Disaggregate

A little reality check. The goal of this demonstration is to let you experience the combination of VoiceXML (speech recognition and text-to-speech, tied to the telephone network) with instant messaging — what we call a "multimodal" application, since it combines several modes of input and output.

The goal is not to dictate instant messages — that's an entirely different problem. The goal is to send instant messages in conjunction with or instead of spoken announcements, and to accept instant messages in conjunction with spoken input.

Of course, all usual disclaimers apply — this is a demo, after all. Bear in mind that from time to time remote servers are reconfigured — for example, we once discovered that all phone numbers in the demo were out of date. If the demo fails, please contact us so we can repair the damage!

Step one is to check your phone for caller ID. Some cell phones, notably ones in California, USA, do not send caller ID information. This demo currently uses caller ID information to identify you — of course people without caller ID could just say an account number, but after all this is a demo.

To check that your caller ID works properly, call our demo number at +1 407 386 3912, and the system will read you your caller ID. In honor of the Californians, we use some pre-recorded text-to-speech prompts from Rhetorical; in particular, their wonderful "Southern California Female" voice, one of our favorites. (Mixing two different text-to-speech voices is actually a poor user-interface design choice — note the jarring transition between the announcements and the readback of the telephone number — let it be a lesson to you!)

You need a Jabber-compatible instant messaging client to receive instant messages, and a login on a Jabber-compatible server. We recommend that you get a login from jabber.org.

Instructions on how to install a Jabber client and get a login, and a list of Jabber clients, may be found here.

You need to register your caller ID and your client's IM login. Step this way.

(If you're already registered, go here.)