A videophone having an automatic answering capability

Year	Description
1993	Invention patented by Atsushi Matsubara, Yoshinori Saito, Seiji Kato, and Yoshinobu Yamakita on May 3rd, 1993. Abstract: A videophone at e.g., a called location, receives sound signals, video signals and control signals through a communication circuit from a communication line and originating at, e.g., a calling videophone. A start signal detecting means, within the called videophone detects a storage start requesting signal from received control signals originating at a calling videophone. At the time of such detection, a coding circuit within the called videophone again encodes the video signals, that are received by the communication circuit and continuously decoded by a decoding circuit, and transmitted by the calling videophone but only by one frame therefrom and stores the frame into a storage circuit. After storing the one frame, a change-over circuit in the called videophone switches to the storage circuit to continuously store the subsequent incoming coded video and sound signals for eventual playback.
Source: selected by the editor from original sources.

Invention: A videophone having an automatic answering capability