Starting with VoxCommando ... in French !

[archizor]

I all !

I think , i'am one of the first frenchi, trying to play with that app to automate all my home-theater installation . I'am actually using a tactical solution on Ipod touch / ipad , Evenghost, usb-uirt, XBMC, Squeezebox, RF light command.

I Want now to use voice, it seems everything start here !

I'am actually using the app more or less without changing the native installer. I use GenXML i have all my collection in xbmc, and all command to evenghost work fine.
I've got a probleme with recognition . I try frech recognition ... Very bad when you speek english word. so before changing and adding all french i want to use it in english (not waf but it's test lab )

My problem is when i set in windows 7 english US. I have to speak those english word but with a french accent, i have to pronunce all word with french phonetic ...like "ignore me" = "inioreu meu"

So i don't know how to add french word and make the soft find my word but in french witch french phonetic or in english with english phonetic ... but not a mix !



Thx for the job, i've read the forum Totally, i support and i follow !

Archi ... first french fan ?

[jitterjames]

Hi Archi, welcome aboard.  I am very happy to have a French user.  Yes I think you are the first to join the forum, and maybe the first user as well.  I live in Quebec, so I speak a bit of French, though not as much as I am supposed to... 

I would think that running in French would be your best bet.  You can change all the phrases to use french words.  I guess you have tried that, so you are having problems with all the english names for Artist, Movies etc.?  Can you try to pronouce them in an English accent?  I haven't tried with payloads but with basic commands I find that I can do German or Portuguese commands when running on an english os and it works well.

Do you know how to edit the phrases in the command tree?  This is very easy to do.  You just click edit, and expand the tree for the group/command that you want to change.  Then you can edit the phrases shown under the command to use anything you want.  If you want to be able to say different things for the same command, you just enter multiple phrases separated by commas.  If you watch the first tutorial it might help:
http://voxcommando.com/forum/index.php?topic=45.msg150#msg150

It is out of date but the concept is the same.  Also this video has captions and you can tell youtube to translate them into any language if you want.

If you are going to run VC on an English OS then I think you have the right idea.  You have to spell things phonetically.  But why use "ignoreu meu" when you could write "mig no ray" or "nay coot paw" or something like that?  You can also lower the required confidence in the options if it looks like VC is getting the right command but not executing it.  The WAF is important always!  I would love to be able to claim that I not only have a French user, but a French Woman user!  That will be a milestone for sure.

If you are running VC on english, then go to the windows speech control panel and run the "train your computer to better understand you" a few times and it will help a lot with the accent I am sure.  Of course you also need a good microphone set up.

If you want to send me your command xml files and a video showing you using VC, then I might have some ideas on ways to improve your recognition rate.

[archizor]

Hi!

Thx for trying to help me.

Mi night was short, i play like a child with your App. I finnish by coming back in french with french recognition, i change every word in your command tree to french word, i import all my xbmc Playload en modify them to be perfect, i had command to control my hometheater trought evenghost and my usb-uirt, i now control a part of my HC ( i need to finish learning ircode to evenghost i was using another app it's quite long)

I don't understand what was the probleme but i train my computer 2 times in french recognition and now ....
It's Amazing !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! everything work fine, i got a nice USB logitech mic, i put the confidence to 60 , and i control it from everywhere on my sofa !

I have some adjustement to do in some playload command en EG command  i've add some command in evenghost to control xbmc like Next audio, Next sub, increase sub delay etc. i will add it to your soft.

I find it really really attractive, i got many idea, i will try to add as much command as i can to control all of my installation.
about it i ve a question :

If i add 50 / 100 command and 100, 200 word more in your app, do you think it will find quickly like now ?

I will try to add some TTS  answer to confirm action. actually it ANNa us TTS voice. Where can i change it ? i've got some French TTS for my GPS . Can i try it ? do you know where to find other TTS voice ?

Thank's a lot i will play during some week and feedback as much as i can !

A video demo when everything will work like a charm for my wife


i'm totally fan !

[Wanilton]

For use XBMC with voxcommando, you don´t need use the eventghost I have the impression that you understand that this is necessary, just to properly configure the vox and XBMC and done.

[jitterjames]

Wanilton is right (he is becoming the VC/XMBC expert around here).  You will still need EventGhost to control your home theater equipment and other software, but when you want to control XBMC it will be faster and offer more functions to send commands directly to XBMC.  As far as I know the XBMC plugins for EventGhost are not very powerful.

See this if you have not already: http://voxcommando.com/forum/index.php?topic=91.msg569#msg569

I would appreciate it if you could upload your voicecommands.xml and payloads when you are "finished" so that I can create a ready to use version for French users.

A demo video in French would be fantastic.  I look forward to it.

[archizor]

Ok i can do that for the voice command.

Thx for the passthrought option to XBMC.. i will try to use it. But i choose the most simple solution for me to have something functionnal using what i already have in production. My evenghost for xbmc is really tweaked, and my xbmc Too.

I 'am addict to image quality, so i use external player MPC-HC with ffdshow and many shadder to up my quality. i have a tweaked playercorefactory.xml, and in evenghost depending the movie i play (mkv , m2ts , AVCHD, DVD) etc. i don't use the same player in xbmc (Dsplayer, dvdplayer, mpc-hc,power dvd). I map all my eventghost XBMC player control (play, pause, fast forward, big skip ...etc.) with all the mpc, and dsplayer mapping key. eventghost test if a programme is in use, and do the function with the good player. (if my wife look an .avi the pause button of my iphone remote send to evenghost a xbmc pause. but if i look a .mkv HD, mpc-hc is in use and when i press pause, the evenghost send a MPC pause.) etc... Idem for activate /desactivate filter, in mpc or dsplayer, idem to use mpc subtitle or vobsub or xbmc.
So i just map the "voxcommando.EG.Pause" to the "touchIR.pause" command. which is the command my other software send to Evenghost. I just can use a tactical screen or a vocal word to do the same functiun on every player. ( the pause button switch on the light slowly ... when i project a movie). Evenghost do it very well
So i think i will not use the xbmc function except as a mediacenter library and software. Because se default player can't play with MPC-HC regarding to the image quality. And i don't want to rewrite all my macro in voxcommando but only activate them by a word.

I hope you follow me.

Give me one week to make a correct translation of your voxcommand.xml ( i translate for my vocabulary which is not exactly a good translation for all french people) and i send it to you. for the movie, when it will be perfect in some week

[jitterjames]

Sounds like you know what you are doing then.  EventGhost is great for its ability to do these types of things.  I personally use MediaPortal for all my video, but I am considering moving to XBMC because I can control it better.  If you want to be able to ask for music by using the name of the artist, or ask for a TV show, then you will find it very easy to do by asking xbmc directly.  You should still be able to control everything with eventGhost through your mapped remote keys and the logic of EventGhost.

You can also send commands directly to mediaMonkey, which I think is by far the best software available for music.  I still need to work on the GenXML commands for mediaMonkey but I have other things to do first.

If you have other TTS voices installed on your computer you can select the default voice to use in VC options page.

One place to get voices is here:

http://www.loquendo.com/en/demos/demo_tts.htm
or
http://www.acapela-group.com/text-to-speech-interactive-demo.html

I don't know if they are expensive or not.

[jitterjames]

If i add 50 / 100 command and 100, 200 word more in your app, do you think it will find quickly like now ?

It should not be a problem.  If you consider that I load 7000 song titles into my tree.

You will need to choose your language carefully to make sure that your phrases do not sound too similar to each other.  But you will see how it goes with testing.

You can have several versions of VC ready at once by simply copying your whole folder to another location.  This is also a great way to make a backup when testing out new configurations.

You can even run two configurations of VC at the same time, although I have yet to figure out a practical application for this.

[archizor]

Thx !

i use evenghost only for sending player command ! the reste is by vox directly telling "watch movie ..." is something totally crasy .

to do more, would you think it's possible to make a playload.xml file withTV show and epidose number. i don't test with tv show actually but i show on movie telling "TV show Chuck". i would like "Watch tv show dexter episode 1 saison 2 "

for example.

and i took some time for you

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=RAWVEQON

Your voicecommand totally french translated ! i let the english word and i put the french word after. i try to do the most exact translation when possible and adapte to french langage depending the action when nothing in our langage were corresponding.

Hope it will help

[jitterjames]

cool thanks.  In the future, please attach small files directly to your post.  Those free file sites a real PITA.

Just click "additional options" at the bottom right when posting.

Yes we can do a command like "play {TVSERIES} Season {1-10} Episode {1-30}" with 3 payloads.  We could use xbmc smart playlist.

Note that there is already a function for loading unwatched episodes which is what most people usually want.

[archizor]

Correction made !

See Voicecommand.xml il french attached

[jitterjames]

did you have some kind of french payloads as well, or were they only related to your media library?

[archizor]

Actually only my media librairy. so movie & tv show name in french. i don't think it's very usefull for you

But soon i think all my playload will be in french. as soon as i write a french playload i can share it if you want

[archizor]

cool thanks.  In the future, please attach small files directly to your post.  Those free file sites a real PITA.

Just click "additional options" at the bottom right when posting.

Yes we can do a command like "play {TVSERIES} Season {1-10} Episode {1-30}" with 3 payloads.  We could use xbmc smart playlist.

Note that there is already a function for loading unwatched episodes which is what most people usually want.

Excuse me if i don't find something but, i create my tvshow, movie, artist etc. with GENXML
I can't find how tu use de unwatched function in the command tab

i can't find where is the tvshow action set like "play movie" and the associate playload
i can't find where creating a playload automatically with episode name ..

i'm just unable to go into a tv show automatically

I 'm only able to use the Genxml.

I download your last version of voxcommando, is it normal that we can see your movie playload and your pc name etc... ?

Thx !

[jitterjames]

if you use the version: VoxCommandoXBMC 0_825 EN.zip from the post xbmc for dummies!
http://voxcommando.com/forum/index.php?topic=91.msg569#msg569

it will work.  There you can see how it is done.  There is also a tutorial on using xbmc smart playlists here:

I hope you can understand it.

To combine your other commands with the commands used here requires a better understanding of VoxCommando.   It is difficult to explain to a new user.  But you should know that you can right-click any group to export it.  An xml file with the same name as the group will be created in the .\export folder.  To import that xml file to a command tree, you just drag the xml file onto the tree in the Edit window.

For the smart playlists used in the example to work, you also need the files in the .\smarts directory.  they are in the file: VoxCommandoXBMC 0_825 EN.zip

[Native]

http://www.bytecool.com/voices.htm    May help with the tts part.

[jitterjames]

have you actually gotten any of those to work?  I tried the british, and it installed? but no new voice showed up. (no virus I hope)

the french and american were dead links.  that's all I tried...

[Native]

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itproinstall/thread/c7409091-087e-48f2-8178-bcd918799054   explains the problem and solution for win7 voices
I use Ivona Amy, think you can trial it free for thirty days, she's lovely

[archizor]

thx for the version i ve no problem with xml file i just have to understand how it work and take time.

for thre tts when you install it it work only on 32 bit if you are in 64 no fix yet but you can run the french 32 or other langage by using the the %systemroot%\syswow64\ path to the 32 bit control panel of voice recognition but no auto run on x64 actually. i will use an english voice .or script  to automatically run the x86 french voice . thx all . now movie time! i will see it tomorow ! bye

[jitterjames]

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itproinstall/thread/c7409091-087e-48f2-8178-bcd918799054   explains the problem and solution for win7 voices
I use Ivona Amy, think you can trial it free for thirty days, she's lovely

lol.  that reminds me of the name of a character.  Ivana Humpalot...  I think maybe she was in Austin Powers II.

edit: ya, there she is: http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0002421/

[archizor]

hi all, i'm back after hour of practice.

Everything work well !

I now control all my Home theater from my tv to my HTPC , my amplifier, my box, my light (Chacon). i write many french phrase, i test many time, i use all your fonction . i control every app with your app except when evenghost is needed ( control all my IR equipement).

Now i talk to my tv and it's totally WAF !

I'm a great fan, give me some time to make a movie, it's becoming crasy with this app at home !

I have a question, i would like to use the TTS answer for some order. but my computer is on my Amplifier, when i watch tv, i'am on another input on my amplifier so i can't heard the tts answer.

i would like to add 2 little speaker on my other stereo out (jack) do you think in another update it will be possible to by pass the windows default sound out. And use another out ONLY for the vox commando App ?

THX a lot for the job, i m starting to control my Home by voice, and i let it everytime active with prefixe (a complex prefixe ! :p) and it's great to talk to my pc "switch off the light" or " i go to bed" and see my tv , my ampli, my pc, my light, everything switch off and before listenning a TTS  "Good night mister".

I enter in the futur for 0$ !

Thx !

[jitterjames]

I don't know if it is possible to send TTS to an output other than the default audio output (I have looked around but I cannot find any information on how to do this in c#), but depending on your software, you can set the output for other software such as video or audio to something other than the default output.   I know that mediamonkey is able to do this, I don't know about other programs.

That way you could set your default audio to whatever you want VC to use and set your other software to use a different output.

I look forward to seeing your video.

[jitterjames]

the latest version is here: http://voxcommando.com/forum/index.php?topic=101.msg733#msg733

maybe you can use speak2wav and then use another program to play the wav on the desired output device.

[archizor]

Ok thx i will look this !

I make a first version of Full French tutorial on How to Eventghost + XMBC wih MPC in external player + Voxcommando+usb-uirt

in my french expert community of Homecinéma

www.homecinema-fr.com

I hope, and i'm sur it will give soon a great visibility to all french people who actually don't know your app.

http://www.homecinema-fr.com/forum/viewtopic.php?uid=106047&f=1325&t=29950367&start=0

I follow your version and i will upgrade mine everytime. I hope the movie will come here soon

[jitterjames]

excellent.   I will keep an eye on that forum.  I am only part way through your tutorial but it looks great.

The first think I notice that you might like to change is that you say we require windows 7.  I think that Vista is sufficient for all the software you are using.  Although I have not tested it recently, VoxCommando should run fine on Vista, and I think the other stuff (EG, XBMC etc) should as well.

If I create a french interface for VoxCommando will you send me corrections?

[archizor]

Ho yes no problem !!!
And i know but who use vista

[jitterjames]

There is a solution for setting the output speakers used with TTS.

See this post: http://voxcommando.com/forum/index.php?topic=323.msg1254#msg1254

Gaining better control of input (e.g. to use skype or other as audio input for VoxCommando) is also possible using VAC (virtual audio cable)

[jitterjames]

Hi Archizor.  I don't know if you are still around, but I am developing multilingual user interface for VoxCommando and I am looking for some help with translation.  Please contact me if you are interested in donating a bit of your time.  Thanks!

[mercodi]

Hello, I'm french also I'm a neewbie. I would like to thank you for your application which is so cool. I would also like to thank Archizor who gave me the opportunity to discover voxcommando.

I've got problems of recognition with my microhpone, but I don't think VC is in cause, I have to learn to windows to understand me.

In your opinion how long do we need to "teach" windows to have a good recognition (one day, one week, more) ?

If you wan't I may help you to translate what you want in french. I speak a little bit of english, my nephew who's french live in UK and I've got several friends or members of family who can help, even my son's teachers.

I think VC is fantastic and I talk about you and your soft where ever I go.

Prehaps you would like to translate something like voxcommands.xml or

If you want something I'm ok.

I apologise for my bad english learned at shool... 

[mercodi]

Excuse me for the "" I didn't knew that this kind of picture appears when you type three interrogation points. I don't post on forum very often. I don't want to hurt anyone.

[mercodi]

oups I forgot something. I also have several computers one who run with vista home edition, the others have Win 7 family edition 64.

If by example, you would like to translate with subtitles in french the two tutorials you post recently, I think I will be able to do this.

I searched to genreate subtitles english of what you say in these tutorials with google but I dind't manage to.

As you can see, it would be a real pleasure for me to help you.

 

[jitterjames]

Hi Mercodi,

Thank you very much for your offer to help.  That is wonderful.  I will send you a private message.  My first concern right now is the user interface but it could also be very helpful to translate the tutorials at some point.

[mercodi]

Hello,

I've just received your message, I will work on your files tonight at home, have a good day.