JPS60260263A - Mail communication system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To switch quickly the equipment for the titled system to the corresponding mode by generating a tone signal at mode changeover so as to identify easily the end and start of a voice mail in a voice/data mail mixed communication system. CONSTITUTION:A tone signal f1 is transmissted to a mail communication equipment at the reception side through a line 6 for a prescribed time from a tone generator by the command of a CPU1 with a prescribed space interval after the transfer of a digital data from the mail communication equipment at the sender side at data mail. When the equipment of the reception side uses a tone decoder 9 so as to detect the signal f1, it is informed to the CPU1 so as to throw a switch 7 to a voice storage device 5. After the transmission of the tone signal f1, the sensor side throws the switch 7 to the position of the voice storage device 5 so as to transmit analog voice signal. In selecting the data mode, the tone signal f2 of the generator 8 throws the switch 7 to the position of a modulator-demodulator 3.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to a mail communication system for a mail communication device that performs mixed communication using analog information for voice and digital information for data.

[Technical background of the invention]

Conventionally, this type of mail communication device has a device that stores voice data as analog information and data as digital information.
This stored information is transferred to the other party's similar device via a line as an email.

FIG. 1 shows an example of the configuration of a conventional mixed voice/data mail communication system. It is composed of a mail communication device 2, a modem device 3, a data storage device 4, and a voice storage device 5. Such mail communication devices are connected by a line 6, and a changeover switch 7 is provided at the input/output section of each mail communication device, which allows the line 6 to be switched to the modem 3 side or the audio storage device s side. Communication is performed by switching between data mail, which is sent and received using digital information, and voice mail, which is sent and received using analog information.

Note that the example in FIG. 1 includes a data storage device 4 and a voice storage device 5.
Although the two storage devices are separate devices, if a magnetic tape device or the like is used, both storage devices can be configured with a single piece of hardware, but for the sake of convenience, they are shown as separate devices here.

In the conventional e-mail communication system shown in Figure 1, two types of e-mail, data mail and voice mail, are mixed in communication, so it is necessary to distinguish between the types of e-mail and control (manage) them. )There is a need to. This management involves selecting either the modulation/demodulation device 3 or the audio storage device 5 side by switching the changeover switch 7 depending on the type of mail.

Conventionally, as a method for distinguishing between the types of mail as described above, there has been a method using a switching message as shown in FIG. In this method, the data mail is first transferred to the receiving device, and then the switching message is similarly transferred to the receiving device to switch the receiving device from data mode to voice mode, and The originating device that received the response to the switching message is switched from data mode to audio%.
- mode, and then the procedure is to transfer the voice mail from the sending device to the receiving device. Here, data mode refers to the state in which data, which is digital information, is sent and received, and voice mode refers to the state in which voice, which is analog information, is sent and received. Data mail is in data mode, and voice mail is in voice mode. becomes.

[Problems with Background Art] j Here, there is a problem as to how the receiving device determines the end of the voice mail. To solve this problem, conventional methods have used information such as the length and sender of a voicemail as a short digital mail, which is forwarded from the sender to the voicemail sender and uses this information to calculate the end timing of the voicemail. method was adopted.

Alternatively, a method was adopted in which the length of the voice mail was set constant in advance.

However, the method described above in which the receiver side knows when the voice mail has ended has the following drawbacks. First, in the former method, it is necessary to add a data mail part to the voice mail, which increases the line usage time.Also, since there is no way to return from voice mode to data mode,
Once a voice mail is sent, it is not possible to continue sending mail, and in such a case, the communication must be terminated and then restarted, causing considerable inconvenience to the user. Furthermore, in the latter method of fixing the length of voice mail, the receiving device has to monopolize the line even during times when there is no information, and has to pay unnecessary line usage fees.

[Purpose of the invention]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above drawbacks, it is an object of the present invention to provide a mail communication system that can easily identify the start and end of a voice mail and quickly switch the device to a corresponding mode.

[Summary of the invention]

The present invention provides a tone generator (switching signal generating means) for generating a mail type switching signal to each mail communication device, and a tone generator (switching signal generating means) for generating a mail type switching signal to each mail communication device, in a voice/data mail mixed communication system that communicates a mixture of voice, which is analog information, and data, which is digital information. A tone decoder (switching signal detection means) is provided to receive and detect this switching signal, and when switching from data mode to voice mode, the transmitting side sends a switching signal from a tone generator to the receiving side for a fixed period of time, and the receiving side receives the tone. When a switching signal is detected by the decoder, the device is switched to voice mode, and when the sending side finishes sending out the tone signal, it switches the device to voice mode and starts sending voice mail, and then switches from voice mode to data mode. At this time, the tone generator on the sending side sends another switching signal to the receiving side for a fixed period of time, and when the tone decoder on the receiving side detects this switching signal, it identifies the end of the voice mail and switches the device to data mode. By adopting a mail communication method in which the sending side switches the device to data mode and starts sending data mail after sending out this other switching signal,
This aims to achieve the above objectives.

[Embodiment of the Invention] An embodiment of the voice/data mail mixed communication system of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings, with the same parts as in the conventional example being given the same reference numerals. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a mixed voice/data mail communication system to which the mail communication system of the present invention is applied. The email communication device is a central processing unit (CP).
U) Consisting of 1, a communication control device 2, a modulation/demodulation device 3, a data storage device 4, and a voice storage device 5, and further includes a tone generator 8 that generates a tone signal (switching signal), and a tone generator 8 that receives and detects the tone signal. A decoder 9 is provided.Although each mail communication device is provided with both a tone generator 8 and a tone decoder 9,
In the example of FIG. 3, for convenience, the mail communication device K)-en generator 8 on the sending side is used.

A tone decoder 9 is provided in the mail communication device on the receiving side. However, in reality, both mail communication devices function as both a sender and a receiver.

A modem device 3 or a voice storage device 5 of the mail communication device is connected to a line 6 via a changeover switch 7.・F-
The tone generator 8 inputs a command from the central processing unit 1, and transmits a tone signal to the line 61/c according to the command.

The tone decoder 9 inputs the tone signal through the circuit 6 and outputs the tone signal detection signal to the central processing unit 1.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained according to the data mode/audio mode switching procedure shown in FIG. During data mail (data mode), the sender's mail device (left side in Figure 3) switches switch 7 to the modem 3 side, and the receiver's mail communication rack 1 (right side in Figure 3) also switches in the same way. Switch 7 to the modem 3 side. In the mail communication device on the sending side, the CPU takes out digital data from the data storage device 4 and sends it to the modem 3 through the communication control device 2, and the digital data modulated by the modem 3 is sent to the circuit 96.

In the mail communication device on the receiving side, the digital data transmitted through the line 6 is first demodulated by the modulation/demodulation device 3 and then sent to the CPUt through the communication control device 2, and the CPU 1 stores it in the data storage device 4.

That is, during data mail, digital data is transferred from data storage device 4 to data storage device 4.

The switching from the data mode to the voice mode as described above is carried out as follows. In other words, the sender's mail communication device waits a certain blank period after transferring the digital data, and then switches to the CP.
In response to a command from U1, tone signal f1 is sent from tone generator 8 through one line 6 for a fixed period of time to the mail communication device on the receiving side. The mail communication device on the receiving side constantly monitors the tone signal transmitted through the line 6 using the tone decoder 9, and when it detects the tone signal f1, it notifies the CPUI of this. Then, the CPU 1 determines that the voice mail has started, and switches the switch 7 to the voice storage device 5 side.

When the sender's mail communication device finishes transmitting the tone signal f1O, it switches the switch 7 to the voice storage device 5@, and starts sending analog voice signals from the voice storage device 5 to the receiver's mail communication device through the line 6.

Next, switching from voice mode to data mode is performed as follows. In other words, the CPUI of the sender's mail communication device
In response to the command, the tone generator 8 sends the tone signal f to the mail communication device on the receiving side through the circuit @6. Then, the tone decoder 9 of the mail communication device on the receiving side receives this tone signal f.

is detected and this is notified to CPUBc. CPU1 is
This tone signal f! The end of the voice mail is recognized by the detection of , and the changeover switch 7 is switched to the modem 3 side. When the mail communication device on the sending side finishes sending out the tone signal ft, the CPU 1 switches the changeover switch 7 to the modem device 3@, and sets it to the data mode.

According to this embodiment, a tone generator 8 that generates a tone signal and a tone decoder 9 that detects the tone signal are added to the mail communication device, and by generating this tone signal at the time of mode switching, one-on-do mail is started. Sourness or termination can be easily identified. Therefore, the CPU 1 of the mail communication device can automatically switch the mode from data mode to voice mode or in the opposite direction, and several types of mail can be sent with the -f operation. , the burden on the operator can be significantly reduced. Further, since the length of the voice mail can be set arbitrarily, the line can be used efficiently, and since there is no need to add data mail to the voice mail, the time for using the line can be reduced.

In the above embodiment, 1ri and 1202 types of signals with different frequencies are used as tone signals, and the tone signal f1 is generated when switching from the data mode to the voice mode, and the tone signal f is generated when switching from the voice mode to the data mode. , but the same effect can be obtained by using only one tone signal frequency and applying a method of alternately switching from data mode to voice mode and from voice mode to data mode. Also, depending on the system, it is necessary to always precede the voice mail with additional information as data, but in this case, the transition from data mode to voice mode is performed by a call information switching message,
Almost the same effect can be obtained by using the tone signal described above when switching from voice mode to data mode. Furthermore, although the above embodiments have described switching between data call and voice mail, the present invention can also be applied to switching between telephone calls and voice mail at a telephone terminal. A specific example of this is an application cage system in which, after a call, a voice mail received in advance is conveyed to the other party as a message.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the email communication method of the present invention, 10
1. -4. . , 11. -7゜'dlE-j4 j h
' has the effect of easily identifying the start and end of a voice mail and quickly switching the device to the corresponding mode.

4. Figure M6 No. 1'', i Simple explanation Figure 1 is a configuration diagram showing an example of a conventional voice/data mail mixed communication system, and Figure 2 shows data/voice mode switching in the system shown in Figure 1. Diagram showing the procedure, Part 3
Figure 4 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a mixed voice/data mail communication system to which the mail communication method of the present invention is applied.
The figure is a diagram showing a data/voice mode switching procedure in the system shown in FIG. 3.

1...Central processing unit 2...Communication control device 3...
Modulation/demodulation device 4... Data storage device 5... Audio storage device 7... Selector switch 8... Tone generator 9... Tone decoder agent Patent attorney Nori Chikaba Yu (and 1 other person)

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) Switching signal generating means for generating a mail type switching signal to each mail communication device in a voice/data mail mixed communication system that mixedly communicates voice, which is analog information, in voice mode and data, which is digital information, in data mode. and a switching signal detection means for receiving and detecting this switching signal, and transmitting the switching signal from the sending mail communication device to the receiving mail communication device at the end or start of each mode, and detecting the switching signal. The mail communication device on the receiving side switches its device to a mode corresponding to the switching signal, and the mail communication device on the sending side, which has finished transmitting the switching signal, similarly switches its device to a mode corresponding to the switching signal, and then An e-mail communication method characterized by performing e-mail communication in the corresponding mode. In the e-mail communication system, when switching from data mode to voice mode, a switching message with accompanying information is used.
2. The mail communication system according to claim 1, wherein the sender's mail communication device transmits the switching signal to the receiver's mail communication device only when switching from voice mode to data mode.