JPH0771133B2 - Communication device - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a communication device, and more particularly to a communication device having a ringer device that generates a ringing tone and prompts the operator to respond.

[Prior Art] Various communication devices such as a facsimile device and a telephone, which are used by connecting to a telephone line, have been known. In this type of device, a ringer sound is generated by a bell circuit or a pseudo bell circuit in response to a call signal transmitted from an exchange to call the operator. In most recent devices, the volume of the ringer sound can be set to a desired volume using a volume or the like.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, since the volume of the ringer sound is a predetermined fixed value set by the volume, etc., when the volume setting is too low, the ringer sound is heard and responds. Sometimes timing was lost and important communications were impossible. For example, such a problem occurs when the volume setting of the ringer sound is too low compared to the noise in the room, or when the user sleeps deeply.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to solve the above problems, in the present invention, in a communication device having a ringer device that generates a ringing tone in response to a ringing signal from a communication line and calls an operator, Volume control means for controlling the volume of the ringing tone of the ringer device according to the number of ringing, setting means for setting the relationship between the volume of the ringing tone and the number of ringing, and the ringing tone until a call is answered. And a means for outputting ringing frequency data indicating the ringing frequency of the.

[Operation] According to the above configuration, the relationship between the volume of the ringing tone and the number of ringing can be set, and the ringing tone ringing count data until the call is answered can be output to determine the ringing tone volume. This can be useful for setting the relationship of the number of times of ringing, and the operator can surely recognize the ringing tone.

[Embodiment] The present invention will be described in detail below based on an embodiment shown in the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of a communication device adopting the present invention. Here, an apparatus in which a handset, a telephone circuit, and a facsimile unit are integrated is shown. In the figure, reference numeral 11 is a CPU for controlling the operation of the entire apparatus, which is composed of a microprocessor element or the like. The CPU 11 is connected via a data and address bus B to each recording means required for control and each section for receiving control described later.

ROM12 is for storing the programs and constants necessary for control, and RAM13 is the work area of CPU11.
It is used for temporary storage of transmitted and received image data. EEPROM
It is used for registering the telephone numbers and abbreviations of 20 communication partner stations. The data in EPROM 20 is used for speed dial control and other control.

The reading of the document image data is performed by the reading unit 15 configured by using a CCD sensor or the like. Further, the received image data or the image data read by the reading unit 15 during the copying operation is recorded by the recording unit 16 including a thermal printer, an inkjet printer, or the like.

Transmission / reception of image data to / from the line 19 is performed via the communication unit 17. The communication unit 17 is composed of a modem for modulating / demodulating image signals and procedure signals, an NCU for controlling line connection with a telephone 18 for line control, and a tone ringer circuit for holding a loop. Here, reference numeral 180 indicates a piezoelectric buzzer for generating a ringing tone of the tone ringer.

The communication operation is controlled by the CPU 11 according to the operation input of the operation unit 14. The operation unit is composed of a keyboard such as a numeric keypad and a display such as a liquid crystal display.

FIG. 2 shows the structure of the communication unit 17 of FIG. In the figure, reference numeral 19 is a telephone line, which is a CML relay 1 for switching the line connection between the telephone circuit side and the facsimile device side.
Connected to 71. A hybrid circuit 172 for transmitting and receiving a procedure signal and an image signal of the facsimile apparatus is connected to one side of the output side of the CML relay 171.

On the other hand, two diode bridges 173, 173 are connected to the other output side of the CML relay, and the tone ringer 175 is connected to these diode bridges via the normally closed and normally open hook switches 174, respectively.
And the speech network 176 is connected. The tone ringer 175 drives the piezoelectric buzzer 180 via the amplifier 179 for each input of the ringing signal from the line, and generates a ringing tone. The amplifier 179 controls the drive volume of the piezoelectric buzzer 180 according to the control input from the CPU 11. See also Tonlinga 1
Reference numeral 75 has a calling signal detection circuit, and the detection signal 181 of the calling signal enables various automatic reception processing given to the CPU 11.

On the other hand, the speech network 176 is a circuit for connecting the four-wire type communication circuit and the two-wire type circuit on the line side, which are respectively connected to the handsets of the handset 18. A pulse turn dialer 177 is connected to the circuit on the receiving side of the speech network 176. The pulse tone dialer 177 generates a dial signal in accordance with telephone number data input from the ten-key pad of the operation unit 14 or the like, and outputs it to the telephone line 19 via the speech network 176. The pulse tone dialer 177 performs the above calling process only when the hook switch 174 detects the on-hook. Further, the pulse tone dialer 177 can generate two types of dial signals of dial pulse or dial tone under the control of the switch 178. Therefore, depending on the setting of the switch 178, the illustrated device can be connected to both a pulse line and a tone line. Tone Ringer 175, Speech Network 176 and Pulse Tone Dialer 177 above
Can be constituted by a known trifurcation IC or the like.

Next, the operation of the above configuration will be described with reference to FIG. 3 and FIG. FIG. 3 shows a part of the processing in which the CPU detects a calling signal from the line in the standby state and responds to it. The procedure of FIG. 3 is stored in the ROM 12 in the form of a program or the like. Further, the CPU 11 has two counters for the control described later. The counter is composed of a hardware-like counter element or a software-like counter set in the RAM 13. FIG. 4 shows a change in the volume of the ringing tone.

In step S1 of FIG. 3, a calling signal is detected.
At this time, the CPU 11 determines the reception state of the calling signal by checking the state of the calling signal detection signal 181 shown in FIG. If the call signal is not received, step S2
Then, various processing corresponding to keyboard operation and the like, for example, image transmission / reception or document copy operation are performed.

When the call signal is received (timing c in FIG. 4), the process proceeds to step S3, and the volume of the amplifier 179 is initialized. At this time, the volume is set to a low volume. Also, the values of the two counters that count the call signal are reset to zero.

Next, in step S4, the piezoelectric buzzer 180 is brought into a drivable state. This allows the tone ringer 175 to generate a ring tone for each ring signal input. Then, in step S5, a counter CITC for storing the number of ringing tones is stored.
Increase NT by 1.

Next, in step S6, it is determined whether or not the counter CICNT for controlling the volume of the piezoelectric buzzer 180 is 2. CIC
If NT is not 2, set it to 1 in step S7.
Only increase.

Next, in step S8, it is determined whether the volume of the piezoelectric buzzer 180 has already reached the maximum volume. If it has not reached the maximum volume, the volume of the piezoelectric buzzer is increased by one predetermined step through the amplifier 179 in step S9. If the volume has already reached the maximum, the process directly goes to step S10.

In step S10, the counter CICNT for volume control is reset. Then, in step S11, the call signal is 3
It is determined whether there is no input for seconds. If no call signal is input for 3 seconds, the process proceeds to step S12, and the counter CICNT is stored in the RAM 13 or the EEPROM 20. The value of the counter CITCNT stored here is the number of times of ringing sound corresponding to the ringing signal associated with the ringing.

According to the above configuration, every time the counter CICNT becomes 2, that is, every time the calling signal is input twice, the fourth
As shown in the figure, the volume of the ringing sound by the piezoelectric buzzer 180 is increased. When the ringing sound of 1 second, which is usually repeated at intervals of 2 seconds, is not longer than 3 seconds, that is, not longer than 1 cycle, that is, when the operator responds (timing x in FIG. 4), the calling signal is input. The ringing tone number data corresponding to is stored.

Therefore, if the operator leaves the calling state without responding, the ringing sound gradually becomes louder. Therefore, even if it is difficult to recognize the ringing tone due to noise in the room, the operator can be surely made to recognize the ringing tone. The stored ringing number of times of ringing can be stored together with the telephone number of the communication partner or the user abbreviation, and can be used for communication management of the user by outputting it through the recording unit 15.

When the volume of the ringing tone is further increased according to the input of the ringing signal, the operator can set the volume of the ringing tone up to the present by setting the relationship between the number of signal inputs and the ringing volume under predetermined conditions. You can see how many calls were made to.

In addition to the above configuration, a volume for manually controlling the volume of the ringing tone may be combined. Further, the above configuration can be applied to communication devices connected to various telephone lines.

[Effects of the Invention] As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, the volume of the ringing tone of the ringer device that generates the ringing tone according to the ringing signal from the communication line is controlled according to the number of times the ringing occurs. A structure having volume control means, setting means for setting the relationship between the volume of the ringing tone and its ringing frequency, and output means for outputting ringing number data indicating the ringing frequency of the ringing tone until the call is answered is adopted. Therefore, the number of ringing tones until the call is answered is managed by outputting the ringing number data until the call is answered, and the relationship between the volume of the ringing tone and the number of rings is managed. Can be used to set the
When the operator responds with two calls, if the operator does not respond with two calls, the volume of the ringing tone is set to be high, so that the volume is usually quiet.
If the operator does not respond immediately, the user can call up with a high volume, so that the volume of the ringing tone that is controlled according to the number of ringing can be set according to the situation in which the communication device is used. It has an excellent effect that the ring tone can be surely recognized.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a communication device adopting the present invention, and FIG.
1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the communication unit in FIG. 1, FIG. 3 is a flow chart diagram showing the processing procedure of the CPU in FIG. 1,
FIG. 4 is a timing chart showing changes in the volume of the ringing tone. 11 …… CPU, 14 …… Operating section 17 …… Communication section, 18 …… Handset 19 …… Telephone line, 175 …… Tone ringer 176 …… Speech network 177 …… Pulse tone dialer 179 …… Amplifier, 180 …… Piezoelectric buzzer

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A communication device having a ringer device which generates a ringing tone in response to a ringing signal from a communication line and calls an operator, wherein a volume of the ringing tone of the ringer device is controlled according to the number of times of ringing. And a control means, a setting means for setting the relationship between the volume of the ringing tone and the number of ringing times, and an output means for outputting ringing number data indicating the number of ringing times of the ringing tone until the call is answered. Characterized communication device.