Messages

1

What is a good microphone for speech recognition? / Re: Amulet Voice Remote

« on: November 15, 2010, 04:11:07 PM »

James, thanks for the review.
As allways, your video is very nice.   

This new remote is a very interesting idea.
Without your report I had not known that such a device exists.

2

What is a good microphone for speech recognition? / Re: Remove speaker output from Mic input?

« on: November 11, 2010, 01:20:04 PM »

If you can use something like the "Amulet Remote" then this is not an issue.  I will be doing a review and demo on this remote soon.  So far I am extremely impressed with it, but it is a bit expensive.  (I think it is $250 or $260 USD)

Sounds interesting, I'm looking forward to your video.

3

General Discussion / Re: How did you discover Vox Commando

« on: November 11, 2010, 11:14:30 AM »

I found out about voxcommando through the XBMC forums (xbmc.org), too.

I one post about a new XBMC-Skin (Aeon MQ 2), someone said he is controling XBMC by voice recognition.
I then saw a youtube-video with it and was really impressed.

So i headed over to the voxcommando-website to get more information on how it works, what are the system-requirements and whether it is free.
After that i watched  few more videos to get a better idea of the possibilities and here i am.   

4

General Discussion / Re: Flag Avatars

« on: November 11, 2010, 10:55:09 AM »

I would stay with my avatar  but maybe the "location" or "language"-value of the user-profile can be shown near the avatar, if the value ist no empty.
This should have almost the same effect.

Oh and where we're at it, i would be delighted to see everybody in the forum write in english, so everyone can benefit from everybodys information.
I am not english too, but i do my best and if I'm in trouble, there is still the google translator...   
I tried to translate portuguese posts with it, but it did not work very well.
Although I am a german, I think the german bulletin board is not a good solution, because the information is spread over too much boards and many vox-users can not understand them.
Isn't it great, that we can all agree on a language ?

Maybe someone already had the same thought...

5

What is a good microphone for speech recognition? / Re: TerraTec iQuader - boundary layer microphone

« on: November 08, 2010, 06:54:08 AM »

Here is a short feedback from my testing over the weekend:

The low-settings are the key to success, thanks Siutsch !

Or to answer my own questions:   

1. What value does your windows recording level for the TerraTec iQuader have ?

Under Win7x64 I have 10 atm.


2. What value does the recording level control dial on the TerraTec iQuader have ? (Please estimate...)

It's average, perhaps 3 cm to the right. The blue activity-LEDs are still off, even when there is a quiet humming from another pc.


3. Where is the microphone ? (Bottom, Desk, TV-Rack, Wall ?)

In front of me in about 70 cm disctance on a table. But it also works, if i stand in 4m distance near my TV.


4. Did you do some training to the buildin windows7 voice recognition before ?

I started to do so...


5. Some other clues ?

Meanwhile the recognition of words often pronounced is quiet well, especially longer phrases.
But when it is noisy or music is playing, there is no recognition at all.   
The advantage of the boundary layer microphone, to pick sound up even in a distance, is it's biggest disadvantage when it is noisy.

Another idea is to change the phrases in VoxCommando to my native tongue.   

6

I will post new features here (LEGACY BOARD ONLY) / Re: Version 0.84

« on: November 07, 2010, 06:05:56 PM »

Hi James,

thanks for the detailed description on the "override default language"-option.
It seems to be a very interesting option for people (like me), who do not have english as their windows language, but want to speak english in order to improve their speech recognition in VoxCommando with english phrases and english media.
It's very nice of you, that you address this issue.

If you have windows ultimate, you can download more language packs from windows update, but only certain languages include speech recognition.  With other versions of windows this may still be possible but I have no first hand experience with it.

.
You are right, if you have Windows 7 Ultimate, the language packs are shown under "optional updates".
If you have Windows 7 Home Premium, they are missing in Windows updates under "optional updates". Maybe you can download them separately from the Microsoft Homepage.

Currently the builtin windows speech recognition is available in the following languages:
English, French, Spanish, German, Japanese, Chinese (simplified), Chinese (Traditional).

Greetings, FLuX0r.

7

I will post new features here (LEGACY BOARD ONLY) / Re: Version 0.84

« on: November 07, 2010, 02:49:11 PM »

Please try the attached, unmodified, and let me know if it works.

I still need to go over the commands and make sure they all work, and maybe add some more, but I am concerned about the issue you are having because I don't know what it could be.

.
The "VoxCommandoXBMC 0_842 EN" works fine for me.  

I haven't testet all phrases, but it basically works.
The new popup-information is nice, when you hover over a checkbox. I would like to see this for other options too.

Maybe you can give a short description to the new options here in the forum, like for example the "override default language"-option.

Greetings, FLuX0r.

8

I will post new features here (LEGACY BOARD ONLY) / Re: Version 0.84

« on: November 06, 2010, 11:42:19 PM »

Hey Flux,

I have not found that to be the case here.  I just downloaded the "VoxCommandoXBMC 0_825 EN" file from the dummies post and unzipped to a fresh folder.  Then I extracted ALL the files from the new 0.842 zip into the same directory.  It runs fine.  Anyway, the only reason to get  the error "Error acessing the default audio imput device..." that I can think of, is from just that... an error accessing the audio device!  Please try again. ( I did not try with version 0821 since I am not exactly sure which post you mean... )

Hi James,

i did a test on two different systems with different intel-chipsets and different microphones (1x USB, 1x Mic-In) all on WIN7-x64 Home/Business Editions.

I did exactly what you've described to check it again.
I still get the same error if i do so, when i start VoxCommando:



If i klick "OK", the following "Unhandled Exception" is shown:



The details are as follows:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
See the end of this message for details on invoking
just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.

************** Exception Text **************
System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
   at VoxCommando.Main.InitializeSpeechRecognitionEngine()
   at VoxCommando.Main.timer1_Tick(Object sender, EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Timer.OnTick(EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Timer.TimerNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When i use the "VoxCommando0833MM" version as a basis for the new 0.842_v1, all is fine.    

Nice to hear, that you plan to release a new package for XBMC tomorrow with the new version !  So i will wait for that.

Greetings, FLuX0r.

9

I will post new features here (LEGACY BOARD ONLY) / Re: Version 0.84

« on: November 06, 2010, 04:45:12 PM »

James, thanks for the new version !   
I will try it.

Now i have to figure out, how to merge the new "VoxCommando0842 v1" with the XBMC-Edition "VoxCommandoXBMC 0_825 EN".
I'm not sure, what old files and/or folders are really needed.


Note for people, having the following error on start:

"Error accessing the default audio input device..."

To get it to work, it is important to use the "VoxCommando0833MM" version as a basis. (as James stated on Page 2.)

If you use "VoxCommando0821" or "VoxCommandoXBMC 0_825 EN" as a basis, it doesn't work.
When starting "VoxCommando.exe", you get the following error:

"Error acessing the default audio imput device..."

Maybe this is helpful somehow.

10

What is a good microphone for speech recognition? / Re: TerraTec iQuader - boundary layer microphone

« on: November 05, 2010, 01:20:36 PM »

Siutsch, thanks for the fast response.   

I will try your settings over the weekend.

11

What is a good microphone for speech recognition? / Re: TerraTec iQuader - boundary layer microphone

« on: November 05, 2010, 11:57:01 AM »

Wow, that was a really fast answer !  

1-5:
I'm not sure how the terratec connects to the pc (mic jack?)...

Sure you know...  
Unfortunately there are no such settings with usb, like noise cancelling.
But your tips are very helpful anyway, i will try it.

6-7:
Training will especially help if you have an "unusual" accent.

I am from germany but the phrases in VoxCommando are english, so i think for the windows speech engine my accent must be really "unusual".  
Changing all phrases to german would be a lot of work. I would only do so if it were absolutely necessary.
So i will train the windows speech engine and see, if i can get better results.

8:
I am planning on releasing the new version today.

Great News !
I read a lot of posts in the forum a few days ago and got a hint on that. In one post you statet "I'll be uploading a new version within the next week".
Nice to hear that everything goes as planned. I am hoping for some improved overall capabilities and for XBMC, for what I want to use voxcommando.

So i will continue my testing with the new version.

I look forward and hope, Siutsch is reading my post and can give me some more answers. Thanks.

12

What is a good microphone for speech recognition? / Re: TerraTec iQuader - boundary layer microphone

« on: November 05, 2010, 10:40:00 AM »

Hi everybody and thank you for this promising software, James !
Perhaps one of my longtime dreams will finally come true.

Round up of the good review, i have purchased a TerraTec iQuader on eBay.
I got a good offer, it cost me only 30 €.

It is connected via USB to my PC with Win7 x64.

I have some experimenting near and far and with different recording level, but unfortunately the voice recognition is still very poor.
Maybe it's a combination of settings that leads to a good result.


Siutsch seems to have good results, so I have some questions:

@Siutsch:

1. What value does your windows recording level for the TerraTec iQuader have ?

2. What value does the recording level control dial on the TerraTec iQuader have ? (I know, you can only estimate this.)

3. Where is the microphone ? (Bottom, Desk, TV-Rack, Wall ?)

4. Did you do some training to the buildin windows7 voice recognition before ?

5. Some other clues ?


@JitterJames

6. It plays a role for VoxCommando, whether the buildin windows7 voice recognition was trained before or not?
  
7. It uses these results or not ?

8. Off Topic: Is a new version of VoxCommando released this week still ?


It would be great if I could still achieve good results...