Two technology ideas
August 6th, 2009 at 11:53 am by David FarrarI hate clearing voicemail messages. I much prefer people text or e-mail if I don’t answer my phone. But for business reasons I can’t switch it off. I find it annoying because I have to ring a number to find out what the messages are, and then they are gone unless I write them down. A text message you can keep for ages until dealt with.
So that got me thinking about a great service for a mobile phone company to offer. A voicemail to text service. For a few $ a month they will listen to your voicemail, type it up and send it to you as a text message and/or e-mail. That would be a seriously useful service.
There is a similiar service already called Aangel, where for $10/mth you can call 808 and leave a message that they immediately type up and text and e-mail to you, plus they e-mail the audio recording. I use this and is well worth the money as if I think of a blog idea, or run into someone whom I should call next week – I can just phone 808 and get a reminder to do so. They can even send meeting requests into Outlook.
But as useful as that is, a service that did the same for the voicemail messages other people leave me would be bloody brilliant. And it should be damn easy to do.
The other technology idea I had was being able to book an appointment with you doctor online. How it would be great if you could go to a website for your medical centre and see when the next free appointment is for your normal doctor. You could also see when other doctors have a free spot, and decide whether or not it is urgent enough to see another doctor earlier or wait for your normal one.
Such a system could also do some pre-screening by asking you some basic questions about what the problem is, and this would allow practice nurses to prepare stuff in advance of seeing the doctor.
By coincidence I saw my doctor yesterday, and he said their software firm is close to finalising such a system, so in a year or so this may be possible.
Tags: mobile phones
August 6th, 2009 at 11:55 am
I think google voice does what you need (sadly, not in NZ)
http://www.google.com/googlevoice/about.html
Vote:August 6th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
and, also, a company to scan your postal mail , so you can look at all your mail online without pfaffing around with letterbox visits.
i wished for this when i was highly mobile around europe. i believe I saw a company in the US that does this, but not sure about nz. Surely this is a value added service nz post could offer.
Vote:August 6th, 2009 at 12:02 pm
My billion dollar idea is outgoing voicemail, which works like a combination of text and voicemail. I record a brief voice message and send it to someone who can then listen to it. That way if I have to, say, give someone complicated directions I don’t have to write them using my phone keypad and I don’t have to call someone and have a conversation with them.
Vote:August 6th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Voicemail to text is fairly common in the US, I think. I’m pretty sure most providers offer it.
When I was working in NZ about 6 years ago there was a project to build a self-booking system for GP appointments. Can’t remember the client. Was in Auckland.
Vote:August 6th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Could existing voice-recognition software be used to do this automatically?
If so, I can picture the service only costing a few dollars a month. Wouldn’t a giant hall of stenographers beavering away typing out voice messages be a very expensive service to provide?
[DPF: Not really. I pay Aangel $10 a month. If they pay $15 an hour to a typist then that would buy 40 minutes of messages. And I probably do 20 15 second messages so that is 5 minutes used only.]
Vote:August 6th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
Thought telecom offered this, was like executive voicemail or something like that for $10 a month. Not sure if they still have it but they used to when 027 first came out.
Vote:August 6th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Telstra in Aus are trialing a Voice to Text message service (using Speech recognition).
From what I’ve heard it’s not all that sucessful. My mate’s missus had a message translated that instead of saying that he’ll pick her up at 6, had something about yachting….
Vote:August 6th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
Generally for doctors in private practice it’s not really a case of “I don’t have a pateitn booked in, so therefore I’m free”. That’s just not how they’re run.
Vote:August 6th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
You can already do this.
Check your voicemail, and choose the send message option. Key in the mobile number of the person you want to leave a message. Leave them a message.
A number of mobiles also provide vox messages. You can send sound as a text message. Not quite as useful as the person has to be able to receive them and with older/cheaper mobiles this may not be possible.
I suspect your billion dollar idea is called “vodafone”.
Vote:August 6th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
Exchange Server 2010 decodes voice messages to email…
Vote:August 6th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
iPhone voicemail is better as you get an on-screen display of messages, time, who sent them, duration, and can listen to them in any order, save them etc. Unfortunately Vodafone in NZ don’t support this
If you use an Asterisk PBX (free, runs on Linux) then you can have voicemail emailed to you as a .wav file attachment. I find this very useful.
Vote:August 6th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
A world leading company in Hamilton called ‘Talking Tech’ have software products that do various permutations on the text to voice etc especially aimed at telecoms markets.
Vote:It’s just that the bulk of their clients are in the UK.
August 6th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
When I left Vodafone (over a year ago, now) they were working on a few cool trials…
- VM2Email: Emails you voice messages
- VM2MMS: sends you the voice message as an MMS
- visual voicemail: native phone client navigation of voicemails etc… iphone compatable
They were also working on a voicemail transcribe service with spinvox.
Basically anything that gets around the IVR (voice prompts) when trying to get your messages is a win.
And yes, Google voice looks great… Unfortunately the telcos look like they’re gonna fight it (AT&T apparently pressured apple to remove the GV application from their store).
Vote:August 6th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
As kelsey said, Google Voice does this in the US. The FCC is investigating Apple in the US because they refused to allow a version of Google voice for iphone, but andriod and Blackberry phones have it. Has upset a lot of people, apparently, who say they are quitting the iPhone because of it.
Vote:Google Voice is supposed to allow you to talk and text for free.
August 6th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
Try the MessagePage service from Vodafone. Not 100% what you want, but means no voice mail!
Vote:August 6th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
I imagine it’s AT&T that has the problem with it then, not Apple..
Vote:August 6th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
Telstra already does this in Australia – results vary greatly. Id much rather have an small audio file sent to a designated email account.
[DPF: I should make clear I do not want an automated service voice recognition service. I want someone to listen to them, and type them up as Aangel does]
Vote:August 6th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Vodafone UK have a good alternative: when some leaves you a voicemail your voicemail box will send you a text message saying you have a new message (like it does in NZ). However, the voicemail server will also call your mobile and automatically play your new voicemail message back to you.
I had hoped they would do this in NZ but for some reason they can’t.
Vote:August 6th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
Telecom offers this – its called Mobile PA.
Instead of going to voicemail your calls are answered personally by Answer and Message Services operators (24/7). You are then sent a text message to your mobile phone.
[DPF: Not quite what I want. I don't want a human being answering the phone. I want them to get my recorded message. But if they do leave a message I want that message sent to me as a text message.
Also the Telecom package is a rip off to be blunt. Aangel charge $10/mth flatrate. Mobile PA is $49/mth. ]
Vote:August 6th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
“and, also, a company to scan your postal mail , so you can look at all your mail online without pfaffing around with letterbox visits.”
company does this in NZ. Check out http://www.privatebox.co.nz
I do not use them nor do I know anyone. Found them few months ago on a related area.
Vote:August 6th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Re: Booking a Dr online. Add to that a txt alert half an hour before your appointment time to tell you how many hours behind schedule your Dr will be.
The world needs more mobile apps. But as a mobile app developer – I would say that.
Vote:August 6th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
1. Lots of companies elsewhere in the world doing voicemail to text. Three ways to do it – a) they answer the phone and type up the message, b) they listen to the voice mail and type up, c) voice recognition. a) in theory works well, downside is that you get more messages that way (people are more likely to leave a message when they get a real human). And many firms use people who speak poor English – Telstra recently had this problem in Australia. b) sounds good, but if you use people with poor English you get even worse results. c) at present gives very poor results.
2. Online booking – NHS in the UK have been spending some billions of dollars implementing this, amongst other services. You’re thinking for a specific GP, in the UK it is more targeted at specialists. You get an electronic referral from your GP, you go to the web, you can view all the specialists, their availability, and (most importantly) their critical metrics in terms of success. The difference for a colon cancer operation between someone good and someone average is the difference between about 50% recovery and about 95% recovery. In some countries recovery is defined as “doesn’t die.” In the US apparently recovery is defined as “doesn’t have to carry around a bag for the rest of their life.” That information would be really, really useful when you are booking in for major surgery.
3. Outgoing voicemail has existed in many permutations for a long time – when I started with my current employer about 15 years ago we all had “octel” which was a company-wide voicemail system. What a nightmare – some bunny from global sending a 10 minute voicemail state of the business to everyone around the globe, who all looked suitably bored as this git rabbited on about whatever. I’d much rather have e-mail.
Vote:August 6th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
[DPF: I should make clear I do not want an automated service voice recognition service. I want someone to listen to them, and type them up as Aangel does]
DPF – this means you want a human dependent service – it is hardly a “Technology Idea”. Surely we want Computers to brighten up our lives with amusing but meaningless interpretations of our friends’ voices and strange NZ accents.
Vote:August 6th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
Jeez fellas, just do what I do. My voicemail message just says “Don’t bother leaving a message because I never check them. If you want to get a hold of me send me an email at (insert email address here)” Job done.
Occams razor is the only tool I ever use.
Vote:August 6th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
There is an easy solution – my voicemail message says “Hi, this is Annie. I don’t check my voicemail messages. If you need to contact me urgently, please text me.”
And don’t check your voicemail from then on. Works for me.
Vote:August 6th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
Why not get a “divert on no-answer” set up, and make it go to Aangel?
Vote:August 6th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
And set your family/important contact ringtones to unique sounds so you can catch them if you want (assuming not in a meeting).
Vote:August 6th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
A Technology Idea for Parents
These days parents have to fill out a form the size of a small census every time one of their children goes on a school outing. I reckon it would be great to have all this information in a database online, so that schools could reference the info they need without you having to reproduce it all the time.
A Neat use of the web for Engaged Couples
Friends of ours recently got engaged, and sent out an email with a link back to a wedding website, which replaces the invite. It can be updated between the engagement and the actual event and will eventually carry pictures of the wedding.Very cool use of technology, and great idea for couples getting married.
Vote:August 6th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
Seen some people using http://www.dial2do.com/ Haven’t looked into it myself but it may be of interest to some.
Vote:August 7th, 2009 at 9:12 am
wreck1080: there is a company in NZ that does it – I used them while I was in England. This is their address: privatebox.co.nz – you get a real street address from them and they then handle all your mail for a small fee. You can read it online or have it posted to your real address.
Vote:August 16th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
In terms of your 2nd idea – booking appointments with doctors online – my business partner and I have just launched a new website in May where any small business case setup a schedule so that their clients can make bookings over the web 24/7 – http://www.ezybook.co.nz. Our booking interface is really flexible and can handle up to 20 resources, working in different locations, different type and duration of appointments. We’re totally focused on small business, and have lean pricing as we know small businesses normally operate on the smell of an oily rag. ezybook is a 100% kiwi company, and we are just now starting marketing in Auckland and Wellington. If you want to know more, just go to our site, and click on “contact us”
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