IVRS

Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS). A Perl Module For IVRS Implementation using Modem Down load ivrs-0.03.tar.gz Size 700 Kb Introduction
General
Modem
Voice Files
Adaptability

Introduction- IVRS is relatively new technology aimed to integrate computer and telephony. We find number IVR system in daily walk of life giving various types information to caller like tele banking, product information, fax servers, call centers, and others. All these can be implemented using this module under linux. Newer linux kernel had computer telephony support but that was restricted to specific hard ware and not the ordinary modem. Vgetty, which is voice version of getty, is around for many years, but I found Vgetty not very suitable for IVRS due to slow responses, and lack of proper documentation. This modules is based on perl and voice modem and does not require any other special cards, not even sound card. I have tested it on Red Hat 6.1 and debian 2.1, but I see no reason why it should not work on other Linux distribution. As regard capability of this module, it can play message (up to 11025 byes/sec), get Caller ID, send /receive Fax, record Message, dial out side number, generate fast response (no need to wait for message to complete), interface with data base, and in short almost every thing what a commercial IVRS can do. The only limitation which I fore see compared to other IVRS using Dialogic card is the number of telephone line that can be supported on one machine. I have tested this IVRS on two modem and it rocks, which hopefully should hold good for 4 modem (with extra serial port card) as well.

Modem - The use of standard voice modem (33.6kbps and above ) obviates the need for additional hardware for IVRS. The modem has a micro controller and a data pump (analog to digital to analogue converter). These two makes a beautiful voice /fax/ data interface to telephone line which can play voice files up sampling rate of 11025 bytes/sec (most commercial card allow up to 7200 byts/sec only) . Beside this you can divert your voice signal to / from internal speaker and microphone, and add external speaker and microphone. The PC communicates to Modem via serial port and AT commands. The complete AT command set contains more than 100 commands and available on net. The new voice modem has ability to read the CallerID information, receive/send fax , dial another number, line quality diagnosis etc. Due to use of modem , this IVRS is limited to two channel (or Telephone lines), because PC has only two serial ports. Multi port serial card can be installed but I have not tested it. In my opinion this not a limitations as one modem can cater to almost 3000 user. I have seen other IVRS which uses Dialogic Cards, these cards are nothing but the multiple modem (2, 4, 8, 16 ) on ISA or PCI cards. As these card communicates with PC via ISA or PCI slot, the data transfer speed is very high and hence PC can cater to multiple modem (8 or 16) at a time. How ever cost of these card is prohibitive and around Rs.35,000 for a two channel card. (when last I checked).

Voice files - There is lot of reading material for sound file on the net. I will restrict this discussion to IVRS only. The modem understands only rmd (raw modem data) files. The pvftools (Portable Voice Format Tools) which is included with Vgetty has excellent utilities to convert files from one format to another format. I have used two types of files ( in sfiles/ of this package), one is raw modem data type which can be sent directly to modem for playing and another is lin type. In any IVRS to play smoothly messages ,numbers, the messages have to be created on the fly. This is where another type of file called lin is use full. These are nothing but the voice data files with no header or footer. You can cut and paste these file to make a new file. This lin file is converted to raw modem data type and then played to modem. The lin and rmd files can be created from wave (mono) using pvftools, I have used and included some pvftools with this distribution. The voice files with this distribution are customized for Rockwell chip set modem, which is most popular. The pvftools supports other modem type also also. I have tested Dlink, GVC, LanBit and many other modem. The modem speed does not matter because voice modem with 33.6 Kbps and above will work fine.

Adaptability - This distribution is complete with all the voice files and to make a full functional IVRS you need a few line of perl scripts and additional message files. You may need to record messages, if you want additional messages or you do not like the tone of these files, and cut them in to separate file. These messages can be recorded in wav format then converted to rmd or lin format. File convert utilities are also included with distribution. You also need to write small scripts to fetch the numerical data from files which is played to caller. The demo scripts included in this distribution gives fair knowledge of module.

Author:
Mukund Deshmukh
M/s.Beta Computronics Pvt. Ltd.
45, Gopal Nagar, Opp. SBI Colony,
Nagpur - 440022, India.
Tel 91-712-227125, 240122
email info@batecomp.com
web site www.betacomp.com