Hands-free telephone apparatus

A hands-free telephone apparatus for adding a hands-free telephone function to a connected telephone set, the apparatus comprising:

• a speaker for outputting voice received by the connected telephone set;
• a microphone for inputting voice to be transmitted from the connected telephone set;
• a model-information storage section for storing model information indicating a correlation between a model of a telephone set and a command for setting/changing a function of the hands-free telephone apparatus available to the user to a non-restricted state of the hands-free telephone apparatus function from the telephone set of the model for a plurality of models;
• a model-identification information obtaining section for obtaining model-identification information indicating a model of the telephone set from the connected telephone set when the telephone set is connected;
• a telephone-set state setting section for issuing the command to the connected telephone set when the model-identification information storage section stores model information indicating a command corresponding to a model indicated by the model-identification information obtained by the model-identification information obtaining section;
• a state-information obtaining section for obtaining state information indicating a state of the telephone set from the connected telephone set when the model-identification information storage section does not store model information indicating a command corresponding to a model indicated by the model-identification information obtained by the model-identification information obtaining section;
• and
• a warning section for warning the user to change the state of the telephone set when the state of the telephone set obtained by the state-information obtaining section restricts a function of the hands-free telephone apparatus available to a user.

A method of supporting use of a hands-free telephone apparatus, the hands-free telephone apparatus comprising a speaker for outputting voice received by a connected mobile telephone and a microphone for inputting voice transmitted from the connected mobile telephone, the method comprising the steps of:

• obtaining model-identification information indicating a model of the telephone set from the connected telephone set when the telephone set is connected to the hands-free telephone apparatus;
• issuing a command to the connected telephone set when the hands-free telephone apparatus already knows the command for setting/changing a function of the hands-free telephone apparatus available to the user to a non-restricted state,;
• obtaining state information indicating a state of the telephone set from the connected telephone set when the hands-free telephone apparatus does not know the command for setting/changing a function of the hands-free telephone apparatus available to the user to a non-restricted state;
• and
• giving a warning to change the state of the telephone set to the user when the obtained state of the telephone set restricts a function of the hands-free telephone apparatus available to the user.