E-Alarm

Li Cheng

Sharis Esmaeili

Sue Xia

Vinita Sharma

Table Of Contents

E-Alarm.............................................................................................................................................................................................. 3

Abstract............................................................................................................................................................................................ 3

Introduction.................................................................................................................................................................................. 3

Design................................................................................................................................................................................................. 4

User Interface................................................................................................................................................................................ 4

Main Page...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 4

Member Sign Up............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 5

E-Wakeup....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 6

E-Reminder................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 6

E-News................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 7

Database...................................................................................................................................................................................... 10

Communication.......................................................................................................................................................................... 12

Conclusion................................................................................................................................................................................... 14

Appendix.......................................................................................................................................................................................... 15

Appendix A Evaluation of User Preferences............................................................................................................ 15

Appendix B Text-to-Speech Conversion Software Research.......................................................................... 16

SmartTalk Version 3.0............................................................................................................................................................. 16

Lernout & Hauspie TextTalk Text-To-Speech Conversion Software......................................................................... 17

ChatLite....................................................................................................................................................................................... 18

Appendix C Clarification of Database Terms........................................................................................................... 19

Terms............................................................................................................................................................................................ 19

References.................................................................................................................................................................................... 20

Appendix D Internet Calendar Engine.......................................................................................................................... 21

Benefits......................................................................................................................................................................................... 21

Appendix E Sentica................................................................................................................................................................... 22

SenticaXchange platform software....................................................................................................................................... 22

E-Alarm

Abstract

The project concerns developing a computerized phone service that delivers wakeup calls, event reminders, and customized news. It involves designing an interactive web site, building a customer database, working with affiliated information providers, and selecting a text-to-voice conversion system. Members of the service can request up-to-date news information such as traffic and weather.

Introduction

This report describes the design of an automated time-triggered system that permits personalized notifications via a telephone call. A time-triggered system is a set of procedures that initiates when the computer’s clock-value matches user requests for service.

Design

Our design includes three parts – user interface, database, and communication.

User Interface

E-Alarm consists of five sections -- Main Page, Member Sign-up, E-Wakeup, E-Reminder and E-News.

Main Page

Figure 1 contains the user login and a brief description of E-Alarm. The user navigates through the website pages via the menu bar at the top of the screen.

Figure 1. Main Page

Member Sign Up

There are three main sections on this page. All are shown in Figure 2, namely “Choosing your ID”, “Customizing E-Alarm”, and “Your phone numbers”. Required fields are E-Alarm Username, Password, Re-Type Password, E-mail Address, First Name, Last Name, and Zipcode.

Figure 2. E-Member Sign Up page

E-Wakeup

The form in Figure 3 collects information from the user pertaining to call scheduling. The call setting allows members to either enter a new phone number, or choose a number from an existing list. Month, date, call time, and zip code are required. E-Alarm calls the member at the scheduled time through an automated telephone system.

Figure 3. E-Wakeup data request page

E-Reminder

This feature requires the same scheduling information from the user as the E-Wakeup page. It goes further by displaying a list of reminders that the user selects and personalizes via the description field. E-Alarm calls the user at the time entered in the form.

Figure 4. E-Reminder data request page

E-News

This part of the software has two sections—news selection and call request. Members can choose multiple news types to receive via phone.

Refer to Figure 5. The user can enter a new phone number or select from pre-stored numbers. Appendix A explains the selection method for the categories.

Figure 5. E-News selection page (images taken from www.IconBAZAAR.com)

User Profile

A logged-in user views and updates their profile information on the page shown in Figure 6. It includes the member’s personal data and all pending calls, as shown in Figure 7. The user cancels calls by deleting them from the list on this page.

Figure 6. Profile of user “anna”

Figure. 7 Call cancellation

Database

A Microsoft Access97 database stores the users’ personal data, call schedule, and customized information services. It consists of 12 tables. They are USERS, CONTACTS, CALLS, INFOSVCS, LOCATIONS, DATETIME, USER/CONTACT, CALL/INFOSVC, DATETIME/INFOSVC, INFOSVC/LOCATION, CONTACTDESCRIPTION, and INFOSVCDESCRIPTION.

There are six main tables. Table USERS stores personal and private information about individuals registered for E-Alarm’s services. The CONTACTS table stores information directing services to members, that is, phone numbers and email addresses. The CALLS table relates information from the USERS, DATETIME, and CONTACTS tables. Table INFOSVCS contains information regarding connecting to other databases to gather information services that users request. News services that are dependent upon specific geographical areas, such as weather and traffic, access the LOCATIONS table to retrieve necessary information. The DATETIME table stores the days and times for which users request calls. The other six tables are used to define relationships between the main ones.

Figure 8 describes the fields in each table. Figure 9 shows the table relationships for E-Alarm.mdb.

Table	Field	Description
USERS	UserID	Uniquely identifies each user
	Username	Username required for login
	Password	Password required for login
CONTACTS	ContactID	Uniquely identifies each phone number or email address in the database
	Contactcode	Marks contact as an email address or one of a list of types of phone numbers
	Contactinfo	Stores the phone number or email address
CALLS	CallID	Uniquely identifies each call
	UserID	Foreign key
	DateTimeID	Foreign key
	ContactID	Foreign key
INFOSVCS	InfoSvcID	Uniquely identifies each information service
	InfoSvcCode	Marks the type of information service
	InfoSvcLink	Stores link to a specific information service
LOCATIONS	LocationID	Uniquely identifies each location that is entered by a user
	City	User-specified value
	State	User-specified value
	Zipcode	User-specified value
DATETIME	DateTimeID	Uniquely identifies each date and time
	Day	User-specified value
	Time	User-specified value
USER/CONTACT	UserID	Foreign key
	ContactID	Foreign key
CALL/INFOSVC	CallID	Foreign key
	InfoSvcID	Foreign key
DATETIME/INFOSVC	DateTimeID	Foreign key
	InfoSvcID	Foreign key
INFOSVC/LOCATION	InfoSvcID	Foreign key
	LocationID	Foreign key
CONTACTDESCRIPTION	Contactcode	Uniquely identifies each type of contact information
	ContactDescription	Describes contact information type
INFOSVCDESCRIPTION	InfoSvcCode	Uniquely identifies each type of information service
	InfoSvcDescription	Describes information service type

Figure 8 Description of Table Fields in E-Alarm.mdb

Figure 9. Table Relationships

Communication

Active Server Pages (ASP) implement interaction between the graphical user interface and the database. Visual Basic scripting language is used to program the code executed at the web server. Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is executed at the client-side. Both languages are utilized in building the Active Server Pages.

Future Enhancements

Internet Calendar Engine

This user-friendly interface helps users schedule multiple calls. The information is immediately stored into the database.

Lernout & Hauspie TextTalk

This software converts database field information from text into voice format. E-Alarm specifically plans to translate E-Wakeup, E-Reminder and E-News messages into speech.

SenticaXchange

This service sends automated voice messages to database-stored phone numbers at predetermined times.

Conclusion

This report explains the user-interface and back-end technology of E-Alarm. The technology behind E-Alarm delivers timely, customized information through a phone call.

Appendix

Appendix A Evaluation of User Preferences

The survey reflects the opinion of forty-five individuals. It includes students from the cs190 class as well as friends and family of E-Alarm project designers. The questionnaire contains a total of twelve categories. Each individual was asked to select three choices. The results of the top six are 51.11% for weather, 46.67% for traffic, 44.44% for headline, 31.11% for financial, 26.67% for movie, and 22.22% for sports. As a result of the study, E-Alarm offers these six services.

Appendix B Text-to-Speech Conversion Software Research

SmartTalk Version 3.0

http://www.oki.co.jp/OKI/Cng/Softnew/English/sm.htm

Operating environment

Single processor PC running Windows95/98, Windows Me , Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000 Japanese version
Sound board (Sound BLASTER compatible) loaded

55MB or above

CD-ROM

The following ActiveX controls based environments are needed to develop programs using SMARTTALK. These must be purchased separately.
Visual Basic 5.0 SP3 or later
Visual C++ 5.0 SP3 or later
VBA based applications

Computer

Disk space

Media

Development Environment

Function specification

Output: Low level waveform audio device or Wave file.

Output format: PCM/A-Law / Mu-Law, 8 kHz, 8 bit / 16 bit, 11.025 kHz, 8 bit / 16 bit, 22.05 kHz, 8 bit / 16 bit

Input format: Intermediate language that describes the phonetic and prosodic information

Dictionary: About 110,000 words

Voice type: Pitch Synchronous Overlap Add method/ VCV1

Price

Full Package: 12,800 Yen

Additional answering (3 accounts): 37,500 Yen

The answering package supplies three accounts of answering services by special engineers. The support for ActiveX control programming tools is provided separately at extra cost as required.

Contents of Package

- ActiveX controls for text-to-speech synthesis

- Text reader application

- EXCEL add-in utility

- Singing utility

- Visual Basic sample programs

- EXCEL sample programs

- SMARTTALK programming guide (online help)

Lernout & Hauspie TextTalk Text-To-Speech Conversion Software

http://www.lhsl.com/telecom/tts/ttstexttalk.asp

“TextTalk is a host-based software designed to run on Pentium® class PCs in conjunction with supported Dialogic boards. No additional speech-related hardware is required. A maximum of four channels of TextTalk can be invoked simultaneously when using the minimum processor speeds recommended, leaving enough CPU capacity to run your application. Dynamic resource sharing allows TextTalk to operate with multiple two- and four-port boards allowing you to use Text-To-Speech with applications that don't require text conversion for all incoming calls. The TextTalk API (application programming interface) has been written specifically for Dialogic boards, that makes it quick and easy to integrate into your application and eliminates the need to write your own API a huge time saver!”

Operating environment

The TextTalk engine operates in conjunction with Dialogic D/21H™, D/41H™, D/41ESC™, VFX/40SC™, VFX/40ESC™, and VFX/40ESC plus™ voice processing platforms, and is available in a two or four-channel configuration. For US English only.

Function specification

Patented speech technology converts ASCII text into natural sounding speech, adding value to your application

Differentiate your unified messaging or interactive voice response application from the competition by giving users remote access to email messages, faxes, and text database information

"Software only" solution provides a cost-effective means to add TTS technology to your Dialogic-based system without adding hardware

Advanced intelligent preprocessor strips away unwanted email header information and correctly expands abbreviations, minimizing cellular connection time while accessing messages remotely

Unlimited spoken vocabulary gives you the flexibility to use TextTalk in telephony applications where recorded prompts are not practical

Price

Not available on the website.

ChatLite

http://www.calvgar.com/voice.htm

Operating environment

Win 95/98/NT

Size of the software is 1,706 K bytes

Function specification

A small application that sits in the system tray, and reads back the text currently in the clipboard when a user-defined hotkey is pressed, ideal for proof-reading documents, or reading e-mails.

Price

Freeware Never Expires

Appendix C Clarification of Database Terms

Terms

The following topics are covered in this section—

Database

Table

Entity

Field

Relational database model

Relational database

Table relationships

Key

Primary key

Foreign key

Microsoft Access

Database

A database is a collection of information arranged for ease and speed of search and retrieval.

Table

In relational databases, a table models each set of entities.

Entity

An object that is described by attributes. Each table row is an entity.

Field

Fields are the attributes of an entity or object.

Relational database model

The relational database model is a logical representation of the data that allows the relationships between the data to be considered independently of the physical implementation of the data structures.

The advantage of the model is that it reduces redundant information in the database.

Relational database

A relational database is composed of tables. Each row of a table is unique. Tables normally have primary keys. They may contain foreign keys. The relationships between tables are actually relationships between table entities. They are classified as 1-to-1, 1-to-many, and many-to-many. A 1-to-1 relationship means that each field in Table A corresponds to one record in Table B. A 1-to-many relationships means that each field in Table A can correspond to multiple records in Table B. A many-to-many relationship means that each field in Table A can correspond to multiple records in Table B and each field in Table B can correspond to multiple records in Table A.

Key

A key is the minimal set of attributes that uniquely identifies any entity from among all possible entities that may appear in the database. Multiple keys may exist for a table. We can select one key to identify unique entities—we call it the primary key. The primary key for one table may be added to other tables; it serves as a foreign key for those tables.

Microsoft Access

Microsoft Access is a popular personal relational database. It uses Structured Query Language (SQL) to request information that satisfies given criteria and to manipulate data.

References

1. Deitel, H. M., Deitel, P. J., Nieto, T. R. e-Business & e-Commerce: How to Program, Prentice-Hall, Inc., 2001, 1254 pages.

2. Roman, Steven. Access Database: Design & Programming, 2nd Edition, O’Reilly & Associates, Inc., 1999, 409 pages.

Appendix D Internet Calendar Engine

Website: http://www.kbnet.com/calendar/calendar.html

Customizable – The most favorite feature thing is that all sites are customizable in easy to-use Control Panel with any amount of times. Calendar has many customized templates to choose from including special background.

Easy Access – Since postings are highlighted on a monthly wall calendar by title, there is no need for a search engine. Postings are click able for users to retrieve all other specific information immediately. Future months are accessed on the main calendar page as well.

Adaptive – Any Web browser can use Calendar 2.0. A non-table version is built parallel of graphics version, for visitors who prefer older browsers.

Counters – Includes two that one displaying the number of events in the current month, and the other displays how many entries have been posted in total.

Benefits

30 days free trail then only $30 / year
Free hosting
No ads or banners to display OR view
Edit on-line, no HTML editor required
Many templates and designs to choose from
Automatic E-Mail sends you any updates
Set-Up and Register in 4 Minutes
Fast T-3 multiple configuration
Use Control Panel to change appearance
Use Control Panel to delete, modify and backup entries
Add and View all in one step
Includes two counters
Administrator can change/delete ANY posting

Appendix E Sentica

Sentica is the global leader in wireless convergence. SenticaXchange is the first software infrastructure that enables end-to-end interactive communication from any back-office, Internet and Intranet application to any mobile device. It delivers content and m-commerce capabilities from text, voice, image or video.

SenticaXchange platform software

With SenticaXchange™ Platform Software, users or applications can initiate communication sessions and complete transactions at any time. Businesses can interact and transact with their on-the-go subscribers and receive immediate confirmation and response over telephones, cell phones, wireless application protocol (WAP) devices, PDAs (Palm VII, CE devices and PocketPC) and pagers.

Application providers, content providers, enterprises and carriers are now able to build a single implementation for any desired application and enable all text, voice, image and video data to all communications devices in real-time.

Sentica has created a Java-based Tool/API that enables the integration of any application with SenticaXchange. The Xchange Tool/API is feature rich, enabling complex applications such as e-Commerce, content, ERP, CRM, brokerage and auction interaction to and from any wireless device. Xchange dynamically communicates with back office, Internet and Intranet data, and establishes a real-time, two-way link between the corporate data and any user's device. This approach eliminates resource intensive and unreliable solutions based on scraping, wrapping, transcoding and rendering technologies. As well as the creation and maintenance of alternative WML/HDML sites for each application and particular device.

SenticaXchange is a highly scalable carrier-class platform solution. A single Xchange deployment can handle millions of transactions per day through its fully distributed, fault-tolerant and fail-safe architecture. Every Xchange component, including the Application Builder (Tool/API), mDataDirect™, Management Server, and mRouter™, is hot pluggable, offering better than 99.99% uptime and guaranteeing delivery of data between applications and wireless devices. Application and content providers need not create device-specific applications or sites. From a single interface, application and content providers can enable their commerce application or content to any mobile device, while maintaining a similar experience from device-to-device for the end-user. Integrating with SenticaXchange leverages your current investment in applications while offering premium services and timely communication to your customers and employees. All while maintaining focus on your core competency, generating additional revenue and providing higher customer satisfaction.

Figure 12. SenticaXchange Model

Homepage URL:

http://www.sentica.com/

Demo URL:

http://www.sentica.com/demo.htm