JPH11275270A - Recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To simplify setting work and to automatically record the conversation of a telephone while being linked with off-hook operation. SOLUTION: This recording device 1 is installed with a memory means 6 for voice recording composed of a reloadable semiconductor non-volatile memory. Then, the device is inserted between a telephone set 43 and a central office line and provided with a current detecting circuit for outputting an off-hook signal by detecting a DC current when a transmitter/receiver 44 of the telephone set 43 is off-hooked and a control part for starting recording processing according to the input of the off-hook signal. In real recording, when time from the input of the off-hook signal to the start of recording processing is 1 to 5 seconds or when recording is started from the input start of the off-hook signal and time from off-hook to on-hook is within prescribed time such as 1 to 5 seconds, for example, it is preferable that any recorded information does not remain in the memory means 6.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a recording apparatus suitable for automatically recording a conversation by inserting and connecting a telephone, particularly an analog telephone, to the central office. When the office line is an analog line, the recording device is inserted and connected between the indoor wiring terminal and the analog telephone. If the office line is a digital line, a terminal adapter is connected to the office line via a DSU (Digital Line Terminating Equipment), and inserted between the analog port and the analog telephone.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in order to record a telephone conversation, a tape recorder 41 is prepared as shown in FIG. 7A, and a pickup microphone 42 connected to its microphone terminal MIC is connected to a telephone handset (handset) of a telephone 43. ) 44
There is a method to attach sound to the microphone with a microphone.

Further, a branching device 45 is inserted and connected to the central office side of the telephone 43 without using a pickup microphone as shown in FIG.
There is a method of connecting one microphone terminal MIC with a cord.
In this case, the audio signal of the telephone line is
1 is directly input to the microphone terminal.

As shown in FIG. 4 (C), a method of recording a conversation on a magnetic tape or a memory built in the telephone using the telephone answering function of the telephone 46 with a telephone answering function is also common.

[0005] The latter two are advantageous in that noise is less likely to occur and sound quality is better than when a pickup microphone is used.

On the other hand, recently, a recording device using a memory card equipped with a rewritable semiconductor nonvolatile memory (for example, a flash EEPROM) as an audio recording medium (hereinafter referred to as “digital recording device”) has begun to be used. . This digital recording device does not require a rewinding operation like a magnetic tape, and is easy to find by specifying a recording track, so that reproduction and recording can be performed instantaneously. Further, since the voice storage medium is a memory card, there is an advantage that the recorded contents can be easily stored and not bulky, and the life is long.

[0007]

A conventional telephone conversation recording method, in any of the above three methods, starts recording by a caller's operation. When a telephone call is made or a call is received. Sometimes there is no automatic recording of conversations. Also, in the method using a tape recorder, it is necessary to set the equipment every time recording is performed, and the handling is troublesome.

On the other hand, inconveniences in recording on a magnetic tape, such as a problem that the recording position is unclear and cueing is difficult, and that the previous recording content is erased by overwriting, are problems described above. Can be solved by using. However, even when a telephone conversation is recorded using this digital recording device, the same setting operation as in a conventional tape recorder is required, and a recording start operation is still required.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to easily set up a telephone conversation using a digital recording device, and to automatically start recording a telephone conversation in conjunction with an off-hook operation. It is an object of the present invention to provide a recording device that can perform the recording.

[0010]

To achieve the above object, according to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a recording apparatus equipped with a voice recording memory means comprising a rewritable semiconductor nonvolatile memory. A current detection circuit that is inserted between the line and a direct current when the handset of the telephone goes off-hook and outputs an off-hook signal;
A control unit for starting a recording process in response to input of an off-hook signal.

Further, according to the second aspect of the present invention, the first aspect of the present invention is provided.
In the described recording apparatus, the time from the input of the off-hook signal to the start of the recording process is set to 1 to 5 seconds. According to the third aspect of the present invention, in the recording apparatus according to the first aspect, recording is performed from the start of the off-hook signal input, and when the time from the off-hook to the on-hook is within a predetermined time, the recording information is not left in the semiconductor nonvolatile memory. Like that.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the recording device according to the first, second or third aspect, the semiconductor nonvolatile memory has a memory area divided into a plurality of blocks, and each of the memory areas is divided into a plurality of blocks. Is used as a minimum unit at the time of erasing and as a management unit at the time of recording and reproduction, and the control unit performs control of recording by continuously using unused blocks. That is, even if the recording is completed in the middle of the block, the recording is started from the head of the next block at the time of the next recording, and the recording is continuously performed using only the unused blocks.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the recording apparatus according to the first, second, third, or fourth aspect, the control unit controls a means for displaying a recorded amount or a recordable remaining amount on a display segment. At the same time, the display means displays whether or not the recording contents are prohibited from being erased.

Further, according to the invention described in claim 6, in the recording apparatus according to claim 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5, the control unit can go off-hook when a telephone signal arrives at the telephone during reproduction. The switching means is automatically switched from the reproduction state to the recording state. According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the recording apparatus according to the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, or sixth aspect, a memory card having a rewritable semiconductor nonvolatile memory is used as a memory means. It is provided detachably.

The recording apparatus of the present invention automatically starts recording a telephone conversation when the handset is off-hook. For this reason, a conversation can be recorded without performing an extra operation. In addition, since this recording is performed using a rewritable semiconductor nonvolatile memory, cueing, instantaneous recording start, and the like can be easily performed, which is convenient.

[0016]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.

The recording apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment has an operation button section 2 for performing recording and reproduction operations, a speaker section (the back side in the drawing) 3, and a liquid crystal display panel (hereinafter referred to as an "LCD panel") serving as a display section. 4, a function display section 5 for displaying the function of each operation button, a card insertion section 7 for inserting a voice recording memory card 6 serving as a memory means, and terminals 8a and 8b to which a modular cord is connected. .
The terminal 8a is on the office line side, and is connected to an indoor wiring terminal 10 or an analog port of a terminal adapter connected to the office line via the modular cord 9a. The terminal 8b is on the telephone side, and the telephone 43 is connected via the modular cord 9b.
Is connected.

The operation button section 2 includes a power switch button (not shown), a mode button 2a for alternately selecting a reproduction and erasing mode, a forward button 2b, a reproduction / stop button 2c, a return button 2
d. The operation button unit 2 and the LCD
A function display unit 5 for displaying each operation function between the panel 4
And the function of each button is displayed (this display is not shown).

The LCD panel 4 has a size of 15 × 30 mm in this embodiment. As shown in FIG. 2, the LCD panel 4 has a state display portion 31 indicating a reproduction state and a battery state.
Five large segments displaying the number “8”,
Two small segments displaying “8”, a time and time display unit 32 composed of three small segments,
Eight display segments a to h for displaying the amount of memory used and whether or not the function for preventing erroneous erasure of a message has been activated.
And a display unit 33 for indicating the recorded amount and the presence / absence of protection.

Here, the time and time display section 32 normally displays the time, and when in the recording state, "R" (indicating the recording state) is displayed on the far left, and when in the reproducing state. , "P" (indicating the reproduction state) are displayed, and the message number of the next two "8" are displayed. For example, "0
"1""12""33" ... are displayed. The two central "8" characters and the small two "8" characters are temporarily reset to "0", respectively, and the recording time is counted and displayed. At the time of recording, only the recording time of the new recording is displayed, but the total recording time may be displayed at the time when the new recording is completed.

The time and time display section 32 displays the date and time at which the message was recorded and the mark being reproduced at the time of reproduction, and displays the date and time at which the message was recorded and the mark being retrieved at the time of sending and returning. The display is made. At the time of deletion, the date and time when the message was recorded and an erasure mark are displayed.

Eight display segments a to h are provided in the recording amount display and protection presence / absence display section 33 of the LCD panel 4. The display segments a to h correspond to divided blocks of the memory card 6, for example, 1,536 blocks. For example, when recording on block 961, 5
The display segments a to e light up. That is, the recorded and started recording areas are grouped into 192 blocks, and one display segment is sequentially turned on for each 192 block. When the remaining recordable amount reaches about 30 seconds, the display segment h or the entire recorded amount display / protection presence / absence display section 33 may blink to warn the user.

The card insertion portion 7 is a guide portion for guiding the flat and rectangular memory card 6, a contact portion for inserting the contact portion of the memory card 6, and holding the memory card 6, and is surrounded by the insertion portion. And an insertion space. When the memory card 6 is completely inserted, it does not protrude from the outer shape of the recording device 1.

Next, a circuit configuration of the recording apparatus 1 is shown in FIG.

A current detector 11 and a coil 12 are connected in parallel between the terminals 8a and 8b. One end of the secondary side of the coil 12 is grounded, and the other end is connected to a recording / reproducing circuit 14 via a switch 13. When the telephone handset (handset) is off-hook, a DC current loop is formed in the line, and the current detection circuit 11 detects a DC current (off-hook signal) flowing through the line at that time. Usually 5
A current of 0 to 120 mA is detected. This off-hook signal is sent to the control unit 15 of the recording / reproducing circuit 14, which turns on the switch 13 to automatically start the recording operation.

Hereinafter, a configuration relating to recording will be described. The analog audio signal flowing through the telephone line is
The signal is input to an amplifier 17 via a switch 13 and a capacitor 16 for blocking a DC component, and is amplified. Further, the amplified audio signal is subjected to a low-pass filter (LPF) 18 to remove noise components outside the audio band, input to an A / D converter 19 and converted into a digital signal. The data is input to the data compression unit 21a through the data compression unit 21a.
The control unit 15 writes the data signal compressed and encoded by the data compression unit 21a to the memory card 6.

Next, a configuration related to reproduction will be described. The control unit 15 reads the data signal written in the memory card 6, inputs the data signal to the data decompression unit 21b, and decompresses and decodes the data signal. An output signal of the data decompression unit 21b is input to a D / A converter 23 via a switch 22 serving as a switching unit, converted into an analog signal, and further converted to an analog signal via a low-pass filter (LPF) 24. The noise component is removed, amplified through the amplifier 25, and output from the speaker 26 as sound.

The control unit 15 turns on the switch 13, turns on the switch 20, and turns off the switch 22 in response to the off-hook signal output from the current detection circuit 11. Further, in response to the operation of the operation button unit 2, the switch 13 is turned off, the switch 20 is turned off,
Turn on 2. An LCD (liquid crystal display) driver 27 is connected to the control unit 15, and the LCD panel 4 is connected to the LCD driver 27. The LCD panel 4 displays the operation status of the operation button unit 2 and the time.

With the above configuration, when the handset 44 is off-hook at the time of outgoing call or incoming call, the current detecting circuit 1
1 detects a DC current and notifies the control unit 15 of the recording / reproducing circuit 14 by an off-hook signal. The control unit 15
When the switches 13 and 20 are turned on, the audio signal of the telephone line is taken into the recording / reproducing circuit 14 via the coil 12, and a predetermined process is performed to start recording on the memory card 6. At this time, the recording start date and time are recorded for each conversation, and a new conversation is recorded following the conversation recorded immediately before.

When an off-hook signal is input, the control unit 15 starts a recording operation. In this embodiment, the recording operation is started after a predetermined time has elapsed. This time corresponds to the time from off-hook to the start of conversation, and is preferably about 1 to 5 seconds. Note that recording less than 3 seconds is particularly preferable if recording is not performed. The recording may be started immediately after the off-hook signal is input, and if the time from the off-hook to the on-hook is within a predetermined time, the recording may not be left in the memory means. The value of the predetermined time is preferably in the range of 1 to 5 seconds.

Furthermore, the timing for starting the recording operation may be set separately for the time of outgoing call and the time of incoming call. For example, since a tone ringer signal is transmitted from the station side at the time of an incoming call, a circuit for detecting a tone ringer signal is provided in addition to the current detection circuit 11, and if an off-hook signal is input after the detection of the tone ringer signal, recording is started immediately. You may. On the other hand, when making a call, a call is made after the dial operation, and the polarity is inverted when the other party answers. Therefore, a polarity inversion detection circuit is provided in addition to the current detection circuit 11, and the recording is immediately performed when the polarity inversion is detected after the input of the off-hook signal. You may make it start.

On the other hand, when the play / stop button 2c of the operation button section 2 is operated, the control section 15 reads the recording information of the memory card 6, and displays the date and time when the conversation was recorded on the LCD panel 4. By operating the feed button 2b or the return button 2d of the operation button unit 2, the recording date and time of another conversation are sequentially displayed on the LCD panel 4, and a message to be reproduced can be selected. After the selection, the reproduction is started by pressing the reproduction / stop button 2c. To stop the reproduction in the middle, the reproduction / stop button 2c is pressed again.

It should be noted that, even during reproduction, the control unit 15
When an off-hook signal is input from the current detection circuit 11, the reproducing operation is terminated and the recording operation is started. That is, the control unit 15 turns on the switches 13 and 20 and simultaneously turns off the switch 22 to start a recording operation. In this memory card 6, since the recording position of the next message is separately managed, a new message can be recorded without affecting the message being reproduced.

Next, an example of a method of managing a message recorded on the memory card 6 will be described with reference to FIG. Information for message management is stored in the control unit 15.
Is held in the RAM. Here, an example using the memory use display table shown in FIG. 4A, the message management table shown in FIG. 4B, and the used block management table shown in FIG.

The memory area of the memory card 6 has a plurality of memory areas (for example, 512 × 3 when three memory cards of 4 MB are used).
= 1,536). Each block has a capacity of, for example, 4000 to 8000 bytes. This block is a unit for erasing. On the other hand, writing can be performed in units of about 1/16 of this block. Note that the memory use display table in (A) uses one of these blocks. Also,
One block is used in the message management table of (B) and the used block management table of (C). Therefore, when 1,536 blocks are used, 1,534 blocks can be used for recording.

The memory use display table of FIG.
Each block has an area (here, 1,536) corresponding to each block, and whether or not the block is used is recorded as 1 or 0 in each area.

The message management table shown in FIG.
Here, an example of managing 99 messages is shown. One message is from when the handset 44 is picked up to when it is put down. The total recording time varies depending on the capacity of the memory card. With the 2 MB memory card 6, 38 minutes are possible, and when three 4 MB memory cards 6 are used, the total is 228 minutes.

In the message management table of FIG. 4B, the presence / absence of a message and an erroneous erasure prevention display (write protect) are shown, the recording date and time, the pointer indicating the head of the block used for recording, and the symbol used for recording. The number of blocks indicated indicates other management information. For example, 1 byte, 4 bytes, 2 bytes, 2 bytes,
Three bytes are allocated. Here, of the three bytes of the management information, two bytes are used to indicate how far the last part of one message has been written in the block, and the remaining one byte is reserved. When the number of recorded messages exceeds 99, the recording date and time is rewritten in order from the oldest one.

The used block management table in FIG. 4C shows the block numbers (0 to 0) used for recording the message.
1,535) are sequentially recorded. As the blocks used for recording, unused blocks indicated as “0” in the memory use display table are sequentially selected. Which block each message used is managed by the message management table in FIG.
Even if the number of messages reaches 99, even if there is still enough memory, no further message management is performed, and the existing message is overwritten on the recorded block.

In the example shown in FIG. 4, for message # 1, if the number of used blocks is specified as three by pointer 0 in the message management table of (B), (C)
, The block number 0 corresponding to the pointer 0 and the subsequent block numbers 1 and 2 are obtained in the used block management table. That is, message # 1 is sent to block 0,
It can be seen that the recording has been made to 1, 2.

Similarly, for message # 2, FIG.
The pointer 4 in the message management table of FIG.
When the number of used blocks is designated as 6, the block number 8 corresponding to the pointer and the subsequent block numbers 9, 31, 32,
33 and 58 are obtained. That is, message # 2 is
It can be seen that the recording is made in blocks 8, 9, 31, 32, 33 and 58. As described above, the block numbers for recording one message do not necessarily have to be consecutive, and can be efficiently managed by using the message management table of (B) and the used block management table of (C).

Next, the relationship between the recording portion and each block when recording is described. First, a recorded block is calculated, and the corresponding number of display segments are turned on. That is, when the recorded blocks are the 1st to 192nd blocks, the display segment a is lit, when the recorded blocks are the 193rd to 384th blocks, the display segments a and b are lit, and when the recorded blocks are the 385 to 576th blocks, the display segments a, b and c are lit. Let it. In this way, the calculation is performed in units of 192 blocks, and the display segments corresponding to the blocks up to that point are all turned on counting from the left.

When the handset 44 is picked up and off-hook, recording is started from the block next to the last recorded block. At this time, if the recording start message is, for example, the 35th message, the time and time display section 32 displays “R · 35: 00”. Then, the recording time is counted and displayed. Then, when the recording ends, the last block is recorded and the process ends.

The recorded memory area is in a state shown in FIG. 5, for example. In the example shown in FIG. 5, each of the 512 blocks is 8 Kbytes, and the portion indicated by diagonal lines is the area where the actual recording is made. Since the first recording was recorded over blocks 1 to 3, the next recording started from the beginning of block 4.

In this embodiment, a message (conversation)
When a search is made to reproduce the message, an indication as to whether the conversation is provided with the erroneous erasure prevention function is displayed on the recorded volume display / protection presence / absence display section 33. For example, as shown in FIG. 6A, the display segments a to h are alternately lit (a, c, e, and g are lit) to indicate that protection is being performed. After the display, the state is reversed (= b, d, f, h are lit), and by switching the lighting, it can be displayed that the protection is applied. FIG.
As shown in (B), the fact that the protection is applied may be displayed by sequentially moving the segments to be turned on one by one.

Although the above-described embodiment is an example of a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the present invention is not limited to this embodiment, and various modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention. It is. For example, the coil 1
2 and a microphone may be switched, and a function of recording voice input from the microphone may be added. Also, a recording release button is provided, and when the telephone conversation is not to be recorded, the switch 13 is operated by operating the recording release button.
May be forcibly turned off.

Further, the capacity of the memory card 6, the capacity and the number of tracks and blocks, the number of divisions, and the management method of the message management table and the like in FIG. 4B are not limited to the above embodiment. As the memory means, a semiconductor nonvolatile memory such as a flash EEPROM is employed, but sometimes other memory means such as a RAM may be employed.

Further, blocks having different capacities may be formed. For example, in a 4 Mbyte flash EEPROM, a flash EEPROM composed of different blocks such as 16 Kbytes, 8 Kbytes, and 4 Kbytes may be used. Note that the recording time of each block is 90 in this embodiment.
Seconds (76 minutes ÷ 512)
The range of 270 seconds, which is about three to three times, is preferable in consideration of ease of management and effective use of the memory area.

Further, at the time of recording, instead of lighting the already-recorded and recording-start portions, the remaining recording volume may be turned on and gradually turned off in accordance with the amount of recording.
Further, in the above-described embodiment, the non-volatile memory serving as the memory means is the removable memory card 6, but may be fixedly provided in the apparatus. In that case,
In addition to the provided memory, a memory card 6 may be provided detachably. When both memories are provided as described above, it is preferable to give priority to recording on the removable memory card 6.

In the above embodiment, the handset 4
The automatic recording was performed by off-hook of No.4. For example, a specific key (#, *) was operated during a call,
Recording may be started when a tone signal (DTMF signal) corresponding to the key is detected. In this way, the present invention can be easily applied to telephones compatible with ISDN and PBX other than analog telephones.

Further, a function in which the functions of the data compression section 21a and the data decompression section 21b are integrated into one may be adopted. For example, an adaptive difference PCM circuit (ADPCM: Adaptive Diffe
rential Pulse Code Modulation). This adaptive difference PCM circuit uses adaptive prediction for predicting a current voice waveform from a past voice waveform using correlation of voice signals, and updates a step size of a quantizer in accordance with the predicted voice waveform size. The audio digital signal is compression-encoded using adaptive quantization, and data is expanded by an inverse algorithm.

[0052]

As described above, the recording device according to the first aspect of the present invention automatically connects to a line input of a general analog telephone by simply off-hooking the handset when making or receiving a call. Can be recorded. Also,
Since it is a recording device equipped with a memory means for voice recording consisting of a rewritable semiconductor nonvolatile memory, it is possible to record the date and time of recording for each conversation, and to specify the message to be reproduced based on the date and time and immediately It is easy to play.

Further, the recording device according to the second aspect of the present invention can increase the effective use rate of the memory by setting the time from the input of the off-hook signal to the start of the recording process to be 1 to 5 seconds, so that the memory capacity is limited. Recording time can be increased. Further, the recording device according to claim 3 is:
The recording process is started from the input of the off-hook signal. If the time from the off-hook to the on-hook is within a predetermined time, the recording is not left in the memory means, so that unnecessary recording is prevented. For this reason,
The memory can be fully utilized, and the data can be easily reproduced at the time of reproduction.

In the recording apparatus according to the present invention, each of the plurality of divided blocks is used as a minimum unit for erasing and a management unit for recording and reproduction, thereby facilitating memory management. Continuous recording is possible with a short access time. Further, the cueing during reproduction is facilitated, and the access time can be reduced. Further, at the time of recording, since unused blocks are continuously used for recording, efficient memory use becomes possible.

Further, according to the fifth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to display whether or not the recording is protected by the display means for displaying the recorded amount and the like, so that the protection status can be easily grasped and the display space can be reduced. Can save.

Further, according to the invention described in claim 6, when a telephone call is received even in the reproduction state, it is possible to immediately switch to the recording state, which is convenient. Further, according to the seventh aspect of the present invention, since a removable memory card is used, the management of recorded contents becomes easy.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration and an arrangement example of a recording device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing details of a display unit of the recording device of FIG. 2;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a circuit configuration of the recording device of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a method of managing a message recorded on a memory card used in the recording device of FIG. 1,
(A) is a diagram showing a memory use display table, (B) is a diagram showing a message management table, and (C) is a diagram showing a used block management table.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining a recording state in a memory area of a memory card used in the recording device of FIG. 1;

FIGS. 6A and 6B are diagrams for explaining a method of displaying a protected amount on a display unit and a presence / absence of protection on a display unit of the recording device of FIG. 1; FIGS. FIG.

FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining a conventional recording mode for recording a telephone conversation; FIGS. 7A, 7B, and 7C are diagrams for explaining three different conventional methods;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Recording device 2 Operation button part 3 Speaker part 4 Liquid crystal display panel (display part) 5 Function display part 6 Memory card (memory means) 7 Card insertion part 8a, 8b Terminal 9a, 9b Modular code 10 Indoor wiring terminal 11 Current detection Device 12 coil 13 switch 14 recording / reproducing circuit 15 control unit 16 capacitor 17 amplifier 18 band-pass filter (LPF) 19 A / D converter 20 switch 21 a data compression unit 21 b data expansion unit 22 switch (switching means) 23 D / A Converter 24 Low-pass filter (LPF) 26 Speaker 27 LCD driver 43 Telephone 44 Handset

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A recording apparatus equipped with a voice recording memory means comprising a rewritable semiconductor non-volatile memory, wherein a direct current which is inserted between a telephone and an office line when the telephone handset is off-hook is supplied. A recording device comprising: a current detection circuit that detects and outputs an off-hook signal; and a control unit that starts a recording process in response to the input of the off-hook signal. 2. The time from the input of an off-hook signal to the start of recording processing is set to 1 to 5 seconds.
The recording device described. 3. The recording according to claim 1, wherein the recording is performed from the start of the input of the off-hook signal, and when the time from the off-hook to the on-hook is within a predetermined time, the recording information is not left in the semiconductor nonvolatile memory. Sound recording device. 4. The semiconductor non-volatile memory has a memory area divided into a plurality of blocks, and each block of the memory area is used as a minimum unit for erasing and a management unit for recording and reproduction. 4. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the recording section has a configuration, and wherein the control section performs control of recording by continuously using the unused blocks. 5. The control unit controls a unit for displaying a recorded amount or a recordable remaining amount on a display segment, and displays whether or not recording is prohibited from being erased by the display unit. The recording device according to claim 1, 2, 3, or 4, wherein: 6. The control section automatically switches the switching means from a reproduction state to a recording state by going off-hook when a telephone signal is received by the telephone during reproduction. Claims 1, 2, 3, 4
Or the recording device according to 5. 7. A memory card on which a rewritable semiconductor nonvolatile memory is mounted, which is used as said memory means and is detachably provided. The recording device described.