RE: axc - controlling/monitoring using IVR

["Paul Gale" <groups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Gregg,

I've been wanting to do this for a couple of years!

I'd like to completely replace my Comfort alarm system's voice menu as it's
a little limited at times and can't integrate other HA data very well if at
all.

I currently use the Neospeech TTS voices which are excellent - so using the
Linux available voices would be a big backward step though. I did think
about some way to stream the voice output from a PC system into asterisk -
wonder if this is possible and without too much delay?

All the other stuff you mention sounds good - I'd personally like to get
all the data from Comfort (which should be possible) and various bits from
HomeVision (if Kevin can re-write the xAP HV plugin to fix the memory leak)

Paul.



-----Original Message-----
From: xap_automation@xxxxxxx [mailto:xap_automation@xxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Gregg Liming
Sent: 24 March 2006 17:09
To: xap_automation@xxxxxxx
Subject: [xap_automation] axc - controlling/monitoring using IVR

I thought I'd "float" some ideas about using IVR (interactive
voice
response) menus in asterisk to control/monitor HA functions.
Specifically, I've been thinking about extending axc (asterisk xAP
connector) to support various "helpers" to support ease of
creating IVR
menus in an asterisk dial plan (extensions.conf). This would allow
callers (whether inside the home or outside) to call-in to asterisk and
control/monitor their home.  I'm wondering if others may have been
thinking of / wishing for something similar and am hoping to strike up a
dialog on this subject if there's interest.

Here's a sample list of some options:

(1) Integrate TTS apps (cepstral.com and festival voice specifically
come to mind) to implement (a) the dynamic menu text and (b) any HA
"response" (an interpretation of an *.Info message or verbatim
from a
tts.speak or message.display message)

(2) Permit support for key "controlling" schemas (e.g., BSC) such
that a
menu action would issue one of these commands.  axc would listen for a
response message, convert it to "speakable text" and then
"speak it" via
TTS (streamed into the caller's phone)

(3) Permit support for query schemas (e.g., BSC, others?) that would
permit axc to get information about the current "state" (e.g.,
inside
temp, thermostat setback, etc.) again by listening for the response,
interpreting it and feeding the TTS stream back to the caller

(4) Permit support for information "histories" where axc would
"buffer"
information messages (message.display, *.info, etc.) over some time
period (e.g., last hour) that could be interrogated via IVR menu (e.g.,
"speak the last zoneminder alarm"). A timestamp would be
optionally
included in the TTS text.

There's a fair amount to implement any of the above; but, they all
strike me as reasonably doable. The downside is that integration into
the asterisk dialplan does require somewhat advanced knowledge of
asterisk for users that would want to adopt something like this--there
will be no "figure out what I want and magically create the IVR
dialplan" wizard.  Also, I will not be responsible for telemarketers
accidentally setting your thermostat to 15 degrees.

Gregg