Page 354 - Asterisk™: The Future of Telephony

Conference rooms
This little gem is going to end up being one of the killer functions of Asterisk. In the
Asterisk community, everyone finds themselves using conference rooms more and
more, for purposes such as these:
• Small companies need an easy way for business partners to get together for a chat.
• Sales teams have a meeting once per week where everyone can dial in from wherever
they are.
• Development teams designate a common place and time to update one another on
progress.

Home automation
Asterisk is still too much of an über-geek’s tool to be able to serve in the average home,
but with no more than average Linux and Asterisk skills, the following things become
plausible:
Monitoring the kids
Parents who want to check up on the babysitter (or the kids home alone) could
dial an extension context protected by a password. Once authenticated, a two-way
audio connection would be created to all the IP phones in the house, allowing Mom
and Dad to listen for trouble. Creepy? Yes. But an interesting concept nonetheless.
Locking down your phones
Going out for the night? Don’t want the babysitter tying up the phone? No problem!
A simple tweak to the dialplan, and the only calls that can be made are to 911, your
cell phone, and the pizza parlor. Any other call attempt will get the recording “We
are paying you to babysit our kids, not make personal calls.”
Pretty evil, huh?
Controlling the alarm system
You get a call while on vacation that your Mom wants to borrow some cooking
utensils. She forgot her key and is standing in front of the house shivering. Piece
of cake; a call to your Asterisk system, a quick digit string into the context you
created for the purpose, and your alarm system is instructed to disable the alarm
for 15 minutes. Mom better get her stuff and get out quick, though, or the cops’ll
be showing up!
Managing teenagers’ calls
How about allocating a specific phone-time limit to your teenagers? To use the
phone, they have to enter their access codes. They can earn extra minutes by doing
chores, scoring all As, dumping that annoying bum with the bad haircut—you get
the idea. Once they’ve used up their minutes... click... you get your phone back.
Incoming calls can be managed as well, via Caller ID. “Donny, this is Suzy’s father.
She is no longer interested in seeing you, as she has decided to raise her standards
a bit. Also, you should consider getting a haircut.”

326 | Chapter 15: Asterisk: The Future of Telephony