13:31:45: 
Brian Reynolds [demo]<iBot-In> 13:31:49 |
Parent: ibook Identities | My Contact Page | Copied From |
Contributor:
perlbot Date: 2010 Tue Apr 06 09:39:24 CDT Previous Revision | Revision Index |
Welcome to our demo.
This is the Identity Folder for Guest Two with user name guest2 and password guest on our demo.verbol.com demonstration server by Family Systems. We are very pleased to show you our first open example of Verbol Web Server V3 with Voice System providing a host of innovative features which together enable us to use voice as a medium of record like text, and featuring Voicechat, an alternative to phoning each other by which we can make voice recordings and play and navigate among them.
This is an experimental prototype which is evolving and here is our present Voice System Road Map. All our work is licenced as CC+COOPY which provides free Creative Commons licensing for non-commercial use and cooperative licensing for commercial use.
Calling voicechat
We can call this guest voicechat extension 4805 as described in Calling Voicechat using PhoneFromHere. For instance, we can Call Guest's Voicechat extension 4805 at end which will start playing from the latest point in the message stream we are generating. A few presses of touch tone 4 skips back and replays the messages and there are a wealth of navigation features described in Voicechat Help.
We may hold a conversation in voicechat by each speaker clicking Call Guest's Voicechat extension 4805 at end. With voicechat, echoes are not a problem, and so a headset is not necessary and your PC's microphone and speaker may be used. If Java is not enabled in your browser you can call voicechat via Skype or a regular call to the New York or UK number as described below in Voice access using Skype and regular phones, remembering to dial extension 4805 when our system answers.
When Voicechat answers we can use touch tones on the phone keypad to navigate, play and reply to any of the voice recordings as described below in Using Voicechat. We can also call voicechat to speak our thoughts when we have them and hold voice conversations with each other even when we are not available at the same time. Also, when several people are using the same voicechat extension, we can see what each other is doing and send text annotations among the voice messages as described below in Chat interface.
Calling Voicechat using PhoneFromHere
For computers with Java enabled, we can call voicechat by clicking on: Call Guest's Voicechat extension 4805. If your computer does not support this feature, you can still access our system by Skype or phone; see next section.
When you are connected you will be positioned at the end of the last message played; pressing 9 in the keypad takes you to the end of the playlist so you can hear new voice messages as they arrive. Or Call Guest's Voicechat extension 4805 at end to position directly to the end of the playlist. See Using Voicechat below to learn how to record voice messages and navigate the playlist.
Voice access using Skype and regular phones
We can access the same features from Skype by adding the Skype name "verbolvoice" to our Skype contacts and calling it, or if you have Skype loaded Click here to call verbolvoice via Skype. When our demo server at demo.verbol.com answers, input the extension using Skype's pulldown keypad. Extension 4805 calls this guest voicechat. Skype's keypad can be hard to find but it is there. On my Apple PC there is a round button at the bottom of the call window containing a square of dots. On Windows it may be in a pulldown menu reached by a button near the mute button.
The above mechanisms all use free voice over IP (VOIP) from our computers to the voice server. We can also connect by calling our New York number 1212 937 4944 or our UK number +44 (0)161 288 4243 from any normal phone. When our demo server at demo.verbol.com answers, input the extension by touch tone. Extension 4805 calls this guest voicechat. Our Voicechat menu is designed to be especially convenient when using a hand held cordless phone.
See below for how to connect using a SIP softphone.
Using Voicechat
Using any of the access methods, prefix the extension with 4 to access voicechat. When you are connected, pressing 9 in the keypad takes you to the end of the playlist so you can hear new voice messages as they arrive.
Then pressing # starts recording your voice and pauses playback and pressing # again stops recording and resumes playback. Our voice messages are placed in the voicechat playlist in the sequence in which we started speaking. Links to the messages are added immediately to the daily journal pages (see below).
When calling from the page we can use the Push to Talk and navigation buttons in the phone panel. These all have touch tone equivalents for use on any phone; for example, 4 skips back in the playlist by one message.
Voicechat is equipped with recorded help messages which explain the touch tone commands and options; press * in the phone to play the help messages; or click on Voicechat Help to read them. Please note that * is pronounced star and # is pronounced pound and known in the UK as "hash"
Voicechat is useful to capture a thought or to hold conversations when the parties are not available at the same time and is not limited to two participants. Each extension has a group chat room (instructions for use below) which can be used to send text messages interspersed with the voice messages and shows a list of the voicechat participants and whether they are recording or listening to a message.
Chitchat mode
Prefixing the extension with 6 instead of 4 accesses chitchat mode which is an experimental variation of voicechat in which pressing # once starts recording after which voice messages are created each time you speak and silence is ignored. In chitchat, message playback continues during recording unless you have paused playback (key 3 to pause and 3 again to resume playing).
This can be useful when several parties are online together and meet in a chitchat extension; it feels like a regular phone call but is not limited to two parties. We can speak at once and all be recorded separately and we can navigate and play back earlier messages while still on the call. If you are in a noisy environment it is helpful to put your phone on mute when not speaking so we don't get unnecessary noise in the voice messages, and if calling from the page it requires use of a headset to avoid recording what you are listening to.
daily journal pages
Links to our voice messages are inserted into today's page of this identity's daily journal pages by an ibot, our name for a background process which has an identity so it can participate in chat rooms and revise pages. The daily journal pages are listed in this page below the insert marker (looks like a tiny book) and today's journal page has a link displaying today's date. You will need to refresh the page from time to time to see the new messages which have arrived.
To try out the behaviour added to this or the daily journal web pages by the system menu, log in with your user name and password. A guest who is not enrolled can use user name guest2 and password guest. The basics of this system are noted at quick start. Links to new folders and pages will appear at the insert marker (looks like a tiny book with an "i" in the left page).We can create a playlist of all the voice messages in the page by clicking on the play menu of the toolbar. This brings up a list of playlist types to choose from. I am presently working on an Apple Mac and select "Pay Page with WinAmp (m3u)" then click play page, which on my laptop sends a playlist to Quicktime. I like this because the Quicktime A/V Controls, reached through the Window menu item, let me adjust the playback speed and pitch. On Windows platforms, playback speed can be varied by downloading the appropriate Enounce plug-in and then using the WMP or Real Player playlist formats.
All the menu behaviour is accomplished by the menu item sending a Verbol command to the server in a link. The Verbol commands are shown as they are constructed at the foot of each menu item display.voice messages
The ibot also uses the Verbol Insert command to place voice messages in a journal page;
for messages from 14.52 on 4th Sept
13:31:45: Brian Reynolds [demo]<iBot-In> 13:31:49
Timestamp links now always play the single voice message for which they signify the start time. The left most link sets up Phone From Here to call voicechat at this message. The pen and mail icons bring up a form to insert annotations and email a link to this message in the page.
for messages prior to 4th Sept, here is an example of the result.
: Brian Reynolds[demo]<iBot-In> 11:28:36 >>11:29:04
<<11:28:32 : Brian Reynolds This is a reply to 15 [Re: demo]<iBot-In> 11:29:08
[11:31:55] <guest2> The last two voice messages are in the demo.
This link << will take you to the message whose timestamp it is next to (you may wish to right click and open in a separate window so you can still see this, also you may have to scroll up a little to see the referenced message).
The left-most numbers in links like this are the master message subscripts for this extension and are allocated in the sequence that voice recordings start. Clicking opens the PhoneFromHere page at this message so we can hear it and reply by voice.
Links like this [Now icon] 11:28:32: allow us to annotate or email this message line, and the example shown above with this link is so annotated.Links like this [Now timestamp] Brian Reynolds play the message. When we annotate the page, the form sent a verbol command on our behalf to the server (and the ibots send similar verbol commands to put the voice message links on the page).
Links like this [Re: demo] are for an experimental topic feature presently under construction. At present they lead to the identity home page for the originator of the message. The name in the link can be modified by an =t command followed by the new topic name in the chat room.
Links like this >>11:29:04 and this <<11:28:32jump the browser to the message line with that time stamp and play that message respectively. These are generated when a voice message is recorded while playing another message and allow us to follow threaded conversations.
Chat interface
The voice message links pass from the VOIP server through a group chat room which can be viewed by clicking chat in the menu and enrolling in the JWChat client with your user name and password. This brings up a roster which has a Preferences link near the top; click this and uncheck Play sounds. It may be necessary to enlarge the JWChat windows if the text size set in your browser is larger than standard.
There is a little more set up to do to bring up the group chat window for your extension. This has been done already for this guest2 identity so the window should come up when you log in, but we include it for reference in case you log in with your own identity.The voicechat participants in the group chat room for your extension are identified by the prefix A* and these participant entries will update to indicate activity such as recording or playing a message. This is very useful when several people are conversing by Voicechat and are on line at the same time, as it enables us to see where each is in the master playlist of the recordings.
Any regular text messages we type into the chat room will be inserted into the page among the voice messages and this is a good way to annotate a voice conversation. [This is illustrated in the last line of the example above.]
Typing =h in the chat room asks the ibot to respond with a list of the Verbol commands it obeys. For example, =t followed by a text string will set a topic name to be displayed in the voice messages stored in the daily journal pages from then on. We can also elect to follow a participant's message playback in which case our chat messages will annotate the message being played. This is useful when applied to our own playback so that we can easily annotate the message we are listening to.
using a SIP phone
A softphone such as the free X-Lite or a SIP phone adapter can be used to connect free to our demonstration voice system and will also allow us to receive VOIP calls to the extension allocated to our identity. For example, to connect to the extension allocated to your identity using the X-Lite softphone, download, install and load the softphone, then click the menu button which is the left most of the 3 buttons at the top of the phone display.
Choose SIP Account Settings and then create an account with the following settings. In the account properties, choose a Display Name such as your name, use your extension as the User name, use your password, use your extension as the Authorisation user name, and demo.verbol.com as the Domain. Check "Register with domain and receive incoming calls" and choose "Send outbound via proxy" with Address set to demo.verbol.com.
If the default setting may have changed, then in the Options menu, expand the Advanced tab and in the Network section, make sure that "Preserve bandwidth during silence period" is not checked (checking it may cause errors in our system's silence detection which enables us to separate voice utterances into separate recordings).