Vox Populi
By Al Williams
As the Internet goes mobile, hardware vendors are scrambling to find a way to cram user interfaces (UIs) into a tiny box. I've already seen clamshell cell phones, touch screens, and multifunctional buttons you have to work with a stylus. However, the ultimate mobile UI is obvious to anyone who watches my favorite TV show, Star Trek. When Captain Kirk—or Captain Janeway for the youngsters—wants to make the computer do something, he or she simply speaks the commands. If the computer is in the same room, fine. If not, that captain can call it on his or her cell phone. Well, it might as well be a cell phone.
So how do we make computers listen and respond—especially computers on the Web? The technology already exists, and VoiceXML makes it relatively straightforward.
At first, I was put off by the sheer complexity of connecting a Web server to the telephone system, but then I discovered that you can find everything you need free on the Web (or at least everything you need for development). The key is a service named Tellme (see "
Online Resources"). Tellme offers an 800 number you can call to hear news, weather, and other information. It also offers "extensions," which let you use VoiceXML to create your own content.
To do anything serious, you'll also need some back-end processing, so plan to use your own Web server that supports scripting, like with Java Server Pages (JSP). The Tellme server will have to access your server, so it's best if your server has a static IP address, or at least a dynamic DNS name.
