Raspberry Pi Project Ideas: How I Built Call Mom Button | Hacker News Reader

Raspberry Pi Project Ideas: How I Built Call Mom Button

plivo.com

17 pointsdhfromkorea16 comments

I'm Andy, the author of the post and creator of the project. I'll watch for questions here or on the post.

It could setup a conference call, but that's a trickier API so I didn't use it.

- Andy Fundinger

I guess I was a little confused about what this actually does. This does not do any calling, right? It just issues a command to Plivo to call Mom's number and then, when she answers, call a second number (assuming this to be the house where this device is located). At that point the RasPi is totally out of picture as the conversation happens phone-to-phone (possibly getting Plivo out of the picture too?). So you've created an external one-touch speed dial. Is that accurate?

Side note: Is there something that prevents me from building this and putting in two numbers I am not associated with? Push button. Two random strangers get calls from each other. Hilarity ensues. That type of thing is kind of scary.

I haven't used Plivo, but IIRC, with Twilio, you had to verify you owned the number you used in the Caller ID field, either by buying a DID from them or by entering a confirmation code sent to that number via a call and/or SMS.

Hi chhl. With Plivo, you also need to get legitimate numbers to send SMS messages. (numbers purchased on Plivo or numbers ported to Plivo)

As you know, this is a preventive measure against spoofing; however there are some edge cases where allowing custom caller IDs might make sense. (e.g. when you want to have people you called get back to a certain number—custom phone line numbers at a large organization.)

That all makes sense. I assumed there would be some safe guards for that very reason.

True, I think that's fair concern.

Hi, you're correct that the RasPi functions as a quick dialer and is out of picture once the call is answered, as the original set-up doesn't have the ability to receive a call.

*this could be virtually any connected device; mobile, fixed phone or SIP phones. Also you could do a lot more fun stuff using conferencing or anything that's on our xml page: http://plivo.com/docs/xml/

You can use something like easy cron to schedule a call. Scheduling a call with a single http request example at

http://blog.kookoo.in/2013/09/scheduling-audio-conference-wi...

Yeah, that would work with a ping to Plivo and a dummy callback response too. Same trick as I used here.

the next step is probably adding an automated call mom button where it automatically connects to individuals. I think this would be awesome for conference calls etc...

Is this possible with Plivo/SMS' apis?

Hi Kumarski, as Andy (author of the post) mentioned earlier, you can connect two (or normally a lot more people) using our conference API and XML and you could use something like cron to schedule the conference call. (if you'd use Python?)

Hi, it's DH from Plivo. Happy to answer any questions regarding Plivo. :D

Is the thing I'm asking for possible. Will I ever be able to connect 2 individuals by creating an automated call with Plivo.

Problem: I hate having to call in some number to do a conference call with a pin code etc....

Is there any way I could get something to automatically connect two people at the same time using Plivo?

or a scheduled call

This is exactly what the Call Mom button does. Call one person and tell Plivo when the call connects to respond by making another call. The limit for that is two people however, more requires their conference call API.

I must have misread it. thanks for documenting everything.

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