JPH05130211A - Automatic answering telephone set - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Object] An object of the present invention is to provide an answering machine which can record messages from a plurality of callers at the same time. [Structure] When there is an incoming call in the message recording mode (S in Fig. 2
(2, YES), it is determined whether or not a response is being made (S3), and if a response is being made, the response message is RA of the second recording device 11.
After reading from M111 and sending to the ISDN network to establish a call, the voice message sent from the caller is RA
It is stored in M111 (S4). Then, it is determined whether or not the caller has released the line (S5), and if the line is released, it is further determined whether or not the first recording device 10 is operating (S6). If the first recording device 10 is not in operation,
The message from the caller stored in the RAM 111 of the second recording device 11 is transferred to the first recording device 10 (S7).

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention records a voice of a caller,
The present invention relates to an answering machine to be reproduced.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An answering machine is known which can record a message from a caller when a call is received while he is away.

However, in the above answering machine, when another person is recording a message on the answering machine, it becomes busy. Therefore, the person who wants to convey the message makes a call again after waiting for the recording to be completed. I had to fix it. In addition, when the recording time of the answering machine is long or the frequency of busy is high, it is troublesome to call back many times.

[0004]

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an answering machine which is capable of recording the messages of a plurality of callers at the same time.

[0005]

The essential point of the present invention is that when a call is received from another calling party while the calling party's voice is being recorded by the first recording means, an ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network).
k) recording the caller's voice on the second recording means by using another B channel of the line, and transferring the recording content from the second recording means to the first recording means after the recording is completed. Is.

[0006]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a circuit configuration diagram of an answering machine according to an embodiment.

The I interface controller 2 is an ISDN.
Is a circuit that performs control based on the I interface that defines the interface between the user and the network in
A layer 1 control circuit 201 that controls layer 1 that defines electrical and physical conditions at the S / T point, and a layer 2 control circuit 20 that manages control signals transferred on the D channel.
2, a layer 3 control circuit 203 for controlling communication path setting, maintenance, release, etc., and a CPU 204 for controlling them
It consists of and.

The I interface control section 2 assembles a predetermined transmission frame based on a PCM signal from a PCM codec section 501, which will be described later, and further converts a binary logic level signal into an AMI code, and the driver / receiver circuit 1
And the DSU (line terminal unit) to the ISDN network, and the received frame transmitted via the ISDN network is decomposed to extract the B channel information signal and the like and to the PC.
It is output to the M codec section 501.

The operation key switch 3 includes a numeric keypad for inputting a telephone number, an answering machine mode setting switch 3a for switching between a normal transmission / reception mode and an answering machine mode, a reproduction switch 3b operated for reproducing recorded contents, and the like. The operation signals of these switches are output to the man-machine control circuit 4 and the analog I / O circuit 5.

The analog I / O circuit 5 includes a PCM codec section 501 and an electric / sound interface circuit 502.
And a tone generation circuit 503. PCM
The codec unit 501 converts the μ-law PCM signal from the I interface control unit 2 into an analog signal and outputs the analog signal to the electric / acoustic interface circuit 502, and also outputs the analog signal from the electric / audio inner face circuit 502 to the μ-law PCM signal. And outputs to the I interface control unit 2.

Electrical / acoustic interface circuit 502
Amplifies the voice signal input from the transmitter 701 of the handset 7, filters it at 0.3 to 3.4 KHz of the telephone band and outputs it to the PCM codec section 501, and also amplifies and filters the analog signal from the PCM codec section 501. After that, the handset 702 of the handset 7 outputs it as a voice signal. In addition, the electric / sound interface circuit 5
A sounder 6 and a speaker amplifier circuit 8 are connected to 02 so that the received audio signal can be output from the speaker 9.

The first recording device 10 records a caller's message in an answering machine mode, and a deck amplifier circuit 101 for converting a voice signal into a recording signal level.
And a tape deck 102 for recording the recording signal on a magnetic tape.

The second recording device 11 is a device for recording a message from another caller while the first recording device 10 is recording, and a message from the caller and a response at the time of absence recording. A RAM 111 that stores a message and a received μ-law PCM signal (such as an encoded audio signal) are compressed and stored in the RAM 111.
And a signal compression / decompression circuit 112 that decompresses the data stored after being compressed into a .mu.-law PCM signal.

The man-machine control circuit 4 controls the operation of each of the circuits described above. When a call setup message arrives from the ISDN network, the man-machine control circuit 4 outputs information necessary for call setup to the I interface control unit 2, and The response message is read from the second recording device 11 based on the information from the I interface control unit 2, and the first and second recording devices 1 are read.
It controls the recording of the caller's voice to 0 and 11.

For example, when there is a call setup request from the ISDN network when the answering machine mode is set, the man-machine control circuit 4 outputs information necessary for call setup to the I interface control unit 2. Based on this information, the I interface control unit 2 sends a call response message to the ISDN network to establish a call.

When the call is established, the man-machine control circuit 4 puts the second recording device 11 into the reproduction state, accesses the message area of the RAM 111 in which the response message is stored, and outputs the required response message. read out.

At this time, in the second recording device 11, the signal compression / expansion circuit 112 expands the response message information compressed and stored in the RAM 111 into a μ-law PCM signal, and outputs it to the I interface control section 2. This response message is sent from the I interface control unit 2 to the driver /
It is sent to the ISDN network via the receiver circuit 1 and DSU.

When the caller sends some message when receiving the response message, the man-machine control circuit 4 activates the PCM codec section 501, the electric / sound interface circuit 502 and the first recording device 10. Record a message from the caller on a magnetic tape.

After that, when a call release message arrives from the calling side, the man-machine control circuit 4 stops the operations of the PCM codec section 501, the electric / sound interface circuit 502 and the first recording device 10.

Next, the operation when the answering machine of the embodiment receives an incoming call from another caller during answering machine will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. Step S1 of FIG.
Then, it is determined whether or not there is an incoming call from the ISDN network. When an incoming call is received, it is determined in the next step S2 whether or not the answering machine mode is set.

If it is the answering machine mode, further step S
At 3, it is determined whether one of the B channels is responding. If one of the B channels is responding, the first recording device 1 is currently
Since the caller's message is being recorded at 0, the man-machine control circuit 4 instructs the I interface control unit 2 to send a call response message in the response process of the next step S4. In response to this, the I interface control unit 2
IS using the call response message on another B channel.
It is sent to the DN network.

As a result, the call on the other B channel is established, so that the man-machine control circuit 4 then sends the second call.
The recording device 11 is set to the reproduction state, the response message stored in the RAM 111 is read out and output to the I interface unit 2, and the response message is transmitted to the ISDN network via another B channel.

Since a message is sent from the caller in response to the response message, the man-machine control circuit 4 sets the second recording device 11 in the recording state and the message from the caller is stored in the RAM 111. Record it.

Thereafter, in step S5, it is determined whether or not the response is completed, that is, whether or not the caller releases the line. If the line is not released, the response completion detection in step S5 is repeated. If the line is released, it is determined in the next step S6 whether or not the first recording device 10 is in the inoperative state.

If the first recording device 10 is operating, the determination in step S6 is repeated. When the first recording device 10 becomes inoperative, the recording content of the second recording device 11 is transferred to the first recording device 10 in the next step S7.

When transferring the recorded contents, the man-machine control circuit 4 puts the first recording device 10 into the recording state,
The second recording device 11 is put into a reproduction state, and the message area of the RAM 111 is accessed, compressed, and stored and the message from the caller is output to the signal compression / expansion circuit 112.

The signal compression / expansion circuit 112 includes a RAM 11
Data output from 1 is expanded to μ-law PCM signal and P
It is output to the CM codec section 501. This μ-law PCM signal is converted into an analog signal in the PCM codec section 501, and further, the electric / sound interface circuit 5
After being amplified and filtered at 02, it is output to the first recording device 10.

This completes the transfer of the message from the caller stored in the RAM 111 to the first recording device 10. When the transfer of the recorded contents is completed, the man-machine control circuit 4 stops the operations of the analog I / O circuit 5, the first recording device 10 and the second recording device 11.

If it is determined in step S3 that the B channel is not responding, the process proceeds to step S8 and another B channel described above is sent.
As in the case of recording a voice message using the channel, the response message stored in the RAM 111 is I
After sending out to the SDN network, the first recording device 10 is set in the recording state and the message from the caller is recorded on the magnetic tape set in the tape deck 102.

In this embodiment, by providing two recording devices, even when the answering machine recording is being performed using one B channel of the ISDN line, the second B channel is used by using the other B channel. The recording device can record the message of another calling party. Moreover, since the message recorded in the second recording device 11 is transferred to the first recording device 10 when the recording in the first recording device 10 is completed, the user can confirm the recorded contents. All that is required is to play back and confirm the message recorded in one of the recording devices (in this case, the first recording device 10).

Further, since the second recording device 11 does not need to record many messages in advance, the recording capacity is small and the size of the device can be reduced. Therefore, when the second recording device is composed of a semiconductor memory or the like, the memory capacity is small.

[0032]

According to the present invention, even when recording is being performed on one B channel of an ISDN line, another B channel is used to send a message of another caller by another recording means. Since it can be recorded, the caller will not be kept waiting even while the message is recorded. Furthermore, when the recording is completed, the recording content is transferred from one recording means to the other recording means, so that when the user confirms the recording content, only one recording content needs to be reproduced. Can be easily confirmed. Further, in this case, one of the recording means does not need to have a large recording capacity, so that the structure of the recording device can be simplified.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a circuit configuration diagram of an answering machine according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 I interface control unit 4 Man-machine control circuit 5 Analog I / O circuit 10 First recording device 11 Second recording device

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A first recording means for recording a voice of a caller in response to an incoming call when an answering machine mode is set, a second recording means different from the first recording means, and the first recording means. When an incoming call is received while the recording means is in operation, a recording control means for causing the second recording means to record the voice of the caller corresponding to the incoming call, and the voice recorded by the second recording means An answering machine, comprising: a transfer means for transferring to the first recording means.