JPS5857850A - Voice mail system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To efficiently pick up only a required mail out of a plurality of mails, by storing the voice mail together with a retrieval code representing retrieval conditions such as the degree of urgency. CONSTITUTION:In transmitting a voice mail from a terminal 2a to a terminal 2b, the terminal 2a is connected to a voice mail controller 4 by dialing a voice mail registration code, and in inputting a retrieval codes alpha predetermined in response to the telephone number, job number, name of caller or the degree of urgency of the terminal 2b to be transmitted, the controller 4 writes the code alpha in a retrieval code file 5 and a voice message to a voice mail file 6. A subscriber of the terminal 2b inputs a desired retrieval code, allowing to read out only the voice mail corresponding to the code.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a voice mail system that can select only necessary mails from among a plurality of stored voice mails.

Recently, with the rise in office costs, a concept called the so-called office automation scene has been attracting attention in order to improve office productivity.

By the way, as part of this concept, there is an electronic mail system. In other words, such a system transmits a written message from a CRT terminal having functions such as a display and a teletypewriter, temporarily stores the message, and outputs this stored document at a time convenient for the recipient or at a fixed time. This is what I did. in this case,
For example, if you add a title to each e-mail when sending it, when the recipient searches for a necessary document even among multiple stored e-mails, he or she will be able to read the titles of all stored e-mails. By outputting it to a terminal, it is possible to find the document you need from among these and output only this document with priority.

However, in such a system, terminals such as displays, teletypes, and even printers must be installed, and in addition, a new network for e-mail must be installed, making the entire system quite expensive. It had some drawbacks.

Therefore, a voice mail system is being considered to compensate for such inconveniences.

That is, such a system temporarily stores and sends voice messages instead of documents, and it is possible to realize an inexpensive MTC system by simply adding a voice storage device to the existing electronic exchange system.

However, in such a voice mail system, dialing a specific code of the sender notifies the electronic exchange that the voice mail is to be sent, and then dialing the recipient's telephone number connects the voice mail storage device via the trunk line. The sender's voice message is stored in the same storage device, and the recipient can listen to the voicemails stored in the storage device one after another by dialing a specific code to listen to the voicemail sent to him/her. It is impossible to find only the mail you need from among multiple voice mails. For this reason, even if an urgent mail is being sent, all voicemails have to be listened to from the beginning, and in some cases, there is a risk that the response to the emergency connection will be delayed.

This invention was made to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks, and by storing voicemails together with predetermined search codes corresponding to search conditions such as urgency, it is possible to select a desired mail from among a plurality of voicemails. To provide a voice mail system that can efficiently retrieve only voice mail.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

In Fig. 1, 1 is a network, for example, an electronic exchange;
Although not shown, the exchange 1 includes a central control processing unit, a memory device, various trunks, a calling register, and the like.

In addition, this electronic exchange 1 has a plurality of terminals 2m, 2b,
. . 2n is connected, and the voice mail control device 4 is also connected via the trunk circuit 3 for voice mail. A search code file 5 and a voice mail file 6 are connected to this control device 4 as storage means.

Here, the search code file 5 files a predetermined search code corresponding to search conditions such as business name, sender name, or degree of urgency in order to identify voice mail in an area corresponding to the terminal, and This is to file the starting address, or address, of the memory area where the data is stored. The voice mail file 6 is used to accumulate and store voice mails together with the starting address of the memory area. In this case, the search code file 5 and voice mail file 6 may be one storage means.

Next, its effect will be explained.

Now, when terminal 2a registers voice mail with terminal 2b, first off-hook terminal 2a and dial a specific code. Then, the electronic exchange 1 detects that the code is a voice mail registration code and connects the terminal 11 to the voice mail control device 4 via the trunk circuit 3. In this state, terminal 2m enters a predetermined search code α corresponding to the business name, sender's name, or degree of urgency in order to identify the phone number and voicemail of terminal 2b, which is the destination of the message. When the voice mail control device 4 identifies the code α, it writes the search code α in the area allocated to the terminal 2b in the search code file 5 shown in FIG. In other words, write the address heat. Next, when a voice message is input from the terminal 2a, the voice mail control device 4 receives it and converts it from analog to digital if necessary! 2 is stored in the voicemail file 6 at the address of the voicemail file 6 shown in FIG. 3 as an analog signal. After that, when the terminal 2m goes on-hook, the voice mail control device 4 detects the end of voice mail registration and starts the voice mail of the voice mail file 6.

Write the exit code at the end of the sage.

Thereafter, voicemails B, C, - are stored in the voicemail file 6 of the terminal 2bl in the same manner.

Next, when terminal 2b searches for a desired mail among the voicemails sent to itself, and now tries to search for the one with search code β, first off-hook terminal 2b and dial a specific code. . Then the electronic exchange
recognizes that the code is a voicemail reception code, and connects the terminal 2b and voicemail control device 4 to the trunk circuit 3.
Connect via. In this state, when you dial search 7-to1β on terminal 2b, the voicemail control device 4 returns 2
The search code β is searched from the memory area of terminal 2bK-@74 in the search code file 5 shown in the figure, and the address b of the memory area containing the voice mail corresponding to this search code β is read. As a result, voicemail B is extracted from the corresponding address b of the voicemail file 6, and the voicemail control device 4 performs digital/analog conversion, band expansion, etc. as necessary, and then sends it to the terminal 2b via the trunk circuit 3. sent to.

In this case, if the search code β inputted by the terminal 2b is not stored in the search code file 5, the voice mail control device 4 sends a message without a search code to the terminal 2b using a special sound or voice synthesis. Also, if the search code is not entered within a certain period of time after the terminal 2b enters the specific code for receiving voicemail,
Alternatively, if a code indicating no search code is input, the voice mail control device 4 determines that there is no search code, and sequentially transmits the stored voice messages to the terminal 2b.

However, according to such a system, a voicemail is stored along with a predetermined search code corresponding to search conditions such as business name, sender name, or urgency level, and the recipient can enter the desired search code. By inputting , only the corresponding mail is extracted and sent, so the recipient can ignore unnecessary mail and immediately know only the desired mail contents. As a result, urgent emails can be obtained immediately, and emergency communications can be quickly responded to. Additionally, the time it takes to listen to the contents of an email can be greatly reduced by only reading the necessary parts, which can greatly improve work efficiency.

Next, FIG. 4 shows another embodiment of this invention. In this case, in FIG. 4, the electronic exchange 1 has terminals ga, t 2”t ”・281 y 2bt divided into blocks.
t 2'h...2bi and 2n,,2! ltp・-
・In addition to connecting 2ni, voice mail devices 7m, 7b, . . . 7fi are connected to each block. Here, the voice mail device 7a.

7b,...7n are the trunk circuits 7 as shown in FIG.
1 voice mail control device 72 and a search code file 73 and voice mail file 74 as storage means.

Next, its effect will be explained.

Now, when sending voice mail from terminal 2 to terminal 2b, first off-hook terminal 2 and dial a specific code for registering the voice mail and the telephone number of the destination terminal. Then, the electronic exchange 1 recognizes that this specific code is the voicemail registration code and sends the terminal 2
The voice mail device 7b of the block to which b belongs is connected via a trunk circuit (not shown). In this state, terminal 2
When m inputs a search code as described above and then inputs a voice message, this data is identified by the voice mail control device 72 via the trunk circuit 71 of the voice mail device 7b, and the search code and voice memory are stored. The address of the memory area to be stored is stored in the search code file 73, and the voice message is stored as a voicemail in the voicemail file 74. Next, when the terminal 2b wants to receive a desired mail from among the voicemails sent to it, it first dials a specific code, and the electronic exchange 1 identifies that this code is a voicemail reception code. Then, the terminal 2b is connected to the voice mail control device 72 of the voice mail device 7b of the block to which the terminal 2b belongs. In this state, when the terminal 2b inputs a desired search code, the voicemail control device 72 searches for the search code from the memory area allocated to the terminal 2b in the search code file 73 and addresses the memory area corresponding to this code. Read out. This will cause voicemail file 7
A voicemail is sent from the corresponding address of 4 and sent to terminal 2b.

Note that the terminal 2a1 for registering voice mail is the specific code and destination terminal 2b! When dialing the telephone number of , and connecting to the voice mail device 7b to which this terminal 2b belongs, each file 73 of this voice mail device 7b is
．． When the memory of 74 is full, or when this voice mail device 7b is connected to another terminal, for example, the electronic exchange 1 sends the terminal 2a1 to which the voice mail is to be registered.
Connect the voice mail device 7m belonging to the terminal 2a,
The same operation as described above is performed. Also, if the memory of this voice mail device 7b is full or is connected to another terminal, an empty voice mail device in another block is searched for and the terminal 2a1
Connect and perform the operations described above. In such a case, when there is an empty file in the voicemail device 7b to which the destination terminal 2b belongs, or when there is no longer a terminal connected to the destination terminal 2b, the search code or voice mail is sent to the voicemail device 7b. All you have to do is transfer data such as email.

In this way, not only the same effect as the above-mentioned embodiment can be obtained, but also a voicemail control device with low capability is used as the voicemail control device in the voicemail device because access from multiple terminals does not concentrate on the voicemail device at the same time. It is economically advantageous.

Furthermore, if the voice mail device breaks down or its storage capacity becomes full, it can be replaced with another voice mail device, which facilitates the smooth operation of the system. Even more professional,
It is easy to manage files when the storage of voicemail files is full for each terminal grouped together, or to deal with failures.

Next, FIG. 6 shows another embodiment of the present invention. In this case, in FIG.
1a, 21b +++ 21n and voicemail device 22
are connected. Here, the compound terminals 21a, 21b...
・210 is a telephone handset 211 as shown in FIG.
Keyboard 212% Display device 213, Interface 214. A storage device 215. having a search code file 215a and a voice mail file 215b. It consists of an arithmetic and control unit 216, and the voice mail device 22 is used when the storage capacity of the composite terminals 21a, 21b, . It has the same configuration as the voice mail device 7.

Next, its effect will be explained.

Now, when the terminal 21m sends a voice mail to the terminal 21b, the terminal 21m off-hook the telephone/phone handset 211 shown in FIG. 7 and inputs a specific code.

In this case, the specific code may be input using the keyboard 212. When the electronic exchange l recognizes this code as a voice mail registration code, it connects the terminal 21m to the arithmetic and control unit 216 of the terminal 21b via the interface 214. In this situation, the voicemail title, business name, sender's name, urgency level, etc. are input as the voicemail search code using the keyboard 212 of the terminal 21m. Then, it is identified by the arithmetic and control unit 216 of the terminal 21b, and the search code file 215 is stored in the storage device 215 of the terminal 21b.
The search code and the address of the memory area where voicemails are stored are stored in a, and voice messages are stored in the voicemail file 215b of the device 215. Next, the terminal 21b causes the display device 213 to display all the titles in the voice mail addressed to itself.

When it is desired to find a desired voice mate among these, the terminal 21b takes off-hook the telephone handset 211, or inputs a corresponding code from the keyboard 212 to input a specific code. Then, the arithmetic and control unit 216 in the terminal 21b recognizes that the code is for displaying the entire title of the received voicemail, and stores it in the storage device 21.
Only the titles are read out from the search code file 215 in 5 and displayed one after another on the display device 213. Terminal 21
When b inputs the code number corresponding to the desired title from this display or the title itself using the keyboard 212.

A search code corresponding to the input code is searched from the search code file 2151, and the address of the memory area corresponding to this code is read.

As a result, the voice mail is extracted from the corresponding address of the voice mail file 215b, and this is sent to the terminal 21b.

Note that here, when the terminal 21m attempts to register voice mail to the terminal 21b, the storage device 215 of the terminal 21b
If the storage is full or another terminal is connected, the terminal connects to the voicemail device 22 and temporarily stores the destination terminal number, search code, voicemail, etc. The information stored in the voice mail device 22 is transferred to the storage device 215 of the terminal 21b when there is space in the storage device 215 of the terminal 21b or when there is no connection to another terminal.

In this way, not only the same effect as the above-mentioned embodiment can be obtained, but also the title can be displayed on the display device like a general e-mail system, and the necessary message can be found from among the titles, so that the sender can communicate with the sender. There is no need to discuss search codes between recipients in advance, and the system can be operated more smoothly.

In addition, since the title is displayed on the display device, you can see at a glance what kind of messages have been stored and stored, allowing you to more accurately select only the emails you need, which further contributes to improved work efficiency. It is possible. Furthermore, since each terminal has a storage device, it is possible to manage voicemail when it becomes full.

It also makes it easier to deal with failures.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments, but can be implemented with appropriate modifications without changing the gist.

For example, when sending a voicemail from a multifunction device, the receiver can listen to the voicemail by inputting a document from the keyboard of the multifunction device in the section that becomes the heading between the two voicemails. It is also possible to display the document entered above.

In addition, by using a voice mail system and an e-mail system together and storing voice mail and e-mail in the same storage device with the same search code, the recipient can retrieve the e-mail by inputting the search code. C.F.
It is also possible to listen to the explanation by voice mail while displaying it on the LT terminal, and this is more effective when the information in the electronic mail is a drawing or a table graph.

Further, the search code can be entered from any means such as a rotary dial of a regular telephone, a push button, a push button dial of a phone telephone, a special button or a keyboard of an electronic key telephone having function buttons, etc., and is not limited to this. Furthermore, by adding a kakana-kanji conversion function to the arithmetic processing unit of the multifunction terminal, the receiver can display the search code or document entered in kana characters from the keyboard by the voicemail sender in kana-kanji converted characters. 4. Can be displayed on the screen.

As described above, according to the present invention, by storing voice mails together with predetermined search codes corresponding to search conditions such as urgency, only the necessary mails can be efficiently retrieved from among multiple voice mails. A removable voicemail system can be provided.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is an internal configuration diagram of a search code file used in the same embodiment, FIG. 3 is an internal configuration diagram of a voicemail file used in the same embodiment, and FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing another embodiment of the invention. , FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a voice mail device used in the same embodiment, FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a different embodiment of the invention, and FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a composite terminal used in the same embodiment. It is a block diagram. 1-...Electronic exchange 2a 2b-2n, 2”ip
2m, -2m1゜2t) t e 21) t -, 2b
t#2n, , 211! , -2n i -, Terminal 3.71...Trunk circuit 4.72...Voice mail control device 5.73...Search code file 6.74...Voice mail file 7a, 7b, -- -7n, 22-Voice mail device 21a, 21b, ・21n... Composite terminal 211
... Telephone handset 212 ... Keyboard 2
13--Display device 214--Interface 215--Memory bag @ 216...Arithmetic and control unit Fig. 1 Fig. 2 WJ11!311 4WA] Fig. 5 Fig. 6 Fig. 7

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1)*y) comprises a work, a plurality of terminals connected to this network, a search code determined in advance according to search conditions, and a storage means for storing voice mail in correspondence with this code, When the search conditions and voicemail input from the sending terminal are stored in the storage means -
A voice mail system characterized in that by inputting a desired search code on a receiving terminal, a voice mail corresponding to this code is read out. (2) Divide the above terminals into blocks and each professional,
Claim i! I [Voice mail system described in Section 1. (3) The voice mail system according to claim 1, wherein the terminal is a composite terminal having the storage means, a keyboard for inputting the search code, and a display device for displaying the search code. system.