Abstract: A portable, self-contained device for monitoring an area and reporting conditions automatically over standard telephone lines is disclosed. The device communicates through a modem in digital code with digital terminals or in synthetic speech when a digital terminal is not used.

Abstract: A portable, self-contained device for monitoring a selected local area for occurrence of any one of a plurality of preselected conditions, which device comprises a connector, connecting the device to local, standard telephone lines, a sound synthesizer containing selected sound, words and/or phrases at memory addressable locations capable of outputting a sound signal of message indicative of a selected combination of sounds, words and/or phrases, a successive dialing system for dialing successively a repeatable series of preselected telephone numbers in response to an occurrence of one of the monitored conditions, responsive answering to any one of the series of telephone numbers reached by the dialing system to cause the sound synthesizer to place a sound voice message on the telephone lines and dialing termination of the successive dialing system whereby the termination is responsive to a call back to the device.