When a Fax Machine Calls a Voice-to-Text Converter, Something Truly Magical Happens
No, it doesn't transport you Tron-style through the Internet... though we wish it would.
Twilio is a cloud communication company that, among other things, uses voice recognition software to transcribe the messages sent to you. When developer E.J. Brennan got a call on his Twilio number from a fax machine, the software did it’s thing, and the end result is equal parts creepy and weirdly heartwarming.
Brennan put the following on his Twitter:
A fax machine called my #twilio voice number, this is how @twilio transcribed it…. pic.twitter.com/RYh19Pg2pG
— E.J. Brennan (@EJ_Brennan) October 31, 2013
And here’s the text close-up (click to embiggen):
Turns out that dial-up noise that was once the bane of every internet-user’s existence from the early ’80s to about 2003? That was just the phone lines trying to say hello. The phone lines also have a lot of names, apparently — we see “Doug,” “Nick,” “Dan,” “Chuck,””Joe,” and even “your Dad,” for starters.
Let’s hope that before the year is out, someone uses this voicemail message as lyrics for a pop song. At the very least, somebody better put out a dramatic reading a la the Pod F. Tompkast. This is too good to just leave alone.
(via @ej_brennan on Twitter, image via Nathan Rein)
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