JPH0257752B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] (1) Technical Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a voice storage system consisting of a voice storage device such as an answering machine and a telephone terminal, in which a receiver interrupts the reception operation from the voice storage device. The present invention relates to a voice storage device for ensuring that a received voice message is transmitted to a recipient when an operation is performed, and in particular to the playback of the voice message.

(2) Prior art and its problems Conventionally, in this type of voice storage system, a system has a function to interrupt the playback of a voice message when the receiver interrupts the reception while receiving a voice message from the system. A few were seen, but they involved interrupting the voice message and simply playing it back from where it was interrupted.

FIG. 1 is a time chart for conventional interruption and playback. In the figure, 1 is the envelope of the audio waveform,
2 is the time point at which the reception interruption factor occurs, 3 is the point in time when the reception interruption operation is performed, 4 is the interruption point in the playback of the voice message, 5 is the time point in the interruption release operation, and 6 is the point in time when the reproduction of the voice message is resumed. Note that the envelope after 6 is 4.
This corresponds to the envelope shown by the dotted line below. When the receiver performs a reception interruption operation and the reception of voice messages from the voice storage and exchange system is interrupted, the voice messages in the period from timings 2 to 4 are not received. Specifically, when a person speaks to someone while receiving a message, the user often abandons the receiving operation by, for example, taking the ear off the receiver.

In addition, as shown in Figure 1, if the interruption point is in the middle of a word, after the playback restart point 6, several hundred meters
sec, the receiver cannot understand the meaning of the received message. Furthermore, if reception is interrupted for a long time, the voice message will be resumed from the middle of the message after the interruption is canceled, so there is a possibility that the receiver may forget the message and become unclear about the meaning of the received message. It was hot.

(3) Purpose of the Invention In order to eliminate these drawbacks, the present invention provides a voice message that can prevent interruptions in received voice messages and poor reception when a receiver performs an operation to interrupt reception while receiving a voice message. The present invention provides an information storage device.

(4) Structure of the Invention In order to achieve this object, the voice information storage device according to the present invention is a voice storage device having the functions of storing voice messages, reproducing the stored voice messages, interrupting the reproduction, and resuming the reproduction. a switch means for instructing the audio storage device to suspend the reproduction of the stored voice message and to cancel the suspension and resume the reproduction; and an audio signal including the voice message. and a telephone capable of receiving from the voice storage device, the control of the playback start position of the voice storage device upon receiving the interruption command and the command to cancel the interruption by operating the switch means. an accumulation control circuit which performs the following, and when the telephone set receives an interruption by operating the switch means while receiving the voice message stored in the voice storage device, the telephone sets a command to cancel the interruption by operating the switch means. , the storage control circuit determines a temporary playback start position of the voice message at a position in the voice storage device that is an amount of time that corresponds to the length of the interruption from the position of the interruption of the voice message. , determine the final playback start position at a position that has gone back in time by a predetermined short time in the audio accumulator from the playback start position, or at the first silence detection position when going back in time; is configured to control the playback of the voice message to resume playback of the voice message.

The present invention will be explained in detail below.

FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of the present invention, in which reference numeral 10 denotes a telephone terminal such as a telephone, and 11 denotes a switch means that includes a signal source or a DC power source and has the function of instructing interruption and cancellation of a received message. For commonly used 600-type and 600P-type telephones, this can also be done by dialing or hooking (generally called hooking). 12 is an audio control signal separation/synthesis circuit (hereinafter referred to as a separation circuit); 13 is an audio memory, and generally a random access memory or a disk memory is used. 14 is an accumulation control circuit, 15 is an interruption time counting circuit (hereinafter referred to as a counting circuit), 16 is a silent period detection circuit, 17 is an audio accumulator, 18 is a communication circuit, 1
9 is a telephone.

The operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of the storage control circuit 14 shown in FIG. While the receiver is receiving a voice message from the voice storage 17 on the telephone 19, the switch means 11
When the interruption operation is performed in step 2, the separation circuit 12 extracts the interruption command signal from the switching means 11 via the communication circuit 18 in the audio storage 17, and the storage control circuit 14 extracts the interruption command signal in step 2. In the receiving step 3, the audio memory 13 and the separation circuit 12 are controlled to issue an instruction to interrupt the playback. In addition, the counting circuit 15
starts counting the length of interruption time.

Next, the recipient of the telephone 10 switches the switch means 11
When the interruption cancellation operation is performed in step 4, the interruption cancellation command signal is received by the accumulation control circuit 14 and the counting circuit 15 in step 4 in the same way as the interruption command signal, and the counting circuit 15 counts the interruption time length. After finishing, the result is sent to the storage control circuit 14 in step 5. The storage control circuit 14 determines the temporary playback start position of the voice message after the interruption is canceled in steps 6 and 6' according to the interruption time length. Generally, the length of interruption
The longer T _P , the temporary playback start position Ad ₂ becomes the playback interruption position.
It is determined by looking back to the past longer than Ad ₁ and using the calculation formula shown in equation (1).

Ad ₂ = Ad ₁ − _{A P} × T _P (1) (A _P is a conversion coefficient between the interruption time and the position difference in the audio memory, and Ad ₁ and Ad ₂ are, for example, Furthermore, in step 7, the storage control circuit 14 causes the silent section detection circuit 16 to search for the latest silent section position before the above-mentioned tentative playback start position from the audio signals stored in the audio memory 13. and instructs the storage control circuit 14 to send the result. Step 9
Then, the storage control circuit 14 determines this position as the final playback start position, and in step 10 the storage control circuit 14 determines this position as the final playback start position.
3 and commands to resume playback through the separation circuit 12, thereby sending the reproduced voice message to the recipient through the communication line 18 and the telephone 19. Incidentally, steps 11 to 14 in FIG. 3 are processing when no silent section is detected from the tentative reproduction start position to the beginning of the voice message or a predetermined period of time.

Note that it is also possible to detect the silent section when the voice message is stored, add a code indicating the silent section, and store it in the voice memory 13.

Furthermore, if the detection of the voice section is omitted, the quality of the received voice message will be degraded, but the content can be transmitted by advancing the playback start position by several hundred milliseconds from the tentative playback start position.

In the above embodiment, the predicted start position where the tentative playback start position Ad ₂ or the final playback start position Ad ₃ after interruption is determined to be the start of the voice message
If it is decided to go back in time past Ad ₀ (this position is stored by the storage control circuit 14 at the start of audio playback processing) (generally Ad ₀ > Ad ₂ or Ad ₀₎
> Ad ₃ ), the predicted start position of the voice message Ad ₀ or the position (=Ad ₀ −A _t ×T d ) a predetermined time (T _{d )} before the predicted start position is set as the final playback start position. It is re-determined by the accumulation control circuit 14 as Ad ₃ . A calculation example is shown in equation (2).

Ad ₃ = max (Ad ₃ , Ad ₀ −A _t ×T _d ) ………(2) (However, T _d ≧ 0, A _t is the conversion coefficient of the time and position difference in the audio memory) In addition, the above In this embodiment, the voice signal and the signal from the switch means 11 are superimposed, and when the two signals are separated and sent from the telephone terminal 10 to the voice storage 17, the voice signal is stored in the voice memory 13. By dividing the output into one for the communication line 18 and one for the silent section detection circuit 16, the audio control signal separation and synthesis circuit 12 can be omitted.

(5) Effects of the Invention As explained above, the present invention corrects interruptions caused by the receiver's forgetting of memory during the interruption period by setting the playback restart position to a position backward from the playback interruption position, thereby resuming the true beginning. It is possible to perform playback from a position that is determined to be close to the current position, and has the advantage that the content of the voice message can be reliably transmitted without interruption.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a time chart of the pause operation of a conventional device, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a flow chart for explaining the operation of the device of the present invention. 1...Envelope of audio waveform, 2...Time of reception interruption factor occurrence, 3...Time of Bose operation, 4...
When the voice message is interrupted, 5... At the time of the Bose release operation, 6... When the voice message playback resumes, 10
. . . Telephone terminal, 11 . . . Switch means for instructing interruption and cancellation of interruption, 12 . ... Silent section detection circuit, 17 ... Audio accumulator, 18 ...
Communication line, 19...telephone.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A voice storage device having the functions of storing voice messages, reproducing the stored voice messages, interrupting the playback, and resuming the playback, and interrupting the playback of the voice messages stored in the voice storage device. and a switch means for issuing a command to cancel the interruption and restart the playback, and a telephone set capable of receiving a voice signal including the voice message from the voice storage device. an accumulation control circuit configured to control a playback start position of the audio accumulator in response to an instruction to interrupt the interruption and an instruction to cancel the interruption by operation of a switch means; When an interruption is commanded by operating the switch means during reception of a message, and a command is issued to cancel the interruption by operating the switch means, the storage control circuit controls the interruption of the voice message in the voice storage. After determining a tentative playback start position of the voice message at a position that is a position that is a time step back from the position by an amount corresponding to the interruption time length, the time is moved back a predetermined short time within the voice accumulator from the playback start position. The device is configured to determine a final playback start position at the position at which the voice message was stopped or at the first silence detection position when going back in time, and to control the voice storage device to restart playback of the voice message. A voice information storage device.