JPH1168929A - Automatic answering telephone equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an automatic answering telephone properly retaining or erasing a business message including the designation of a date and a period. SOLUTION: This automatic answering telephone equipment is provided with a reproduction control part 209 reproducing a business message recorded at the time of an automatic answering mode, a time control part 208 setting a period of retaining the recording state of each business message at the time of reproducing, and a storing control part 206 changing to the erasable or over- writable state of a business message when time clocked by a clock inside of the part 208 amounts to a set retaining period.

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 automatically answering an incoming call and recording a message of the caller.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, answering machines have become remarkably popular. The answering machine automatically answers an incoming call when the user is absent. After answering, the caller is notified of a response message recorded in the memory in advance, and a message from the caller is recorded in the memory. The user plays back the message recorded in this manner after returning home, or listens to it by remote control from a place where he / she is away.

[0003] The I used for recording the message
The C memory can record ten to several tens of message messages depending on the capacity. However, when the memory is full, the answering machine protects the previously recorded business message and does not record a new business message. Therefore, in order for the answering machine to be able to perform recording, the user needs to perform an operation of deleting unnecessary business message.

[0004]

However, the answering machine described above can store important business messages, but since the capacity of the memory is limited, the contents of each business message are eventually changed. After confirmation, if unnecessary, it is necessary to perform an erasing operation, and there is a problem that the operation is troublesome.

[0005] In particular, "... what month and date ..."
... Within one week. "In the case of erasing a message, it is necessary to pay attention to the due date and period, so that the above operation becomes more troublesome. If you delete it carelessly, you will not be able to confirm the due date or time period.If you do not delete it and keep it forever, the message message whose due date or period has passed will be lost. There is a problem that the data is stored in the memory forever and the memory cannot be used effectively.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an answering machine capable of saving and deleting a business message by a simple operation. In particular, it is an object of the present invention to provide a telephone answering machine that can appropriately save or delete a business message including a designation of a due date and a period.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, an answering machine according to the present invention comprises a reproducing means for reproducing a message recorded in an answering machine mode, and a period for storing the recording state of each message. , A storage period setting means for setting the time during playback,
And control means for changing the state of the message to a state in which the message can be deleted or overwritten when the time counted by the clock means reaches a set storage period.

The answering machine further includes mode changing means for changing to a mode for playing back the message recorded during the answering machine mode, and the storage period setting means includes a storage period setting provided on a telephone operation surface. Buttons and
When the storage period setting button is operated in association with the reproduction of the message, the setting unit may set a period designated by the storage period setting button as a storage period.

The answering machine further includes a caller telephone number detecting means for subscribing to a caller telephone number sending service and detecting a telephone number of a caller who has received a call in the answering machine mode. The storage period setting means includes a table describing the correspondence between the caller telephone number and the storage period, and a storage period for setting a storage period obtained by searching the table using the caller telephone number detected by the detection means. A configuration including a setting unit may be adopted.

[0010]

FIG. 1 is an external view of an answering machine according to an embodiment of the present invention. The answering machine includes a main unit 1, a handset 2, a speaker 3, a display 4 for displaying a caller's telephone number, a storage period and the number of message messages, a storage period setting button 5, 6, 7, and a message message deletion button. Delete button 8, outgoing message record button 9 for recording a response message, play button 11 for playing a message, previous button 10 for cueing the previous message while playing the message, next button Next button 12 for cueing the message, a clock setting button 13 for setting the time inside the answering machine, an answering setting button 15 for setting the answering machine mode, an LED indicating whether or not the answering machine mode is set
14, a microphone 16, a ringer switch 17 for adjusting the ring volume, a speaker volume 18, and a numeric keypad 19.

The retention period setting buttons 5, 6, and 7 are buttons for setting the retention period of the message and reproducing the message near the end of the retention period. More specifically, the retention period setting buttons 5, 6, and 7 correspond to three months, one month, and one week, respectively. FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing a main configuration of the answering machine according to the embodiment of the present invention.

The answering machine is composed of a call circuit 201, an answering machine 202, a control unit 205, an operation unit 211, a display unit 212, a speaker 3, a message memory 204, and a storage period setting memory 210. Be composed. The call circuit 201 performs line connection. Answering machine 2
02 controls line connection in the answering machine mode.

The business message memory 204 comprises a fixed number of records for recording business messages. Each record has two fields of “record number” and “message”, and one record corresponds to data of one message. In the “Message” field,
The message from the sender is retained. The retention period setting memory 210 is a memory for managing the retention period of each message in the message memory 204 and includes the same number of records as the message memory 204.
Each record is a record number of the message,
“Recording date and time”, “Retention period setting date and time”, “Retention period”,
It consists of five columns of “write inhibit flag”.

"Record number of message message memory"
Column holds the record number of the corresponding message memory 204. The “recording date and time” column holds the date and time when the answering machine automatically responded to the incoming call and recorded the message. The column of “storage period setting date and time” holds the date and time when the storage period is set.

The column of "retention period" holds a symbol indicating the retention period of the corresponding message. Where the symbol is
There are A indicating three months, B indicating one month, C indicating one week, and 0 indicating that the storage period is not set. The “write-protection flag” field shows the record and
A flag indicating that the corresponding record in the message memory 204 is write-protected.

The control unit 205 includes a storage control unit 206, a display control unit 207, a clock control unit 208, and a reproduction control unit 2.
09 for receiving instructions from the user and managing the message memory 204 and the storage period setting memory 210. The operation of each control unit will be described below. The storage control unit 206 performs recording of a business message in the business message memory 204, writing in a storage period setting memory 210, and the like. The details will be described below for each process in the normal mode, the playback mode, and the answering machine mode.

When the record number of the business message whose storage period has elapsed is notified from the clock control unit 208, the storage control unit 206 in the normal state stores the storage period setting memory 21.
The “write inhibit flag” column of the record of “0” is changed to “0”. When notified that the erase button 8 has been pressed from the operation unit 211, the storage control unit 206 at the time of reproduction changes the “write inhibit flag” column of the corresponding record in the storage period setting memory 210 to 0. Here, the operation unit 211
It includes storage period setting buttons 5, 6, 7, an erasure button 8, a play button 11, an absence setting button 15, and other buttons shown in FIG.

When the answering machine 202 automatically responds in the answering machine mode, the storage control unit 206 searches the record for the "write inhibit flag" column of the storage period setting memory 210 for "0". As a result of the search, if there is a record with a flag of 0, the date and time notified from the clock control unit 208 is recorded in the “recording date and time” column of that record, and the message is recorded in the corresponding record of the message memory 204. I do. At the same time, since the storage period has not been set yet, 0 is written in the “storage period” column, and the “write inhibit flag” column of the storage period setting memory 210 is changed to 1.

If there is no record with a flag of 0, that is, if all of the message messages are in the write-protected state, the storage control unit 206 refers to the “storage period” column of the storage period setting memory 210, A search is made for a record that is 0 indicating that the storage period has not been set. As a result, if there is a record of 0, the record is regarded as a writable record, and the recording date and time are recorded in the record as described above, and the message message memory 204
Record a message in the corresponding record of.

As a result of the search, if there is no record in which the “storage period” column is 0, no further message can be recorded in the message memory 204. Then, the storage control unit 206 notifies the answering circuit 202 of the fact and switches the answering machine response to the fixed answering. Here, the answering machine response is to record the message of the other party after sending the response message, and the fixed response is to send only the response message and go on-hook without recording the message. is there.

The display control unit 207 controls the display on the display unit 212. In particular, when there is a message near the end of the storage period, the LEDs inside the period setting buttons 5, 6, and 7 are turned on in response to the notification from the clock control unit 208.
Here, the display unit 212 includes the display 4 of FIG.
ED14, LED inside retention period setting buttons 5, 6, 7
including.

The clock control unit 208 has a clock inside.
It manages the storage period of the message, writes / reads the storage period setting memory 210, and notifies the storage controller 206 of the recording date and time. The details will be described below for normal time, for playback, and for answering machine mode. Normally, the clock control unit 208 checks the storage period of the business message every fixed period, for example, every minute. The processing will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

The clock control unit 208 reads out one record in the storage period setting memory 210 in which the "retention period" is set (step 31). For the read record, “current date and time” − “storage period setting date and time” − “storage period” are calculated, and the calculation result is substituted into a variable T (step 32). The clock control unit 208 performs the following processing according to the range of the variable T. When the calculation result is “6 hours <T” (Step 33: Yes), the clock control unit 208 does nothing and proceeds to the end determination of Step 37.

If the calculation result is "0 <T <= 6 hours" (step 34: Yes), this indicates that the storage period of the message is about to end. Then, the clock control unit 208 sets the storage period setting buttons 5, 6,
7 is notified to the display control unit 207 in order to cause any one of the LEDs corresponding to 7 to emit light. Further, when the user presses the light emission period setting buttons 5, 6, and 7, the corresponding control message is reproduced by the reproduction control unit 209.
, The "record number" and the "storage period" of the message are notified, and the reproduction control unit 209 stores the information (step 35).

If the result of the calculation is "T <= 0" (step 34: No), this indicates that the storage period of the message has expired. Therefore, the clock control unit 208 notifies the storage control unit 206 of the “record number” in order to change the “write inhibit flag” column of the storage period setting memory 210 to 0. This makes the record writable. Further, in order to stop the light emission of the corresponding one of the storage period setting buttons 5, 6, and 7, the fact is notified to the display control unit 207 (step 36).

After performing the processing according to the value of the variable T, the clock control unit 208 determines whether or not all the records have been read (step 37), and if not, returns to step 31. Clock control unit 208 during playback
When the operation unit 211 receives a notification indicating that any one of the storage period setting buttons 5, 6, and 7 has been pressed, the record in the corresponding storage period setting memory 210 indicates the “storage period” indicated by the pressed button. And the date and time when the button was pressed is written. From this point, the check of the storage period starts.

The clock control unit 208 in the answering machine mode notifies the storage control unit 206 of the date and time when the answering machine automatically responded and recorded the message. Playback control unit 209
Reproduces the business message stored in the business message memory 204. Specifically, when the play button 11 is pressed from the operation unit 211, the storage period setting memory 2
The “recording date / time” is read out from the record with the oldest “recording date / time” among the records in which the “write-protection flag” column of 10 is 1, and the message of the message is sent to the speaker 3
Play through.

Further, the reproduction control section 209 can reproduce only the message about which the storage period is about to end.
More specifically, the reproduction control unit 209 sets the “record number” and the “storage period” of the message in which the range of the variable T is “0 <T <= 6 hours” as one set, and
8 is notified and held. And the playback control unit 20
Reference numeral 9 indicates that when any of the period setting buttons 5, 6, and 7 is pressed by the user, the storage period indicated by the button is compared with the stored “storage period” to correspond to the “storage period”. Acquire "record number" and "record number"
Play the message of the message.

The operation of the above-configured answering machine according to the embodiment of the present invention when the answering machine is played back will now be described with reference to the overall operation of the components. The operations in the answering machine mode and in the normal state (described with reference to FIG. 3) are omitted. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing processing during reproduction of a business message. This process is a process that occurs from the start of the reproduction of one business message to the time when the reproduction of the business message is completed and another five seconds have elapsed.

The operation unit 211 determines in step 41 and step 43 whether the erase button 8 has been pressed, or whether any of the storage period setting buttons 5, 6, 7 has been pressed, or whether nothing has been pressed. I do.
When the delete button 8 is pressed (Step 41: Ye
s), the storage control unit 206 changes the “write-protection flag” column of the corresponding record in the message message memory 204 to 0, and makes the record writable (step 42).

When any of the storage period setting buttons 5, 6, and 7 is pressed (step 43: Yes), the clock control unit 208 stores the pressed button in the corresponding record in the storage period setting memory 210. Is written, and the "storage period setting date and time" which is the pressed date and time is written (step 43). In this way, the reproduction control unit 209 waits for another 5 seconds after the reproduction of one business message has been completed, and then determines whether or not all the business messages have been reproduced (step 45).

The embodiment of the present invention described above may have the following configuration. The storage period of the message can be selected from three types by using the storage period setting buttons 5, 6, and 7. However, the date and time of the end of the storage period may be directly specified by using the clock setting button 13 or the numeric keypad 19. . In this case, the clock control unit 208 can be realized by writing the date and time received from the clock setting button 13 or the numeric keypad 19 as a storage period in a record in the storage period setting memory 210.

Further, the storage period of the business message may be extended. In this case, the reproduction control unit 209
When the user presses any of the storage period setting buttons 5, 6, and 7 again while playing back the message of which the storage period is about to end, the clock control unit 208 sets the storage period of the record of the message. And the storage period setting date and time may be rewritten.

The answering machine, not the user, may set the storage period of the business message according to the sender of the business message. In this case, the user stores in advance the memory of the answering machine a table in which the "caller telephone number" for distinguishing the caller and the "retention period" of the message from the caller are associated. The answering machine searches the storage period of the business message by comparing the caller telephone number sent from the calling side at the time of the incoming call with the table, and determines the storage period by the clock control unit 20.
8 can be realized.

[0035]

The answering machine according to the present invention reproduces a message recorded in the answering machine mode in an answering machine which automatically responds to an incoming call in the answering machine mode and records a message from the caller. Means, a storage period setting means for setting a period for storing the recording state of each message at the time of playback, a clock means, and a message message when the time counted by the clock means reaches the set storage period. The storage period setting unit allows the user to set the storage period of the business message during reproduction. This eliminates the need for the user to determine whether or not the message should be reproduced and deleted later, as in a conventional answering machine, and has the effect of making the operation easier.

Further, since the message having reached the storage period is changed to a state in which the message can be deleted or overwritten by the control means, the message which is no longer necessary after the date or period to be stored has passed is forever. This eliminates the problem of being left in the memory, and thus has the effect of effectively utilizing the memory.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external view of an answering machine according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing a main configuration according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing processing for checking a retention period of a business message according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing processing during reproduction of a business message according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 201 Call circuit 202 Answering machine 204 Message memory 205 Control unit 206 Storage control unit 207 Display control unit 208 Clock control unit 209 Playback control unit 210 Storage period setting memory 211 Operation unit 212 Display unit

Claims (3)

[Claims] An answering machine for automatically answering an incoming call in an answering machine mode and recording a message from a caller, a playback means for playing back the message recorded in the answering machine mode, and each message A storage period setting unit for setting a period during which the recording state is stored during playback, a clock unit, and a state in which the message can be deleted or overwritten when the time counted by the clock unit reaches the set storage period. An answering machine having a control means for changing. 2. The answering machine further comprises a mode changing means for changing to a mode for playing back a message recorded in an answering machine mode, wherein the storage period setting means includes a storage period setting provided on a telephone operation surface. And a setting unit for setting a period designated by the storage period setting button as a storage period when the storage period setting button is operated in association with reproduction of the message. The answering machine described in 1. 3. The answering machine further subscribes to a caller telephone number sending service,
A caller telephone number detecting means for detecting a telephone number of a caller who has received an incoming call in the answering machine mode, wherein the storage period setting means includes a table describing a correspondence relationship between the caller telephone number and a storage period; 2. The answering machine according to claim 1, further comprising: a storage period setting unit configured to set a storage period obtained by searching a table using the caller telephone number detected by the detection unit.