Voice Based Email Synopsis
Voice Based Email Synopsis
INTRODUCTION
1.1 EMAIL: We have seen that the inception of Internet has dramatically revolutionized
many fields. Internet has made life of people so easy that people today have access to any
information they want sitting at their home. One of the main fields that Internet has
revolutionized is communication. And talking about communication over Internet, the first
thing that comes in our mind is E-mail. E-mails are considered to be the most reliable way
of communication over Internet, for sending or receiving some important information.
Electronic Mail (e-mail) is one of most widely used services of Internet. Services provided
by E-mail system :
1. Composition –
The composition refer to process that creates messages and answers. For
composition any kind of text editor can be used.
2. Transfer –
Transfer means sending procedure of mail i.e. from the sender to recipient.
3. Reporting –
Reporting refers to confirmation for delivery of mail. It help user to check whether
their mail is delivered, lost or rejected.
4. Displaying –
It refers to present mail in form that is understand by the user.
5. Disposition –
This step concern with recipient that what will recipient do after receiving mail i.e
save mail, delete before reading or delete after reading.
This service allows an Internet user to send a message in formatted manner (mail) to the
other Internet user in any part of world. Message in mail not only contain text, but it also
contains images, audio and videos data. Email services are used in various sectors,
organizations, either personally, or among a large group of people. It provides an easy way
to communicate with individuals or groups by sending and receiving documents, images,
links, and other files. It also provides the flexibility of communicating with others on their
own schedule.
Large or small companies can use email services to many employees, customers. A
company can send emails to many employees at a time. It becomes a professional way to
communicate. A newsletters service is also used to send company advertisements,
promotions, and other subscribed content to use advertisements, promotions. The person
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who is sending mail is called sender and person who receives mail is called recipient. It is
just like postal mail service . But there is a special criteria for humans to access the Internet
and the criteria is you must be able to see. You must be thinking that what sort of criteria is
this, everyone with eyes can see. But there are also specially abled people in our society
who are not gifted with what you have. Yes there are some visually challenged people or
blind people who can not see things and thus can not see the computer screen or keyboard.
A survey shows that there are more than 250 million visually challenged people around the
globe. That is, around 250 million people are unaware of how to use Internet or E-mail. The
only way by which a visually impaired person can send an E-mail is, they have to dictate
the entire content of the mail to a third person( not visually challenged ) and then the third
person will compose the mail and send on the behalf of the visually impaired person , But
this is not a correct way to deal with this problem. It is very less likely that every time a
visually challenged person can find someone for help. Although for these reasons the
specially abled people are criticized by our society.So, for the betterment of society and
giving an equal status to such specially abled people we have come up with this project idea
which provides the user with ability to send mails using voice commands without the need
of keyboard or any other visual things.
2.IMPLEMENTATION
As the title suggests, the application will be a web-based application for visually impaired
persons using IVR- Interactive voice response, thus enabling everyone to control their mail
accounts using their voice only and to be able to read, send, and perform all the other useful
tasks. The system will prompt the user with voice commands to perform certain action and
the user will respond to the same. The main benefit of this system is that the use of
keyboard is completely eliminated, the user will have to respond through voice and mouse
click only.
Now you must be thinking that how will a blind person will see the correct position on the
screen for doing mouse clicks. But this system will perform actions based on the clicks only
that is left click or right click, it does not depend on the portion of the screen where the
cursor is placed before the click giving user the freedom to click blindly anywhere on the
screen.
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2.1 IVR (Interactive Voice Response): Interactive voice response, or IVR, is an automated
telephone system that combines pre-recorded messages or text-to-speech technology with a
dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) interface to engage callers, allowing them to provide and
access information without a live agent. If the IVR system cannot retrieve the information
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the caller is looking for, the programmed menu options can provide assistance in routing
callers to the appropriate representative for help. By integrating computer and telephony
technologies, IVR software can improve call flow and reduce wait times, leading higher
overall customer satisfaction.
Moviefone was one of the most famous and successful uses of IVR technology in the 1990s.
Since the internet wasn’t as accessible then as it is today, movie-goers would call in and
provide their zip code to get a list of available movie theaters near them with their respective
movies and show times. While Moviefone is a product of the past, its underlying technology
is still leveraged, primarily within call centers, to provide customer support and reduced call
volume for customer service representatives.Today, IVR software is also evolving. The
development of natural language processing technology expands the range of ways that
callers can now interact with computers on the phone. Instead of using a touch tone system,
more advanced IVR software enables callers to verbalize their needs on the phone. Then,
through speech recognition, IVR system can understand and respond to their inquiries in real-
time. IVR systems improve the customer experience by providing a self-service method for
customers to access the information that they need without the assistance of customer
support. It also reduces the call volume for contact centers, lowering wait times and
operational costs for businesses.
Interactive voice response phone system typically consists of the following components:
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From here, one of three types of IVR systems is typically constructed.
2.2 Tools Used : Apache HTTP Server, MySQL database and interpreters for scripts, PHP
for handling backend of web interface, HTML and CSS for creating Web based UI, Google
Speech-to-text and text-to-speech APIs.
2.2.1 Apache HTTP Server: It is a free and open-source web server that delivers web
content through the internet. It is commonly referred to as Apache and after development, it
quickly became the most popular HTTP client on the web.
2.2.2 My SQL database: MySQL is a relational database management system based on the
Structured Query Language, which is the popular language for accessing and managing the
records in the database. MySQL is open-source and free software under the GNU license. It
is supported by Oracle Company.
2.2.3 PHP for backend: PHP is an easy-to-use programming language which has gained
popularity in the last few decades. PHP is a platform for backend scripting. PHP scripts are
written to a server that interacts with the frontend or backend frameworks.
2.2.4 HTML and CSS: The Hyper Text Markup Language or HTML is the standard markup
language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It can be assisted by
technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). CSS is the language we use to style an
HTML document.It describes how HTML elements should be displayed.
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2.2.5 API: It is the acronym for Application Programming Interface, which is a software
intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other.
3. Design
The design of this project is divided into three phases as described below:
1. UI design: In this phase the UI or the user interface of the project is developed. That
is, the designing of the web pages which the user will use to interact.
2. Database design: The database is considered to be the main pillars of every project.
In our application, database is used to store user details such as name, age etc.
Database here is also used to keep information about the emails sent or received or
in draft. The complete proposed design of the database is shown in the ER-diagram
below. This ER-diagram shows all the tables with all fields and also relationship
between different tables.
3. System design: In this phase a complete flow diagram of the working system is
designed. This flow diagram will show the details of all the events like actions to be
performed for an event.
4. Diagrams
Below are some important diagrams which explains the working of the project.
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Fig1 ER diagram of proposed project
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Fig 2 Flow diagram of proposed project
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The above flow diagram explains the complete working of the project and the project can be
easily implemented using the above flow diagram and ER diagram. However, the project is
currently under development so we are providing details of few modules which are already
developed by us:
1. Login: This is the very first page and will ask user to enter login credentials. It will prompt
user with voice command to enter user name. After receiving user name it will prompt again
for password. After receiving all of the details from user, it will encrypt and check the
validity of the details entered by user. If valid, then user will be redirected to dashboard else
will be sent back to login page.
2. Dashboard: After successful login, user will be redirected to this page and this is the main
page from where user can perform all the activities like, compose a new mail, check inbox,
save to draft etc.
Below steps specifies the operation that will be executed based on a specific click of mouse
button. As the user is supposed to be blind, so it is allowed to click blindly anywhere on the
screen:
Common Rule:
3. Compose a Mail: This module is used to compose a new mail. Below are the steps
followed by this module to compose a new mail:
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2. Give Voice Data about the Recipient, and CC, BCC, the Subject and then the body
3. If satisfied with current input Left Click to go to next Stage
4. In next Stage your voice will be recognized, Left Click to proceed
5. In this stage your voice and input will be verified if any problem is found you are
redirected to that or Left Click to proceed to Send the Mail or Right Click to Double
Left Click to save as Draft
4. Inbox: This page will store all of the mails received by user. Below steps explains how to
access a mail from inbox:
5. Trash: This folder will store all of mails deleted by the user. Below steps provide detailed
explanation about this module:
6. Sent Mail: This folder will store all of the mails sent from the user. Below steps explains
the working of this module:
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5.Conclusion and Future Scope
5.1 Conclusion
IVR technology offers competitive advantages to businesses and advances their automation
efforts. Some key benefits include:
1. Efficient call routing: After obtaining relevant information from a given caller, IVR
solutions route calls to the appropriate call-center agent, reducing wait times and
increasing first contact resolutions.
2. Lower operational costs: IVR systems are incredibly cost-effective. They not only
reduce high call volumes for customer service representatives, but they can extend
access to information during off-peak hours of the day, such as nights, weekends,
and holidays.
3. Error Reduction: When deployed effectively, IVR systems can reduce errors within
the customer service process as it does not depend on a human customer service
representative to take notes and route incoming calls appropriately.
4. Increased security: Some IVR systems incorporate voice recognition technology to
verify the identity of an individual, adding an extra layer of security.
This project is proposed for the betterment of society. This project aims to help the
visually impaired people to be a part of growing digital India by using internet and also
aims to make life of such people quite easy. Also, the success of this project will also
encourage developers to build something more useful for visually impaired or illiterate
people, who also deserves an equal standard in society.
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