Voice Conference Manager / News: Recent posts

Push2web version alpha-0.5 is a new release that works with Voice Conference Manager to provide web page control over mute and un-mute of individuals during a conference call. This package allows an "attendant" to monitor and control a conference call using a web page.

Push2web provides real-time push of data from the server to the web page using only standard Java and Javascript. There's no need for Flash or periodic refreshes of the web page.... read more

Push2web alpha-0.4 now supports Internet Explorer as well as Firefox, and allows you to monitor and control a conference call from a web page.

Push2web is part of Voice Conference Manager, which offers a reference application to set up conference calls using a voice interface and monitor them using a web page. The current versions of the vcm-prophecy branch and the push2web package enable the web page to drop calls from the conference call; the next version should allow muting and unmuting of the call.

In this latest release of Voice Conference Manager, calls can be dropped from the conference call by using a button on the VCM Monitor web page.

Voice Conference Manager allows an attendant to call a server, say the names of the people who should be on the call, and then hang up. The system then outdials and places all those people on the call. VCM also provides a web page that can monitor the progress of the call in real time. You will need both the vcm-prophecy package and the push2web package.... read more

Push2web is an applet/servlet pair that pushes data to a browser. The browser uses an applet to log into a port provided by the applet; the applet can send data to the browser, which updates its display via the DOM.

The documentation for the Java classes in the push2web servlet have been updated. Please see the project's home page at http://vcm.sourceforge.net for the updated documentation.

In this alpha-0.2 release, Voice Conference Manager uses the "push2web" Java servlet and applet (also part of the VCM project) to provide real-time updates to a web page and monitor progress of conference calls.

This branch of Voice Conference Manager makes VCM available on the freely-downloadable, no-cost-license Voxeo "Prophecy 2006" platform. Prophecy 2006 includes speech recognition, text-to-speech, SIP interfaces, PHP and Java web servers, as well as CCXML, VoiceXML, SRGS, and TTS-markup interpreters. Voice Conference Manager provides an excellent introduction on how to use these telephony and speech technologies. Details of the Voice Conference Manager's architecture are on the project's web site, and as an article in Dr. Dobbs Journal. Because Prophecy provides all releveant technology, anyone can extend Voice Conference Manager or create entirely new speech recognition and telephony projects.... read more

Push2web allows a Web server to "push" updates to a passive web page. Instead of reloading the web page on a regular basis, or requiring the user to click for an update, push2web sends information to the web page which then updates automatically. The web page uses standard HTML/CSS for display.

Push2web comes in two parts. The first is a Java servlet that runs on the Web server that opens a socket on the web server. The second part is Java and Javascript that runs in the browser. A Java applet logs into the socket to receive updates, and when an update arrives, it passes the update to a Javascript script. That JS script updates the DOM model of the page to provide current information. In turn, this means that the web page uses standard HTML, CSS, etc. to display the information -- the Java and JavaScript is invisible to the user.... read more

With this new release, Voice Conference Manager runs on a freely-accessible platform with tremendous flexibility. Voice Conference Manager uses voice recognition, text-to-speech, and SIP to allow an "attendant" to set up and manage telephone calls. The attendant calls in and says the names of people who should be on the call; after the attendant hangs up, the Voice Conference Manager outdials to the individuals and places them in the call. VCM uses W3C-standards: CCXML for telephony control, and VoiceXML and SRGS for speech recognition.... read more

The April, 2005 edition of Dr. Dobbs Journal features an article descrbing, in detail, the 0.1 release of Voice Conference Manager. Written as a tutorial, the article explains third-party call control and how to manipulate telephony servers using Call Control XML.

Voice Conference Manager uses speech recognition to control conference calls. The 0.2 release adds a web-based interface -- users can monitor participants in a conference call through dynamically-updated web pages. ... read more

Voice Conference Manager uses speech recognition to control conference calls. The 0.2 release adds a web-based interface -- users can monitor participants in a conference call through dynamically-updated web pages.

Voice Conference Manager uses Call Control XML (CCXML) and VoiceXML -- W3C scripting languages -- to control the telephone network and the voice user interface/speech recognition, respectively. It's not necessary to have your own telephony server to run Voice Conference Manager; many Application Service Providers provide free developer access to their servers, and Voice Conference Manager was developed and tested on an ASP's server.... read more

Available on CVS: A handful of files have been modified, and a new "config" directory has been added. The "config" directory contains a script that allows you to automatically configure all the files that need configuration; see config/README.txt for details.

This project started on 2004-08-12. I hope to have files uploaded to CVS and released by 2004-08-20, as a 0.1 release.

The files use VoiceXML, CCXML, grammar XML; there's a very rudimentary Python script that's more of a placeholder than anything else.

Contact me if you have any questions or would like to join the project.