Tasker - Non Root Device - Type Function

[Bryan Barbeau]

Hello Everyone, 

Let me start by describing what I am trying to do, and my limitations. 

At my Apartment Complex we have a gate with a phone box, that will call your phone number, when you enter *9 the door will unlock. 

What I am trying to do is create a task in Tasker to Auto Answer the call from that specific phone number, enter "*9", and then hang up. 

In Tasker I can currently Auto Answer the call and hang up, but due to not being rooted, I can not use the type function. 

Does anyone have experience in Tasker scripting that might be able to point me in the right direct for implementing a type function to enter "*9" without rooting?

Thanks! 

[Wes Stacey]

Is there anyway you can just call the number directly from your phone?

[Bryan Barbeau]

Don't believe so, as the box has no way of answering incoming calls. 

I might just be easier to root my device and do it all through taskers built in functions. 

[Brandon Horwath]

I can think of something that MIGHT work, in theory... if you were using a Sony device I believe.

You are trying to generate a DTMF signal during a call, not possible without root... from what I can determine.

However, if you could record this tone accurately (since it is the same defined dual tone multi-frequency generated every time), and if reproduced in a manner confirming to tone and pulse recognition by the receiving device (should be national standard), and if that were streamed through the call of the device (only possible with Sony, I believe)... then in theory that should work.

However, to my knowledge only Sony devices can send audio generated through a call, instead of just over it.

There is the SMALL chance the recognition equipment is antiquated enough where blasting this reproduced tone as a media file loud enough to be picked up by the microphone and sent over the call could result in desired action. But I would venture to guess that it is HIGHLY unlikely the equipment is over 40 years old. Otherwise, a Sony device would probably be the only device that MIGHT achieve this without root.

Manufacturers are weird about certain things like that.

[TomL]

You have voicemail on your phone?  What if your outgoing voicemail message was the sound of someone pressing "*" then "8" on the keypad?

Would that work?

Tom

[Bryan Barbeau]

Interesting, 

I have a Galaxy S4 unfortunately. But you're right if I could play a tone that mimics that of the tone for *9 it should accept it. They do something along those lines for Voice banking. I wonder if tasker has the option to send a wav file over a phone call. 

[Brandon Horwath]

TomL's suggestion would work best.

What you're thinking is what I was thinking. The option exists, only works on Sony.

[TomL]

http://www.dialabc.com/sound/generate/

That site will generate whatever sequence of keypad sounds you want and giev your an audio file.  That's the easy part.  

The hard part is testing whether your phone's microphone can actually pickup the sound of an audio file being played during a phone call.  Most phones do *not* support this.  I'd try this:

1. get a sound clip, any sound clip, play it using Tasker.  Write a Tasker task that will repeatedly play the clip again and again nonstop.

2. while it's playing, call into your phone using a second phone (landline?).  Answer the call on your phone, and listen on your second phone.  Hear the soundclip?

3. try switching to speakerphone on your primary phone, see if you hear the soundclip on your second phone.

Good luck.

Tom

[TomL]

Oh, one more thing to experiment with.  In Tasker's Play Audio File action, you can specify different audio channels to output the sound over: alarm, notifcation, media, system, etc.  Try out each of those option in turn.  It's possible that one of them would actually allow the microphone to pick up the audio during a call.

Tom

[S. Massy]

Hello,

On Tue, Aug 06, 2013 at 10:49:20AM -0700, TomL wrote:
> The hard part is testing whether your phone's microphone can actually
> pickup the sound of an audio file being played during a phone call. Most
> phones do *not* support this. I'd try this:
>
> 1. get a sound clip, any sound clip, play it using Tasker. Write a Tasker
> task that will repeatedly play the clip again and again nonstop.
> 2. while it's playing, call into your phone using a second phone
> (landline?). Answer the call on your phone, and listen on your second
> phone. Hear the soundclip?
> 3. try switching to speakerphone on your primary phone, see if you hear the
> soundclip on your second phone.

...and make sure echo/noise-cancellation is off.
Cheers,
S.M.
--
Sebastien Massy
Montreal, Canada
Website: http://www.wolfdream.ca
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