jal@ee.rochester.edu (John Lefor) (07/01/90)
In a recent issue, a Telecom reader asked for a service which would be
able to decode DTMF tones. My understanding was that he wanted to be
able to figure out what number an autodialer was dialing without
risking calling the local fire department.
I have rigged up what I call a DTMF decoder service that anyone is
welcome to use but I would appreciate a few tests before announcing it
to the world. If you think this would be useful to Telecom readers
and are willing to be a tester here is how it works:
1) Call 716-248-5269
2) An answering system will answer with a message "You have
reached Tele-Ware Corporation for ...."
3) At this point you can press "4" on the touch pad and
you should get the message "DTMF decoder enter DTMF
tones now" (or something like that).
4) Wait about 0.5 seconds then send some DTMF tones.
5) About 5 seconds after the last key is pressed you will
get a message "You sent ...." reading off the tones
you sent. The system will accept a maximum of 22 keys
per sent tones. The "*" reads as "asterisk" and the
"#" reads as "number".
6) You get sent back to the "DTMF decoder ..." message
and you can enter more DTMF tones or hang up.
All this for just the cost of a phone call.
Please understand this is the answering system for my business. It
gets very little traffic so I am happy to offer this service. If
things get out of hand I will have to discontinue it. But if it looks
interesting and useful I have no objection to making it available.
PS - The system is actually an IBM PC with the IBM Voice Communications
Option (the worlds most expensive answering machine). I programmed the
answering system and I add feature as I see fit. This one seemed fun
and useful.
I program ... therefore I am.
John Lefor University of Rochester Dept of E. Engineering
716-275-8265 jal@ee.rochester.edu uunet!ur-valhalla!jal