JPH0685899A - Automatic answering telephone set - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To quickly and properly confirm a required automatic recording message by storing the automatic recording message to a memory the correspondent together with reception time when it is stored in the memory and reproducing the automatic recording message at a designated time with priority when the time is designated at the time of reproduction. CONSTITUTION:A TAD driver 5 stores a message (Me) from a caller inputted after a message representing the arrival of an incoming call in the automatic answering standby mode to the caller. Simultaneously the reception time of the message is stored in an index memory 10 together with a file number of the memory 6 and the memories 6, 10 store messages as shown in figures A, B. When the operator depresses a time designation switch of an operation section 12, a display section 13 displays its time zone as shown in figure C and the reproduction is started after the time zone is selected. Then the automatic recording message at the designated time zone is read from the memory 6 by the driver 5 and the memory is sounded out from a speaker 8 in a voice sound. Thus, the required automatic recording message is quickly and properly confirmed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to improvements in answering machines.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional answering machine generally uses a recording tape as a medium for storing an answering message (voice message) from a calling side. In the case of using such a recording tape, it is necessary to rewind the recording tape before setting the reproduction mode when reproducing and listening to the message. Therefore, when multiple messages are recorded, the old message is always played from the oldest received message, and the old message may be repeatedly played each time the message is checked. There were many.

Therefore, in recent years, as an alternative to the above-mentioned recording tape, one using a semiconductor memory for voice recording has been proposed. Thus, unlike the above-mentioned recording tape type, the one using this conventional semiconductor memory is configured so that the recorded message of the new reception time is always reproduced in sequence, and the old reception time is appropriately changed according to the request. It was only configured to be playable.

[0004]

In the above-mentioned conventional answering machine, the recorded messages can be reproduced in the oldest or newest order of the reception time, but the user wants to always confirm the recorded messages in the order of the reception time. Not necessarily. For example, it may be known in advance that a certain important telephone contact falls within the range of 10:00 to 11:00 am when the user is out. In such a case, the time immediately after the user comes home There is a request to preferentially check the voice mail that was contacted by the obi.
However, in the past, such a request could not be met, and there was still room for improvement in the flexibility of the reproduction order of the recorded message.

The present invention has been proposed in view of the above points, and the answering machine allows the user to quickly and properly confirm the contents of the recorded message that the user wants to confirm preferentially over other messages. Its purpose is to provide a telephone.

[0006]

An answering machine according to the present invention, which has been proposed to achieve the above object, has an answering message memory for storing an answering message and an answering machine stored in this memory. A means for storing the data of the message reception time corresponding to the message is provided, and when the time is specified by the operation unit during the reproduction of the recorded message, the recorded message at the reception time corresponding to the specified time takes precedence. It is configured to be reproduced.

[0007]

In the answering machine according to the present invention having the above-mentioned structure, when the answering machine receives the message from the calling side telephone, this message is stored in the message recording memory. At that time, the data of the message reception time is also separately stored corresponding to this message. That is, each recorded message is stored in a state in which the reception time is associated with it. Next, when playing back the voice mail message stored as described above, if the time is specified on the operation unit, the data of the voice mail message corresponding to the reception time corresponding to the designated time is read out and the other voice mail is recorded. It will be reproduced with priority over the recorded message. Therefore, according to such a series of voice mail and playback operations, the playback order of the voice mail is not fixed to the old order or the new order of the reception time, and the answering machine of the answering machine received at the earliest desired time zone is known. You can check the contents faster than other contents.

[0008]

DETAILED 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 an example of a hardware configuration of an answering machine D according to the present invention. The answering machine D includes a line control unit 1 connected to a telephone line L, a call circuit 3 connected to a handset 2, a signal processing unit 4 including a CPU, and a T connected to the signal processing unit 4.
It is composed of an AD (Telephone Answering Device) driver 5 and other circuit devices described later. Here, the line control unit 1 directs the telephone line L to the call circuit 3 side in the normal telephone mode and TA in the answering machine standby mode.
The line control is performed so as to connect to the D driver 5 side.

The TAD driver 5 controls the message recording memory 6, which is composed of a RAM, the microphone 7, the speaker 8 and the like to execute the recording and reproduction of the message. When storing the data of an answering message, the analog voice signal is binarized and then stored in the memory area of the answering message memory 6 in an addressed state, and those data files are sequentially created. It is configured.

The signal processing unit 4 includes the TAD driver 5
And other components are controlled, and the signal processing unit 4 is connected to a system memory 9 including a RAM and a ROM, an index memory 10, a clock circuit 11, an operating unit 12, a display unit 13, and the like. There is. Here, the index memory 10 stores the reception time of the message of the data message corresponding to the data file number of the message recorded in the message recording memory 6 by referring to the output signal from the clock circuit 11. It is for keeping it. The operation unit 12 has a numeric keypad, other general keys, and a key switch for setting / releasing the answering machine standby mode, and also has an answering message memory 6
Time switch to operate when you want to play the message stored in the specified time instead of the received time order, a switch to select the specified time, and a play switch to play the recorded message (Neither is shown) or the like. The RAM of the system memory 9 stores in advance specific data examples for time designation, and when the time designation switch of the operation unit 12 is operated, the specific example of time designation is displayed on the display unit 13. Is configured to.

The signal processing unit 4 performs the following operation when reproducing an answering message.
It is configured to control the driver 5 and the like. That is, at the time of reproduction, when the time designation is not made in advance by the operation unit 12, the message data stored in the message recording memory 6 is sequentially output from the speaker 8 from the newest message reception time. Control the TAD driver 5. On the other hand, the operation unit 1
When the time is designated by 2, the data of the message corresponding to the designated time is referred to by referring to the data of the reception time stored in the index memory 10.
The TAD driver 5 is configured to read from the message recording memory 6 and output from the speaker 8.

Next, the operation of the answering machine D having the above structure,
A usage example will be described. First, after an incoming call is made in the answering machine standby mode setting state, a message indicating that the answering machine is in the answering machine standby mode is given to the calling side.
Is transmitted as an audio signal from. Then, when a desired message is subsequently transmitted by voice from the calling side, the data of this message is addressed and stored in the message recording memory 6 by the TAD driver 5. At the same time, the reception time of the message is stored in the index memory 10 together with the file number in the message recording memory 6. Such an answering machine operation is repeatedly performed each time an answering machine is received. For example, in the answering machine message memory 6, as shown in (a) of FIG. 1, a message file 1, in which messages 1, 2, ... Are stored, 2 ... is accumulated. Also,
In the index memory 10, as shown in FIG.
The data in which the reception time of each of the message files 1, 2, ... Is stored is accumulated.

Next, after the above-mentioned answering machine operation, if the user wants to confirm the contents of the answering machine message, the reproducing operation may be performed by the operation unit 12. In this case, for example, an important telephone call is from 15:00 to 16 There are times when it is known in advance that an incoming call has arrived by the time. In such a case, the time designation switch may be operated first. By this operation, the time zone previously stored in the system memory 9 is displayed on the display unit 13, as shown in FIG. That is, the display unit 13 first displays “10:00 to 11:
The time zone of "00" is displayed, but if this time zone is not selected, the next screen "1" is displayed by operating the next screen.
The screen display of "5: 00-16: 00" is made, and the time can be designated by this. When the reproduction switch of the operation unit 12 is operated in such a state, the signal processing unit 4 reads the data stored in the index memory 10, so that the message read causes the message whose reception time is in the range of 15:00 to 16:00. The file number (that is, the file numbers 3 and 4 in FIGS. 1A and 1B) is determined. Then, the data of the recorded message corresponding to the file numbers 3 and 4 is read from the recorded message memory 6 by the TAD driver 5, and these messages are output as voice from the speaker 8 and reproduced.

Therefore, the recorded message is reproduced in the order of the messages 1, 2, ...
Alternatively, as compared with the case of reproducing in the reverse order, the content of the message most important to the user can be confirmed first prior to the others. If it is desired to confirm the contents of other messages after the message recorded in the time designated range is reproduced, the time designation may be canceled by operating the operation unit 12 thereafter. As a result, other messages are sequentially reproduced in the order of the new reception time.

From step 100 of the flowchart of FIG.
Reference numeral 110 denotes a series of operation procedures when the above-mentioned recorded message is reproduced. Incidentally, in the figure, step 10
As indicated by 0, 108, and 109, when the time is not designated in advance, the recorded message is sequentially reproduced in the order of the new reception time. However, in the present invention, the reproduction order of the messages when the time is not designated is not limited at all, and steps 109 and 110 are not limited.
In the above, contrary to the above, the recorded message may be reproduced in the order of the oldest reception time.

Further, according to the present invention, the method of designating the time is not limited to that in the above embodiment. For example, "15: 00-00
When the range of "16:00" is specified, it takes 15: 0
By considering the time other than the time zone of 0 to 16:00 as the designated time, the recorded message received in the time zone outside the range of 15:00 to 16:00 is preferentially reproduced. Good. Further, according to the present invention, the time when an answering message is received is not limited to the time when an incoming call is made to the answering machine, but instead, for example, the writing of the data of the answering message to the memory 6 for the answering message is performed. Of course, it does not matter if the time when is finished is applied. It does not necessarily have to be a strict reception time. In addition, in the above-described embodiment, the case where the answering machine is configured alone has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this. It goes without saying that the present invention can also be applied to an answering machine provided for example in a facsimile machine.

[0017]

As can be understood from the above description, according to the answering machine according to the present invention, even if a large number of recorded messages are recorded, the user wants to confirm with priority. The contents of the recorded message can be specified by specifying the time, can be confirmed promptly and properly over other messages, and a special effect can be obtained in that a prompt response measure can be taken for an important case or the like.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an example of a series of operation procedures when an answering machine message is reproduced by an answering machine according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 4 signal processing unit 5 TAD driver 6 memory for message recording 8 speaker 9 system memory 10 index memory 11 clock circuit 12 operation unit 13 display unit D answering machine

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An answering machine message memory for storing an answering machine message, and means for storing message reception time data corresponding to an answering machine message stored in the memory. An answering machine, characterized in that, when a time is designated by an operation unit when reproducing a message, an answering machine message at a reception time corresponding to the designated time is preferentially reproduced.