TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/052289/05228900.009

Text File | 1992-09-23 | 5.7 KB | 108 lines

                                                                                TECHNOLOGY, Page 98

Hello! This is Voice Mail Speaking


The new phone systems are fast, efficient and a pain in the neck


    One day last month Linda Hiwot, a Brooklyn junior high
school teacher, got a surprise when she phoned her bank for a
credit-card balance. Instead of the familiar human teller, she
was answered by a computer-generated voice that told all callers
with Touch-Tone phones to "press 1 now," thus beginning a series
of steps that would eventually lead to her balance. When she
called the IRS about an overdue tax check, another computer
voice directed her to "push 9" for refunds. Even a local
department store had acquired a robot operator, which like an
overeager clerk insisted on taking Hiwot on a guided tour of the
entire store ("For furniture, home decorating or major
appliances, push 3"). Desperate for human contact, she finally
dialed a friend, only to be invited to leave a message at the
sound of the tone. "It was like the Twilight Zone," says Hiwot.
"I felt there was nobody out there but machines."

    It is a feeling Hiwot, and everybody else, had better get
used to. The U.S., and much of the world, is in the midst of a
sweeping technological conversion, replacing human secretaries
and operators with a new kind of high-tech wizardry known
variously as automated answering systems, voice-messaging units
or, most simply, voice mail. In the past six years, tens of
thousands of voice-messaging systems have been installed in
stores, offices and government agencies. The units answer
phones, route callers and dispense information ranging from
baseball scores and movie reviews to weather reports and
horoscopes. Even the Vatican has a voice-mail system, allowing
devout callers to hear messages recorded by the Pope.

    The technological forerunner of the modern voice-messaging
system was the common telephone-answering machine. But now,
instead of talking to a simple tape recorder, people are
conversing with a computer at the end of the line. At the heart
of the new systems are special-purpose computer chips and
software that convert human speech into bits of digital code.
These digitized voices can then be stored on magnetic disks and
retrieved in a flash, just like any other piece of computer
data.

    The simplest systems do just what the old answering
machines do: pick up the phone, play a prerecorded greeting and
record whatever the caller has to say. Some add technological
bells and whistles, like push-button controls that let their
owners save messages or dispatch replies -- to one person or to
hundreds of people. Other systems are set up to dispense
information, offering callers a menu of choices and playing the
messages they select. The most powerful machines combine
voice-message units with huge computer files, which enable
callers to use their telephones to navigate through long lists
of stock quotes or catalog items. Some units even allow a caller
to order merchandise and charge it to a credit card, without
ever speaking to a human.

    Enthusiasts insist that the systems not only improve
productivity but actually enhance human interactions by
eliminating wasted calls and unproductive rounds of "telephone
tag." Conventional office phone calls are surprisingly
inefficient, according to studies performed by Travelers before
the Hartford-based insurance company switched to voice mail.
Gus Bender, a vice president for data processing, reports that
three out of four calls do not reach the desired party or yield
the information needed, and that when written messages are
taken, nine out of ten contain at least one error. Now, using
an extensive voice-mail system, 12,000 field and office workers
cut through the chitchat, communicating cleanly and efficiently
through digitally stored messages, some 31,000 a day. Says
Bender: "It's the most important piece of office automation
we've installed since the paper copier."

    Voice-message systems seem to be everywhere, dispensing
everything from medical services ("If you have a medical
emergency, press 1") to dial-a-porn ("Press 4 for something
kinky"). Curtis Hatcher of Greenwood, Fla., uses his voice-mail
system to run a hot line for peanut farmers. In St. Petersburg,
the Pinellas County sheriff's department uses one to communicate
with informants. The new telephone companies have spawned a
whole genre of for-profit voice-mail services like Touch-Tone
Baseball, a popular game that allows callers to answer trivia
questions like "How many bases did Ty Cobb steal in his rookie
year?" (Answer: two.)

    Not everyone is enamored of voice mail, however. Households
with rotary phones, for example, cannot use the systems without
upgrading to Touch-Tone and paying a monthly surcharge. Many
people complain that the stored messages tend to be long-winded
and awkwardly organized, forcing callers to field long series
of multipart questions just to get a simple answer. Others find
that the calls they place to automated message systems are less
likely to be returned than messages left with human secretaries.

    And because these devices are basically complex computer
systems, they invite the kinds of problems that have become
endemic to the electronic age. For example, there are voice-mail
hackers who use personal computers to infiltrate commercial
message systems. In one case, interlopers succeeded in replacing
a Chicago-area company's greeting message with off-color
wisecracks. And anyone who has ever wrestled with a modern
office phone can sympathize with the California man who pressed
the wrong button and sent a private love message to the entire
department.