Messages

1

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

« on: November 15, 2010, 05:35:08 AM »

Nice review, I think it's a great product and if I didn't already have a universal remote, I would definately consider getting an Amulet. Unfortunately, I can't justify the price for just the mic functionality. I will definately keep an eye on the Amulet, hoping it might drop abit in price, and other products from them.

2

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

« on: November 11, 2010, 12:10:15 PM »

I have watched a few movies about the remote and it does look nice. Personally I think the custom UI they designed for MCE is really ugly.

I think it is too expensive for my taste, since I already have a universal remote. If you are looking for both (mic and uni remote), I do think that it is a very interesting product. I guess I'd rather use a 'pay-attention' button on my current remote and a good/affordable mic, it's not very different from the amulet idea, instead of tilting it, you can just press a button.

I hope they gave you that remote for free, for development purposes!

3

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

« on: November 11, 2010, 11:41:54 AM »

I have seen that remote before, incombination with a speech recognition for MCE, which looked really nice too. Never heard anything from it for a while though. Yea it is very expensive. Does their software suite only work with/for MCE?

4

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

« on: November 11, 2010, 10:53:18 AM »

Is it possible to have VC check for a higher rate of reliability of the prefix-word than the rest of the sentence? That would less likely cause VC to pick up a command.

5

What is a good microphone for speech recognition? / Re: what would you pay for the "perfect" microphone

« on: November 10, 2010, 08:36:05 PM »

I voted $100, the mic would have to be extremely good (almost impossibly good ) for me to spend more on it. If it would be PERFECT, meaning 100% noise cancelling with any kind of audio and a good range, I might spend more on it.

6

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

« on: November 09, 2010, 12:25:21 PM »

Heading home, will give you an update on this in a few hours

7

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

« on: November 09, 2010, 12:05:51 PM »

I do use eventghost for my remote. Is there a way to send a command from EG to VC?

8

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

« on: November 09, 2010, 05:07:59 AM »

Yea I'm Dutch...I find it weird hearing my own voice

I have been looking around in the settings for the webcam and I haven't found an option to turn on or off noise cancelling. Maybe it's in the sound config panel, I will check when I get back home. The music in the audio fragment does sound loud when you just listen to it, but the volume coming from my speakers was very loud for testing purposes (I wouldn't usually play music that loud) and the speakers were closer positioned to the mic than I was.

I have done some additional testing, monitoring how VC responds to the audio level. With my setup there is a big difference between playing music and watching movies or series. VC will respond to pretty much everything that is being said when playing a movie. However when playing music I have to set the volume to an uncomfortable level for VC to think it's hearing commands.

I guess I have to find a practical method that works for everything. Is there a chance that we could get VC to stop listening to commands while XBMC is playing a movie (unless it's paused)? I know I could add a 'stop listening' action to the VC command, but I rarely select a movie out of my head and usually just scroll through my movies.

9

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

« on: November 08, 2010, 05:17:08 PM »

Hmm setting the 'check for mic' options seems to do the trick. I have set it to 30sec. Sweet, time to order me one of these puppies

I have added a wma file, this is a recording of the input of the mic (after audio cancellation). During this audio fragment, the audio coming from my speakers is actually as loud or louder than my voice.

Like I said, this will not work when you are using digital out (for example when playing a movie), because the audio stream will not be processed and therefor the mic is unaware of it. You would still need something like an attention-button on your remote. Persoanlly I dont think that is a big problem, because while watching movies, I always have my remote nearby.

10

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

« on: November 08, 2010, 04:26:58 PM »

I have borrowed my brother's Microsoft Cinema WebCam with integrated mic. It was USB connected so it doesnt you my soundcard, but it was still able to cancel out the sound played by my on-board soundcard. It was really good at 'understanding' me eventho the music was playing relatively loud. Audio cancellation didnt work for the digital-out tho, so it doesnt work aswell when playing a movie.

The problem I had with the webcam was that it would turn itself off for no reason and it would only switch on again after restarting Vox.

I'm still searching for the right mic. But I would like the same, a room-mic that does audio cancellation. When I have figured out how to get the webcam running constantly, I will probably pic that one.

11

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

« on: November 08, 2010, 04:11:07 PM »

Thanks for adding Genre's to the GenXML feature!

I had to tweak the command a little tho, its disabled by default and it points to xbmcArtists.xml instead of xbmcGenres.xml. Also the command send to XBMC uses Artist instead of Genre in the query. I made these changes manually and its working perfectly!

I noticed that 'Show OSD' is twice in the list for simple XBMC commands.

12

XBMC (Old board see 'KODI' above) / Re: Better control of XBMC with 0.821

« on: October 13, 2010, 03:30:02 PM »

Haven't been on the forum recently.

Here are the command's I added and find useful myself.

13

XBMC (Old board see 'KODI' above) / Re: Better control of XBMC with 0.821

« on: October 07, 2010, 04:32:39 PM »

Some things I added and find very useful are:

- Toggle watched (execbuiltin(SendClick(14))). This enabled/disabled 'Hide watched' option, showing and hiding watched TV shows or movies. I use this alot.
- Scan new video (execbuiltin(XBMC.UpdateLibrary(video))). This scans all TV Show and Movie shares for new stuff. You can fine tune this to 'scan tv shows' or 'scan movies', but I haven't found the syntax for the <path> variable.
- Scan new music (execbuiltin(XBMC.UpdateLibrary(music))). This scans for new music.
- Party Mode (execbuiltin(PlayerControl(PartyMode(music)))). This simply starts music party mode.

I liked the 'Toggle subtitles' command you added, eventho I rarely use subtitles, it might come in handy.

I am still looking for a command to toggle from small windows to full screen, so you can get to your Windows desktop. The same function as the back-slash-key (\) on the keyboard.

I got a temporary mic and it's working really well. Its from the Microsoft LifeCam Cinema and it uses some kind of audio filter to cancel out audio playing by the PC. This works really well when I'm playing music, I can set the volume as loud as my voice and it still picks up what I say. Unfortunately, this doesnt work TV shows and movies because they all have digital audio, which is send straight through my receiver. I will probably use your idea, mapping a button on my remote to pause and pay attention, by using EG.

Right now I am running 0.821 and it seems to be having some stability issues. Sometimes it will hang for a while and sometimes it will stop listening to the Mic, I have to be honest, I am not sure if it is Mic related or related to VC.

Can I make a request? Can you add 'genre' to the GenXML feature, so we can work with that? I either play party-mode, an artist or a specific genre.

14

XBMC (Old board see 'KODI' above) / Re: Better control of XBMC with 0.821

« on: September 30, 2010, 07:43:16 AM »

Yes I am running Windows 7 on my Mac Mini. I love OSX and used to work with Plex (based on XBCM). But I use too many Windows-only applications that I kinda was forced to move to Windows/XBMC.

Regarding the song by artist script, I do have a big music collection. I don't really mind about load time or memory consumption, unless it's ALOT, will have to try. But performance is a little but of an issue.

When it comes to mic's, I would like to have a 'room' mic, not something you would have to wear. My new living room is almost finished and that's where my HTPC will be located (hidden), so I would like the same for the mic. Most of the time I use the remote anyway, but it's really nice to be able to name an artist or song, so I don't have to browse through my music collection.

I have a question, why do you use action(#) over for example PlayerControl(Stop) ? Is Action faster?

15

XBMC (Old board see 'KODI' above) / Re: Better control of XBMC with 0.821

« on: September 29, 2010, 08:03:28 PM »

Love the new features! That XML files makes it pretty clear how to use everything. I wonder if it is possible to get it to work with 'play song <song title> by <artist>'. I'm going to play with it tomorrow and see what I can get working with it.

Now I need a way to get a decent mic connected to my Mac Mini (which only has a Line-In).