Recognizing touch tones

[Thomas Charron]

Quoting Dan Coutu <coutu at snowy-owl.com>:
> >     Someone has approached me about writing some software that would
> > basically provide a phone menu.  It would recognize touch tones
> (phone
> > button presses), gather information, provide voice prompts, and take
> > action based upon the information entered.  Any idea what it would
> take
> > to accomplish this?  I'm pretty sure I could record WAVs/MP3s/etc
> for
> > the voice prompts and such, but the biggest question for me is
> around
> > the use of the phone.  Specifically:
> >     1) How do I respond to incoming calls?
> >     2) How do I get an audio file to play into the telephone?
> >     3) How do I recognize touch tones as input?

  At this point, it's primarily dependant on the telephony card you intend to 
use to accomplish this.  One of two things can be used.  Either the vendor 
specific APIs, or TAPI.  TAPI is a fairly Microsoft centric solution, so I'd 
advice against it.  Do you have any idea what they intend to use for hardware?

  I believe there are several open source packages out there, including a 
modified version of getty that will run a script based on a COM port answering 
the phone line.  It simply depends on how involved the project intends to get.

  If you want some more specific information, send me an email offlist.  I can 
provide you with some sample code for several of the major CTI vendors to 
accomplish this.  The easiest, IN MY OPINION, would be Natural Microsystems.  
Their APIs are 'C' oriented, but are much easier to use then, say, Dialogic, 
which are version C++ oriented.

--
Thomas Charron
-={ Is beadarrach an ni an onair }=-