From VoxCommando

This Page is being converted from Kalle's German Version, so it may be a bit wonky for the time being.

For now you are better off viewing the german page with automatic translation here: optionen

back to How to use VoxCommando

VoxCommando offers many options that determine the way the program works, how commands are spoken, and also how VC interfaces with other software, such as XBMC.

Options are broken up into different tabs.

Contents 1 General 1.1 Sounds 1.2 Prefix 1.3 Other Options 1.3.1 Show OSD on command 1.3.2 Show OSD Alternates 1.3.3 Required Confidence 1.4 Automatic Standby 1.4.1 Idle timeout in seconds 1.5 TTS (text to speech ) 1.5.1 Voice 1.6 Language Settings 1.6.1 Speech Language 1.6.2 Display Language 1.7 Confirmation Command Phrases 1.7.1 Confirm 1.7.2 Cancel 1.7.3 Auto cancel after (sec) 2 Advanced 2.1 UDP broadcast 2.2 Directory Watcher 2.3 Time to Reinitialize microphone 2.4 Special Payload Files 3 WMC (Windows Media Center) 3.1 WMC Song Artist Grammar 3.2 WMC Pop Up Messages (OSD) 4 XBMC 4.1 Connection Settings 4.2 use XBMC built in OSD popup window 5 System 5.1 Partial Mute Level (0-100 ) 5.2 Check Program Focus Every (ms) 5.3 Windows Sound Settings 5.4 Windows Advanced Speech 6 E-mail 6.1 Gmail Settings 7 Events

General

Sounds

• On mode
  • This defines what sound is played when VoxCommando is activated.
• Standby mode
  • This defines what sound is played when VoxCommando goes into Stanby mode.
• Off mode
  • This defines what sound is played when VoxCommando goes into off mode.
• Cmd Executed
  • This defines what sound is played when VoxCommando has recognized a command and is about to execute it.

Prefix

When in standby mode, VoxCommando only reacts to certain commands such as "pay attention". If you enable prefix mode, you can issue any command while in standby by first saying the prefix. This will allow the command to execute, but VoxCommando will remain in standby mode. You can use multiple alternate prefixes by separating them with commas. Enabling, disabling, or changing the prefix will require a full rebuild of all commands. This should be done automatically when you save your options and may take some time depending on the size of your media library.

For example, if you enable prefix mode and set the prefix to "Jarvis", you could execute a command such as "who is this", by saying "Jarvis, who is this?"

• Use prefix mode
  • Use this checkbox to enable or disable prefix mode
• Prefix
  • This defines the text to that will be used as a prefix (or name). See above for an explanation. Multiple alternate prefixes can be used by separating them with commas. For example, if you want to be able to start your command by saying either "jarvis" or "computer" then you could fill in the prefix field with jarvis, computer
• Required PREFIX Confidence
  • VoxCommando must be confident that it understood you correctly before executing a command. Normally it is sufficient to define the confidence required for the command (see Other Options), however, you can further fine tune this by requiring a minimum confidence for the prefix as well as for the entire command. If you do not want to use this, set it to a very low number.

Other Options

Show OSD on command

• If checked a small text window will open whenever a command is recognized.

Show OSD Alternates

• If checked, when you say a command, a text window will open showing possible alternate commands (if any) in a numbered list. To execute an alternate say "Option 2", or "Option 3" etc.

Required Confidence

• When VoxCommando hears a command it will have an associated "confidence" based on how well it heard you and if there are similar commands that it is listening for. Confidence is shown on the popup OSD, in the command history window, and in the large text box on the main VoxCommando window. Numbers close to 100 indicate that VC is very confident that it heard you correctly. You may experiment with this number to execute your "good" commands, while ignoring other sounds. If you have an accent that VoxCommando has trouble understanding you may need to lower this number.
• When the confidence for a command is lower than the "Required Confidence" for a spoken command, a ? icon will appear in the history tab and the command will be ignored.
• When the confidence is higher than "Required Confidence" a megaphone icon will appear in the history tab and the command will be executed.

Automatic Standby

Idle timeout in seconds

• Enter a number here (in seconds) to have VoxCommando automatically switch to standby mode after a period of inactivity (no commands recognized). Set to 0 to disable this function.

TTS (text to speech )

Voice

• This is the default voice that will be used by VoxCommando for text to speech. This means VoxCommando speaks any text such as song name, album, time, etc. in the voice which is set here.
• By default windows only comes with one voice (Anna if your OS is Eglish). Good TTS voices are usually paid for. Do a web search and you may find some good free TTS voices. You can change the voice to another one via an action in your command.
• If you want your TTS to speak in a certain language you must use a voice designed for that specific language.

Language Settings

Speech Language

Select the language that will be used for speech recognition. We also refer to this as the language of the speech "engine".

• You can only select languages that are installed on your system that support speech recognition.
• The phrases defined in the command editor should match the language chosen here. The default configurations are currently only in English but other configurations can be found on the forum or by asking another user for their language specific configuration.
• Some versions of Windows (such as Windows Ultimate) will allow you to easily install new language packs using windows update. For most users it is recommended to select English because most media (song titles, artist names, and Movies and TV-show titles are in English. Even if you use English as the "speech engine", you can simulate other languages by spelling phrases phonetically.
• This is a complex topic that can be discussed in the forum if you are interested.

Also see the Languages wiki page for a more detailed discussion.

Display Language

Select the language that will be used for the VC interface (VoxCommando menus and buttons). For the time being, most items are only available in English. With the constant changes and updates to VoxCommando it was too difficult to update multiple languages. Hopefully more languages will be available soon, at least on key windows.

Confirmation Command Phrases

Any command can be set to require confirmation. For example, if you have a command to delete a file, or a command to shut down windows. To be safe, you may want to require confirmation so that the command is not triggered by accident. Commands can be set to require confirmation in the LCB (logical command builder). See the image at right. By default, most commands do not require confirmation.

Confirm

Specify the phrase(s) that you wish to speak to confirm a command (when required)

Cancel

Specify the phrase(s) that you wish to speak to cancel a command (if it was triggered by accident, or you changed your mind)

Auto cancel after (sec)

after a certain amount of time, if you do not confirm a command, VC will automatically cancel. Here you can set the amount of time before this happens.

Advanced

UDP broadcast

• Send port
  • Set the the port for sending events to EventGhost. EventGhost needs to have the Broadcaster plugin enabled and set to listen on this port

• Broadcast or Target IP radio button:
  • If Target IP is selected, then you must specify the IP address to send UDP messages to.
  • If Broadcast is selected, then the IP will be set to 255.255.255.255 which means that all machines or devices on the LAN will receive the message, provided that they are listening on the correct UDP port.

• Listen port
  • VoxCommando will listen for UDP messages on this port.
  • For more information see: Talking to VoxCommando

Directory Watcher

• Wav folder watcher
  • Default: leave blank
  • If a local folder (directory) is specified, VoxCommando will monitor this folder. Whenever a new .wav file is detected, VoxCommando will attempt to open the file and process the audio contained in the file, as speech. The file will be automatically deleted after processing is complete.
• Sox preprocessing
  • It is recommended to leave this at the default setting: unchecked.

In the following video a rather convoluted setup is using the .wav watcher folder to analize files. The ipod is running an app called "RecordPad" to upload the wav files to a local ftp server. WavWatcher is monitoring the folder that the ftpserver is saving the files to.

View video on youtube

It's cool that this is possible, but we don't recommend it as a permanent solution. If you have an Android, you are much better off using the VoxWav app.

Time to Reinitialize microphone

• Mic check status every (sec)
  • Is sometimes useful if your usb microphone disconnects itself. Set this to number of seconds between checks. If VoxCommando determines that it has lost connection with the microphone it will reinitialize. Set to 0 to disable. Recommended to leave off unless you determine that you need to use this feature to stay connected to your microphone.

Special Payload Files

• Word to use between Song Title and Artist Name for 2 part payloadXML files
  • Word that is used between the song name and artist name for two-piece payloadXML files, default is "by".
• " Any Artist "phrase
  • You can add a "phrase" for an "any artist."

WMC (Windows Media Center)

WMC Song Artist Grammar

• After selecting an artist can create VoxCommando for all titles from this artist, commands.
  • Create Song Grammar - Grammar created title
  • Recognize Partial Match - recognize partial matches

WMC Pop Up Messages (OSD)

• WMC does not allow other windows to the front, the OSD window is not normally visible. When using the options below, WMC in information window displays.
  • Show popup commands
  • Show popup for alternative commands

XBMC

Connection Settings

• This will set the settings for XBMC is self-explanatory. The important thing is that XBMC in the same settings are made, and they are consistent with XBMC.

use XBMC built in OSD popup window

• Determines whether the XBMC skin AeonMQ an OSD pop with recognized commands is displayed. The requirement is that the XBMC AeonMQ-skin is loaded.
• Here you can download the skin for XBMC, it contains functions for VoxCommando: AeonMQ-Skin

AeonMQ 2.8 Main Menu

AeonMQ 2.8 Settings

System

Partial Mute Level (0-100 )

• This sets the temporary reduction in volume percent of the current Wiedergabelaustärke.

Check Program Focus Every (ms)

• This is the time in milliseconds (1000 ms = 1 sec) that VoxCommando will wait before checking to see which program has focus. If VC determines that focus has changed to a new program an event will be generated and will appear in the history tab.

Windows Sound Settings

• Here the access to the playback and recording settings of Windows.

Windows Advanced Speech

These buttons will take you to windows configuration windows:

• You can set the default playback voice, speech and define profiles from Windows. It can also find the language profiles for different user training, which then can be changed via a command in VoxCommando. I will expand later, an even more accurate, but VoxCommando must be restarted in each case after a change in the language profile.

E-mail

Gmail Settings

If you wish to use commands to check for new email messages on your gmail account then you will need to enter your username and password here so that VoxCommando can access your account.

For your security values are encrypted using your main hard drive ID so if you move your settings to another computer (or accidentally send your options to another user) this information will not be readable.

• disclaimer: if for some reason your credentials are readable by others who have access to your options file we will not be held responsible.

Events

These define event "shortcuts" that you can trigger on the event menu of the main VoxCommando window.