The Unseen Side of DTMF

What we can expect from the Pandora Box of DTMF in the coming future

By Namit Sharma

Abstract - A considerate discussion on the present market scenario of DTMF technology, and
focussing on the parameters that are impeding its growth, are the main highlights of this paper.
Also, this paper reviews and presents some avenues that can be looked upon as potential
segment for technological advancements.

Keywords: DTMF, Touch tone, Digitone, healthcare, traffic congestions, automated home.

.in
I. Introduction

ot
As the technology is taking giant leaps day by day, it is engaging us in the engineering marvels

sp
too, on the other hand. The gadgets which seem to be as tedious as rocket science to operate take
a few years, or rather say, a few months, for us to get acquainted with, like a toddlers play.
og
The best example for the above mentioned fact. - Mobile phones. These are getting as simpler as
bl

wearing a watch. But revisiting the time when we had huge boxes called cellular handsets leaves
us gasping, and wondering about the pace at which technology is booming.
y.
dd

Not going into much details of calculating its pace, we will be picking up our topic of interest, an
essential component of mobile technology DTMF, and begin our journey through this paper.
bu

This technology, has essentially, been a key factor, in carrying forward the legacy of the
telecommunication, across variety of devices.
e

Now lets get technical.

od

DTMF (Dual Tone Multi Frequency), also known as Touch Tone, is an outcome of pioneer
ec

research work held in the AT&T lab, for establishing telephone connections and calls. This
signalling was developed for telecommunications over Analog telephone lines. (1)
th

II. Revisiting the Past

Dual-tone multi-frequency, DTMF, signalling is used for telecommunication signalling over

Analog telephone lines in the voice-frequency band between telephone handsets and other
communications devices and the switching centre. The version of DTMF used for telephone tone
dialling is known by the trademarked term Touch-Tone (cancelled March 13, 1984), and is
standardized by ITU-T Recommendation Q.23. It is also known in the UK as MF4. Other multi-
frequency systems are used for signalling internal to the telephone network. (2)

DTMF tones were also used by cable television broadcasters to indicate the start and stop times
of local commercial insertion points during station breaks for the benefit of cable companies.
Until better out-of-band signalling equipment was developed in the 1990s, fast, unacknowledged,
and loud DTMF tone sequences could be heard during the commercial breaks of cable channels in
the United States and elsewhere. (3)
 III. What about pre DTMF era?

In the time preceding the development of DTMF, pulse (Dial Pulse or DP in the U.S.) or loop
disconnect (LD) signals were used to dial numbers, just like switching ON or OFF a light bulb.
Telephone exchanges were set to determine the dialled number. This had its own sets of cons,
like distortion, signal ruptures, lack of security of information and many more, that we need not
bother about in this era.

The DTMF dialling system traces its roots to a technique developed by Bell Labs in the 1940s
called MF (Multi-Frequency) which was deployed within the AT&T telephone network to direct
calls between switching facilities using in-band signalling. In the early 1960s, a derivative
technique was offered by AT&T through its Bell System telephone companies as a "modern" way
for network customers to place calls. In AT&Ts Compatibility Bulletin No. 105, AT&T described
the product as "a method for pushbutton signalling from customer stations using the voice
transmission path."

.in
The consumer product was marketed by AT&T under the registered trade name Touch-Tone.
Other vendors of compatible telephone equipment called this same system "Tone" dialling or

ot
"DTMF," or used their own registered trade names such as the "Digitone" of Northern Electric
(now known as Nortel Networks).

sp
DTMF is now very much familiar with the disciples of engineering. It is no longer a domain
og
specific technology, in other words, students from all the disciplines whether be it electronics,
computers or mechanical, possess the knowledge of this wonderful technology.
bl
y.

Belonging to technical background we can easily recall the graduation days, when DTMF was the
first most thing that used to come to our mind for developing summer projects. DTMF robots,
dd

DTMF cars, and many such things, grabbed our attention. All of these things used a simple
phenomenon of the dual tone signals generated by the keypad, and using the handset as a
bu

remote.
e
od

IV. Returning to Present

ec

But, is it all? Can DTMF be restricted to project works only? Why not bring it in our day to day
th

life?

This white paper aims at searching the answers to these questions that wobble in our minds and
at the same time, seeding the foundations of some potential future avenues, to be explored.

V. Lets Begin

Now having our mind imbibed with the pros of DTMF, lets set the direction of this paper wants
to take us into.

Okay. I like DTMF technology and I value the advantages it has over the primitive methods like
light signals or pulses. Now whats there in store for me?

For the answer to this question, lets do a quick market research. We might come across some
renowned players like Microsemi, Silicon labs, Cisco, Qualcomm, Midian Electronics, Intuitive
Circuits, Circuit Werkes, Kawa Science and Technology, Quectel, Shenzhen Electronics, and
many others. (4)(5)(6)

While searching for the products they offer under the scope of DTMF, one common pattern is
observed, most of these companies are building Receivers and Transmitters for DTMF, for a big
section of consumers students and telecommunication vendors, and few are moving towards
creating products directly for the day to day usage, by the end users, like caller Ids tracker. (6)

This quick analysis, in fact, gives way to a broader lane, for advancements in applying DTMF to
various other sections of commodities and services. Hence, in other words, the store still has a lot
to be explored in it.

What is it that has still restricted the inventors to accelerate the probing into this domain?

The answer is the cost factor, or in other words, the dependency of these signals on the carriers.
So far, DTMF has been used majorly with the help of telecommunication signals, be it GSM,
CDMA, or WCDMA. We can recall the long duration telephonic responses asked by the automatic

.in
answering machines of customer care.

ot
But now, mobile phones are almost everywhere with almost everyone, becoming as obvious as

sp
clothes to wear. og
So considering these users as a potential market, we can have some business plans revealed now.

i. Health care
bl
y.

As per the recent reports on adherence to the medicinal treatments, we realize that people who
get their health worse due to non adherence. (7) Research shows negligence or reluctance in
dd

following the prescriptions can be categorized into two types of non compliance - Primary non-
compliance and Secondary non-compliance. In primary non-compliance, the patient does not seek
bu

to have the medication dispensed. It can be further seen as Intentional non-compliance and
Unintentional non-compliance. While Secondary non-compliance occurs later in the treatment
pathway and has several sub-categories like early discontinuation (due to adverse effects and
e

lack of efficacy), irregular dosing, and overuse of medication

od

As per the reference of this research, we found that pharmaceuticals and medicinal vendors are
looking out for the solutions for improving adherence. (7) (8)
ec
th
Its time to market DTMF now. We know that the n number of patterns generated by the DTMF
keypad, can be used in x number of applications, and frankly saying, x will be always greater
than n. Keeping algebra aside, we can introduce DTMF in the pharmaceutical domain,
suggesting the vendor to use chips on the bottle necks of the medicine containers. Once the bottle
has been opened, a circuit, dedicated for triggering SMS will be completed, and using a valid
carrier provided by the available service providers, and SMS will be sent to the pre described
recipients. This might sound non-existing, but the techniques of triggering SMS from hardware
actuators and relays, are already in place. (9) Once the hardware has played its role, DTMF will
be brought into action and SMS will be sent. (10)

So the near ones and the dear ones will get to know if the person, who is supposed to take
medicine on time has taken it or not, or just for the matter of trust, the medicine bottle was
opened.

ii. Dealing with traffic jams and congestions

Traffic signals have been made automatic, but have they solved the purpose?

.in
Clearly not (11). Ask anybody commuting daily in the metropolitan city. Long waiting for the
signal to turn green, leads to hundreds of vehicles standing and raging in long queues. This cant

ot
be called a queue as nobody has time to show some courtesy, so we can call it a stampede of

sp
vehicles. og
On the other side, we can imagine a remote traffic controller, which can judge the real-time
density of the vehicles and alter the duration of the traffic signals. DTMF can be employed in
bl

this. Many students have already created working models of traffic controllers using DTMF. Now
its time to incorporate such ideas into the real life. Measuring the density, signals can be sent to
y.

the control room, and realizing the need the controller would be capable of changing the duration
dd

of signals.
bu

Also to avoid the chaos and hitting of vehicles with one another, the same controller can share
the information of the current situation and estimated time of red signal with the traffic, with
e

the help of speakers provided at the signals, or using LCD/LED displays.

od

iii. Moving back to the basics Current technology vs. older generation
ec

Aged people, who didnt find the high tech gadgets in their primes, find it difficult to get
accustomed to the modern mobile phones. Also with age comes weakness in senses. At this stage
th

one could not read or analyse the situation.

If the same gadgets like mobile phone for instance, can be equipped with easy to understand
pictures or symbols, instead of texts, the purpose can be solved.
We can encode DTMF tones with some symbolic tokens in the basic most handsets, so that even
an old person is able to send the reference of the things required to the concerned member, and
this technology has a potential market in the making(12).

iv. Can I remote access my phone? May be yes.

Consider this scenario.

You forgot your phone at home and need to make an urgent call at the number which is also
residing in your phone only. Will you spend so much of time and resources to back and fetch you
phone, or wouldnt it be better if you can access your phone, directly from the place you are
currently at?

You can take your friends mobile and remotely access your phone (13)(14). This feature has
already been availed in the market, but still a long way to go ahead. As customers havent got
what actually is desired. Lets have a brief introduction of what these apps and features provide
us.

.in
We can access our Android Smartphone or tablet remotely from our web browser, through secure

ot
remote access. We can send and receive SMS, edit contacts, manage files and data, track our

sp
Smartphones location or lock it remotely. og
v. Centralizing all the controls, is it possible?

Worried about your car at night- want to check its all the doors locked or not. Simple! Configure
bl

each door with different number of the keypad and send signal and receive positive or negative
y.

acknowledgment. Not only this but you may configure the central locking with your mobile to
lock or unlock. But all it takes, is realization of this technology. Looks simple, but not much work
dd

has been done on this, and hence this concept has remained as a concept only, illustrating the
benefits of embedded (15).
bu

Same applies to the working people to take care of their homes and children. From some close
e

resources, we also got to know that one the worlds most renowned company is working on a
od

dream project, which aims at connecting each and every item present in house, including the
entire house itself with a mobile, so that a working mother can access or restrict her household
ec

via her handset. It will be definitely a marvel of communication technology, but if one wants to
avoid the overhead expenses of the GUI and costlier apps, DTMF can be brought under
th

consideration. For now its just a fancy idea, we will see where it ends up.

VI. Taking colourful ideas from this white paper and colouring the world

So many minds are still hatching the ideas which will take give birth to new concepts, leading to
innovations, and enhancing the technology which seems to be the best till date. Reaching this
segment, now we can have a quick overlook on the challenges developers will be facing to realize
the concepts.

As most of us are aware that DTMF technology and embedded systems, can create wonders like
automated vehicles, voice controlled machineries and artilleries, bomb plantings, and other
activities, that otherwise might put human lives in danger. Still we see that our world is not
eager to take step in this direction. Lets have a view on this.
First of all, it involves its own R&D, and with that comes the finance. Since we are involving
communication at each level, infrastructure to realize it, as per current scenario, is quite heavy
on the pockets. Secondly, to execute secure tasks, we need to take of security concerns too, and
that might involve some overhead technology such as encryption, ciphering, secureIDs and other
way outs that might be accounted as tedious tasks from the developers point of view. Lastly, as
per the understanding we develop seeing the existing technology blooming, students or engineers
see lesser scope in this field, and those who see their potential scope, might not be able to sneak
through the narrow passage to this world, because though this industry is huge like other
industries, such as Civil, IT or Mechanical, on contrary its gates are quite small to pass through.

To conclude, this domain requires more encouragement and explorations, to uplift it, and
channelize it in a way of full-fledged running industry.

.in
ot
sp
og
bl
y.
dd
e bu
od
ec
th
 References

1 Schenker, L (1960), "Pushbutton Calling with a Two-Group Voice-Frequency Code", The

Bell system technical journal 39 (1): 235255, ISSN 0005-8580.
2 http://voipcloud.co.il/support/glossary.html
3 http://www.reference.com/browse/frequency
4 http://timing.zarlink.com/zarlink/hs/dtmfcrosspoint_DTMF.htm
5 http://www.microsemi.com/products/telephony/dtmf-receivers/mt8870d
6 http://kawatel.en.alibaba.com
7 http://www.epda.eu.com/en/parkinsons/life-with-parkinsons/part-3/optimising-how-
people-with-parkinsons-take-their-prescribed-medication/
8 http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs338/en/
9 http://www.csoft.co.uk/mobile_messenger/com_port_monitor.htm
10

.in
http://www.interpage.net/sub-enterprise-messaging.html
11 http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/intersection/redlight/

ot
12 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12504338
13 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.goupilapps.remoteaccessandroid&hl=e
n
sp
og
14 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bombil.agastya&hl=en
15 http://www.hbeonlabs.com/reports/DTMF%20based%20project/DTMF%20BASED%20DOOR
bl

%20LOCKING%20SYSTEM.pdf
y.
dd

Other Papers by the Author

bu

Open Source Software An Ocean of Opportunities for Electronics Design and Automation Developers,
in International Journal of Advances in Science and Technology-IJAST, (UK), Vol.1, No.3, Oct.2010, pp. 30-40,
e

ISSN: 2229-5216.
od

An Equal Opportunity Initiative for Every Domain The Open Source Software, in Canadian Journal on Data,
ec

Information and Knowledge Engineering (DIKE), Vol. 2, No. 1, January 2011, pp. 24-31.
th