Detecting Pickup By Another Handset

[SupportTeam]

Charles Wrote:

 

In my application, the caller may press a key to speak to a particular live person. For the next 30 seconds, The person is alternately paged (through another set of network/voice applications triggered by a DDE message) and the caller is sent a ringback. At the end of 30 seconds (if not interrupted), the call is transferred to the appropriate voicemail box.

 

When the callee hears the page, he picks up a phone and presses the "*" button (crude "in-band" signalling), which causes IVG to hang up the call, so he can talk live.

 

This method works okay, except that having the caller hear the DTMF tone is tacky -- esp. since you have to wait until the modem can "hear" the tone (doesn't happen, of course, during the "paging" phase, but only during the "ringback/pause" phase). Of course, the fact that I'm using a cheap modem doesn't help...

 

Anyone have any other ideas as to how I might detect that someone has picked up the phone and make IVG hang up?

[SupportTeam]

Three is no way of detecting if another handset on the same telephone line was picked up by somebody else.

 

The method you're using now is the usual solution in situations where a person has to pick up a call at a different handset when that handset is attached to the same line.

 

Neither a voice modem or a Dialogic card cannot do this - they just do not have the electronic circuitry on board to detect that this has happened..

 

(not too sure if its even possible to design circuitry which would in practice reliably detect the changes in loop current which occur when another handset is picked up)

[Charles]

Yeah, you could check for an instant drop, which should be fairly significant going from one device to two devices on the line. Ought to be fairly reliable, but not guaranteed. Hmmm...

[Guest Guest_Bill]

some of my previous answering machines.. would do just that... sense the drop and shut off... if they missed, I'd just tap the hook a couple of times and it would stop the answering machines. I think this is an easier task with voice modems, as they have a phone jack to plug the phone into.. so... an off-hook condition on that jack could be sensed... other, similar (ok... simpler) software does just that. I would be willing to wire my phone system to adapt to having the modem in the path of all the telephones.

 

oh, btw... this drawback... is the ONLY reason I may not buy this software. I am currently jumping through hoops to use the software, as my wife (who answers the office phones) HATES that it will not give up the line... so.. I use the caller id to see if I recognize the caller... and route them.. and the others... I just hangup on before answering the call... sending them to the answering machine.

 

please address this

[SupportTeam]

an off-hook condition on that jack could be sensed... other, similar (ok... simpler) software does just that.

With what voice modems have you seen this software work?

 

(What is this software?)

 

We have so far not seen any voice modems which can detect if a phone handset attached either to the modem's phone jack or to the line directly has been picked up.

[Guest John Doe]

Handset pickup can be detected by electronic circuitry. "Message Stoppers" are available for same purpose and work excellent. I am not sure what kind of Voice Board of Modem currently supports it. With the Message Stopper I have tried, the problem is that it blocks the Caller ID information getting to the Answering Machine or Voice Board!

 

John

[SupportTeam]

We do not know of any Voice Modem or Telephony Card which is capable of detecting that a handset attached in parallel to the same extension has been picked up.

 

(If any anybody knows of one please let us know - we'd be very interested in using one ourselves!)

[Guest Graf]

I used to use the old VoiceGuide like 9.???? that was before this newer version. I used an AST FAX/Voice board. And whenever someone would pickup an extension, I seemed to remember that it would hang up. I wouldn't think it's rocket science IMAO.

[SupportTeam]

If on the modem the phone handset is attached to separate jack then it's easy for the modem to detect that the handset has been picked up as it's all wired up like this:

 

PSTN <-------> Modem <-----> Handset

 

and the modem would be set up to send a 'Disconnect' signal to the computer when it detects Handset pickup.

 

Whereas with the Dialogic card you probably have it wired up so that

Dialogic and Handset are attached directly to the same PSTN input. ie.

Dialogic and Handset are in parallel.

In that configuration (after Dialogic answers the call) detecting when the

Handset is picked up would require detection of when another load suddenly

appears on the line... so Dialogic would need to monitor for something like

a reduction in loop current or voltage on the line circuit it has answered.

 

No telephony card (or modem) out there does such detection of 'parallel pickup'...