JPH09200327A - Automatic answering telephone system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To omit a complicated procedure for searching an opposite party's number from an address directory, etc., when listening to a business message on the call originating side and making a telephone call to the opposite party. SOLUTION: When a 1st incoming call comes from an exchange by call originating side and the system side closes the loop of line and responds to the incoming call, a caller telephone number is transmitted from the exchange. When the loop of line is opened after this caller number is received on the system side, a 2nd incoming call comes from the exchange. After the system side responds to this incoming call, the business message is stored in a recording memory 7 together with the caller number. As a result, since the caller number is read out and displayed on an LCD 4 at the time of reproducing the business message, the telephone call can be made to the call originating side without searching the party's number from the address directory, etc., every time.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an answering machine for recording a message message of a calling party in response to an incoming call and reproducing the recorded message message.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, when an answering machine is set in an answering machine, when an incoming call from a partner arrives, an answering message is automatically sent in response to the incoming call and the answering message is sent. When a message is sent from the other party (sending side), this message is recorded in a recording memory such as an IC memory. When the user returns home and cancels the absence mode or performs a playback operation, the message recorded in the recording memory is played back, and after the message is played back, the recording time of the message is changed to a voice signal. Is output by.

[0003]

As described above, in the conventional answering machine, although it is convenient to listen to the message in the absence message transmitted from the calling side, when calling the other party (calling side). Has a problem that it is troublesome to search the address book one by one to find out the telephone number of the other party. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to eliminate the troublesome work of searching for a partner number by an address book or the like when listening to a message on the calling side and making a call to the partner.

[0004]

In order to solve such a problem, the present invention is provided with an automatic response means for automatically responding to a ringing signal arriving on a line based on a calling operation of a calling side. In an answering machine that records a message message transmitted from the caller in the recording memory after the response of the answering means and reproduces the message in response to a predetermined operation, the caller's telephone that is sent together with the ringing signal. Receiving means for receiving the caller telephone number, which is a number, number storing means for storing the received caller telephone number in the recording memory together with the message, and reading the caller telephone number from the recording memory when playing the message. Display control means for displaying on the display as sender information is provided. Therefore, at the time of reproducing the message, the corresponding caller telephone number is read from the recording memory and the caller information such as the caller telephone number and the name corresponding to the number is displayed. When listening to the recorded message and making a call to the other party, it is possible to save the troublesome work of searching the other party's telephone number from the address book or the like. Further, the display control means outputs the caller telephone number read from the recording memory as a voice signal. As a result, the other party number can be surely recognized.

Also, the redialing of the caller's telephone number is performed in response to the redialing operation when the message is reproduced.
As a result, when the user of the device listens to the message and immediately calls the other party, the user can surely call the other party without performing a dial operation. Further, the automatic answering means automatically responds to an incoming call arriving on the line prior to the ringing signal when a call is made on the calling side, and the caller telephone number arriving on the line after this incoming call response is received by the receiving means. After the line that is being received and responding to an incoming call is released, it automatically responds to the ringing signal that arrives at the opened line, and the number storage means is for the caller telephone number received by the receiving means to arrive at this response line. It is stored in the recording memory together with the message. As a result, the caller's telephone number notified from the analog line can be stored in association with the message by a simple configuration.

[0006]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an answering machine according to the present invention. In the figure, 1 is CP
U, 2 are dial circuits for generating and outputting dial signals, 3 are key input parts such as dial keys, 4 are LCDs for performing various displays, 5 is a voice recording / reproducing circuit, 6 is a voice converting circuit,
7 is a recording memory for recording a message sent from the calling side, 8 is a memory, 9 is a clock IC, 10 is a calling circuit, 11 is a modem, and 12 is a 16 Hz for detecting an incoming signal.
It is a detection circuit. Further, HS1 and HS2 are hook switches, DB1 and DB2 are diode bridges, and Q1 and Q2.
Is a transistor, RL is a relay contact, SW is a switch,
BZ is a buzzer, SP is a speaker, and PC is a photocoupler.

In the answering machine having the above-mentioned structure, the incoming signals are telephone lines (hereinafter, lines) L1 and L.
When it reaches 2, the CPU 1 recognizes the arrival of an incoming call through the 16 Hz detection circuit 12 and the photocoupler PC. In this case, when the absence mode is set in the memory 8 of the device in advance by operating the absence key in the key input unit 3, the CP
U1 is connected to the transistors Q2 and Q via the dial circuit 2.
When 1 is turned on, the DC loop of the lines L1 and L2 is closed and the incoming call is answered.

Then, the CPU 1 controls the voice recording / reproducing circuit 5 to send a response message previously recorded in the recording memory 7 to the lines L1 and L2 through the voice recording / reproducing circuit 5, the call circuit 10 and the like. . In response to the transmission of such a response message, the message message transmitted from the calling side to the lines L1 and L2 is recorded in the message message area of the recording memory 7 via the communication circuit 10 and the voice recording / reproducing circuit 5. In this way, the message message of the other party is sequentially recorded in each message area of the recording memory 7 when the absence mode is set in the device.

After that, when the user of the apparatus returns home and operates the reproduction key of the key input unit 3, the CPU 1 controls the voice recording / reproducing circuit 5 and the speaker SP, and each message recorded in the recording memory 7 is recorded. The messages are sequentially reproduced and transmitted from the speaker SP via the voice recording / reproducing circuit 5. As a result, the user can easily identify who made the call and what the message was while he / she was absent by listening to the message. The time information of the clock IC 9 is stored at the time of recording the partner message, and is reproduced as an audio signal at the time of reproduction and transmitted from the speaker SP.

In such an answering machine, when listening to a message from the other party and making a call to the other party, it is troublesome to search the address book one by one to find the other party's telephone number. Therefore, in the present invention, when listening to the recorded message and making a call to the other party, the user of the apparatus can save the troublesome work of searching the other party's telephone number from the address book or the like. To do so.

By the way, as is well known, the ISDN line has a function of notifying the called party of the caller telephone number. In addition, even for an analog line, such a caller telephone number notification service is being started. The present invention
Focusing on such a caller telephone number notification service, the notified caller telephone number is stored together with the recorded message and the caller telephone number can be displayed when the message is played back. It is possible to eliminate the above-mentioned trouble of the user of the apparatus for searching the other party's number.

Here, the caller's telephone number is notified on the analog line as follows. That is, first, when the caller makes a call, the first incoming call arrives from the exchange, the DC loop of the line is closed, and the first call is answered (primary response). It will be sent. After receiving the caller's telephone number on the called side, if the DC loop of the closed line is opened, a second incoming call (call signal) comes from the exchange. Then, by responding to this second incoming call (secondary response), the call with the caller side becomes possible.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing an answering machine operation of the present apparatus based on such an analog line caller telephone number notification service. The operation of the main part of the present invention will be described in more detail according to this flowchart. As a result of making a call to this device, lines L1 and L connected to this device
When the incoming signal arrives at 2, the CPU 1 recognizes the incoming call through the 16 Hz detection circuit 12 and the photocoupler PC as described above. In this case, when the absence mode is set in the device, the CPU 1 drives the dial circuit 2 to turn on the transistor Q2 to turn on the transistor Q1 to close the DC loops of the lines L1 and L2, and The relay contact RL is closed (step S1 in FIG. 2A).

The caller telephone number is transmitted from the exchange side due to the line closure in step S1. At this time, the CPU 1 receives this caller telephone number via the relay contact RL, the capacitor C2 and the modem 11 (step S).
2). Then, the received caller telephone number is converted into a voice conversion circuit 6
And is stored in the recording memory 7 as a voice signal via the voice recording / reproducing circuit 5 (step S3). Thereafter, the dial circuit 2 is driven to turn off the transistor Q2 to turn off the transistor Q1 and open the DC loop of the lines L1 and L2 (step S4).

When the loop opening of the lines L1 and L2 is transmitted to the exchange side, a second incoming signal (call signal) arrives from the exchange side to the lines L1 and L2 (step S5). When the CPU 1 receives this calling signal through the 16 Hz detection circuit 12 and the photocoupler PC, it drives the dial circuit 2 as in the previous time to drive the transistors Q2 and Q2.
The call is answered by turning on 1 and closing the loop of the lines L1 and L2 (step S6).

Then, the voice recording / reproducing circuit 5 is controlled so that the response message in the recording memory 7 is transmitted to the voice recording / reproducing circuit 5 and the communication circuit 1
It is sent to the lines L1 and L2 via 0 or the like. When such a response message is sent to the calling side via the exchange, the message memory is sent from the calling side to the line L via the exchange.
1, arrives at L2. In this case, the CPU 1 controls the voice recording / reproducing circuit 5 to record the message from the lines L1 and L2 via the communication circuit 10 in the recording memory 7 via the voice recording / reproducing circuit 5 (step S7). This message is stored in the recording memory 7 in an area subsequent to the storage area of the caller telephone number already stored.

When the recording of the message is completed, the CPU 1 reads the time information from the clock IC 9 and gives it to the voice converting circuit 6, so that the time information is converted into a voice signal by the voice converting circuit 6 and the voice recording / reproducing circuit is performed. It is stored in the area following the storage area of this message in the recording memory 7 via 5. After that, the CPU 1 sets the dial circuit 2
Is driven to turn off the transistors Q2 and Q1, the DC loop of the lines L1 and L2 is opened (step S8). In this way, the caller telephone number and the message from the caller are sequentially stored in the recording memory 7 each time an incoming call arrives during the absence.

After that, when the user of the apparatus returns home and operates the play key of the key input section 3 or operates the answering key to release the answering mode, the CPU 1 controls the voice recording / reproducing circuit 5 and the speaker SP. The reading of the caller telephone number stored in the recording memory 7 is started (step S11 in FIG. 2B). Then, the caller telephone number of the recording memory 7 is output as a voice signal from the speaker SP via the voice recording / reproducing circuit 5. At this time, the caller's telephone number is also sent to the voice conversion circuit 6 and is converted back to normal dialed number information by the voice conversion circuit 6 and given to the CPU 1. CP
U1 displays the caller telephone number on LCD 4 by inputting this dialed number information and outputting it to LCD 4 (step S12).

Then, the CPU 1 controls the voice recording / reproducing circuit 5 to reproduce the message message and time information stored subsequently to the caller telephone number and output them from the speaker SP (step S13). In this way, the message corresponding to one caller telephone number is reproduced, and when the reproduction of the message is completed, the next step S1 is performed.
In step 4, it is determined whether or not all the message messages have been reproduced (step S14). If there is a message not reproduced in the recording memory 7, the step S1
Returning to step 1, the call is similarly read from the caller telephone number corresponding to the message and displayed on the LCD 4, and then the message is reproduced.

As described above, the caller telephone number received in advance is recorded when the message is recorded, while the caller telephone number is read out and displayed when the message is reproduced. As a result, when the user of the device makes a call to the caller of the message after listening to the message, the user only has to dial the caller number displayed on the LCD 4,
Therefore, it is possible to save the trouble of searching the address book or the like to retrieve the telephone number of the caller, so that it is possible to provide a device which is easy to use.

In this embodiment, the recording memory 7 stores the caller's telephone number and the message, but the caller's telephone number and time information are associated with the corresponding message and stored in the memory. 8, a voice synthesizing circuit is provided in place of the voice converting circuit 6, the caller telephone number and time information are read from the memory 8 and displayed on the LCD 4, and are also given to the voice synthesizing circuit. The voice output of the voice synthesizing circuit may be expanded from the speaker SP. When the telephone directory is registered in the memory 8, when the caller telephone number is read out, the name corresponding to that number is retrieved from the telephone directory and the LCD is displayed.
4 can also be displayed.

If the redial key in the key input unit 3 is operated during reproduction of the message, the caller telephone number corresponding to the message can be read from the recording memory 7 and dialed. Further, in the present embodiment, the message message from the caller is recorded only when the caller telephone number is received, but it is also possible to record the message message from all the callers, and It is also possible to record only the message from the caller registered in the memory 8 in advance, and only when the caller's telephone number is received or the call from the public telephone is received, the message on the caller's side is recorded. It is also possible to do so.

Similar to the recording condition of the message as described above, the reproduction condition of the message can be set, and only the message of the designated sender can be reproduced. Furthermore, it is possible to set the response condition of the answering machine as well as the recording condition of the message, for example, it is possible not to answer the incoming call unless the caller telephone number is notified. Also, ISDN
In the case of a line, the caller's telephone number is notified at the same time as an incoming call (“call” message). By receiving this number, it can be stored together with the message in the recording memory 7 as in the analog line. .

[0024]

As described above, according to the present invention, when the caller's telephone number, which is the caller's telephone number transmitted together with the calling signal, is received, the received caller's telephone number is sent to the succeeding caller. The message is stored in the recording memory together with the message and the caller's telephone number is read from the recording memory and displayed as caller information on the display when the message is played based on a predetermined operation. When you call the person after listening to the required message, you can save the troublesome work of searching the other party's telephone number one by one from the address book, etc.
A user-friendly device can be provided. Further, since the display control means outputs the caller telephone number read from the recording memory as a voice signal, the other party number can be surely recognized. In addition, since the caller's telephone number is redialed according to the redial operation when the message is played, when the user of the device listens to the message and makes a call to the other party immediately. , It is possible to make a reliable call to the other party without performing a dial operation. Also, when a call is made on the calling side, it automatically responds to an incoming call that arrives on the line prior to the ringing signal, and the caller telephone number that arrives on the line after this incoming call response is received by the receiving means. After the inside line is released, it automatically responds to the ringing signal coming to the opened line, and the number storage means records the caller telephone number received by the receiving means together with the message message coming to this answering line. Since it is stored in the memory, the caller telephone number notified from the analog line can be stored in the memory in association with the message by a simple configuration.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an answering machine according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation of a main part of an answering machine.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... CPU, 2 ... Dial circuit, 3 ... Key input section, 4 ...
LCD, 5 ... Voice recording / reproducing circuit, 6 ... Voice converting circuit, 7 ... Recording memory, 8 ... Memory, 9 ... Clock IC, 10 ... Communication circuit, 11 ... Modem, 12 ... 16Hz detection circuit, PC ... Photocoupler, Q1 , Q2 ... Transistors, L1, L2 ...
Telephone line, SP ... speaker.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An automatic response means for automatically responding to a ringing signal arriving on a line based on a calling operation of a calling side,
In the answering machine which records the message message transmitted from the calling side in the recording memory after the response of the automatic response means and reproduces the message message according to the predetermined operation, the call transmitted together with the call signal. Receiving means for receiving the caller telephone number which is the telephone number of the other side, number storing means for storing the received caller telephone number in the recording memory together with the message, and the recording memory for reproducing the message. An answering machine is provided with a display control means for reading out a caller telephone number from the user and displaying it on a display as caller information. 2. The answering machine according to claim 1, wherein the display control means outputs the caller telephone number read from the recording memory as a voice signal. 3. The answering machine according to claim 1, wherein redialing of the caller telephone number is performed in response to a redial operation during reproduction of the message. 4. The automatic response means according to claim 1, wherein the automatic response means automatically responds to an incoming call arriving on the line prior to the calling signal when a call is made on the calling side, and arrives on the line after the incoming call is answered. After the caller's telephone number is received by the receiving means and the line which is responding to the incoming call is released, the call signal arriving at the opened line is automatically answered, and the number storing means causes the receiving means to An answering machine, wherein the received caller telephone number is stored in a recording memory together with a message message arriving at the answering line.