JPH0324855A - Communication equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To surely transmit the intention of the telephone reservation side to an operator by recording a voice message of the other-party station in case of the absence of the operator at the time of accepting telephone reservation and providing a means which informs the operator that the message is recorded. CONSTITUTION:Though having the same constitution as a known facsimile equipment, this communication equipment is provided with a voice response circuit 20 and a voice recording circuit 80 for the purpose of surely recording the intention of the telephone reservation side (the presence or the absence of telephone reservation or its voice message) at the time of accepting the telephone reservation by a procedure interrupt signal. Consequently, the voice message of the other-party station is recorded when the telephone reservation is accepted but the operator cannot respond to it because of the absence, and an information output means informs the operator that telephone reservation is accepted and the voice message is recorded. Thus, the intention on the telephone reservation side is surely transmitted.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a communication device, particularly a communication device that accepts a telephone reservation from a partner station by a predetermined procedure signal during a video communication period, and calls an operator to perform voice communication. It is related to. [Prior Art] Data communication devices such as facsimile machines and data terminals that are connected to telephone lines and perform voice and data communications using a common cotton lining have been known. With this type of device. A technology is known that alternately switches between data communication and voice communication using a predetermined procedure. For example, in facsimile machines, a so-called telephone reservation (call reservation) function is known that requests manual control intervention by an operator on the image receiving side by means of a procedure interrupt signal (PRI-Q) conforming to the CCITT recommendations. As the procedure interruption signal, a PRI-EOM (end of procedure interruption message) signal, a PRI-MPS (procedure interruption multipage) signal, a PRI-EOP (end of procedure interruption procedure) signal, etc. are used. Recently, devices have also become known that automatically determine whether the other party's terminal is a voice terminal (telephone) or a non-voice terminal (facsimile machine) when a call is automatically received, and select the facsimile communication, telephone call, or answering machine function. ．． [Problems to be Solved by the Invention] In conventional telephone reservations, the image receiving side that receives the telephone reservation by means of a procedure interruption signal activates a ringer or the like to call a talented person, but at this time there is no operator near the device. In this case, the facsimile procedure will be automatically resumed after a predetermined period of ringing.

For this reason, even if a telephone reservation is made, if the operator on the receiving side is absent, the voice message of the party who made the telephone reservation cannot be reliably transmitted, and it is difficult to confirm whether the telephone reservation was made or not. I couldn't even tell you. The above problem is the same even when the image sending side makes a telephone reservation. Furthermore, the above problem is not limited to facsimile devices, but is common to data communication devices that perform voice communication and data communication over the same line. An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems and to make it possible to reliably convey the intention of the telephone reservation party (whether there is a reservation or not, or its contents). [Means for Solving the Problems] In order to solve the above problems, in the present invention, a telephone reservation is accepted from the other station by a predetermined procedure signal during the image communication period, and an operator is called to perform voice communication. The communication device includes a voice recording means, an information output means using a predetermined output method, and the voice recording means records a voice message of the other station when the operator is absent and the call cannot be made when a telephone reservation is received. In addition, a configuration is adopted in which a control means is provided to notify the operator that a telephone reservation has been made and a voice message has been recorded by the information output means. [Function] According to the above configuration, when a telephone reservation is received but the operator is not available and cannot be answered, the voice message from the other station is recorded, and the information output means is used to record the telephone reservation and the voice message. It is possible to notify the operator that the information is being recorded. [Example 1] Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail based on an example shown in the drawings. Figure 1 shows the structure of a facsimile machine employing the present invention.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a main control section consisting of a microprocessor, etc., and the various parts of the apparatus shown below are connected to the system bus consisting of an address bus, data path, etc. of this main control section 1. The main control unit l is R O M 1
The entire device is controlled according to the program stored in a. First, the reading section 2 is comprised of a CCD line sensor, a document conveyance system, and the like, and is used to read document images.

The recording unit 3 is composed of a thermal printer or the like, and is used to record received images or images read by the reading unit 2 when copying originals. Further, the recording section 3 has a built-in character generator ROM, etc., and is configured to be able to print characters corresponding to character codes inputted from the main control section 1. The communication control section 4 is composed of a modem, an NCU, a call signal detection section, etc., and performs human output of procedure signals and image signals with a line 6 such as a telephone line. Communication control unit 4
A telephone 5 for manual spinning control or for making calls is connected to.

The operation input section 7 consists of an LCD display and a keyboard such as a numeric keypad and function keys. The display section 8 is composed of an LCD display, etc., and is used to display the current time, operating status, etc.

The above configuration is equivalent to a known facsimile machine, but
In this embodiment, a voice response circuit 20 and a voice recording circuit 30 are provided in order to reliably record the intention of the person making a telephone reservation (whether or not there is a telephone reservation or the voice message thereof) when a telephone reservation is received by a procedure interruption signal. There is. The voice response circuit 20 is composed of a known analog or digital voice reproduction circuit using a recording medium such as a magnetic tape or a semiconductor memory, and reproduces the message recorded on the medium as necessary, and sends the message via the communication control section 4. This is for sending at #I6. The voice recording circuit 30 is composed of an analog recording circuit using magnetic tape or the like or a digital recording circuit using semiconductor memory or the like, and records the voice message of the other station transmitted from the line 6. Next, the operation of the above configuration will be explained with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. 2 and 3. FIGS. 2 and 3 show the communication control procedure of the main control unit l shown in FIG. 1 at the time of reception, and this procedure is stored in the ROM 1a as a program for the main control unit l. FIG. 2 shows an overview of phase D (post message procedure) on the receiving side, that is, the communication procedure performed after receiving one page of images. The flowchart in FIG. 2 is the same as Phase D of CCITT Recommendation T30, except for the processing of node Z. After receiving the image message, a procedure interrupt signal (PRI-Q) from the transmitting side is detected in step Sl. If the procedure interruption signal has not been received, the process from step S2 onwards is performed. That is, in steps 52 to S4, the MPS (multipage) signal, the EOP (procedure interruption) signal, and the EOM
(End of message) Detect each signal. If an MPS or EOP signal is received, the process advances to step S5.
．． If an EOM signal is received, the line is disconnected and the process ends (node B). In step S5, a local interrupt (such as a process interruption instruction) is detected, in step S6 the quality of the image of one page received so far is checked, and in step S7 it is necessary to perform phase adjustment and retry training. Determine whether or not. If step S5 is affirmed, the PIN is input in step Sll.
(procedure interruption negative) or PIF (procedure interruption positive) signal is transmitted, and if step S6 is denied, an RTN (procedure return negative) signal is transmitted in step SIO, and step S7
If it is affirmed, the process proceeds to step S9, where an RTP (return to procedure affirmation) signal is sent and the training process is performed again. If step S7 is negative, that is, if there is no local interrupt, the image quality is good, and there is no need for training, the MCF (message confirmation) signal is sent in step S8, the process proceeds to node F, and the processing from phase B is performed. Repeat to receive image messages. On the other hand, if a PRI-Q is received in step Sl, the process moves to step 512, and a caller is called using a ringer, a display, etc. In step S13, it is determined whether the operator has responded by raising the handset, etc., and if the operator has responded, step S1
Proceed to step 5. If the operator's response is negative in step Sl3, the process advances to step Sl4. If the operator has responded, a PIP (procedure interruption positive) signal or a PIN (procedure interruption negative) signal is sent in step Sl5 depending on the quality of the received image, and then a time #iI6 is sent to the telephone 5 in step Sl6. Connecting. This connection control is performed using a relay included in the communication control section 4. When the call ends, it is determined in step S17 whether the line connection to the facsimile machine side is possible again, and if the connection is possible, the process returns to the beginning of phase B and continues the receiving operation. If connection is not possible in step S17, the line is disconnected and the process ends. In step S14, it is determined whether or not the PRI-Q has been received for the third time. 6. Telephone reservations based on the interruption signal are accepted up to three times. Proceed to step S30 in Figure 3. If step 514 is negative, the process proceeds to node F and executes the processing from phase B command reception. Upon reception of this command, the other station's procedure interruption signal is detected again. In step S30, a PIP or PIN signal is transmitted depending on the image quality of the received image, and then in steps 331 to 333.
Waits for the next PRI-Q signal in order to determine the timing for switching to answering machine mode. That is, step S
In step S31, a command signal from the other station is detected, and in step S33, it is determined whether or not it is PRI-Q. The detection in step 531 is performed at T3 in step S32.
repeated via a timer count of seconds, T3 (1
If the command signal from the other station cannot be received within 0-15 seconds, or if a signal other than PRI-Q is received, the station proceeds to Node B and disconnects the line. P in step 333
If RI-Q is detected, the process advances to step S34. In step S34, the voice response circuit 20 is used to transmit a voice message informing the transition to the answering machine mode, for example, ``We will switch to the answering machine mode, so please leave a message after the signal tone.''. The operator may be able to record his/her favorite voice message in advance. In step S35, after transmitting the signal tone, the voice recording circuit 3
0 is activated, the voice signal input from the line 6 to the communication control unit 4 is input to the voice recording circuit 30, and the voice message from the other station is recorded. In step 336, while continuing to record the voice, the system waits for the end of the call by detecting a busy tone output from the exchange, just as is done with ordinary answering machines. When the voice message from the other station is finished, the process advances to step S37, where a child may be recorded. Figure 4 shows a communication situation in which the device shown in Figure 1 is used as a receiver. While the transmitter T is transmitting an image, the code 4 is transmitted by the transmitter T.
When a telephone reservation is made as in step 1, a PRI-Q signal is transmitted. As a result, in the receiver R (device shown in FIG. 1), the operator is called (
42) is started. If there is no response even after PRI-Q is transmitted three times, the receiver R transmits a P■P or PIN signal by the process of step S30 in FIG. Operator discharge is performed as follows. Thereafter, through the process of step S34, a voice response message is transmitted as indicated by reference numeral 44, followed by a recording process (45).
), and the voice message from the other station is recorded. According to the above configuration, if a telephone reservation is received but the operator is not present, the system switches to answering machine mode and can record the voice message of the other station, so even if the operator is absent, the voice message of the other station can be heard. You can record messages. This allows the operator to be reliably informed of the intention of the call reservation party. In order to play back the recorded message, after recording, record and output is performed using a method similar to the second embodiment described later.
The operator may be informed that the call reservation message is being recorded by displaying a warning on the display unit 8. Based on this, the user can listen to the recorded message by performing a predetermined operation on the operation input section 7. In the second embodiment and above, a configuration was shown in which the mode shifts to answering machine mode when the operator is absent, but as shown below, the fact that there was a telephone reservation is memorized and this is recorded and output as image data, etc. You can. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 5, a memory 40 for storing information related to communication results is provided in place of the voice response circuit 20 and the voice recording circuit 30. Other configurations are the same as in Figure 1. The device shown in Fig. 5 executes the communication procedure shown in Fig. 6. The procedure in FIG. 6 is almost the same as that in FIG. 2, but in step Sl4, PRI
- If the Q signal is received three times, the process moves to step S2 via step S40. In step S40, information indicating that there is a telephone reservation is stored in the memory 40.
Other controls are the same as described above. If the presence or absence of a telephone reservation is stored in the memory 40 as described above, it can be outputted in the manner shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, and later notified to the operator. The memory 40 can store communication management information such as a communication number, communication mode, telephone number and abbreviation of the other party's station, communication time, and communication result together with the information regarding the telephone reservation. In this case, when a communication management report is output as shown in FIG. 7, information regarding the presence or absence of telephone reservations can also be output accordingly. Figure 7 shows the output state of a known communication management report. The communication management report is stored in the memory 4 by the recording unit 3.
The communication number stored in 0, communication mode, telephone number and abbreviation of the other station, communication start time, communication time, number of communication pages, and communication results are output in table format as shown in the figure. In Fig. 7, when a telephone reservation is made but the operator is absent and cannot answer, that is, when step S40 in Fig. 6 is passed, a telephone symbol mark etc. is printed as shown by the symbol 7l. By doing so, the telephone reservation is displayed. The operator can look at this display 7l and take appropriate measures, such as making another telephone call. On the other hand, FIG. 8 shows an example of a case where communication management information similar to that shown in FIG. 7 is recorded and outputted only related to the communication each time the communication ends. The reference numeral 8l in FIG. 8(A) indicates the recording state of the recording paper output by the recording section 3, and as shown in the figure, following the reception end message 80, it is stored in the memory 40 that there is a telephone reservation. If so, a message 83 saying "There was a telephone reservation" is recorded, and the presence or absence of a telephone reservation is displayed. Following this, as in the case of FIG. 7, only the communication number, telephone number and abbreviation of the other party's station, and other information related to that communication are recorded. If there is no telephone reservation, the area after the communication end message 80 will be a blank field 84 as shown in FIG. 8 (B3). In FIG. The presence or absence of a telephone reservation may be emphasized and outputted by printing with shading. Third Embodiment Of course, it is also possible to combine the above two embodiments. In other words, when a telephone reservation is received, If Tagasaibele Yu is not available and cannot answer, the voice message from the other station is recorded, and the fact that there was a telephone reservation is stored in memory, and this is recorded and output in the later report output. In this case, the device may be provided with both the voice response circuit 20 shown in FIG. 1, the voice recording circuit 30jB, and the memory 40 shown in FIG. 5, and the communication control procedure shown in FIG. Step S is placed in the position of step S30 in the figure.
51 and S52 are provided. Among these steps, step S51 is the same as step S30-537 in FIG. 3, and performs a voice response to the partner station and voice recording. In addition, in step S52, a record is output using the method shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, and a call reservation is made.
Furthermore, processing is performed here to notify the operator that a voice message has been recorded. In this way, by recording the voice message of the other station and outputting the fact that there is a telephone reservation and a recorded message, the intentions of the other station can be more reliably conveyed to the operator.

In the above three embodiments, the operation when the facsimile device functions as an image receiving device has been described, but the same control can be performed even when the facsimile device functions as a transmitter. In other words, if a telephone reservation is received from the other party using a PIN or PIF signal in response to a Q signal (EOM.MPS.EOP signal), but the operator is not available, the P
After transmitting the RI-Q signal, the process may proceed to answering machine processing. Further, in the second or third embodiment, an example was shown in which the presence or absence of a telephone reservation is recorded and output, but the display output may also be performed by the operation input unit 7, and it goes without saying that it is sufficient to output appropriate information. be. Further, although a facsimile device has been exemplified above, it goes without saying that a similar configuration can be implemented with a data communication device that performs voice communication and data communication over a common line. [Effects of the Invention] As is clear from the above, according to the present invention, in a communication device that accepts a telephone reservation from a partner station using a predetermined procedure signal during a video communication period, and calls an operator to perform voice communication, a recording means, an information output means using a predetermined output method, and when a telephone reservation is received and the call cannot be made because the operator is absent, the voice recording means records a voice message from the other station, and outputs the information. The system is equipped with a control means that notifies the operator that a telephone reservation has been made and a voice message has been recorded, so that if a telephone reservation is received but the operator is not available and the operator is unable to answer, the other station will be notified. This system has the excellent effect of being able to record a voice message, and inform the operator that a telephone reservation has been made and that the voice message has been recorded using the information output means, thereby ensuring that the intention of the telephone reservation party is conveyed to the operator. There is.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a facsimile device adopting the present invention, FIGS. 2 and 3 are flowcharts showing the communication control procedure of the device in FIG. 1, and FIG.
FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a facsimile device in a different embodiment; FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the communication procedure of the device shown in FIG. Figures 7 and 8 (A) and (B) are the fifth
FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing the recording output results of the apparatus shown in the figure, and FIG. 9 is a flowchart diagram showing the communication control procedure in a further different embodiment. l... Main control section 2... Reading section 3-- Recording section 4... Communication control section 5-- Telephone 6-- Line 7-- Operation input section 8-- Display section 20 ...Voice response circuit 3 0 - ...Voice recording circuit 40...Memory 6 output is F7 Fushimi installation flow, Fugaku Figure 1 @ door q [・'! r/book 16 to 1 self huff 01 Imaichiichi (self) Fig. 3 过慕丙方斤 1ε cat, しκ No. song self 0 Fig. 4

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1) A communication device that accepts a telephone reservation from a partner station using a predetermined procedure signal during an image communication period, and calls an operator to perform voice communication, comprising a voice recording means and information using a predetermined output method. an output means; when a telephone reservation is received and the call cannot be made because the operator is absent, the voice recording means records a voice message from the other station, and the information output means makes the telephone reservation and outputs the voice message; A communication device comprising a control means for notifying an operator that recording is being performed. 2) The communication device according to claim 1, further comprising means for transmitting a voice message to an operator of the other station indicating that the communication will shift to voice communication when recording the voice message.