faustus@tartarus.uchicago.edu (Kurt Ackermann) (04/12/91)
I am intrigued by the idea of using a computer as a smart answering machine to sort out callers, ring differently for different people, leave different messages for different callers, and such things. The basic idea would be to give out an access code to a certain group of callers that would make their calls ring differently, give them a different message on the machine, etc. Do such things exist for the Mac? I have heard of Watson boards for IBM-type machines. Any info on costs? features? Do you need to dedicate a computer *specifcally* to answering the phone, or is it the kind of thing that you could activate when you weren't using your Mac, and then deactivate it when you were? Any info would be greatly appreciated, including magazine articles, etc. Please reply E-mail, I'll post a comprehensive article on the facts I get (I'm asking many different sources for info on this stuff :-) Thanks in advance, --Kurt Ackermann faustus@gargoyle.uchicago.edu
d0ess@dtek.chalmers.se (Erik Stenvall) (04/14/91)
In <faustus.671471794@tartarus.uchicago.edu> faustus@tartarus.uchicago.edu (Kurt Ackermann) writes: >I am intrigued by the idea of using a computer as a smart answering machine >to sort out callers, ring differently for different people, leave >different messages for different callers, and such things. >The basic idea would be to give out an access code to a certain group >of callers that would make their calls ring differently, give them a >different message on the machine, etc. >Do such things exist for the Mac? I have heard of Watson boards for IBM-type >machines. Could anyone who knows give me some info on the IBM-type, since I've had similar ideas? Thanks in advance. Erik -- : : : : d0ess@dtek.chalmers.se : Chalmers University of Technology : : Erik Stenvall (D90) : Gothenburg, Sweden : : : :
josephc@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Simplelogic (Joseph)) (04/15/91)
d0ess@dtek.chalmers.se (Erik Stenvall) writes: >In <faustus.671471794@tartarus.uchicago.edu> faustus@tartarus.uchicago.edu (Kurt Ackermann) writes: >>I am intrigued by the idea of using a computer as a smart answering machine >>to sort out callers, ring differently for different people, leave >>different messages for different callers, and such things. >>The basic idea would be to give out an access code to a certain group >>of callers that would make their calls ring differently, give them a >>different message on the machine, etc. >>Do such things exist for the Mac? I have heard of Watson boards for IBM-type >>machines. >Could anyone who knows give me some info on the IBM-type, since I've had >similar ideas? Unfortunately, it takes additional hardware to implement such a device. First of all, you will need a DTMF ("TouchTone (tm)") decoder to accept the input of the caller, and more importantly, you need a ring generator to generate the ringing voltages necesary to ring the telephones (Approx. 90Vrms, 20Hz). This is assuming, of course, that you want to implement this on a "regular" POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) line without the Caller-ID option. If you wanted to do this with caller ID, you'll need a Caller-ID decoder (a Bell-202 demodulator, if I understand correctly) and the ring-generator that I had mentioned earlier. Good luck. --Joseph -- Joseph I. Chiu, Department of Computer Science, Calif. Inst. of Technology 1-57 Fleming House, Caltech, Pasadena 91126. (818) 585-0393 josephc@coil.caltech.edu ...I don't know what I don't know
tbandit@athena.mit.edu (Carlos E Reategui) (04/15/91)
In article <1991Apr15.031421.1009@nntp-server.caltech.edu> josephc@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Simplelogic (Joseph)) writes: >d0ess@dtek.chalmers.se (Erik Stenvall) writes: > >>In <faustus.671471794@tartarus.uchicago.edu> faustus@tartarus.uchicago.edu (Kurt Ackermann) writes: > >>>I am intrigued by the idea of using a computer as a smart answering machine >>>to sort out callers, ring differently for different people, leave >>>different messages for different callers, and such things. > >>>Do such things exist for the Mac? I have heard of Watson boards for IBM-type >>>machines. > >Unfortunately, it takes additional hardware to implement such a device. First >of all, you will need a DTMF ("TouchTone (tm)") decoder to accept the input >of the caller, and more importantly, you need a ring generator to generate the ... a bit of omited stuff Actually there is a device out (?) for the mac that will do the phone service thing. That is the new desktop DoveFax. It was demoed at MacWorld Boston last august. It could tell between a fax call and a voice call. If it was a voice call it would act like voice mail. If I remember right, one could give out special codes to people so that the could get personalized messages from you. For those of us that bought the original dovefax, I belive that there is an upgrade out there both in softwara and hardware that goes for about $100. Anyone out there with more details? ... Anyone from Dove corp on the net? > >-- >Joseph I. Chiu, Department of Computer Science, Calif. Inst. of Technology >1-57 Fleming House, Caltech, Pasadena 91126. (818) 585-0393 >josephc@coil.caltech.edu ...I don't know what I don't know tbandit@athena.mit.edu