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Text to Speech

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  • 20-09-2004 6:03pm
    #1
    Polonious
    Registered Users Posts: 245 ✭✭


    Guys,

    Not sure if this is the right area, but here goes. My company is interested in implementing a system whereby using software and/or hardware we can dial a phone number (taken from a db of numbers) and play a pre-recorded message when the person picks up at the other end. For example, if we wanted to let a bunch of customers know when a new product is coming out, we might set up a message to let them know a day or two in advance...

    Anybody know what such a system might be called, or anybody ever come across something like this before...

    Cheers.. P


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    #2
    Lu[ifer
    Closed Accounts Posts: 30 ✭Lu[ifer


    I think I saw this is the Simpsons...

    Send $1 to Happy Dude etc.


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    #3
    bus77
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,313 ✭✭✭bus77


    DONT TELL HIM!! :mad:


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    #4
    Tom Dunne
    Registered Users Posts: 23,212 ✭✭✭✭Tom Dunne


    Polonious wrote:
    Anybody know what such a system might be called, or anybody ever come across something like this before...

    No idea what the system might be called, but you may be interested to know that I am plagued by them here in the US.

    They pause when you pick up the phone, then start a pre-recorded sales pitch, usually ending in "Press 1 if you would like more information", in other words to be connected to a real person.

    If you are in the telecoms business, you could probably start looking at US companies. If the number of calls I get is anything to go by, it is fairly "popular" over here.


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    #5
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 91,880 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    Polonious wrote:
    Guys,

    Not sure if this is the right area, but here goes. My company is interested in implementing a system whereby using software and/or hardware we can dial a phone number (taken from a db of numbers) and play a pre-recorded message when the person picks up at the other end. For example, if we wanted to let a bunch of customers know when a new product is coming out, we might set up a message to let them know a day or two in advance...

    Anybody know what such a system might be called, or anybody ever come across something like this before...

    Cheers.. P
    I'm sure there are laws against unsolicited comercial phone calls, unless you have an opt in system. And if one of our suppliers started bombarding me with automated messages they'd be an ex-suppier pdq.


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    #6
    Polonious
    Registered Users Posts: 245 ✭✭Polonious


    Capt'n - It's not going to be a spam type situation here. These customers will have asked to be notified about such events...


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    #7
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 91,880 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    Just curious as to why you need voice in a country where there are more mobile phones than private land lines. I would assume (I could be wrong) that Text messages / Email would be quicker to send, quicker to read and the added benefit of having no ambiguity. I really hate having to wait through a slow message or worse having to replay a fast or indistinct one to guess what was said.

    Are the customers in marketing ? - that alone might explain it


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    #8
    theciscokid
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,006 ✭✭✭theciscokid


    If you pay me enough i'll cold call all your customers ;)


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    #9
    Polonious
    Registered Users Posts: 245 ✭✭Polonious


    Text msgs is another area i'm looking into too, but i'm concerned that we won't be able to fit a message into one text for people that can only receive the regular 140 odd character text message...


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    #10
    fatherdougalmag
    Registered Users Posts: 1,391 ✭✭✭fatherdougalmag


    You could use a combination of Microsoft TAPI and Speech SDK to achieve what you want. Use TAPI to make the phone call and then use the TTS capabilities of the Speech SDK to render text over the line.

    There must be oodles of applications out there already. Have a look at Visibridge for a start. They have a VoiceXML application which sounds like what you're after. They also have a 'sound card' edition of their software so you can toy around with it.


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    #11
    ressem
    Registered Users Posts: 2,426 ✭✭✭ressem


    If you're doing this properly, you would be using a dedicated telephony card to make calls out.
    Acculab, Brooktrout, Intel/Dialogic perhaps.

    You could use a 3rd party provider if you didn't want to host the service and pay and maintain the hardware. Voxpilot or VoiceGenie perhaps?

    Rather than using TAPI, there's other approaches that are common.
    Directly programming the card
    e.g. Dialogic's included R4 for simple stuff like playing and recording, Envox or Intel Parity ADE for gui IDE, fairly expensive, charged on a per channel basis.



    (CT media in Dublin are a decent vendor for the intel stuff, though we had lots of problems with the hardware and software)

    There's a linux VoiceXML project if your boss has no concept of the value of ready built solutions.

    I would recommend the external VoiceXML route though if you don't have the expertise in programming and maintaining a telephony service.

    If you've heavy volume, this can be routed through SIP (ip telephony) to your carrier.


    Do you mean "asked" as in
    "didn't tick the little opt-out checkbox"?


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