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AGENDA

DAN AND SEVERO

OVERVIEW AND VISIONS OF THE FUTURE

15 Minutes

LARRY

ARCHITECTURE, HARDWARE, & PLANS

15 Minutes

GENERAL DISCUSSION

10 Minutes



ITEMS

1.Everything Substitute VOICE for AUDIO

N.B.-Not SPEECH

2.It’s early - so we haven’t yet reached

Full Agreement



GOALS

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BETTER TELEPHONY - TAMING THE TELEPHONE

Within 2 years-We hope to replace
all CSL telephones

Compatibility - A painful issue

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INTEGRATION OF VOICE (i.e. the Telephone)

INTO OUR EXISTING SYSTEMS

"Voice as Data" - Voice Messages, etc.

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GENERAL APPROACH

Ethernet (Internet) telephony

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* THE ETHERPHONE *

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VISION #1

BETTER PLACEMENT AND RECEIPT OF CALLS



THE CALLER’S PLIGHT

1.I don’t know his/her number

2.I can’t find the phone list (phone book)

3.I found it, I can’t read it

4.I misdial the number

5.His/Her line is busy

6.He/She doesn’t answer

7."All our agents are busy"

8.Someone answers
. . . . . . . but He/She isn’t home

9.Something answers
. . . . . . . but He/She isn’t home . . (maybe)

SOLUTIONS

1 - 4Call placement by name

5 - 6Distinguish between:

Recipient phone Occupied (busy), Ringing, or Answered

If unanswered, there are options to:

give up, retry later, leave msg., . . .

7 - 9Artificial Intelligence



THE CALLEE’S PLIGHT

1.I’m busy and I don’t know:

a)who is calling

b)what the topic is

c)how urgent it is

d)how long an interruption it will be

or

2.I’m out and I will miss the call
(Despite our best efforts)



SOLUTION

Let your Etherphone help field calls

1. Tell it your incoming-call filter

2. Give the caller Urgency Override

3. If you’re already on the phone,
the Etherphones can institute the call
when phones come free.

3. If you’re "unavailable"
caller can leave a voice message

For calls from non- Etherphones, if you’re unavailable or already on the phone,

Expert can Feep - In (become a mini-insider)

Mortals are forwarded in the usual way to an assistant



DCSVoiceSlides.bravo



VISION #2

BETTER MANAGEMENT OF FANCY FEATURES



THE USER’S PLIGHT

I forwarded my phone, then forgot

Your phone is still forwarded and I’m getting all your calls

I ’d like my calls forwarded here, but I’m here already

I have one person on hold, want to form a conference, but the second callee doesn’t answer. Let’s see now . . . flash, pause, . . . now what . . .

"How exciting to be part of the first interstellar phone call!!! [beep] Uh oh, I have another call, could you wait a moment, your excellency? [flash] Hello? A year’s supply of what? No, I’m not interested! [slam] oops. . . "



SOLUTIONS

Use the workstation to control the telephone

Clearly indicate state of filters, forwarding, current calls, ...

Provide reasonable user interface for telephone control operations

Accept commands, under password control, from any workstation

Implication: Stand-alone telephones will need to be enhanced

Keyboard of reasonable size?

One line display?



VISION #3

BETTER HUMAN-ASSISTED CALL MANAGEMENT



THE CALLER’s PLIGHT

(Not too bad, really, given good manual systems)

The attendant doesn’t know who I was calling

My calls ring for a long time before anyone answers

Whenever possible, somebody puts me on hold

THE ATTENDANT’s PLIGHT

I am sometimes overloaded, with many calls in different states; calls can be lost or mishandled

I can’t transfer my tasks to another station

I have to transcribe and file incoming messages

THE CALLEE’s PLIGHT

I don’t always get my messages

I don’t always know when I have a message

So I sometimes get my messages too late



SOLUTIONS

Implement attendant features as extensions to the standard telephone workstation functions:

Identify original callee, by name

Maintain a list of calls and their states (incoming, held, forwarding, etc.)

Allow people to leave general or individual messages for callers

Responsibility can be transferred to any station

Provide the caller with additional (verbal?) call progress information (?????)

Add voice messages to "Laurel", integrate with telephone

Which leads to . . .



VISION #4

VOICE MESSAGES



THE CURSE OF THE DICTATING MACHINE

. . . . .wonder if this will make the goddamn thing work . . . testing . . testing . . one, two, three Dear Mr. Brown colon paragraph I wonder if you have any idea how much trouble your blasted firm no leave out the blasted has caused our no better make that we have had a good deal of trouble difficulty with the by the way send a copy of this to Peter too with the bobble sockets you have been making for our ouija boards they ouch (click) easy honey tend to fall out . . . . .

THE CURSE OF THE ANSWERING MACHINE

[Appropriately infuriating scenarios left as trivial excercise for the reader]



SOLUTIONS

Digital recording and playback of voice messages

Editing, with graphical assistance

Laurel voice messages with text headers

Convenient connection to telephone control capabilities



. . . .
Receptionist: "Ms Foozle is not in the office. May I give her a message?

Caller: "Yes,

[Receptionist buttons Telephone Message. A Laurel message form appears, addressed to Foozle,; the following interchange is recorded and associated with that form]

would you tell her that George Geargrinder called, and ask her to call me back at area code 408, 555-8024?

Receptionist: "All right, Mr. Geargrinder, I’ll make sure she gets the message."

[Receptionist (optionally enters a subject field, then) buttons Deliver.]



VISION #5

ANNOTATED DOCUMENTS



ANNOTATED DOCUMENTS

Begin with an "ordinary" document (e.g., Tioga document with text, graphics, structure)

Select a point of interest and record some comments

It is possible to obtain a new window permitting one to edit or amend a comment

Tioga marks the location of a voice annotation with a distinctive icon

Select an annotation icon and play it

Should be easy, once voice messages exist.



VISION #6

TELE-TIOGA (etc.)



Document-level "telephony"

Two or more participants use their workstations to collaborate interactively on the form and content of a document

Both participants see the same thing

An Etherphone connection is also established

Not, strictly speaking, a voice application; no additional voice functions are required

One of many possibilities for truly integrated systems



BASIC CAPABILITIES

TERMINAL EQUIPMENT

Audio Input/Output
Buttons, lights, etc.

TRANSMISSION

Real-Time requirements

CONTROL

Management of connections, etc.

VOICE COMPOSITION AND EDITING

Structuring and Handling voice

VOICE FILING

Real-Time requirements

DATA-BASES

e.g. White Pages (Or Yellow, or whatever.....)



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