JPH07203009A - Automatic answering telephone system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide an automatic answering telephone system which can send natural reproduced sounds despite the small memory capacity secured for recording messages and also can improve the effective use of a storage circuit by compression of no sound when the large memory capacity is secured for recording the messages. CONSTITUTION:Only when the remaining capacity of a storage circuit 17 is smaller than its threshold value when the recording of a message is started or in a message recording state or only when the number of messages stored in the circuit 17 exceeds its threshold value, a control circuit 18 is instructs a no-sound section detecting circuit 16 to detect a no-sound section. At the same time, the date digitized by a code decoding circuit 13 are not stored in the circuit 17 as long as the no-sound section is detected by the circuit 16.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an answering machine which, when recording a message, performs silent compression with the remaining storage capacity.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an answering machine has been used which digitizes and stores a voice signal input from a telephone line. In this answering machine, a silent section in the message is detected in order to perform silent compression. If the digitized data of the detected silent section is accumulated as it is, the amount of accumulated data becomes huge, so that the length of the silent section is accumulated as time information (for example, 3 seconds) without directly accumulating. . This reduces the storage capacity, enables long-term recording, and improves the memory utilization efficiency.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the structure of such a conventional answering machine. In FIG. 4, this example shows a telephone line connecting end 1 for making a call with a telephone (not shown) through a telephone line, a telephone circuit 2 for controlling an interface function of the telephone line and an answering machine, and a transmission / reception signal. An encoding / decoding circuit 3 for encoding the voice signal from the call circuit 2 is provided. Further, a handset 4 connected to the call circuit 2, a speaker 5, a silent section detection circuit 6 for judging presence / absence sound for each fixed length section, a storage circuit 7 for writing digitized data at the time of sound judgment.
A control circuit 8 for controlling each part is provided.

Next, the operation of this conventional example will be described. The coder / decoder circuit 3 digitizes (encodes) the voice signal input from the telephone line connection terminal 1. The silent section detection circuit 6 determines a sound section or a silent section for each section of a certain length from the amplitude value of the input data. The coding / decoding circuit 3 digitizes the section determined by the silent section detection circuit 6 as "voiced" and writes the data in the storage circuit 7. The interval determined by the silent interval detection circuit 6 as "silent" is replaced with the data digitized by the encoding / decoding circuit 3, and a flag (data of 0 or 1) indicating the silent interval and the duration of the silent interval. Is written in the memory circuit 7. Such a method is generally called a silence compression method.

When reproducing the message, the control circuit 8 causes the code decoding circuit 3 to read the data and the flag stored in the memory circuit 8. In this case, in the case of the voiced section from which the data is read, the signal is decoded and converted into an analog voice signal, and the voice is output from the speaker 5 through the call circuit 2. When the flag of the silent section is read, a pseudo silent section is created based on time information (for example, data of 3 seconds) indicating the duration of the silent section following the flag, and a plurality of sound sections are created. Insert between and perform playback operation.

As a proposal relating to this type of silent compression, there is a "sound data storage control system" disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 63-60500. In the example of this publication, when storing the voice data, the silent period of the voice data is detected, the silent period is compressed and stored in the semiconductor memory, and the storage capacity is reduced.

As described above, in the conventional answering machine, the memory circuit 7 can be effectively used by the silence compression, and the telephone can be called according to the time information of the silent section accumulated in the memory circuit 7 when the message is reproduced. It is possible to simulate a silent section input from the line.

[0008]

However, in the conventional answering machine, a pseudo silent section is created and transmitted when the message is reproduced. Therefore, in that section, even the existing ambient noise is usually erased, and the ambient noise heard in the voiced section is completely inaudible only in the silent section, which causes a feeling of strangeness in the call. .

In the example of the publication, the storage capacity is reduced during the silent period. In this case, in the actual state of use of the answering machine, the message is often stored only in a very small area of the storage circuit. Therefore, if voice compression is performed when the storage circuit has a sufficient storage area, even a message that does not need to be voice-compressed is voice-compressed. Will occur.

The present invention solves such a conventional problem. When the recording amount of a message is small, a natural reproduced sound can be transmitted, and the recording amount of a message is large. In this case, it is an object of the present invention to provide an excellent answering machine which enables effective recording by enabling silent recording for a long time in a memory circuit.

[0011]

In order to achieve the above object, an answering machine according to claim 1 comprises a signal converting means for converting an analog signal inputted from a telephone line into a digital signal, and a signal converting means. Silence section detection means for detecting a silence section in digitized data, storage means for storing the data digitized by the signal conversion means, and determination as to whether or not the remaining storage capacity of the storage means is less than a threshold value And a control means for performing control so as not to store the silent interval signal in the digitized data in the storage means when the storage remaining capacity of the storage means is smaller than a threshold value. Is.

In the answering machine according to the second aspect of the invention, when the threshold value judging means compares the number of recordings accumulated in the storing means with the threshold value and judges that the number of recordings is large, the control means makes a digital operation. In this configuration, the control is performed so that the signal of the silent section in the converted data is not stored in the storage unit.

[0013]

The answering machine according to claims 1 and 2 of this configuration judges whether or not the remaining memory capacity is less than the threshold value,
When the remaining storage capacity is less than the threshold value, the signal of the silent section in the digitized data is not stored in the storage means. Therefore, it is possible to send a natural reproduced sound when the recording amount of the message is small, and when the recording amount of the message is large, silent recording enables long-time recording in the memory circuit. It can be used effectively.

[0014]

Embodiments of an answering machine according to the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a first embodiment of an answering machine according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, this example shows a telephone line connecting end 11 for making a call with a telephone (not shown) through a telephone line, a call circuit 12 for controlling an interface function between the telephone line and an answering machine, and a transmission / reception signal. And a coding / decoding circuit 13 for coding the audio signal from the speech circuit 12. Further, a handset 14 connected to the call circuit 12
A speaker 15; a silent section detection circuit 16 for determining presence / absence sound for each fixed length section; a memory circuit 17 for writing a digital signal at the time of sound determination; a control circuit 18 for controlling each section; A threshold value determination circuit 19 is provided for comparing the remaining storage capacity of the storage circuit 17 for recording the sound with a predetermined threshold value and determining whether or not to compress the voice.

Next, the operation of the configuration of the first embodiment will be described. FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing a processing procedure of recording a message of the control circuit in the first embodiment. In FIG. 2, recording of the message is started, and the remaining storage capacity of the storage circuit 17 is confirmed (steps (indicated by S in the figure) 1 and 2). Memory circuit 1
The remaining storage capacity of 7 corresponds to the code decoding circuit 13 or the control circuit 18
I record every time I record a message. The threshold value judgment circuit 19 judges whether or not there is a remaining storage capacity (step 3), and if all the storage areas have already been used, the recording end operation is performed (step 3: No). If there is a remaining storage capacity, the threshold determination circuit 19 checks whether the remaining storage capacity is larger than the threshold value (step 4). The threshold value is set to a fixed value so that it is, for example, half of all the storage areas of the storage circuit 17. When the remaining storage capacity is equal to or greater than the threshold value, the control circuit 1
8 instructs the silent section detection circuit 16 not to detect the silent section (step 5). On the contrary, when the remaining storage capacity is less than the threshold value, the control circuit 18 instructs the silent section detection circuit 16 to detect a silent section (step 6). Thereafter, when the control circuit 18 instructs the code decoding circuit 13 to start recording, the code decoding circuit 13 starts digitizing the signal input from the telephone line connection terminal 11 and storing it in the memory circuit 17 (step 7). ). When the silent compression instruction is given in step 6, in the interval in which the silent interval detection circuit 16 outputs the silence, the silent flag and the silent interval are used instead of the digitized data as in the conventional example. The time information of how long it lasted is written in the memory circuit 17 by the code decoding circuit 13.

When recording is performed in this manner, the control circuit 18 confirms whether the remaining storage capacity of the storage circuit 17 is less than a threshold value (steps 8 and 9). When the remaining storage capacity falls below the threshold value, the control circuit 18 instructs the silent section detection circuit 6 to detect a silent section (step 10). However, if it is instructed to detect the silent section in step 6, step 10 may be omitted. Further, the threshold value determination circuit 19 checks whether or not the remaining storage capacity is exhausted (step 11). When the remaining storage capacity is exhausted, the recording end operation is started (step 11: No).

Further, if there is a storage remaining capacity and there is no recording end request, the process proceeds to repeat the processing from step 8 onward (step 12: No). Here, the recording end request is assumed to be a case where the control circuit 18 detects that the maximum time length per message, which is predetermined for each answering machine, has elapsed. Alternatively, open the telephone line of the calling side that is recording the message to the call circuit 1
2 is detected.

By the above processing, the silent compression can be started only when the remaining storage capacity of the storage circuit 17 does not reach the threshold value. If you do not want to start silent compression during the recording of the message, steps 9 and 10
The process of may be omitted.

Next, a second embodiment will be described. The configuration of this second embodiment is similar to that of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing a process of recording a message of the control circuit in the second embodiment. In FIG. 3, in steps 22 and 23, the control circuit 18
Checks the number of message messages stored in the storage circuit 17, and only when the threshold value judgment circuit 19 judges that the number of messages exceeds the threshold value, the silent section is detected. The point that the detection circuit 16 is instructed is different from that of the first embodiment, and the same processing is performed in other steps with the same numbers.

As described above, in the second embodiment, the control circuit 18 manages the usage status of the memory circuit 17 by controlling the remaining storage capacity of the memory circuit 17 or the number of message messages accumulated in the memory circuit 17. ing. As a result, the memory circuit 1
Since the sound is recorded without performing the silence compression while the remaining storage capacity of 7 is sufficient, the reproduced sound does not have a feeling of strangeness caused by the sound compression. In addition, when a large number of message messages are recorded, silence compression is performed to enable recording for a long time, and the storage circuit 18 can be effectively used.

[0023]

As is apparent from the above description, the answering machine according to claims 1 and 2 determines whether the remaining memory capacity is less than the threshold value, and the remaining memory capacity is less than the threshold value. When the number of recorded messages is small, the silent section signals in the digitized data are not stored in the storage means. When there is a large amount of memory for recording a message, silent compression enables long-time recording in the memory circuit, which has an effect of being able to effectively use it.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure for recording a message of a control circuit in the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure for recording a message of the control circuit in the second embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a conventional answering machine.

[Explanation of symbols]

 12 call circuit 13 code decoding circuit 16 silent section detection circuit 17 memory circuit 18 control circuit 19 threshold value judgment circuit

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A signal converting means for converting an analog signal input from a telephone line into a digital signal, a silent section detecting means for detecting a silent section in data digitized by the signal converting means, and the signal converting means. Storage means for accumulating the digitized data, and determination means for determining whether or not the remaining storage capacity of the storage means is less than a threshold value,
An answering machine provided with a control means for performing control so as not to store the silent interval signal in the digitized data in the storage means when the storage capacity of the storage means is less than a threshold value as determined by the determination means. apparatus. 2. The threshold value judgment means compares the number of recordings accumulated in the storage means with the threshold value, and when it judges that the number of recordings is large, the control means judges the silent section in the digitized data. 2. An answering machine as set forth in claim 1, wherein the control is performed so that the signal is not stored in the storage means.