller operates the key 5, the hold information is transmitted from the key 5 to the control device 4. The controller 4 receives the hold information from the key 5,
The control signal is supplied to the switch 6. The switch 6 switches the switch 6 by this control signal to connect the storage element 7 and the line. The control device 4 is also connected to the storage element 7, and during storage, the storage element 7 operates according to a control signal from the control device 4 to output prestored voice-encoded hold sound data. As the hold sound data, the voice uttered by the human as described above or the artificially synthesized voice similar to the human voice is encoded by the same encoding method as that used in the encoding device 1. That is, on the side that receives the held sound, it is decoded by the decoding method corresponding to this and reproduced as the held sound. Of course, the decoding device on the receiving side corresponds to the encoding device on the transmitting side, and can reproduce the voice generated by a human with high quality. Since the encoding method of the on-hold tone and the encoding method of the normal call are the same, it is not necessary to specially prepare a decoding device for the on-hold tone on the receiving side, and the voice uttered by a person as the on-hold tone, or Since the artificially synthesized voice similar to the human voice is used, it is possible to generate a high-quality hold tone.

[Embodiment 2] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an embodiment using an external holding tone generator. The same components as those shown in FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals.

In this embodiment, a microphone 3 for converting the voice of a caller into an electric signal, an audio amplifier 2 for amplifying and outputting an input voice signal, and a voice encoding device 1 using a voice generation model are provided. , Key 5 to send hold information to controller
And a control device 4 for receiving a hold information from the key 5 and outputting a control signal for switching between a normal voice and a hold sound.
And a switch 6 for selecting one of a normal voice and a hold tone by the control signal and outputting one of them to the audio amplifier 2, and a voice generated by a human being outside the telephone terminal or artificially synthesized. An audio signal reproducing device 8 for preliminarily recording, as an on-hold sound, an analog or digital signal similar to the reproduced human voice and reproducing and outputting the same, and a telephone used for connection with the audio reproducing device 8. A connector 9 provided in the terminal,
It is composed of a connector 9 for connecting the connector 9 and the audio signal reproducing device 8. Hereinafter, the operation of the digital telephone terminal having the above-mentioned configuration and having the hold tone generating function will be described in detail.

During a call, the voice of the caller is converted into an electric signal by the microphone 3. Since the switch 6 connects the microphone 3 and the audio amplifier 2 during a call, the audio signal output from the microphone 3 is transmitted to the audio amplifier 2
Is supplied to. The audio amplifier 2 amplifies the input audio signal and supplies it to the encoding device 1 in the next stage. The encoder 1 encodes the input signal and outputs it to the line. On the other hand, when the call is on hold, the caller performs a predetermined hold operation on the key 5 to supply hold information to the control device 4 from the key 5. The control device 4 receives the hold information supplied from the key 5 and supplies a control signal to the switch 6. The switch 6 connects the connector 9 and the audio amplifier 2 by this control signal. Here, since the connector 9 is connected to the audio reproducing device 8 via the cable 10, the connector 9 is similar to the voice generated by the human being output from the audio reproducing device 8 or the artificially synthesized human voice. A signal representing voice is supplied to the audio amplifier 2. After that, the hold tone is amplified by the audio amplifier 2, coded by the coding device 1, and output to the line, as in the case of the call.

Since the signal reproduced by the audio signal reproducing device represents a voice that is the same as or similar to the voice of a human, it is at the same level as the voice of the caller in encoding and is suitable for the voice encoding system. ing. Further, in the present embodiment in which a voice uttered by a human being or a voice similar to a human voice artificially synthesized is used as the hold sound of the telephone, it is easy to perform without changing the hold sound. It is possible to reproduce a higher-quality hold sound than the hold sound that uses music boxes and electronic music that have been used in the past.

[Third Embodiment] FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of the simplest embodiment. The same components as those shown in FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals.

In this embodiment, a voice encoding device 1 using a voice generation model, an audio amplifier 2 for amplifying and outputting an input voice signal, and a voice of a caller after being converted into an electric signal for output. An audio signal for recording a voice generated by a human being or a voice similar to the human voice artificially synthesized by a microphone 3 in the form of an analog or digital signal as a holding tone and reproducing and outputting the same. The playback device 8 and the speaker 11 that plays back the audio signal played back by the audio signal playback device 8 as voice.

The operation of the digital telephone having the holding tone generating function having the above configuration will be described in detail below.

During a call, the voice of the caller is input to the microphone 3. The microphone 3 converts the input voice into an electric signal and supplies it to the audio amplifier 2. In the audio amplifier 2, the audio signal is amplified to amplify the audio encoding device 1
Supply to. The voice encoding device 1 encodes the input voice signal and outputs it to the line.

On the other hand, at the time of holding, the audio signal reproducing device 8 reproduces the recorded audio signal to reproduce the speaker 1.
Supply to 1. The speaker 11 converts the reproduction signal into a voice generated by a human or a voice similar to the artificially synthesized human voice and outputs the voice as a holding sound. After that, as in the case of a call, the voice-holding tone is input to the microphone and converted into an electric signal, and then the audio amplifier 2
Is supplied to. The voice signal is amplified by the audio amplifier 2, encoded by the voice encoding device, and supplied to the line.

Since the hold sound is a voice that is the same as or similar to the voice of a human, it is at the same level as the voice of the caller in encoding and is suitable for the voice encoding method. In addition, in the present embodiment in which a voice uttered by a human or a voice similar to a human voice artificially synthesized is used as the hold sound of the telephone, the call is easily received without any change on the receiving side. It is possible to reproduce a higher-quality hold sound than the hold sound that uses music boxes and electronic music that have been used in the past.

In any of the above-mentioned embodiments, the pre-recorded or stored holding tone is uttered by a human being,
Alternatively, it is an artificially synthesized singing voice or a humming sound.

[0026]

The digital telephone according to the present invention can generate a voice uttered by a human or an artificially synthesized voice similar to the human voice as a holding tone, and therefore a model for producing a human voice. To improve the quality of music on hold in a digital telephone system using a voice coding method using the.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing still another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Encoding device 2 Audio amplifier 3 Microphone 4 Control device 5 Key 6 Changeover switch 7 Storage element 8 Audio signal reproducing device 9 Connector 10 Cable 11 Speaker

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A voice produced by a human or a human voice artificially synthesized in a digital telephone device equipped with an encoding device for encoding a voice using a human voice generation model. And a means for generating on-hold sound data by encoding the voice similar to the above by the same method as the encoding method adopted by the encoding device, and a means for supplying the on-hold sound data to the line. A digital telephone device characterized by the above. 2. A voice produced by a human or an artificially synthesized human voice in a digital telephone device equipped with an encoding device for encoding a voice using a human voice generation model. A digital telephone device comprising: a means for generating a voice similar to the above-mentioned as a holding sound; and a means for supplying the holding sound to the encoding device.