JPH0318162A - Automatic answering telephone system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To attain the hearing of from whom is the phone call in a short time and to decrease the connection of a telephone line by providing a means recording and reproducing the voice of an incoming call and a means storing the call for a prescribed time only, reading and outputting the call. CONSTITUTION:An automatic answering telephone set 1 records a telephone voice coming during absence to a recording section 3 and its content is reproduced and outputted as required. On the other hand, a voice signal inputted to the telephone set 1 is sent to a control section 6 via an A/D converter section, a voice for a preset time is subject to block processing and stored in a reference voice recording section 7. A telephone set processor inputs a keyword registered in advance in a keyword registration section 9 to a keyword recognition section 8 to read out the content of the telephone call stored in the recording section 7 and to listen to it.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Object of the Invention] (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention records the voice of incoming calls while you are away,
The present invention relates to an answering machine system having a function of reproducing and outputting recorded contents as necessary, and particularly relates to remote communication using an answering machine and its security field.

(Prior Art) In recent years, a highly information-oriented society has developed rapidly, and convenience has been pursued. For example, telephones are commonly used for remote interactions, which is very convenient when both parties know each other's locations. As an example, in the field of communications, there is a forwarding phone system that allows remote conversations to occur as if the person were actually in that location, even if the person is not in a certain location, as long as the forwarding destination information is known in advance. can.

Additionally, answering machine systems have recently become popular as systems that can be easily used by individuals. As a result, the contents of multiple phone calls made while the person is away are recorded on magnetic tape, and the person can listen to the contents by calling his or her home from outside the home.

(Problem to be solved by the invention) As described above, in the conventional answering machine system, as the number of incoming calls increases, the time taken to listen to the contents of the calls increases, resulting in wasted time and a large amount of telephone charges. This caused problems such as the problem of overloading.

Therefore, the present invention makes it possible to know in a short time who is calling, and in the case of an urgent call or an important call, the details can be heard from the contents recorded at the same time. In addition, it can shorten the connection time of the telephone line, which can greatly contribute to saving on telephone charges.
To provide an answering machine system capable of selectively listening to the contents of telephone calls.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) The answering machine system according to the first invention has a function of recording the voice of incoming calls while the user is away, and reproducing and outputting the recorded contents as necessary. The telephone answering machine has an answering machine, a storage means for storing the voice of the telephone for a preset period of time, and an audio output means for reading out the voice information stored in the storage means and outputting the voice.

An answering machine system according to a second aspect of the present invention includes an answering machine having a function of recording the voice of an incoming call while the user is away and reproducing and outputting the recorded content as needed; storage means for storing the audio information for a certain period of time; first audio output means for reading audio information stored in the storage means and outputting audio information; and a second outputting the contents recorded in the corresponding answering machine means.
and audio output means.

An answering machine system according to a third aspect of the present invention includes an answering machine having a function of recording the voice of incoming calls while the user is away and reproducing and outputting the recorded contents as needed; a storage means for storing the voice information for a certain period of time; a recognition means for recognizing voice information registered as a keyword in advance from voice information stored in the memory means; The telephone answering machine is equipped with a voice output means for outputting the contents recorded on the answering machine means.

(Function) According to the answering machine system according to the first invention, in addition to the existing answering machine system, incoming calls are recorded as they are, and at the same time, the voice of a specified time after the voice is uttered is recorded for voice reference. The contents of each incoming call are recorded in the storage means of the answering machine, and the owner of the answering machine can listen to the voice information in the storage means from outside or when returning home, and can easily identify who is calling in a short time. You can find out at Furthermore, the above operation can shorten the connection time of the telephone line, which can greatly contribute to saving on telephone charges. Further, it can be effectively used as a security system.

According to the answering machine system according to the second invention, further:
In the case of an urgent or important call, the details can be heard from a simultaneous recording.

According to the answering machine system according to the third invention, further:
By recognizing keywords from the contents stored in the storage means, you can select and listen to the contents of a specific phone call in case of urgent matters or important calls.
Leads to improved efficiency.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes an answering machine, which has a handset 2 and a recording section 3, and is connected to a communication line 4. The answering machine 1 is a conventional answering machine having a function of recording the voice of incoming calls while the user is away, and reproducing and outputting the recorded contents as needed. The analog voice signal inputted to the answering machine 1 is sent to the A/D converter 5.
The signal is converted into a digital signal and sent to the control section 6, which blocks it into blocks for each incoming call and stores them in the reference voice storage section 7.

The reference voice storage unit 7 does not store all voices of incoming calls. That is, only the voice for a preset predetermined time (several seconds) after the telephone voice starts, and all the voice content is analog recorded on the magnetic tape of the recording unit 3 attached to the answering machine 1. Ru.

The A/D converter 5 has a conversion rate of 64 kilobits/second when digitized at 8 bits per sample using the commonly used PCM method.
If the setting time of the audio to be stored in is 10 seconds, approximately 80
It is kilobyte.

Therefore, the number of incoming calls should be reduced to 50 per day.
In this case, 4 megabytes of memory is required. This can be fully accommodated based on recent memory technology.

The control unit 6 has a word voice recognition function, and uses a normal answering machine function to select a matching word voice from a plurality of pre-registered word voices before recording an incoming call. Recognize and take action on it. For example, as word sounds, "self", "
"Stop", "End", "Next", "Bray",
Record "Keyword 1", "Keyword 2", etc.

On the other hand, the owner of the answering machine calls the main answering machine system from outside the home and controls the reference voice storage unit 7 and the recording unit 3 attached to the answering machine 1 using the word audio. It is.

The keyword recognition section 8 recognizes each of the voices stored in the reference voice storage section 7 in blocks of incoming calls as answering machines. Here,
The keywords used are those registered in advance in the keyword registration section 9. The registration can be carried out by uttering a keyword voice from a normal handset 2 and inputting it via the control section 6 and the keyword recognition section 6.

FIG. 2 shows how the reference audio storage section 7 and its corresponding recording section 3 record on the magnetic tape 10. FIG. 1A schematically shows the contents of the memory used in the reference voice storage section 7 of FIG. In other words, the memory area is divided into blocks for each incoming call, and the addresses At, A2, etc. indicating the beginning of the blocks are divided into blocks for each incoming call.
...determine. Also, the size of each block ML, 11
2, . . . are parameters that are set in advance, and are usually set for several seconds to about 10 seconds.

The owner of the answering machine makes a call and notifies the answering machine of his/her identity by speaking the word "self". Since the purpose of the voice of the word "self" is to confirm the user's identity, it may also be a name or a password. Now, if there is no urgent need to contact or ask for details among the contents stored in the reference voice storage section 7, the owner of the answering machine can call the answering machine sequentially (AI, A2,... ), you can listen to the audio for a specified number of seconds from the beginning of the incoming call.

In this way, the owner of the answering machine can easily know who the caller is on a daily basis, if he or she knows the answering machine, thereby saving time and telephone charges.

Next, if there is an urgent need to contact or listen to details of the contents stored in the reference voice storage section 7, the contents of the recording tape 10 shown in FIG. 2(b) will be listened to. For example, the content from address A2 in Figure 2 (a) is ``I'm Yamashita.''
If you want to listen to the contents of ``...'' in detail, you can search for the corresponding position P2 on the recording tape and listen to the entire contents (time T2). Here, the divisions (positions) on the recording tape are searched under the control of the control unit 6 in Fig. 1 by utilizing the high-pitched mark sound that is produced during recording in a normal answering machine system. be.

Furthermore, if the user wants to automatically select an important phone call from among a plurality of answering machines and listen to the entire contents from the recorded tape, an access method based on keyword recognition is used. For example, when the owner of an answering machine calls the answering machine from outside the home, he first calls the
”, the answering machine system sends the voice of the word “Keyword 1” to the keyword registration section 9.
If the content in the "Keyword 1" box is, for example, a person's name "Yamashita", an attempt is made to search for the part "Yamashita" from the continuous speech stored in the reference speech storage section 7. If the word "Yamashita" is found in the block being searched, the location (address) on the recording tape corresponding to the reference voice of this block is found and the entire contents are listened to. In this way, it is possible to automatically listen to the desired content of a call from a plurality of answering machines in a short time.

In this way, according to the above embodiment, for example, as an addition to an existing answering machine system, an incoming call can be recorded as it is on a recording tape, and at the same time, the voice of a specified time after the voice is uttered can be recorded as a voice reference. The content of each incoming call is recorded in a digital memory (reference voice storage section 7), so-called directory memory, and when the owner of the answering machine is out of the house or returns home, the voice in the directory memory is recorded. -By listening to the voice information, you can quickly find out who is calling.

Additionally, in the case of an urgent call or an important call, the details can be heard from the audio tape recorded at the same time. Furthermore, the above operation can shorten the connection time of the telephone line, which can greatly contribute to saving on telephone charges. Also, security
It can be used effectively as a system.

Furthermore, for urgent matters or important phone calls, by recognizing keywords from the contents stored in the directory memory, you can select and listen to the contents of a specific telephone call from the recorded tape. Leads to improved efficiency.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments, and various modifications and applications are possible. For example, in the embodiment described above, audio information is stored as is, but it is possible to add a compression function to effectively use the memory used.

It is also possible to control the answering machine to start recording when the voice level exceeds a specified level.

Furthermore, by devising the lit language sounds to be registered,
For example, it could be used as a communication board (memo board) between acquaintances. That is, the "minute" explained in the above example
Each person's name is registered with each other's name, and if the name of the incoming caller is registered, the user will be able to listen to the recorded content on the answering machine. Of course, it is conceivable to register a password in consideration of security. In addition to keyword (word sound) recognition, control based on the characteristics of the sound itself, ie, male or female voices, can be considered.

[Effects of the Invention] As detailed above, according to the present invention, it is possible to know in a short time who is calling, and in the case of a call from someone who needs to be contacted urgently or an important call, You can hear the details from the recorded content at the same time, and you can also shorten the connection time of the phone line, which can greatly contribute to saving on phone charges. , we can provide an answering machine system that allows you to selectively listen to the contents of the call.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a reference audio storage unit and a state in which sound is recorded on a corresponding recording tape in the same embodiment. 1... Answering machine, 2... Handset, 3... Recording section, 4... Communication line, 5
...A/D converter, 6...Control unit, 7
. . . Reference voice storage section, 8 . . . Keyword recognition section, 9 . . . Keyword registration section.

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) An answering machine that has the function of recording the voice of incoming calls while you are away and reproducing and outputting the recorded contents as necessary, and storing the voice of said telephone calls only for a preset period of time. What is claimed is: 1. An answering machine system comprising: a storage means for reading voice information stored in the storage means; and a voice output means for reading voice information stored in the memory means and outputting the read voice information. (2) An answering machine that has the function of recording the voice of calls received while the user is away and reproducing and outputting the recorded contents as necessary, and storing the voice of said telephone calls only for a preset period of time. a first voice output means for reading voice information stored in the memory means and outputting it as a voice; and an answering machine corresponding to a specific voice among the voices outputted by the first voice output means. 1. A telephone answering machine comprising: second audio output means for outputting recorded content. (3) An answering machine that has the function of recording the voice of incoming calls while you are away and reproducing and outputting the recorded contents as necessary, and storing the voice of said telephone calls only for a preset period of time. a recognition means for recognizing a voice report registered in advance as a keyword from among the voice information stored in the memory means; and a voice information recorded in the answering machine corresponding to the recognition result of the recognition means. What is claimed is: 1. An answering machine system characterized by comprising a voice output means for outputting the contents of the message.