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From: bill%eedsp@gatech.edu (Bill Berbenich)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Does This Feature Exist in a Telephone?
Message-ID: <8721@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 6 Jun 90 15:10:06 GMT
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Reply-To: Bill Berbenich <eedsp!bill@gatech.edu>
Organization: DSP Lab, School of Electrical Engineering, Ga. Tech, Atlanta, GA
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In article <8687@accuvax.nwu.edu> ladwp!weyh@celia.uucp writes:

>I'm looking for a feature in a phone that will help me with the
>following:

>My wife and I have a infant child and sometimes when I call her she
>has the baby in her arms and can't get to the phone.  I'd like to have
>a speaker phone that she could answer without going over to the
>device.  If it could be voice activated or if I could enter a secured
>code to have the phone answer itself.  Also a built-in answering
>machine would be nice.

>Does such a thing exist?

Yes, Panasonic makes an answering machine/telephone with a feature
called "answer-back."  If you (the caller) know the code number which
has been set on the phone, you can make the phone go into the speaker
phone mode. I believe this same model that I am thinking of will allow
the phone to go off-hook into the speaker phone mode if someone at the
unit presses a certain button - in other words, the phone will ring
once and then answer itself. After your wife heard the first ring, she
could wait a second and then say (yell?)  Hello! across the room.

If your wife does not want the phone to answer itself, she can press
that-same-button again to toggle the auto-answer off. In any case, if
the caller knows the security code they can make the phone go into the
speaker phone (or answerback) mode on this particular Panasonic model.

I don't know the Panasonic model number, but it is a fairly small unit
(gray in color with an orange speakerphone button) which utilizes a
voice chip for the outgoing message and a single micro-cassette for
the incoming message and to backup the message on the voice chip in
case the power goes out. Most (many?)  consumer electronics stores in
the Atlanta area carry this particular model for something over
$200.  I have seen good pricing for it at Service Merchandise and
Pace. I may just buy one of them myself one day. :-) 


William A. Berbenich | Georgia Tech, Atlanta Georgia, 30332 
uucp: ...!{backbones}!gatech!eedsp!bill   Internet: bill@eedsp.gatech.edu