JPH04355554A - Exchange having busy state incoming call priority function - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To attain the communication when the intensity of a request by a caller to a communication setting, privacy of a called party and a state of acceptance of an incoming call are arranged by using a PBX or a station exchange having a busy state incoming call priority function. CONSTITUTION:A PBX or a station exchange 101 having a busy state incoming call priority function and art an incoming call priority function consists of a communication control section 101-2 controlling a switch network 101-1 to connect subscribers, a storage section 101-3 storing the priority condition, an incoming call condition collation section 101-4, an automatic answering telephone set function section 101-5 and a busy state incoming call signal transmission section 101-6. The exchange 101 receiving an incoming call signal checks whether or not the priority required for the incoming call is represented, the collation section 101-4 collates the condition with the incoming call condition of the circuit 101-3 and sends a call number to the incoming call telephone set 101-6 when it is cleared that the incoming call condition is satisfied. Moreover, when not satisfied, the automatic answering telephone set function section 101-5 is operated to transfer the service to the automatic answering telephone service.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a switching system connected to a private network or a public telephone network, and particularly to incoming calls.

0002

[Prior Art] Conventional exchanges are configured so that when a subordinate telephone receives an incoming call, it sends a signal to the telephone without distinguishing between all incoming calls, and the telephone rings the incoming call. To accommodate this, when the handset is picked up, the incoming ring tone stops and the call can be started. Furthermore, in a normal switchboard, when the telephones under the control operate the forwarding function, all incoming calls are forwarded without distinction.

0003

[Problem to be Solved by the Invention] Therefore, with telephones currently in common use, when a caller makes a dial call to a specific called party (communicator), the called party's telephone is either busy or not. Since the ringer always sounds except when the transfer function is in operation, the called party can hang off the phone no matter how busy he or she is, or when receiving unnecessary or non-urgent calls such as annoying sales commercials. It is necessary to respond. Additionally, subscribers who make a large number of calls often receive a so-called catch-honor service that allows them to receive a call-waiting signal in case they receive an incoming call from a third party during a call. However, we do not know how important the caller's call is, and we do not know whether the caller is a VIP or not compared to the person on the other end of the line.Furthermore, in the case of a call from a foreign country, There have been cases where the calling party or the called party has to call again, resulting in economic and time wastage.

On the other hand, the current telecommunications industry is said to be in the era of ISDN construction, and it is said that various new services will be possible in the future. Regarding telephone services, the following services are said to be launched in the near future. 1) A service in which the calling party's telephone number or self-identification number can be recognized by the called telephone. 2) If the caller travels away from the place where he/she is always present (in the case of an NTT subscriber phone, the subscriber's home phone) ID card (equivalent to the subscriber phone number as self-identification information) If you bring an ID card with you, you can insert your ID card into a phone at your place of work and it will have the same functionality as the phone owned by the ID card, and the phone charges associated with use will be added to your home phone. In terms of 1) and 2) above, it can be said that we are approaching the age of personal communication, where each person owns their own telephone. On the other hand, from the perspective of the person receiving the call from the caller (receiver), it can be said that the following detailed communication services are now required. 3) Ensuring privacy 4) Emphasizing the rights of the recipient (called party)

[0005] In such an era, the above-mentioned inconvenience was considered to be a mismatch between the progress of communication and the rights of people in daily life, and was a problem that required major improvement.

[0006] In addition, telephones with forwarding functions are also a nuisance to the called (calling) party. Suppose that a user of a telephone that is normally at his/her seat is set so that incoming calls are transferred to the telephone at his/her seat when he/she goes somewhere else for business. In this case, all incoming calls addressed to one's desk are forwarded to the user when he/she is away, and therefore, apart from important calls, even less important calls must be answered while away, resulting in a lot of waste. Furthermore, even though it is called a transfer destination phone, it is a phone that is normally used by someone other than the person at their desk, and using the transfer destination phone for a long time may be interfering with the incoming or outgoing calls of the normal user. It could also happen. Therefore, it would be desirable to have a method in which incoming calls are transferred to the called party only if the content of the call is considered important by the called party, but such a service has not been implemented to date.

An object of the present invention is to enable a user of a subordinate telephone to respond only to incoming calls that meet predetermined priority conditions, and to allow only incoming calls that meet predetermined priority conditions to be answered by the user. An object of the present invention is to provide an exchange having a call-waiting priority function that allows a called party to receive a call-waiting signal when a predetermined priority condition is satisfied.

[0008]

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve this object, the incoming call priority function switching equipment of the present invention provides an incoming call priority function to a pre-designated telephone among the telephones under its control. For this purpose, there is a call priority condition setting function that sets the priority conditions for establishing a call that are set by the called party in advance. By using the priority condition setting function that sets the priority conditions specified by the caller, if the priority information regarding the call to the telephone specified by the caller satisfies the priority conditions specified by the called party in advance, a call waiting signal will be sent, and if the priority conditions are not satisfied, the call waiting signal will be sent. either activates the answering machine function of the exchange to record the content and transmits the recorded information at the request of the called party, or stores the calling number in the exchange and sends it to the called party. The system is configured to have a re-call function that can call the calling party and the called party after the call ends. As a result, the inconvenience that existed in the past is no longer present.

[0009] According to the present invention, the urgency of the caller's communication, whether it is a report or a request to the called party, whether it is a local call or a long distance call, whether it is an important person or not, etc. While identifying
The called party's readiness to accept incoming calls is based on priorities, such as whether the called party is busy or not, and whether international numbers are accepted even if it is difficult, and the importance of the caller's communication and the called party's priority. It is possible to establish an incoming call when the conditions match, and to use the answering machine function of the exchange for other cases.

[0010] Next, regarding the incoming call priority function during a call, the user of a telephone with the above-mentioned function can set the priority conditions set in advance by the called party in case there is an incoming call from a third party during a call. By setting this in the exchange, if there is another incoming call during a call, the call will be received during the call if the priority information regarding the call addressed to the telephone indicated by a third party satisfies the priority conditions set by the called party in advance. It becomes possible to receive signals, and it becomes possible to take measures such as relieving the called party from the trouble of responding to incoming calls regarding the content of the call that is not very urgent or important to the called party.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The structure and functions of the present invention will be explained below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 shows a telephone with an incoming call priority condition setting function (hereinafter referred to as a telephone with an incoming call priority function) FK used in the present invention.
An example of the configuration of 1 is shown below. On the left side of the figure, as shown in Figure 1, there is a PB that has an incoming call priority function and an incoming call priority function.
There is a central office exchange 101 (hereinafter referred to as a functional exchange), which is connected between subscribers to the telephone FK1 with the incoming call priority condition setting function, and the telephone FK1 with the incoming call priority condition setting function.
The calling telephone FK2 to K1 is also connected to the PBX or the central office exchange SW through subscriber lines L1 and L2, forming the same telephone network. This is shown in Figure 1. Here, 101-1 is a switch network, 101-2 is a communication control unit that controls the switch network 101-1 to connect each subscriber, and 101
-3 is a storage unit 10 for storing priority conditions according to the present invention;
1-4 is an incoming call condition checking section, 101-5 is an answering machine function section, and 101-6 is an incoming call signal transmitting section. Also,
The calling telephone FK2 and the new calling telephone FK3 also have the same functions according to the invention as in FIG.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 1 denotes a dialing and signal transmitting section, which has the function of amplifying a dialing signal when a call is made and a signal from the transmitter 6 during a conversation, and transmitting the amplified signal to the subscriber lines L1 and L2. 2 is a signal receiving unit which rings a telephone bell 8 when the conventional conditions for establishing a call are received, and when the handset is in a hang-off state, receives a control signal from the control unit 4 and sends it to the subscriber line L1.
, L2, and has the function of starting a conversation with the caller.

Reference numeral 5 denotes an incoming call condition setting device, and when the owner of the telephone sets the incoming call condition, the control section 4 operates the dialing and signal transmitting section 1 to notify the functional exchange 101 of the incoming call condition. The functional exchange 101 that receives this signal stores it in the storage unit 101-3 shown in FIG.

Hereinafter, one of the features of the present invention, which is the incoming call condition checking section 101-4, the incoming call condition setting device 5, and the incoming call new transmitting section 101-6, will be explained in detail. Whenever you look at the callee's daily life or work situation,
There aren't many situations in which people can answer calls of any (not very important) nature, and they are usually doing some kind of work. However, if we look closely at the content of the work, even when we are doing very complex or important work, there are times when we do not have a lot of time and it is okay to take a break and answer the phone. On the other hand, the conditions on the caller side may also vary. In particular, there are a variety of situations, such as when you don't necessarily need to call right now, but you want to make a call when you have free time, or when you want the other party to answer if they have free time, or when you want to make an emergency call.

[0016] Furthermore, when a call comes in from a third party during a call, the current call-waiting service does not tell how important the content of the call is to the caller.
In addition, the called party becomes irritated because it is unclear whether the called party is an important person (VIP) or not compared to the person currently on the phone. On the other hand, from the sender's point of view, even if he or she wants to convey something very urgent or important, if the other party does not respond, it can be frustrating.

[0017] Express the above-mentioned degree of necessity of the calling party and the conditions for answering the called party's phone as quantitatively as possible, and establish a call only when both conditions match, and if they do not match, the call is terminated. The role of the incoming call condition checking section 101-4 and the incoming call condition setting device 5 is to match the purpose, such as rejecting the call or recording a message on the answering machine. Furthermore, if there is an incoming call from a third party during a call, the call will be made to the phone only if the priority information regarding the call to the phone indicated by the caller satisfies the priority conditions set by the callee in advance. The role of the call waiting signal transmitter 101-6 is to transmit the call waiting signal.

First, a description will be given of quantifying the calling party's urgency and the called party's priority conditions. Tables 1 to 4 show examples of these. Table 1 focuses on the urgency of the caller's communication, and compares this with the priority conditions of the called party, and establishes a call if it is marked ○ on the matrix, or
This is an example of not doing this in the case of a mark. These conditions are often determined by the subjectivity of the called party, and in many cases cannot be determined in general.

[Table 1]

[Table 2]

[Table 3]

[Table 4]

Table 2 shows the calling party and the called party (N within the 23 wards of Tokyo).
It focuses on the relative distance between telephones of subscribers (with TT area code 03), and is an example of making it easier to establish communication the longer distance calls are made, and ensuring that international calls are always successful. be. Table 3 is an example in which the more important the caller is (a person with a high position or power), the easier it is to establish communication. Table 4 focuses on the content of the caller's communication, and shows that in the callee's subjective selection, the callee's undesired requests are low and the reports that are advantageous (for example, information provision) are high, and the calls that are particularly profitable are high. This is an example in which the higher the number of reports received, the higher the rate of incoming calls.

Next, the role and operation of the incoming call condition setting device 10 will be explained. First, the setting of incoming call conditions is changed on an hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly basis depending on how busy the telephone subscriber is at the time, his social status, and his environment. For example, when a salary earner returns home after finishing his daily work and relaxes after dinner, the setting is as follows. The next time you take a bath, if your family is with you, you may be in the above state, but if you are working alone, you may choose to be in the above state.

Furthermore, when it is 11:00 pm and you go to bed, the following settings are made, for example. Setting such conditions is easy with either hardware or software, and a setting signal is sent to the incoming call condition matching section 5 each time the setting is made.

[0022] Also, if a certain telephone subscriber (in Tokyo) does not like to be bothered by the ringtone of the telephone at night, but would like to receive calls from his parents in Osaka, the following is the case: All you have to do is set a priority condition. In the above conditions, the incoming call condition is the logical sum (OR) of A to D.
).

[0023] Furthermore, suppose that a certain telephone subscriber has joined a club to receive the latest information for stock investment, and wants to obtain information that affects stock prices even late at night or early in the morning, even if he is in bed. . In this case, the call priority condition may be set as follows at bedtime. In the above conditions, the incoming call condition is the logical sum (OR) of A to D.
).

[0024] Also, if a certain housewife is willing to make a long phone call when her husband is away during the day if she receives a call from a friend, but she does not like incoming calls to her husband, she may set the following conditions. In the above conditions, the incoming call condition is the logical product (AND) of A to D.
).

These conditions set for the incoming call are sent to the storage section 101-3 of the functional exchange 101 as a setting signal. The storage unit 101-3 that receives this signal stores this information in its storage circuit and waits for an incoming call from a third party.

Now, suppose that there is an incoming call from a third party's telephone FK2. The operation of the functional exchange 101 of FIG. 1 according to the present invention at this time will be explained using FIG. 3. The functional exchange 101 that receives the incoming call signal from the calling side telephone checks whether or not the priority conditions required for the incoming call are indicated together with the incoming call signal, and if so, the conditions are stored in the memory circuit 10.
In order to compare the call condition with the call condition stored in step 1, a call condition comparison unit compares the two. As a result, if it is found that the incoming call condition is satisfied, a calling signal is sent to the incoming telephone. The called telephone that receives this sends out a ringing tone from the bell 8. At this time, if the called party is nearby, he/she will pick up the handset to establish the call and begin the conversation, and when the call is finished, the call will be terminated by hanging up the handset (hang-on). If the incoming call conditions are not satisfied, the functional exchange activates the answering machine function unit 101-5 and switches to answering machine service, saying, ``I am currently busy (not available) and cannot answer the phone, so I will record a message.'' Provide a voice service with the person and record the message. In addition, if the priority order required for an incoming call is not indicated along with the incoming call signal in the above operation flow, the talkie will say, ``The owner of the number you called is busy, so we will connect you according to the priority order.'' Please indicate the priority conditions in the following order: whether it is urgent or not (1, 2), whether it is a long-distance call or a long-distance call, in 3 stages according to the distance (4 for international calls), etc. It is. It is difficult to present all of these priority conditions in Tables 1 to 4, and it is necessary to narrow down the priority conditions to those that can be presented, and to simplify the number of evaluation stages to 2 to 3 stages. Now, when answers to these are sent from the calling side telephone in the form of voices or tones, the functional exchange 101 recognizes these, converts them into digital signals, and sends the incoming call conditions to the incoming call condition checking section 101-4. do. The matching unit 101-4 compares the incoming call conditions upon receiving this signal with the priority conditions for incoming calls determined by the called party in the same manner as described above, and if all these conditions are satisfied, the call is made to the called telephone. It sends a signal, and if it is not satisfied, it switches to an answering service.

FIG. 3 is an operational flow diagram for setting call priority conditions.

[0028] The above-described example allows for the setting of incoming call priority conditions even if the conditions are somewhat unclear. However, as mentioned above, along with the construction of the ISDN network, if the aforementioned caller ID, PIN ID, calling place information, or priority conditions related to individual communication contents can be displayed digitally as a new telephone service, even more accurate call priority conditions will be possible. Can be set. FIG. 4 shows an example of the calling party's information sent to the called party in this case. Therefore, it is clear from the above example that the called party can set more detailed and accurate priority conditions than the priority conditions shown in Tables 1 to 4 based on this information.

[0029] The above has been an explanation regarding the setting of incoming call priority conditions and the verification. Below, the setting for transmitting an incoming call signal during a call will be explained. Since receiving an incoming call signal during a call is quite troublesome for the called party as described above, the called party generally imposes conditions that are equal to or stricter than the incoming call conditions. If they are equivalent, a common area of the storage unit 101-3 can be used for setting the incoming call priority condition and setting the incoming call signal transmission condition for each telephone.

For example, suppose that a certain telephone subscriber has joined a club to receive the latest information in order to invest in stocks, and wants to obtain information that affects stock prices even while on the phone. In this case, the call waiting signal reception conditions may be set as follows. In the above conditions, the incoming call condition is the logical sum (OR) of A to D.
).

[0031] The above-described example allows for the setting of the incoming call signal reception condition to be somewhat unclear. However, as mentioned above, with the construction of the ISDN network, if it becomes possible to digitally display the above-mentioned caller ID, PIN ID, place of origin information, or reception conditions related to individual communication contents as a new telephone service, it will be possible to display a more accurate call waiting signal. Reception conditions can be set. FIG. 4 can also be used in this case. That is, it is clear from the above example that the called party can set more detailed and accurate priority conditions than the priority conditions shown in Tables 1 to 4 based on this information.

FIG. 5 shows the function exchange 101 when the called telephone FK1 is in the middle of a call and the incoming call signal reception condition setting function is in operation.
2 is a flowchart summarizing the operation of receiving a pending call to the new call transfer telephone set FK3. In addition, the new calling telephone (Figure 1
Then, if FK3) wishes, it will tell the number of its own telephone to the central office exchange 101, and upon receiving this, the central office exchange 101 will store this number in the storage unit 101-3 and transmit it to the called telephone (FK1 in FIG. 1). After the call ends, the new calling phone FK3
It is also possible to make a call again. FIG. 5 also shows the operation flow in this case.

[0033]

Effects of the Invention As described in detail above, by using the PBX or central office exchange having the incoming call priority function according to the present invention, it is possible to reduce the caller's strong demands on communication settings and protect the privacy of the called party. It becomes possible to communicate while being ready to accept an incoming call, and it becomes possible to live a comfortable and highly efficient daily life without being subjected to the violence of telephone calls.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1: PB with call priority function according to the present invention
1 is a system diagram showing a configuration example of a telephone system using X or a central office exchange.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of a telephone with an incoming call priority condition setting function used in the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an operational flow diagram for incoming call priority conditions.

FIG. 4 is an example of information from a calling party for setting incoming call priority conditions.

FIG. 5 is an operational flow diagram summarizing the operation of transmitting an incoming call signal during a call.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Dial and signal transmitter 2 Signal receiving section 4 Control section 5 Incoming call condition setting device 6. Transmitter 7　Telephone receiver 8 Electric bell 101 PBX or central office exchange 101-1 Switch network 101-2 Communication control unit 101-3 Storage section 101-4 Incoming call condition verification unit 101-5 Answering machine function section 101-6 Call waiting signal transmitter

Claims (3)

[Claims] Claim 1: It has a priority condition setting function that sets the priority conditions specified by the called party in advance, and when a subordinate telephone receives an incoming call while this function is in operation, and another call is received while the subordinate telephone is operating this function. When an incoming call arrives from a calling party to the telephone set, and priority information regarding the call is indicated in the incoming call signal, and the priority conditions predetermined by the called party are satisfied,
An exchange having a call-waiting priority function configured to transmit a call-waiting signal to the telephone set. [Claim 2] If the priority conditions predetermined by the called party are not met, the answering machine function of the exchange is activated to record the contents, and the recorded information is transmitted at the request of the called party. 2. An exchange having an incoming call priority function according to claim 1, configured as follows. [Claim 3] If the priority condition predetermined by the called party is not satisfied, the calling party number is stored in the exchange;
2. The exchange having a call priority function according to claim 1, wherein the called party has a re-call function that allows the called party to call the calling party and the called party after the call ends.