Telephone answering machine having solid state and magnetic tape storage for outgoing announcements

In a telephone answering machine including a magnetic tape for recording speech signals and non-permanent memory means for storing an outgoing announcement encoded in binary digital form, a method for providing delivery of the outgoing announcement including the steps of:

• recording the outgoing announcement exclusively on the magnetic tape;
• converting the outgoing announcement, stored on the magnetic tape, into an ordered set of binary digits, said converting being exclusively responsive to analog signals stored on the magnetic tape;
• storing the ordered set of binary digits in the non-permanent memory means;
• and
• converting the ordered set of binary digits stored in the non-permanent memory means into an analog signal for connection to a telephone line.

In a microprocessor controlled telephone answering machine including:

• (i) a magnetic tape for receiving incoming messages from a telephone line, (ii) initialization commands stored in permanent memory associated with the microprocessor, and (iii) non-permanent memory means storing an outgoing announcement encoded in binary digital form, a method for initializing the telephone answering machine including the steps of:
• rewinding the magnetic tape to its beginning position from a rest position at the end of the region used for storing incoming messages;
• measuring the distance that the tape is rewound;
• storing said measures rewind distance as the location of the rest position;
• forwarding the magnetic tape a known distance to a region where an outgoing announcement is stored;
• converting the outgoing announcement, stored on the magnetic tape, into an ordered set of binary digits, said converting samples the outgoing announcement at a rate inversely proportional to a stored measure of its duration;
• storing the ordered set of binary digits in the non-permanent memory means;
• and
• forwarding the magnetic tape to its rest position.

In a telephone answering machine including random access memory means for storing an announcement in binary digital form;

• and digital-to-analog conversion means for converting the binary digital announcement, stored in the random access memory means, into an analog announcement signal for transmission over a telephone line, the improvement comprising:
• means responsive to the initial recording of said analog announcement signal for storing said signals exclusively on a magnetic tape storage means;
• and
• analog-to-digital conversion means operative after the completion of said initial recording of said analog announcement signal, for converting said analog announcement stored on the magnetic tape, into a binary digital signal for storage in the random access memory means.

In a telephone answering machine, the combination of:

• magnetic tape apparatus storing an analog signal,
• means for measuring the time duration of the analog signal stored on the magnetic tape,
• means for periodically sampling the magnitude of the analog signal at a predetermined rate;
• means for converting the magnitude of said analog samples into one or more binary digits at each sampling instant;
• means for varying said predetermined rate in inverse proportion to the measured time duration;
• random access memory means storing the binary digits resulting from the analog-to-digital conversion;
• and
• digital-to-analog conversion means for converting the binary digits, stored in the random access memory, into a reconstructed analog signal for use as an outgoing announcement, said reconstructed analog signal being connected to a telephone line in response to an incoming telephone call.

In a telephone answering machine including a magnetic tape for storing a speech signal for transmission over a telephone line and for recording messages received over the telephone line, characterized by:

• means for measuring the time duration of the speech signal stored on the magnetic tape;
• analog-to-digital conversion means, having a variable sampling rate, for converting the speech signal stored on the magnetic tape into a binary digital signal;
• means responsive to the measured time duration of the speech signal for varying the sampling rate of the analog-to-digital converter;
• solid state storage means for storing said binary digital signal;
• and
• digital-to-analog conversion means for converting the stored binary digital signal into the speech signal for transmission over the telephone line.