JPH08154125A - Automatic answering telephone system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide an automatic answering telephone system enabling the viewing only of the names of callers relating to incoming calls and quickly searching and listening to only the business message of the caller to be listened to from information recorded by the automatic answering telephone system during user's absence. CONSTITUTION: In this automatic answering telephone system connected to a telephone line capable of utilizing 'caller's telephone number transmission service' scheduled in our nation, the name of the caller or the like transmitted from the telephone line is extracted by a caller identification information demodulation part 8 and recorded in a caller identification information storage part 12. The consecutively transmitted business message from the caller is related to the name of the caller and recorded in a business message storage part 13. At the time of reproduction, by an instruction from an operation part 10, only the names of the callers are successively displayed at a display part 11 and the business message corresponding to the caller is reproduced from a voice monitoring part 4.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an answering machine.
Particularly, it relates to an answering machine connected to a telephone line to which the identification information of the caller is sent by the "caller telephone number sending service".

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional answering machine, when a call is made during an absence, an answering message is answered and then a message of the caller is sequentially recorded on a magnetic tape or the like. By playing the magnetic tape after I got home, I was able to hear the message that arrived while I was away.

However, in the conventional answering machine, it is not possible to know the name of the caller who has arrived during the absence, unless the tape is reproduced one by one to listen to the message. Therefore, if you want to hear only the message from a specific sender, first rewind the magnetic tape and then play it from the beginning of the tape to hear the sender's name. If the first name is not the desired caller name, the tape is fast forwarded, and the tape corresponding to the next incoming call is played back to judge the sender name. This is a very troublesome operation when the number of incoming calls accumulated on the magnetic tape is large, such as when the user has been away for a long time. By the way, in Japan, one of the additional telephone services, the "caller telephone number sending service"
In order to implement the above in the near future, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications is currently taking the lead in examining issues such as privacy. According to this service, information such as the caller's telephone number is sent from the telephone exchange while receiving a call signal after receiving a call. This service has already been implemented by some telephone companies in the United States and Canada, and specifically, at a communication speed of 1200 bits per second during the down time between the first call signal and the second call signal. In addition to the telephone number, the time when the call arrived and the name of the sender (hereinafter referred to as "sender identification information") are sent. Therefore, according to the present invention, the caller name for the incoming call is selected from the information recorded and stored by the answering machine, provided that the above-mentioned "caller telephone number sending service" is used. It is an object of the present invention to provide an answering machine with excellent operability that allows you to see only the message of a caller who wants to hear it and to quickly find and listen to the message.

In order to achieve the above object, the answering machine according to claim 1 is connected to a telephone line to which caller identification information is sent by "caller telephone number sending service". An answering machine, an incoming call detection means, a caller identification information extraction means for extracting caller identification information while receiving a call signal, and a caller identification information storage means for storing the extracted caller identification information. A response message sending means for sending a response message to a telephone line after detecting an incoming call, and a message storage means for storing a message message received after sending the response message in association with caller identification information extracted during reception of a ringing signal. Display means for displaying the caller identification information stored in the caller identification information storage means, operation means for instructing the operation of the answering machine, and Retrieval means for retrieving specific caller identification information from the caller identification information displayed on the display means, reproduction means for reproducing the message, and a message corresponding to the caller identification information retrieved by the search means. And a reproduction control means for reading the message from the message storage means and reproducing it through the reproduction means. An answering machine according to claim 2 is characterized in that, in the answering machine according to claim 1, the operating means includes a forward feeding means for sequentially sending caller identification information to be displayed on the display means. To do. An answering machine according to a third aspect of the present invention is the answering machine according to the first aspect, wherein the display means can display caller identification information for a plurality of incoming calls at one time.

According to the answering machine of the first aspect, when there is an incoming call during the absence, the incoming call detecting means firstly detects that fact. Then, during reception of the subsequent calling signal, the sender identification information sent out through the telephone line is extracted by the sender identification information extraction means and stored in the sender identification information storage means. Then, after sending the response message to the telephone line, the message is received. The received message is stored in the message storage means in association with the sender identification information extracted immediately before. The caller identification information stored in the caller identification information storage means is displayed on the display means according to an instruction from the operation means. Then, the operator can search for a necessary caller from the incoming call information stored during absence. Furthermore, the message message corresponding to the retrieved caller is read from the message message storage means by the reproduction control means and reproduced as voice through the reproduction means.
Therefore, the operator can select and listen to only the message for the particular caller regarding the incoming call information recorded during the absence. According to the answering machine according to the second aspect of the present invention, in reproducing the incoming call information during the absence, it is possible to easily forward the caller identification information displayed on the display means by using the forward feed means provided in the operating means. it can. Therefore, the operator can quickly find out the necessary caller from the incoming call information stored during absence. According to the answering machine according to the third aspect of the present invention, when reproducing the incoming call information during the absence, the display means displays the caller identification information for a plurality of incoming calls at once. Therefore, the operator, from the incoming call information stored during absence,
You can find the caller you need more quickly.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings showing its embodiments. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an answering machine according to the present invention. This device
The incoming call detection unit 7, the caller identification information demodulation unit 8, the hook control unit 1, the voice detection unit 2, the voice connected to the telephone line 17 to which the caller identification information is sent by the "caller telephone number sending service" It has a sending unit 3 and a voice monitor unit 4, and further comprises a voice recording AD converter 5, a voice reproducing DA converter 6, an operation unit 10, a display unit 11, and a storage unit 15 centering on a control unit 9. Has been done. The telephone 16 is drawn for convenience of description, and is not included in the configuration of the answering machine according to the present invention. The incoming call detection unit 7 is for detecting an incoming call that is not in existence and for starting a series of subsequent controls. When an incoming call is received, the incoming call detection unit 7 notifies the control unit 9 to that effect. The caller identification information demodulation unit 8 extracts and demodulates caller identification information sent during the pause time between the first call signal and the second call signal after the call is received. Caller identification information such as the demodulated telephone number, incoming time, name of the caller, etc. is written to the caller identification information storage unit 12 in the storage unit 15 via the control unit 9. The hook control unit 1 is composed of an electromagnetic relay or the like, and according to an instruction from the control unit 9,
By setting the state of off-hook or on-hook, the processing of line supplement or line disconnection is performed. The voice detection unit 2 detects that the sender is transmitting the message, further extracts the message, and then sends the message to the AD converter 5 for voice recording. The voice recording AD converter 5 samples the voice signal of the message that is analog information and converts it into digital information, and then sends the digitized voice information to the control unit 9. The voice reproduction DA converter 6 reproduces and converts the digital information of the subject message and the response message sent from the control unit 9 into a voice signal of analog information, and sends the voice signal to the voice transmission unit 3. The voice sending unit 3 is composed of a power amplifier or the like, and has a function of power-amplifying the voice signal sent from the voice reproduction DA converter 6 and then sending it to the telephone line 17 and the voice monitor unit 4. The voice monitor unit 4 includes an amplifier and a speaker, and allows the operator to hear a voice signal transmitted through the telephone line 17 or a voice signal of a message message or a response message transmitted from the voice transmitting unit 3. You can output it as a sound. The control unit 9 is composed of a microprocessor, a timer (not shown), and the like. The control unit 9 takes timing such as when recording a message of interest, inputs and outputs data to and from the storage unit 15, and further digitizes it. It also performs signal processing such as data compression of the audio information. The storage unit 15 is composed of a read-only memory (ROM) and a random access memory (RAM), and mainly constitutes the sender identification information storage unit 12, the message message storage unit 13, and the response message storage unit 14, but the others. In addition, a program that defines the operation procedure of the control unit 9 (FIGS. 2 and 3) and temporary data to be processed by the control unit 9 are also stored. Sender identification information storage unit 1
2, in addition to the caller identification information such as the caller's telephone number, the caller's name, and the arrival time, the recording start address in the message message storage unit 13 in which the corresponding message is recorded is also included. Remembered. These pieces of information form one set of data corresponding to one incoming call, and are stored and stored in the order of incoming calls by the number of sets corresponding to the number of incoming calls.
The message message storage unit 13 stores and stores the message messages from the caller detected by the voice detection unit 2 in the order of arrival. The response message storage unit 14 stores a response message for answering an absence, such as one's own telephone number, name, and absence. This response message can be freely recorded and updated by the operator through a voice microphone (not shown). Here, the message and the response message are written in the storage unit 15 after data compression processing is performed in the control unit 9. As a result, the storage capacity of the storage unit 15 is effectively utilized. On the other hand, at the time of reproducing these messages, the message data read by the control unit 9 is sent to the audio reproduction DA converter 6 after being subjected to data expansion processing in the control unit 9. The display unit 11 is composed of, for example, a liquid crystal display device or the like, and displays the sender information such as the name of the sender stored in the sender identification information storage unit 12 when the incoming call information is reproduced. The operation unit 10 is
Although not shown, a push button for activating the reproduction of recorded information, a forward button for sequentially sending caller information to be displayed on the display unit 11, and a call transmission displayed on the display unit 11 It has a voice reproduction button for reproducing and outputting a message corresponding to the person from the voice monitor unit 4. When those buttons are pressed, the internal circuit of the operation unit 10 sends an instruction corresponding to the button to the control unit 9. Next, the operation of the recording process of the answering machine having the above-described configuration when an incoming call is received is described. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation procedure. First, when there is an incoming call during absence, the incoming call detection unit 7 detects that fact (step 20).
1). Then, the caller identification information demodulation unit 8
The caller identification information transmitted from 7 is extracted and demodulated (step 202). The demodulated caller identification information is written in the caller identification information storage unit 12 through the control unit 9 (step 203). Here, in the information written in the sender identification information storage unit 12, not only the sender identification information such as the sender's telephone number and the sender's name, but also the message message that is transmitted subsequently is the message message. Storage unit 13
The recording start address in the message storage unit 13 for recording is also included. Next, according to an instruction from the control unit 9, the hook control unit 1 captures the telephone line 17 by the off-hook process (step 204). Then, the response message stored in the response message storage unit 14 is transmitted to the telephone line 17 through the control unit 9, the voice reproduction DA converter 6 and the voice transmission unit 3 (step 20).
5). As a result, the caller who knows that he / she is absent sends a message, but the message is extracted by the voice detection unit 2 and is further stored in the storage unit through the voice recording AD converter 5 and the control unit 9. It is written in the 15 message storage unit 13 (step 206). Further, when the caller disconnects the telephone line 17 without transmitting the message at all, only the information indicating that is written in the message storage unit 13. Here, the address in the message storage unit 13 in which the message is written is the same as the recording start address already stored in the sender identification information storage unit 12 in step 203. Finally, after the control unit 9 confirms the end of the transmission of the message, the hook control unit 1 performs on-hook processing according to an instruction from the control unit 9, and the telephone line 17 is disconnected (step 207). . Here, the determination of the end of transmission of the message is made by the control unit 9 detecting that the silent state continues for 5 seconds, for example. Step 207
Although one incoming call process is completed by finishing the process of (1), when the next incoming call is received, the above incoming call process (steps 201 to 207) is repeated again. Although not shown in the flow chart, the sender identification information and the message of interest are sent to the sender identification information storage unit 12 for each incoming call.
The recording start addresses are updated for each incoming call processing so that they are sequentially accumulated and recorded in the message storage unit 13. Next, the operation of the reproduction processing of the information recorded while the apparatus is out of the house will be described. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation procedure. First, when the reproduction process of the present apparatus is activated by an instruction from the operation unit 10, the control unit 9 initializes the called number counter n (step 301). Here, the called number counter n is a numerical value indicating the order of incoming calls that were on the absence. Although not shown in FIG. 1, it is temporarily stored in the storage unit 15. is there. Next, caller identification information corresponding to the incoming call number counter n is read from the caller identification information storage unit 12 and displayed on the display unit 11 (step 302). Then, it is determined whether or not the voice reproduction button provided on the operation unit 10 has been pressed (step 303). When the voice reproduction button is pressed, the control unit 9 reads the message message corresponding to the caller displayed on the display unit 11 from the message message storage unit 13, and the voice reproduction DA converter 6 and After passing through the voice sending unit 3, it is reproduced and output as voice through the voice monitor unit 4 (step 304). Message storage unit 1 at that time
As the read address from 3, the recording start address stored in the sender identification information storage unit 12 together with the sender identification information is used. On the other hand, when the audio reproduction button is not pressed, the above audio reproduction is not performed. Next, the operation unit 10
It is determined whether or not the forward feed button provided in (1) has been pressed (step 305). If the forward button is not pressed, the control procedure returns to step 303 so that the same message can be reproduced and output again. On the other hand, when the forward button is pressed, the called number counter n is incremented by 1 (step 306). Then, it is judged whether or not the incoming number counter n exceeds the number of incoming calls recorded in this device (step 30).
7). When the incoming number counter n does not exceed the number of incoming calls recorded in this device, the caller identification information for the next incoming call is updated and displayed on the display unit 11 (step 302) and the same process as the above (step 303). ~ 307) is repeated. On the other hand, when the incoming number counter n exceeds the number of incoming calls recorded in this device, the present reproduction processing is ended. Through the above reproduction processing, the operator quickly and sequentially views only the caller identification information such as the caller name from the incoming call information recorded and accumulated during absence by pressing the forward button. be able to. Furthermore, by pressing the voice reproduction button when a specific caller is displayed, the message of the caller can be heard. that's all,
Although the answering machine according to the present invention has been described based on the embodiment, it goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to this embodiment. That is, (1) The answering machine in this embodiment has a configuration independent of the telephone 16 as shown in FIG. 1, but the present invention is not limited to this configuration. For example, as an external configuration, it is integrated with the telephone 16 and the telephone 1
The device may be incorporated in the device 6. (2) The sender identification information storage unit 12, the message message storage unit 13, and the response message storage unit 14 in this embodiment.
Are all composed of semiconductor memory elements such as ROM and RAM, but are not limited to these types.
For example, the message storage unit 13 and the response message storage unit 14 may be magnetic tape devices to form an inexpensive message storage unit having a large storage capacity. (3) Only the caller identification information for one incoming call is displayed on the display unit 11 in the present embodiment, but the display method is not limited to this. For example, caller identification information for five incoming calls may be displayed at one time, and a selection button may be provided on the operation unit 10 so that the operator can select one caller from among them.

As is apparent from the above description, in the answering machine according to the present invention, the caller identification information storage section 12 and the message storage section 13 are separately configured and recorded respectively. The information provided is interrelated. Therefore, the operator can quickly see only the caller name of the incoming call from the information recorded while the device was away, or quickly find and listen to only the message of the caller who wants to hear. be able to. Therefore, in the conventional answering machine, the problem of a dead time when reproducing recorded information is solved.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure of a recording process at the time of an incoming call during absence in the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure of a reproduction process of information recorded during absence in the embodiment.

[Brief description of reference numerals]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Hook control unit 2 Voice detection unit 3 Voice transmission unit 4 Voice monitor unit 5 Voice recording AD converter 6 Voice reproduction DA converter 7 Incoming call detection unit 8 Caller identification information demodulation unit 9 Control unit 10 Operation unit 11 Display unit 12 sender identification information storage unit 13 message storage unit 14 response message storage unit 15 storage unit

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An answering machine connected to a telephone line to which caller identification information is sent by a "caller telephone number sending service", which comprises an incoming call detection means and a caller identification during reception of a calling signal. Caller identification information extraction means for extracting information, caller identification information storage means for storing the extracted caller identification information, response message sending means for sending a response message to the telephone line after detection of an incoming call, and after sending a response message A message message storage unit for storing the message to be received in association with the caller identification information extracted while receiving the call signal, and a display unit for displaying the caller identification information stored in the caller identification information storage unit. Operating means for instructing the operation of the answering machine, and searching for specific caller identification information from the caller identification information displayed on the display means. Search means, reproduction means for reproducing the message, and reproduction control means for reading out the message corresponding to the sender identification information searched by the search means from the message storage means and reproducing through the reproduction means. An answering machine that is equipped with. 2. The answering machine apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the operation unit includes a sequential feeding unit for sequentially transmitting the caller identification information to be displayed on the display unit. 3. The answering machine according to claim 1, wherein the display means can display caller identification information for a plurality of incoming calls at one time.