WO1993001597A1

WO1993001597A1 - Telephone recording device

Info

Publication number: WO1993001597A1
Application number: PCT/AU1992/000330
Authority: WO
Inventors: Brian Kenneth Grant Allan; David Frew Bonnin
Original assignee: Brian Kenneth Grant Allan; David Frew Bonnin
Priority date: 1991-07-04
Filing date: 1992-07-06
Publication date: 1993-01-21

Abstract

A telephone training arrangement and method are described wherein a unilateral circuit is electronically connected to the telephone so that it keeps as a separate signal the audio signal from the microphone of the training telephone. Such signals originating only from the microphone are able to be recorded consecutively without intervening responses for subsequent training analysis so protecting the privacy of the other responding person and improving the time needed for the training process.

Description

TELEPHONE RECORDING DEVICE

This invention relates to telephone training techniques.

A previous system used for telephone response training has had a student sit in an isolated room in which a microphone is placed alongside the student so as to pick up only the spoken words of the student. The student is placed therefore in an artificial environment which is different from the one in which they will work after their training.

There is a further problem which is that the recording of a telephone conversation can be illegal and can also constitute an invasion of privacy.

It is an object of this invention to overcome this problem in such a way that efficient training can be now made possible without it being possibly illegal or requiring the permission of all parties or invading the privacy of separate parties.

In accord with this invention there is provided a telephone training arrangement in which the audio frequency signal of a user of the telephone is electronically kept separately available for recording distinct from any other incoming audio signal.

Accordingly the invention may be said to reside in a telephone training arrangement including unilateral circuit means, microphone means adapted to convert speech spoken into a mouthpiece of the telephone into electrical signals representing the speech, and the electrical signals representing the speech being fed to the input of the unilateral circuit means.

Reference to a unilateral circuit means a circuit that electronically will be selecting or collecting the signal from one side of a telephone conversation only.

Alternatively, the invention may be said to reside in a telephone arrangement including an earphone or loudspeaker, and a microphone the microphone being such and coupled to the electronic components within the telephone such that it converts audio sounds into an electrical signal representing the audio sounds, including circuit means so that the electrical signal will be fed as an input to a unilateral circuit means adapted to prevent signals appearing at an output of the unilateral circuit not originating from the microphone.

Preferably, there are recording means connected to the output of the unilateral circuit.

Preferably, the recording means are adapted to sense and record only during the period that there are electrical signals representing speech at the output of the microphone.

Preferably the telephone arrangement includes means by which a person using the telephone arrangement is given a visual or audio signal when their speech is being recorded.

Preferably a person utilising the telephone training arrangement can control whether their speech may be being recorded. By such means a person using the arrangement can interrupt the use the telephone without having their conversation recorded.

In preference, the recording means record onto a suitable storage tape and the playback tape speed of the tape recorder is different from that used to playback commercially recorded music tapes. By such means specialised equipment is required, compared with commonly available tape players, to play back the recorded speech so providing security. Commonly available tape players are those used to play back commercially recorded music tapes.

In another form the invention may be said to reside in a telephone training arrangement for telephonic communication over telephonic communication systems provided by telephone authorities including dialling means adapted to provide dial signals suitable for establishing an outgoing telephonic communication link, alarm means adapted to indicate an incoming call, speaker means adapted to convert incoming telephonic communication signals to audio sound, microphone means adapted to convert audio sound into electrical signals, signal processing means adapted to process the electrical signals and transmit outgoing telephonic communication signals representative of the electrical signals, and unilateral circuit means adapted to pass the electrical signals from the microphone means to the signal processing means being arranged such that only outgoing signals from the microphone can be detected at the input of the unilateral circuit means.

Preferably, the unilateral circuit means includes an amplifier connected to the input of the unilateral circuit. Further, preferably, the output of the amplifier is attenuated by an attenuator the output of which is the output of the unilateral circuit means. In one preferred form the overall gain of the unilateral circuit means is unity.

Preferably, the unilateral circuit includes a transformer, a primary winding of the transformer being centre tapped and each side of the primary winding being wound in opposite directions each having substantially the same number of windings, the microphone being connected across one side of the primary winding from the centre tap to an end, and a secondary winding of the transformer being the output of the unilateral circuit means, the other means being connected across the primary of the transformer.

Preferably, the unilateral circuit includes at the input an optical transmitter.

Preferably, there are control means to effect recording of the signal at the input of the unilateral circuit means when a call is made or received.

Preferably, the control means are further adapted to selectively record calls made or received.

In another form the invention resides in a method for training persons in the use of telephones utilising a telephone arrangement in which the speech of a user of the telephone is electronically kept separate from the speech of any distant other user, the method including the steps of recording only the speech of the user and then subsequently playing back the recording and assessing the speech for any one or more of the qualities of introduction techniques, personality of the speaker, efficiency, telephone etiquette, structure of information gained, calls to hold and duration, personal motivation, product knowledge, product presentation and confidence.

Preferably a selected proportion only of calls made are monitored. Telephone answering techniques for any corporate body can be extremely important and it is an ongoing difficulty that management may not know firstly that the techniques themselves are not as good as they could be, and secondly if various training programmes have been put into place, the fact that such training has resulted in some performance improvement. There is then the ongoing problem of being able to monitor this on a basis that will not be unduly costly.

Preferably, in conjunction with an apparatus having the features hitherto described, there are then means by which one or more of the telephones in an organisation can be monitored but such that a preselected proportion of the total connect time with respect to any telephone can be monitored. In preference, the monitoring includes recording the selected connect time.

Clearly, when a first training programme is proposed, a larger proportion of connect time will be used and perhaps for a period 100% of all connect time will be selected to be monitored. After a training period, a significantly smaller selection of the connect time can be monitored. This can be to monitor first that the results of any training programme are being adhered to, and secondly whether bad habits might be returning.

In order to gain a realistic idea of the telephone techniques of personnel of the organisation, it is not enough simply to connect on a random basis for a period that can be quite randomly selected. Obviously, infrequent recording of parts of conversation would be of limited value to the process of monitoring. Further, recording only part of a conversation can lose the context of the conversation and also important parts may be missed.

In a typical preferred instance, there might at the first be the monitoring and recording of connect time during a first two weeks. After this initial period monitoring and recording would be of part of the total connect time.

During monitoring a number of aspects are considered. Typical of these aspects which are given a grading are "introduction techniques, personality of the speaker, efficiency, telephone etiquette, structure of information gained, calls to hold and duration, personal motivation, product knowledge, product presentation and confidence". By having an apparatus which after the initial period will on either a random or pseudo random basis select only a selected percentage of the total connect time, there can then be provided for a cost which is significantly less than a full monitoring cost, and ongoing analysis. Such monitoring and recording is of considerable lengths of continuous conversation and preferably is of whole calls not just part of calls.

By generally therefore providing first that only the person under the control of the employer is having their discussion recorded, secondly, that the person having the discussion recorded is given full visual or audible warning that this is the case and thirdly that they have the option at any time of connecting a privacy override gives a very excellent technique for training support.

Preferably, use of the privacy override is also recorded on any recording means, such as a tape, though the conversation is not recorded. This can be used to determine if a person uses the privacy override at all times rather than only for private calls.

For a better understanding of the invention it will now be described with reference to preferred embodiments which shall be described with the assistance of drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 shows in simplified schematic form of a circuit commonly incorporated in telephones;

FIG. 2 shows a sketch of a telephone exhibiting the invention;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of one preferred embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 4 is a simplified schematic diagram of a second preferred embodiment; and,

FIG.5 is a block diagram of a third embodiment.

Illustrated in FIG. 1 is a known circuit used to couple telephone lines 1 and 2 to a telephone set. This is a common circuit found in many telephone sets. Here the dialling and bell circuitry of a telephone set is omitted for clarity. It will be appreciated that the invention interfaces with the telephone system. A telephone exhibiting the invention differs from a standard telephone in working details only as described later.

To better understand the invention, a brief discussion of the circuit of FIG. 1 will now be given. The telephone set connects to telephone signal lines 1 and 2. It will be appreciated that this is part of the telephone system provided by a telephone authority. The details of the communication lines provided by a telephone authority do not form part of the invention and can take any of the forms known to the art.

Line matching of the telephone set to the signal lines 1 and 2 is provided by resistor 4, varistors 3 and 5, capacitors 6 and 7, and resistor 8. These provide impedance matching of the telephone set to the signal lines 1 and 2. Impedance matching is generally necessary to compensate for variations in line impedance and hence voltage and current variations in a telephone system.

Current flowing in the signal lines 1 and 2 cause current flow in a speaker 9. Variations in the current in the signal lines 1 and 2 result in the speaker 9 transmitting an output sound in accord with the driving current.

Speaker 9 is often within a handpiece of a telephone set, the handpiece being adapted to allow the speaker 9 to be brought in close proximity to the ear when in use. Further, a handpiece conventionally incorporates a microphone 10.

The microphone 10 is used to modulate current flowing in the signal lines 1 and 2. A resistor 11 is connected in series with the microphone 10 and together are connected between the signal lines 1 and 2.

Side-tone balancing is used to transmit a portion of a signal generated by the microphone 10 to the speaker 9. This is intended to allow the user to hear what they are saying but not enough to cause the user to lower their voice. Side-tone balancing is achieved with transformer 12 which include two primary windings 13 and 14, and one secondary winding 15. The primary windings 13 and 14 are wound to generate opposing magnetic flux. For the purposes of later reference the signal lines connected to the microphone 10 will be referred to as lines 16 and 17.

FIG. 2 shows a sketch of an apparatus exhibiting the invention which includes a telephone set 18 including a key pad 19, a telephone handpiece 20 and a cable 21 connecting the telephone set 18 to a telephone system. The handpiece 20 is connected to the body of the telephone set 18 by a cable 22. The cable 22 connecting the handpiece 20 to the telephone set 18 includes cables connecting to a microphone within a mouthpiece of the handpiece 20. These cables would be shielded against cross talk from cables and signals going to an earpiece of the telephone handpiece 20.

There are provided two Light Emitting Diodes (LE.D.s) 23 and 24 that visually indicate when the speech of an operator using the handpiece 20 is being recorded. L.E.D. 23 would be a green LE.D. showing that the speech is not being recorded and L.E.D. 24 would be a red L.E.D. showing that speech is being recorded. At any one time one L.E.D. only would be lit. A switch 25 is provided so the operator of the telephone set 18 can ensure their speech is not being recorded.

There is provided a cable 26 connecting the telephone set 18 to a recording unit 27. The cable 26 includes a signal line on which speech in electrical form is transmitted to the recording unit 27, and a control line that is used to control whether the recording unit 27 is recording or is not recording. The recording unit 27 would incorporate magnetic tape recording means as know to the art.

Now referring to FIG. 3, a first embodiment will be described. The microphone 10 is connected to the unilateral circuit means 28 by shielded cable 29. The electrical signal on the cable 29 is passed through switch 25 to a pre-amplifier 30 and then to the recording unit 27 via cable 26. Switch 25 is controlled by the operator to determine whether the speech of the operator is being recorded or not. Switch 25 also controls whether LE.D. 23 or LE.D. 24 is lit by supplying power from a positive voltage rail 31 to either LE.D. 23 or LE.D. 24 that are connected to a negative voltage rail 32. A resistor 33 ensures current limiting of the current flowing through either of the L.E.D.S 23 or 24.

A signal line 34 within the cable 29 is used to indicate to the recording means 27 whether to record or not to record. Switch 25 also controls the control signal line within cable 26. This is done by simply providing a high signal or positive voltage signal to control signal line 34. To do this positive rail 31 is connected through switch 35 and then through switch 25. Switch 35 is activated by the telephone handpiece 20 being lifted from the telephone set cradle and closes when the telephone handpiece 20 is removed from the telephone set cradle. It will be understood that switch 25 is a multiple pole multiple throw switch.

The unilateral circuit means 28 includes a pre-amplifier 36 connected to line 29, the output of which is fed through attenuator circuit 37 to the input of amplifier 38. The output of amplifier 38 is fed through attenuator circuit 39 to the telephone output line connections 16 and 17 via transformer 40. Transformer 40 would have one winding 41 connected to attenuation circuit 39, and a second winding 42 connected to between the telephone input lines 16 and 17. The overall signal gain of the unilateral circuit means 28 is unity. This is achieved by attenuator circuits 37 and 39 adjusting the signal gain to one. By such means a signal appearing on lines 16 and 17 will be in effect reduced by the gains of the amplifiers and attenuator circuits prior to appearing on line 29. The amplifiers are standard operational amplifiers. By such means and by selecting appropriate component values any signal appearing on lines 16 and 17 that has not originated from the microphone 10 can be sufficiently reduced so as to be effectively undetectable and therefore unrecordabie by the recording unit 27.

A second embodiment is illustrated in FIG. 4. The microphone 10 is connected to a power supply 43, and to a transformer 44. Transformer 44, which is the unilateral circuit in this embodiment, has two primary windings 45 and 46, and one secondary winding 47. The windings 45 and 46 are wound to generate magnetic flux in opposing directions. Further, the flux generated by windings 45 and 46 will be equal in magnitude for the same current flowing in each winding. The windings 45 and 46 are connected. The terminals of winding 47 are connected to signal lines 16 and 17.

The one terminal of winding 45 and one terminal of winding 46, as shown in FIG. 4, are connected via switch 25 to the recording unit 27 via signal lines 48 and 49. These signal lines would be within cable 26. The workings of the circuit illustrated in FIG. 4 will now be described. When speaking into a microphone 10 time variant current is induced to flow in winding 45. This current flow causes a magnetic flux to be generated in the transformer 44. The flux causes time variant current to flow in winding 47 which modulates current flowing in the signal lines 1 and 2. A current is also caused to flow in winding 46. Due to the winding orientation of the windings

45 and 46 the voltage generated between signal lines 48 and 49 will be approximately double that across the terminals of winding 45.

Signals originating from the telephone signal lines 1 and 2 which will be heard over the speaker 9 will cause current to flow through winding 47. This current causes a magnetic flux to be generated. Due to the orientation of windings 45 and 46 there will be substantially no current induced in the signal lines 48 and 49.

A third embodiment as illustrated in FIG. 5 includes the arrangement that the unilateral circuit means 28 includes a photo-transmitter 50 connected to the microphone 10 through suitable drive circuit and a photo-receiver 51 connected to the telephone lines through suitable circuitry. By having only a photo-transmitter 50 connected to the microphone side of the unilateral circuit means 28 and no photo-receiver connected to the microphone side of the unilateral circuit means 28 then there is no significant direct signal transfer of signals appearing at the output to the unilateral circuit means 28 to the microphone side of the unilateral circuit means 28.

Claims

Claims:

1. A telephone training arrangement in which the audio frequency signal of a user of the telephone is electronically kept separately available for recording distinct from any other incoming audio signal.

2. A telephone training arrangement including unilateral circuit means, microphone means adapted to convert speech spoken into a mouthpiece of the telephone into electrical signals representing the speech, and the electrical signals representing the speech being fed to the input of the unilateral circuit means.

3. A telephone training arrangement as in either of claim 1 or 2 including recording means adapted to sense and record on storage means the audio frequency signal of a user of the telephone which is electronically kept separately available for this purpose.

4. A telephone training arrangement as in claim 3 including visual or audio signal means to indicate to a person using the telephone training arrangement that their input only is being recorded.

5. A telephone training arrangement as in any one of claims 3 or 4 including means by which a person utilising the telephone training arrangement can stop their input from being recorded at that time.

6. A telephone training arrangement as in any one of the preceding claims wherein there is a tape recorder connected to the telephone training arrangement such that the frequency signal of the user which is being kept electronically separate is the only signal source coupled to the recorder.

7. A telephone training arrangement as in claim 6 wherein the playback tape speed of the tape recorder is different from that used to playback commercially recorded music tapes.

8. A telephone training arrangement for telephonic communication over telephonic communication systems provided by telephone authorities including dialling means adapted to provide dial signals suitable for establishing an outgoing telephonic communication link, alarm means adapted to indicate an incoming call, speaker means adapted to convert incoming telephonic communication signals to audio sound, microphone means adapted to convert audio sound into electrical signals, signal processing means adapted to process the electrical signals and transmit outgoing telephonic communication signals representative of the electrical signals, unilateral circuit means adapted to pass the electrical signals from the microphone means to the signal processing means, the arrangement being characterised in that substantially only outgoing signals can be detected at the input to the unilateral circuit means and substantially none of the incoming signals can be sensed at the input to the unilateral circuit means.

9. A telephone training arrangement as in claim 9 wherein there is a tape recorder connected to the telephone training arrangement such that the frequency signal of the user which is being kept electronically separate is the only signal source coupled to the recorder.

10. A telephone training arrangement as in claim 10 wherein the tape recorder is characterised such that the speed of the tape during recording will be different from playback tape speed used for commercially recorded music tapes.

11. A telephone training arrangement as in any one of claims 1 to 11 wherein the unilateral circuit means includes an amplifier connected to the input of the unilateral circuit.

12. A telephone training arrangement as in claim 12 wherein the output of the amplifier is attenuated by an attenuator the output of which is the output of the unilateral circuit means.

13. A telephone training arrangement as in claim 13 wherein the overall gain of the unilateral circuit means is substantially unity.

14. A telephone training arrangement as in any one of claims 2 to 11 wherein the unilateral circuit includes a transformer, a primary winding of the transformer being centre tapped and each side of the primary winding being wound in opposite directions each having substantially the same number of windings, the microphone being connected across one side of the primary winding from the centre tap to an end, and a secondary winding of the transformer being the output of the unilateral circuit means, the other means being connected across the primary of the transformer.

15. A telephone training arrangement as in any one of claims 2 to 11 wherein the unilateral circuit includes at the input an optical transmitter.

16. A telephone training arrangement as in any one of one of preceding claims 2 to 16 including control means to effect stopping of recording of the signal at the input of the unilateral circuit means when a call is made or received.

17. A telephone training arrangement as in claim 16 wherein the control means are further adapted to record calls made or received in accord with a prearranged programme.

18. A method for training persons in the use of telephones utilising a telephone arrangement in which the audio frequency signal of a user of the telephone is electronically kept separately available for recording distinct from any other incoming audio signal, the method including the steps of recording only the audio frequency signal of the user for subsequent assesment.

19. A method for training persons in the use of telephones utilising a telephone arrangement as in the last preceding claim further characterised in that the recording is such that the recording is stopped during any substantial period of no incoming signal to the recorder.

20. A method for training persons in the use of telephones utilising a telephone arrangement as in either of the two immediately preceding claims wherein the recording is subsequently played back and assessed for qualities including introduction techniques, personality of the speaker, efficiency, telephone etiquette, structure of information gained, calls put on hold and duration, personal motivation, product knowledge, product presentation and confidence.

21. A telephone training arrangement substantially as described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings.

22. A method of training persons in the use of telephones substantially as described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings.