RASP-IVR: a low cost interactive voice response system

Abstract

Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems have demonstrated that they provide an opportunity for a low-literate audience to express themselves and interact with information technology systems. However, to achieve such goals in a development setting requires a low-cost system that allows participation of multiple stakeholders in the design process. In this paper, we describe a low-cost IVR hardware system called RASP-IVR that runs on a Raspberry PI and a local GSM modem. RASP-IVR is an open source appropriate system engineered to nurture community driven solutions. We have open-sourced our system and are working with a Rwandan community based organization to test our system in the field.