ferris@tcville.HAC.COM (11/12/88)
I am looking for a device that will interface a phone line to a computer
that will allow the computer to read the tones a caller presses and be able
to send a digitized or computer generated voice in response to what
is pressed.
I suppose that could be as simple as feeding the lines into a
tone recognizer which would get turned into ASCII or hex and sent on the
bus. Voice generation is easy to find, but how about one that can be sent on
a phone line. Preferably this would be a card that could plug into an IBM PC.
Does anybody know of such a device, or the parts that would go into
making one?
For a related question, what are the electrical characteristics of the signals
on the phone line?
Thanks,
Mark Ferris ferris@tcville.hac.com
Image and Signal Processing Lab ferris%tcville@hac2arpa.hac.com
Hughes Aircraft Co., EDSG
Mark Ferris ferris@tcville.hac.com
Image and Signal Processing Lab ferris%tcville@hac2arpa.hac.com
Hughes Aircraft Co., EDSGhenry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (11/15/88)
In article <195@tcville.HAC.COM> ferris@tcville.HAC.COM () writes: > I am looking for a device that will interface a phone line to a computer >that will allow the computer to read the tones a caller presses and be able >to send a digitized or computer generated voice in response to what >is pressed. Digital Equipment Corp. sells a gadget called "DECTalk" that does precisely this. Unfortunately, it's not cheap, several thou I think. -- Sendmail is a bug, | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology not a feature. | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu
starr@shuxd.UUCP (Michael L. Starr) (11/16/88)
In article <195@tcville.HAC.COM> ferris@tcville.HAC.COM () writes: > I am looking for a device that will interface a phone line to a computer >that will allow the computer to read the tones a caller presses and be able >to send a digitized or computer generated voice in response to what >is pressed. > I suppose that could be as simple as feeding the lines into a >tone recognizer which would get turned into ASCII or hex and sent on the >bus. Voice generation is easy to find, but how about one that can be sent on >a phone line. Preferably this would be a card that could plug into an IBM PC. I remember seeing such a device in this spring's Black Box Catalog. -- __/\__ ******************** __/\__ | starr@shuxd.att.com \ / * Michael L. Starr * \ / | att!shuxd!starr |/\| ******************** |/\| | starr%shuxd@att.arpa
ferris@pixel.HAC.COM (Mark Ferris) (11/18/88)
In article <180@shuxd.UUCP> starr@shuxd.UUCP (Michael L. Starr) writes: >In article <195@tcville.HAC.COM> ferris@tcville.HAC.COM () writes: >> I am looking for a device that will interface a phone line to a computer >>that will allow the computer to read the tones a caller presses and be able > >I remember seeing such a device in this spring's Black Box Catalog. > > \ / * Michael L. Starr * \ / | att!shuxd!starr What is the address for the Black Box Catalog? Mark Ferris ferris@tcville.hac.com Image and Signal Processing Lab ferris%tcville@hac2arpa.hac.com Hughes Aircraft Co., EDSG
ltf@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Lance Franklin) (11/19/88)
In article <195@tcville.HAC.COM> ferris@tcville.HAC.COM () writes: > > > I am looking for a device that will interface a phone line to a computer >that will allow the computer to read the tones a caller presses and be able >to send a digitized or computer generated voice in response to what >is pressed. You might check at Radio Shack...I recall that they had a chip that decoded the tone signals and put out the results on several lines that could probably be used as input to a parallel I/O port. They also had a phoneme-oriented voice generator that could be used to put out the voice. Of course, you would also have to add the line-interface circuitry...I beleive Dallas Semiconductor has a full range of chips that handle this type of thing. In fact, I seem to recall that their latest catalog had a 300/1200 baud modem chip that had all the circuitry to go from the computer bus to the phone wall-socket, and included a voice-generator...not sure whether it also had a tone-decoder, but I wouldn't be surprised...If you're interested, drop me a note...I'll check next time I look at the catalog. Lance -- +-------------------------+ +-----------------------------------------------+ | Lance T Franklin | | I never said that! It must be some kind of a | | ltf@killer.DALLAS.TX.US | | forgery...I gotta change that password again. | +-------------------------+ +-----------------------------------------------+
John_-_DeBert@cup.portal.com (11/20/88)
In article 195@tcville.HAC.COM, Mark Harris writes: > > I am looking for a device that will interface a phone line to a >computer that will allow the computer to read the tones a caller presses >and be able to send a digitized or computer generated voice in response to >what is pressed. > > I suppose that could be as simple as feeding the lines into a tone >recognizer which would get turned into ASCII or hex and sent on the bus. >Voice generation is easy to find, but how about one that can be sent on a >phone line. Preferably this would be a card that could plug into an IBM >PC. > > Does anybody know of such a device, or the parts that would go into >making one? The Xecom XE1201/1203 MOSART should more than fit your requirements. The listed features of this device are: - small size: 2.25"x 1.0" x 0.5" -Full Bell 212A & 103 compatible - 8251A software compatible -DTMF or pulse dialing - Call Progress monitoring -DTMF reception and decoding - Software controlled audio interface for voice communication or acoustic coupling - FCC registered -Parity generation & checking - Synch byte generation/detection -Extensive inbuilt diagnostics - +/- 5VDC power only -Telephone-line diagnostics - Voice synthesis option (1203) -Synch/asynch operation. - Connects directly to phone line Xecom also has a development kit which includes a board to fit the IBM-PC slot. The device was featured as a Circuit Cellar Project in BYTE a couple of years ago. > For a related question, what are the electrical characteristics of the >signals on the phone line? Sorry, I have no specific data on this. >Thanks, > >Mark Ferris ferris@tcville.hac.com >Image and Signal Processing Lab ferris%tcville@hac2arpa.hac.com >Hughes Aircraft Co., EDSG >Mark Ferris ferris@tcville.hac.com >Image and Signal Processing Lab ferris%tcville@hac2arpa.hac.com >Hughes Aircraft Co., EDSG John - DeBert@cup.portal.com Telex: 6502636614 CI$ 75530,347 GEnie: A.N.Onymouse SMail: P.O. Box 51754, Pacific Grove, CA 93950-6754 +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | The opinions of the preceding program are mine and are not necessarily | | those of Portal, my employer, friends or cat. | +------------------------------------------------------------------------+
brian@ucsd.EDU (Brian Kantor) (11/20/88)
There are lots of chips out that will decode touchtones; my favorite is the SSI 202 chip, available at RatShack for only twice what it is at chip stores. It will give you 4 bits of data telling you which button is pushed, plus a DigitValid output. This is easy to read on a parallel port. For simple voice response, use one of the many voice synthesizer chipsets that are on the market. My favorite for simple stuff is the DigiTalker, again available at RatShack. You need some sort of coupling circuit to connect these to the phone line. Ignoring for a moment all the FCC part 68 interconnection licensing requirements (oh shut up, all you Pharisees!), all you probably need is some sort of isolation transformer and a little amplification for the synthesizer. Cannibalize an old 300-baud modem for this, and you'll probably get a free ring detector circuit in the bargain. - Brian
daemon@watale.waterloo.edu (Watale's Little Helper) (11/26/88)
In article <180@shuxd.UUCP> starr@shuxd.UUCP (Michael L. Starr) writes: >In article <195@tcville.HAC.COM> ferris@tcville.HAC.COM () writes: >> I am looking for a device that will interface a phone line to a computer >>that will allow the computer to read the tones a caller presses and be able >>to send a digitized or computer generated voice in response to what >>is pressed. >> I suppose that could be as simple as feeding the lines into a >>tone recognizer which would get turned into ASCII or hex and sent on the >>bus. Voice generation is easy to find, but how about one that can be sent on >>a phone line. Preferably this would be a card that could plug into an IBM PC. About six months ago I received information on a product that does exactly what you want. I'm not sure where the company was situated but i do recall that the name of the product was "Bigmouth". It acted as an answering machine that would answer the phone and wait for the user to enter a four digit tone on a touch tone phone. Any number of things could then be accomplished. The caller could leave messages in different 'voice mail' boxes where up to 99 users could call in and get private messages. The caller could activate a message that would be played back to them over the phone etc. The cost of the entire package was about $500 and plugged in to an IBM pc compatible with at least 512K and a hard drive. I was very interested in this and called the company, they plugged me in to and actual PC using their machine and let me use it over the phone.... i was extremely impressed with the performance. P.S. I'm fairly sure i have saved the literature for the machine... i'll see if i can dig it up for you. -Kevin