Xref: utzoo comp.sys.mac.misc:10906 comp.sys.mac.hardware:10284 alt.privacy:355 Path: utzoo!utgpu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!jarthur!nntp-server.caltech.edu!josephc From: josephc@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Simplelogic (Joseph)) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc,comp.sys.mac.hardware,alt.privacy Subject: Re: Query: Mac as a smart answering machine Message-ID: <1991Apr15.031421.1009@nntp-server.caltech.edu> Date: 15 Apr 91 03:14:21 GMT References: <1991Apr13.181516.6422@mathrt0.math.chalmers.se> Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena Lines: 39 d0ess@dtek.chalmers.se (Erik Stenvall) writes: >In 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