touch-tone dialing
Push-button phone input
Touch-tone dialing is a telephone system that uses distinct audio tones generated by pressing buttons on a keypad, with each digit producing a unique combination of frequencies.
It replaced rotary dialing, which used pulses created by a spinning dial, and became standard in the latter half of the 20th century.
The tones allow faster dialing and enable automated phone systems to recognize input, such as Press 1 for customer service.
keypad
Button array for input
press · pound · hash · star · asterisk · beep · menu · prompt · input · sequence
frequency
Rate of recurrence
- signalMessage-conveying cue
- telephonyDistant voice communication systems
- switchingChanging from one to another
pulse · circuit · exchange · transmission · analog · digital · modulation · telecom · protocol · network