Remote Phone Control

["Brown, Andy [Infrastructure]" <AndyB@xxxxxxx>]

Just thought I'd bring this to the group's attention (in fact it's a
mini-review!).

I've been looking for a product to allow PC control over a modem using
regular DTMF from a remote phone.  I understand Comfort can do this and =
I
don't want to take anything away from them as it looks like a great =
product.

But - I've recently found a chap in New Zealand who has developed some
software called WinIVR that will answer the phone, play wav files, =
interpret
DTMF codes and branch conditionally (playing more wav files, shelling =
out to
external programs amongst other things).

You use a script builder to create "projects" that determines
what wav =
files
are played and what to do next when a number or sequence of numbers is
pressed.

A really simple home automation project would entail a script of about =
3
lines=20
- one to play a wav greeting and explain a menu (e.g. "Press 1 to turn
=
all
lights on, 2 to turn all lights off")
- one line to trigger an event when the user presses '1' and shell out =
to
"xcomm32.exe All Lights On" (I forget the exact syntax)
- one line to trigger an event when the user presses '1' and shell out =
to
"xcomm32.exe All Lights Off"

The program will also communicate with other apps by DDE, Sockets or =
reading
output files. Other apps can use an ActiveX component to communicate =
with
WinIVR.

The success of the setup appears to depend mostly on the modem you have
attached to your pc.  I started off with an internal US Robotics Voice =
modem
which was, to put it mildly, cak!  The wav files would break up and you
couldn't understand a word (sounded like a conversation with Stan
Boardman!).  However, after mailing Keith at Cecam, he recommended =
using a
Modem Blaster as this had good playback quality and detected DTMF well. =
I
went to PC World last night (ouch!) and bought one (gotta have it =
NOW!),
installed it and got a basic project up and running in half an hour.

I tested it on three different phones, two different ones in my house =
and my
mobile.  One of the home phones caused the project to hang-up the phone =
when
you pressed a key, but the other two worked fine.

My initial project with this will be to allow me to set up the video
remotely.  I'm always forgetting to set the vid when I go out, so this =
will
let me dial home and program in time / duration etc.  The PC will use =
an old
RedRat (see http://www.dodgies.demon.co.uk/)
which I've had for a while
(learning RS232 IR device).  I may extend this to include some HA stuff =
as
well.

Unregistered, WinIVR plays a message stating it is unregistered before
moving onto your first wav file.

Registration costs $40 (New Zealand dollars =A312?) per line (it will =
multiple
lines on a mini PABX).

Go to http://www.cecam.co.nz for more
info.  The software is 14Mb in =
size so
it's a whopping download on a 28.8 but I used my company's fat internet =
pipe
to get it.  As I've already got it, AND with the author's consent, I =
could
cut a cd for any one that asks nicely (I'm NOT going to become a =
distributor
for this!).

Cheers

Andy
=20

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