Hi all,
Wanted to know if something like this is achievable without pouring in unlimited amounts of resources. thanks.

Application:
A touchtone IVR spider for data extraction. Preferably on the LAMP platform.
Scenario:
Require to navigate an IVR to extract some information,
E.g. Say Train timings and booking tickets.

It may mean entering input, such as Date of Travel, Class of travel etc, English/spanish and so on at predetermined times.

We are assuming that the IVR is pretty much constant in terms of navigation. And we are not going to respond based on voice recognition. Rather on time delay mechanism. Meaning, I would know that the moment I dial in, after 3 seconds i need to press 1 for english, then after 4 seconds press 2 for train tickets and so on.

At the final step, when I reach the information I want, it will record that bit.

This if done programmatically (imagine 100 tickets to be booked the details of which are in a database), would save a lot of time.

I believe a DTMF digital card would need to be installed.
an application written by us would pass information to the DTMF card from the mysql SB which would pass ahead the required tones to the phone line.

Does any of this make any sense?
Is this something you guys have worked on?

What kind of hardware, etc are we looking at?

curious.

You'll need a plain old voice modem for the hardware. The software you'll need to write yourself.

Voice modems will send voice messages, perform DTMF decoding, and record responses for you.

Update: take a look at 1-800-555-TELL (TellMe).

what equipment would i need if the phone line is a digital line. i.e. Vonage.

You'd need a phone/fax adapter (listed on the Vonage products page). Then just plug in your modem to one of the phone jacks.

oh ok. i mistook vonage as a digital phone service. Actually it is an analog service for end users ( we use analog phones) which is converted to digital and then reconverted to analog.

So ok, i will use a plain fax modem. Now, Question is, what code/application to use to interact with the modem? our platform of choice is LAMP. Someone suggested Asterisk. I looked up asterisk, but thats a full blown app which I dont think i need for my implementation.
Do i need asterisk?

thanks!

oh ok. i mistook vonage as a digital phone service. Actually it is an analog service for end users ( we use analog phones) which is converted to digital and then reconverted to analog.

So ok, i will use a plain fax modem. Now, Question is, what code/application to use to interact with the modem? our platform of choice is LAMP. Someone suggested Asterisk. I looked up asterisk, but thats a full blown app which I dont think i need for my implementation.
Do i need asterisk?

thanks!

Not a Fax modem, a Voice modem - different feature set. The application you'll have to write or purchase. IVR systems tend to be customized for specific uses. There are commercial systems available (customized by the company selling them), but if you want to roll your own look at the instruction set for your voice modem.

the approach i am taking would be to look at the instruction set of the modem as you pointed you.
pass command line arguments (AT command?) to dial the number desired.
pass touch tones at the desired intervals.
final step would be to record the information when required.