JPH06188998A - Automatic answering telephone system - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Object] To provide an automatic telephone answering device in a system type telephone device that does not require a dedicated operator, is not bothered by the complicated work involved in the transfer, and does not require a large amount of expense. [Structure] Each user sets presence / absence of the response device. When an incoming call is received from an outside line or an extension line, the answering device automatically receives the call and recognizes to whom the call is made by word spotting. If the called party is absent, a message message is sent as with a normal answering machine. Record. If the user is in the room, the telephone line being answered is put on hold by a hooking operation, the user in the room is called, and the line put on hold is transferred.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a system type telephone apparatus having a plurality of extension telephones such as a PBX, a key telephone apparatus, a home telephone, etc., and an apparatus for automatically performing a telephone call and a message, that is, an automatic telephone answering apparatus. It is a thing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIGS. 2 to 5 are explanatory views exemplifying conventional modes of telephone intermediary and message operations in a system type telephone device. Hereinafter, with reference to the related art, a method of mediating a telephone call and performing a message business will be described.

A system type telephone device such as a PBX, a key telephone device, and a home telephone has many convenient functions such that a plurality of users can answer an incoming call from arbitrary telephones and can forward the incoming call to other users. From the office,
Widely used in homes.

However, in general, when a call is received, it is not possible to know who the call came from until the call was answered and confirmed by the caller, and the route (1) shown in FIG. 2 or 3 was used.
As described in (1), some of the users have to deal with the problem once, and the work is interrupted every time the phone is called. In addition, there is a problem that an economic burden occurs when a dedicated operator for telephone exchange is employed.

Also, there is no problem if the called party is in the room and can answer the telephone at the time of the transfer, but FIG.
If you are out of the office or cannot answer the phone while you are in the room, as shown in, the person who answers the call first or another agent hears the message from the caller and routes ( In 2), complicated work such as creating a message memo occurred, and there was a problem that the work until then was forced to be interrupted.

As shown in FIG. 4, it is possible to install an answering machine so that a machine can be used instead of a human being.
One answering machine has a problem that it is not possible to switch the presence / absence setting for each called party.
As described in (1), there was a problem that it would require an extremely large amount of money if an answering machine and an extension telephone line were prepared for the number of users.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to overcome the problems of the prior art as described above, to eliminate the need to hire a dedicated operator for telephone exchange, and to troublesome complicated work for intermediary. It is an object of the present invention to provide an automatic telephone answering device in a system type telephone device, which is very convenient and does not cost a lot of money.

When further examined, one telephone answering device grasps information of presence / absence of all users, automatically answers an incoming call, confirms the called party, and the called party is present in the room. If this is the case, it is necessary to call the called party to intervene, and if it is absent, notify the absence and record the message.

In order to realize such processing, it is necessary to solve the following two technical problems. (1) To confirm who the incoming call came to, that is, who the called party name is. (2) If the called party is in the room, how to relay the call to the called party.

[0010]

In the present invention, the following means are used to solve the problems of the above two items. The former of the task, that is, the recognition of the name of the called party, is the voice of the caller in response to a response message such as "Yes, this is XX. Which one do you want to connect to?" For example, "XX" Wordspotting "Are you a △△ -san?", And extract the "△△ san" part.

Regarding word spotting for telephone speech, reference is made by Imamura, "Spotting of telephone speech by HMM", Speech study group material SP90-18. Since an example studied in detail is described in the above, it is omitted here. Further, the content thereof is not directly related to the present invention.

The latter means, that is, the following means is used for mediation when the called party is in the room. In general, most PBXs, key telephones, and home telephones, when an extension telephone that is making an outside call is opened (hooking) for several hundred ms, the outside call is put on hold and an extension dial tone is returned to make an extension call. The present invention utilizes such a function to realize the transfer of the telephone to the called party in the room.

[0013]

As described above, by using the automatic telephone answering device according to the present invention, it is possible to avoid an economic burden such as hiring an operator or purchasing a large number of answering machines, and at the same time, to make a telephone transfer or make a message memo. Can be automated.

[0014]

FIG. 6 is a system configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, and shows that the automatic telephone answering apparatus according to the present invention takes the place of an agent in the prior art.

In FIG. 6, it is assumed that the PBX switch is a switch having a hold transfer function for an outside line call by hooking. Here, with respect to the automatic telephone answering device, each user switches the setting of presence / absence of room in some way. The switching is performed by operating a mechanical switch installed in this device, or P via a telephone line.
Although it is possible to use B signal or voice recognition,
Either method will do. These methods are not relevant to the present invention.

When an incoming call is received from the outside or another extension, the automatic telephone answering apparatus of the present invention automatically receives the call, recognizes to whom the call is made by word spotting, and the called party is absent. Then, record the message as you would with a normal answering machine. If the user is in the room, the phone line being answered is hooked to hold the line, the user in the room is called, and the line that has been held is transferred.

Most of the current PBXs and button telephones have a function of holding a line during a call by hooking, and making an invention on the premise of such a function impairs the significance of the invention. Please note that it is not a thing.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an automatic telephone answering apparatus as an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a memory for storing the presence / absence of a called party, 2 is a telephone line (station line), 3 is an incoming call detection unit, 4 is a control unit, 5 is a line loop closing unit, and 6 is first response message data. First response message storage memory for storing, 7 is a voice recording / playback unit, 8
Is the called name word spotting section.

In addition, 9 is a callee name voice characteristic parameter storage memory, 10 is a second response message storage memory that stores second response message data, 11 is a callee-specific message storage memory, and 12 is a third. A third response message storage memory for storing response message data, 13 a hooking timer data storage memory, 14 a called party telephone number storage memory, and 15 a dial signal sending unit.

The detailed operation of this embodiment will be described below with reference to FIG. As described above, the user switches the setting of presence / absence of room to the automatic telephone answering device in advance by some method.

In addition to the method of switching the presence / absence at the time of operation, a method of automatically switching the presence / absence at the set date and time can be easily set by setting the time / date and the schedule as a set. It is feasible. The present embodiment does not refer to the presence / absence setting method, but it is assumed that presence / absence is preset and the setting contents are stored in the called party presence / absence information storage memory 1 for each user. Proceed with the explanation.

When there is an incoming call on the telephone line 2, the incoming call detecting section 3
Detects an incoming signal and notifies the control unit 4 that there is an incoming call. When the control unit 4 instructs the line loop closing unit 5 to close the line, the incoming signal is stopped due to the formation of the loop, and it means that the network is in the talking state.

Next, the control unit 4 sends the message stored in the first response message storage memory 6, usually "Yes,
This is ○○ Co., Ltd. Which one should I connect to? The voice recording / playback unit 7 is instructed to synthesize the voice based on the data corresponding to the voice such as “,” and send it to the line.

In response to the above voice, the caller is "xx
Please. , Etc., a voice specifying the name of the called party is emitted. The voice is input to the called party name word spotting unit 8, and the called party name word spotting unit 8 inputs the feature parameters of the called party name voice stored in the called party name voice characteristic parameter storage memory 9. It compares with the voice to recognize who the called party is and notifies the control unit 4 of the result.

The control unit 4 stores the called party presence / absence information storage memory 1
Refer to to check whether the corresponding called party is currently in the room or absent. If not, perform the processing in (a) below, and if in the room, in (b) below. Perform processing.

(A) Absence The control unit 4 instructs the voice recording / playback unit 7 to record the voice stored in the second response message storage memory 10, for example, "Now, XX is absent. Will be recorded. Please speak. "Is sent out. The message message subsequently generated by the caller is stored in the message message storage memory 11 for each called party via the voice recording / playback unit 7. The above process corresponds to the process of the route (1) in the system configuration diagram of FIG.

(B) When in the room The control unit 4 instructs the voice recording / playback unit 7 to store the voice stored in the third response message storage memory 12, for example, "please wait for a while." Send audio to the line to notify you that you are calling. The above processing also corresponds to the processing of the route (1) in the system configuration diagram of FIG.

Next, the control unit 4 reads the hooking time length data stored in the hooking timer data storage memory 13, opens the line in the line loop closing unit 5 and closes it again for the length of time. . As a result, in a normal PBX or the like, the outside line currently in communication is held and the second dial tone is sent to the extension line.

Next, when the control section 4 reads the extension telephone number of the corresponding called party from the called party telephone number storage memory 14, the control section 4 causes the dial sending section 15 to send the dial signal of the corresponding PB or dial pulse. Send it to an extension line such as PBX. This causes the PBX or the like to ring the bell of the called party's telephone.

When the called party receives an incoming call and goes off-hook,
The control unit 4 again uses the hooking timer data storage memory 13
When the line loop closing unit 5 is opened and the line is closed again for the length of time, the normal PBX transfers the outside line, which was previously held, to the called party. Whether or not the control unit 4 unconditionally performs the next hooking when the called party responds or confirms with the called party whether or not to carry out the next hooking is a system design item. The description is omitted. The above processing corresponds to the processing of the route (2) in the system configuration diagram of FIG.

After the above processing is completed, the outside line is connected to the telephone of the called party, and the direct call between the calling party and the called party becomes possible, as shown by the route (3) in the system configuration diagram of FIG. It becomes a state.

[0032]

As described above, by using the automatic telephone answering device according to the present invention, it is possible to avoid the financial burden such as hiring an operator or purchasing a large number of answering machines, and also to transfer the telephone. It is possible to automate the creation of message memos.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an automatic telephone answering apparatus as an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a mode of intermediary in the system type telephone device when a person intervenes and a called party is present in the room.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an intermediary mode in the system type telephone device when a person intervenes and a called party is absent.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an intermediary mode when one answering machine is an intermediary in the system type telephone device.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing an intermediary mode in the system type telephone device in which as many answering machines as the number of users are installed.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a system configuration when an automatic telephone answering device is used as an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... callee presence / absence information storage memory, 2 ... telephone line, 3 ...
Incoming call detection unit, 4 ... control unit, 5 ... line loop closing unit, 6 ...
First response message storage memory, 7 ... voice recording / playback unit,
8 ... Called name word spotting section, 9 ... Called name voice feature parameter storage memory, 10 ... Second response message storage memory, 11 ... Called party message message storage memory, 12 ... Third response message storage Memory, 13 ... Hooking timer data storage memory, 14 ... Called party telephone number storage memory, 15 ... Dial signal sending unit

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued Front Page (72) Inventor Kazuhiro Arai 1-1-6 Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Nihon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Having one or a plurality of station lines and a plurality of extension telephones, and having functions such as making and receiving calls between any extension telephone and any station line, and holding a station line during a call. In a system-type telephone device, in an automatic answering device that automatically handles incoming calls and performs message services, etc., an incoming call detection unit that detects an incoming signal from a telephone line, which is a central line, and a line that closes a line loop. Loop closure means,
Hooking timer data storage means for storing time length data for opening the line during hooking, dial signal sending means for sending an arbitrary dial signal to the line, and calling out the called party name to the calling party First voice message storage means for storing first voice message data for instructing that the second voice message data for storing second voice message data for instructing the caller to speak a message Message storage means and data stored in the first and second voice message storage means are read out, converted into voice signals and sent to the line, and at the same time, the voice of the calling party is taken in and converted into storable data. Voice recording / playback means, callee name voice feature parameter storage means for storing voice feature parameters of a pre-registered callee name, and input from the line A called party name detecting means for comparing and collating the voice signal with the contents of the called party name characteristic parameter storing means, and detecting which called party name is included in the input voice; Called person presence / absence information storage means that indicates whether the called party is present or absent for each person, and called party telephone number storage means that stores the telephone numbers of each called party's own seat or room And a callee-specific message message storage means for recording the caller's message voice data encoded by the voice recording / playback means for each callee. An incoming call is detected by an incoming signal from the detecting means, the line loop closing means is used to close the line, and then the first voice is used to specify the called party name to the calling party. Read the data stored in the message storage means and record the voice. The voice of the other party is sent to the line by the live means, and then the called party name detecting means is compared with the information stored in the called party name voice characteristic parameter storing means, and the detected result is detected. Get the caller name,
If the called person-specific absent / absence information storage means, if the called party is absent, the voice data stored in the second voice message storage means is read and sent to the line via the voice recording / playback means, The caller's voice is stored in the callee-specific message storage means and the answering machine message is recorded. If the callee is in the room, the time length stored in the hooking timer data storage means is stored. During the period, the line is opened by the loop closing means to hold the calling party, and after the telephone number of the called party is obtained from the called party telephone number storing means, the dial signal sending means is used to establish the line. After calling the called party by sending a telephone number to the called party, the caller name stored in the hooking timer data storage means is again held and the line is closed by the loop closing means. Transfer to An automatic telephone answering device, comprising: control means for controlling to make a close call.