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Posted on Mon, Feb. 16, 2009

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Kansan's inventions play everyday roles

The Wichita Eagle

This is one in a series of vignettes celebrating Kansas history. The series' name comes from the state motto, Ad astra per aspera: "To the stars through difficulties."

BY BECCY TANNER

Next time you get that automated voice when you call the bank, make a plane reservation or even pay your monthly bills by phone, thank Ellis "Skip" Cave.

Anytime you go to the store and wait for the person in front of you to have their groceries scanned item by item, thank this Kansan that it doesn't take longer.

Cave, who grew up in Dodge City, is a scientist, inventor and holder of more than 30 patents -- from the technology leading to bar code scanners to the computers that answer your questions when you call a business.

His friends say that as a child, Cave was a geeky sci-fi enthusiast who almost always had his nose ina book.

People in Dodge City knew Cave "was a really smart kid and was going to be successful in something with science," said Mark Warshaw, whose backyard was connected to Cave's when they were growing up in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

In 1969, Cave received his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Kansas. Shortly after that, he moved to Dallas and began his career.

One of his first projects was an electrical chemical system that separated the silver iodide used in X-rays into silver.

"We developed a machine that would hook up to the developer box that would clean the filter, allowing hospitals to use the silver longer, but then once it was done, turn the silver mix into a bar of silver," Cave said.

Cave then turned his attention to studying sight and voice recognition equipment. Sears came to him, asking how it could keep stores' inventories without having clerks enter the price and product code all the time. He developed the technology used for bar code scanners.

That technology, known as optical character recognition, scans a document into a computer's memory instead of typing it.

During the early 1980s, another company approached Cave wanting to know if he could build a phone machine allowing operators to call several lines at once and deliver recorded messages.

His machine not only dialed, it spoke with Zsa Zsa Gabor or Arthur Godfrey's voices to whoever answered the phone.

"We rigged it so we could tell if the phone was ringing or if we'd gotten an answering machine," Cave said. "That was the first automated junk phone call."

Cave, now 63, is the chief scientist at Intervoice Inc., which builds interactive voice response systems for businesses. An IVF system is a computer that answers the phone when you call a business, and then answers your questions.

E-Trade, Travelocity and Chase Bank are some of the corporations that use Cave's automated systems.

Reach Beccy Tanner at 316-268-6336 or btanner@wichitaeagle.com.