antunes@ASTRO.PSU.EDU (Sandy Antunes) (01/12/90)
Hello! I am planning to try and implement an idea, and I thought I would
check the net to see if anyone has done it or thought about it yet.
The Idea: write a program that monitors the modem and answers incoming
calls. It then procedes to use the speech capability to answer the
call with a message (from an easily changed script file), then hangs
up (I doubt it could record messages! :-)
The Questions:
1) Is this do-able?
2) Has anyone done something that does this already?
3) Any useful hints?
4) Would it be possible to make the program activate a tape recorder
(also hooked to the line?) and record messages? This question is
mostly of the "as long as I'm asking" variety... :-)
If anyone has any comments, email would be fine. I will summarize any
earthshattering answers or results, if needed.
------------
Sandy Antunes "the Waupelani Kid" 'cause that's where I live...
antunes@astro.psu.edu Penn State Astronomy Dept
------------ "que sera c'est la via" -------------stefan@sherlock.cs.concordia.ca (BUCHHOLZ) (01/12/90)
It's being done, A friend of mine is working on it. Near completion...
hamilton@intersil.uucp (Fred Hamilton) (01/12/90)
In article <9001112057.AA09595@nomad>, antunes@ASTRO.PSU.EDU (Sandy Antunes) writes: > Hello! I am planning to try and implement an idea, and I thought I would > check the net to see if anyone has done it or thought about it yet. > > The Idea: write a program that monitors the modem and answers incoming > calls. It then procedes to use the speech capability to answer the > call with a message (from an easily changed script file), then hangs > up (I doubt it could record messages! :-) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Sure it could, if you've got any of the Amiga audio samplers out there. > > The Questions: > 1) Is this do-able? YES! > 2) Has anyone done something that does this already? Dunno. I've thought about it before but I've never gotten a round tuit. > 3) Any useful hints? The main technical difficulty will be coupling the Amiga's audio output to the phone line. I suspect one of those 1K-1K isolation transformers with a capacitor in series with it on the phone line side would be best. Use another transformer for the digitizer if you decide to do that. Radio Shack used to sell them. > 4) Would it be possible to make the program activate a tape recorder > (also hooked to the line?) and record messages? This question is > mostly of the "as long as I'm asking" variety... :-) This is possible. I think Amazing has recently had some articles on controlling external hardware along those lines. > If anyone has any comments, email would be fine. I will summarize any > earthshattering answers or results, if needed. > ------------ > Sandy Antunes "the Waupelani Kid" 'cause that's where I live... > antunes@astro.psu.edu Penn State Astronomy Dept > ------------ "que sera c'est la via" ------------- -- Fred Hamilton Any views, comments, or ideas expressed here Harris Semiconductor are entirely my own. Even good ones. Santa Clara, CA
robin@sabre.uucp (Robin D. Wilson/1000000) (01/12/90)
In article <9001112057.AA09595@nomad> antunes@ASTRO.PSU.EDU (Sandy Antunes) writes: >Hello! I am planning to try and implement an idea, and I thought I would >check the net to see if anyone has done it or thought about it yet. > >The Idea: write a program that monitors the modem and answers incoming > calls. It then procedes to use the speech capability to answer the > call with a message (from an easily changed script file), then hangs > up (I doubt it could record messages! :-) It would probably be hardest to get the modem to talk in any language other than carrier tone. (That's the high pitched squeal you hear when you pick the line that the modem is using. BTW, Commodore announced just such a product (It had a built in modem, but it also had voice answer capability as well), that was supposed to allow you to record voice mail on you Amiga's system resources. They later scrapped it. I never heard why, but I would have bought one. If you are able to come up with the hardware hack you need to get your's working, let me know, I'll consider buying one (heck, if it's good enough, I would even consider investing in a company to manufacture one.) +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |The views expressed herein, are the sole responsibility of the typist at hand| +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |USNail: UUCP: | |2323 Wells Branch Pkwy., #G107 cs.utexas.edu!romp!ibmchs!auschs\ | |Austin, TX 78728 !sabre.austin.ibm.com!robin | |Home: (512)251-6889 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^<-MUST BE INCLUDED| +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
erd@giza.cis.ohio-state.edu (Ethan R Dicks) (01/13/90)
In article <2934@d75.UUCP> robin@reed.UUCP (Robin D. Wilson/1000000) writes: >In article <9001112057.AA09595@nomad> antunes@ASTRO.PSU.EDU (Sandy Antunes) writes: >>Hello! I am planning to try and implement an idea, and I thought I would >>check the net to see if anyone has done it or thought about it yet. >> >>The Idea: write a program that monitors the modem and answers incoming >> calls. It then procedes to use the speech capability to answer the >> call with a message (from an easily changed script file), then hangs >> up (I doubt it could record messages! :-) >It would probably be hardest to get the modem to talk in any language other >than carrier tone. (That's the high pitched squeal you hear when you pick >the line that the modem is using. If you could get your hands on a cheap 1200/300 auto-answer modem, with the schematic, it should not be difficult to hack it. It would probably be easier to buy a cheap answering machine and to hack the audio circuit to accept input from the Amiga's audio-out port. If I remember correctly, there are audio pins on the RS-232 port. Make a cable which grabs all the needed pins and passes the normal pins on to the modem. There should also be a couple of unused signals on the serial port which could be monitored to interrupt the Amiga and tell it to speak, as well as for the Amiga to activate the tape recorder. How does it sound so far? -ethan -- Ethan R. Dicks | ###### This signifies that the poster is a member in Software Results Corp| ## good sitting of Inertia House: Bodies at rest. 940 Freeway Drive N. | ## Columbus OH 43229 | ###### "You get it, you're closer."
ammrk@swbatl.UUCP (Mike R. Kraml) (01/13/90)
In article <75609@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> Ethan R Dicks <erd@cis.ohio-state.edu> writes: >In article <2934@d75.UUCP> robin@reed.UUCP (Robin D. Wilson/1000000) writes: >>In article <9001112057.AA09595@nomad> antunes@ASTRO.PSU.EDU (Sandy Antunes) writes: >>>Hello! I am planning to try and implement an idea, and I thought I would >>>check the net to see if anyone has done it or thought about it yet. >>> >>>The Idea: write a program that monitors the modem and answers incoming >>> calls. It then procedes to use the speech capability to answer the >>> call with a message (from an easily changed script file), then hangs >>> up (I doubt it could record messages! :-) > >>ETC ETC ETC I have made an autoanswer, full digital answering machine with DTMF menus, etc, If you own a Mimetics Joystick digitizer, and don't mind interfacing to your parallel port, I can offer you a mail message on how I did this. The hardest part was figuring out how to read the joystick sampler, once I did that, the rest just kind of fell into place. It works quite well, very good quality speech, but tends to be a memory hog. Anyway, just let me know, and good luck. Mike... ============================================================================= Mike Kraml - Manager-Separations MECHANIZATION - SWBT - (The Techies) UUCP: {uunet, bellcore, texbell}...!swbatl!slims!ammrk =============================================================================
mks@cbmvax.commodore.com (Michael Sinz - CATS) (01/13/90)
In article <9001112057.AA09595@nomad> antunes@ASTRO.PSU.EDU (Sandy Antunes) writes: >Hello! I am planning to try and implement an idea, and I thought I would >check the net to see if anyone has done it or thought about it yet. > >The Idea: write a program that monitors the modem and answers incoming > calls. It then procedes to use the speech capability to answer the > call with a message (from an easily changed script file), then hangs > up (I doubt it could record messages! :-) > >The Questions: > 1) Is this do-able? > 2) Has anyone done something that does this already? > 3) Any useful hints? > 4) Would it be possible to make the program activate a tape recorder > (also hooked to the line?) and record messages? This question is > mostly of the "as long as I'm asking" variety... :-) > Well, I never got the thing, but back at in the beginning of time (1985, July) a company, who just introduced a machine called "Amiga 1000" had, as one of the "Ready Now" enhancements, an answering machine like what you want. But then EA was to have PinBall Construction Set and the EnableGroup was to have Enable (EnableWrite, EnableCalc, etc.) And there was a whole bunch of other items that I am still waiting for. >------------ >Sandy Antunes "the Waupelani Kid" 'cause that's where I live... >antunes@astro.psu.edu Penn State Astronomy Dept >------------ "que sera c'est la via" ------------- Disclaimer: I did not work for Commodore back then and they don't know how and what I think about those days. (Being a member of the initial Amiga Developer group...) /----------------------------------------------------------------------\ | /// Michael Sinz -- CATS/Amiga Software Engineer | | /// PHONE 215-431-9422 UUCP ( uunet | rutgers ) !cbmvax!mks | | /// | |\\\/// When people are free to do as they please, | | \XX/ they usually imitate each other. | \----------------------------------------------------------------------/
rod@venera.isi.edu (Rodney Doyle Van Meter III) (01/13/90)
The easy but expensive (for personal use) approach: get a bridge board and plug in a Voice Mail card. I've seen ones that plug into the PC, and supposedly use only 1 megabyte of disk for 5 minutes of message, for $700 or $800. No idea how well they work, but it was geared toward a good sized office, with up to 999 mailboxes. --Rod
jma@beach.cis.ufl.edu (John 'Vlad' Adams) (01/13/90)
Guys, guys, what you are talking about exists in the IBM world. It's called Watson. And it works quite well. Perhaps someone might want to persuade the company to port it to the Amiga, as it doesn't tie up the parallel port or their joystick port... -- John M. Adams --*-- Professional Student on the six-year plan! Internet: jma@beach.cis.ufl.edu -or- vladimir@maple.circa.ufl.edu "Houston, we have a negative on that orbit trajectory." Calvin & Hobbs
ammrk@swbatl.UUCP (Mike R. Kraml) (01/13/90)
In article <21767@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> jma@beach.cis.ufl.edu (John 'Vlad' Adams) writes: >Guys, guys, what you are talking about exists in the IBM world. It's >called Watson. And it works quite well. Perhaps someone might want >to persuade the company to port it to the Amiga, as it doesn't >tie up the parallel port or their joystick port... >-- >John M. Adams --*-- Professional Student on the six-year plan! >Internet: jma@beach.cis.ufl.edu -or- vladimir@maple.circa.ufl.edu >"Houston, we have a negative on that orbit trajectory." Calvin & Hobbs I am sure everyone realizes that this product is available in the PC world. I think the questions started as to how can it be done on the amiga. Well, the one I built was done very easily, useing the Mimetic's joystick sampler, and a simple parallel interface, an inexpensive DTMF decoder, (available at your local radio shack), and a little time and it was built. It provides a simple mail box function, full touch tone driven, and with the INTERNAL audio capabilities, amiga voice was added at no extra cost. The total price, well, about $100.00 including the digitizer. This could have been done for about $20.00 using the parallel port build your own digitizer, and the joystick port to drive the interface, but I happen to have the joystick digitizer laying around from my music stuff, so for me it was much more practicle. Anyway, I hope this helps all you hacks out there wanting to build Voice mail boxes, I must admit there is some low level routines to read the digitizer in real time and controll the i/o (to drive the relays and such), but its always fun to learn a new trick. Catch ya all later, Mike... ============================================================================= Mike Kraml - Manager-Separations MECHANIZATION - SWBT - (The Techies) UUCP: {uunet, bellcore, texbell}...!swbatl!slims!ammrk =============================================================================
bdb@becker.UUCP (Bruce Becker) (01/14/90)
In article <21767@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> jma@beach.cis.ufl.edu (John 'Vlad' Adams) writes: |Guys, guys, what you are talking about exists in the IBM world. It's |called Watson. And it works quite well. Perhaps someone might want |to persuade the company to port it to the Amiga, as it doesn't |tie up the parallel port or their joystick port... How about just using the existing product with the Bridge Board? -- ,,,, Bruce Becker Toronto, Ont. w \$$/ Internet: bdb@becker.UUCP, bruce@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu `/c/-e BitNet: BECKER@HUMBER.BITNET _/ >_ "Money is the root of all money" - Adam
dannie@coplex.UUCP (Dannie Gregoire) (01/16/90)
I have had a similar idea in creating an Amiga answering machine. The route I wanted to take was to impliment touch-tones. I wanted somw way of getting the amiga to recognize touch-tones. Thus I could give all of my friends a touch tone code. When they called, they could get a personallized message that only they would hear. All those without codes would get the standard "I'm not here" message as a default. Messages could then be left via a digitizer. This "device" would also be usefull in screening phone calls. A sort of screening mode could be implimented, whereas if a correct touch-tone code was not entered, the phone would be hung up, or a busy signal/ring could be played. If a correct code was entered, a secondary phone ringer could be activated. Anyone who has some ideas on bringing this who thing together let me know. +--------------------------------------------------------------+ | |\ /\ Prove that you exist, and I'll listen to you! \ / | | | | _ -o o- | | |/.\/. Dannie Gregoire (dannie@coplex) `Roof!'- U | +--------------------------------------------------------------+