Telephone answering and message recording system

Abstract

An improved telephone answering and message recording system (100) having a microphone (4), an analog-digital converter (6) for converting the analog speech signal of the microphone (4) to a digital signal, a digital memory (M.sub.1, M.sub.2, M.sub.3, M.sub.4, MEM.sub.1 -MEM.sub.n) for storing the digital speech signal of the analog-digital converter (6), a digital-analog converter (7) for re-converting the digital signal of the output of the memory to an analog signal, and a speaker (5) coupled with the output of said digital-analog converter (7). The system has further a PB (push button) receiver (40) for detecting a PB code which is composed of the combination of two frequencies, and the operational mode and/or the memory to record or reproduce a speech is switched by the particular PB code. The system may operate in a first fixed answering mode in which a fixed answer recorded in the memory is transmitted to a remote subscriber, and in a second adaptive oral communication mode in which a speech recorded in the memory can be revised and/or transmitted to a remote subscriber through a telephone line. In the latter mode, two remote persons may communicate with each other through the present system even when those two persons do not call the present system simultaneously.