VoxCommando doesn't work at all on my system

[SteveB69]

Have recently got into XBMC & was investigating voice command when I came upon VC, so downloaded latest version from here yesterday, followed a you tube video on install & taking the advice of the video I first set up windows speech recognition & spent around 1 1/2 hrs training it. WSR works pretty well for me with around a 90% hit rate.

So when I ran VC for the first time I was majorly disapointed that it did barely anything.
In the history window it seems to say VC.NotRecognised

I say a command like Lauunch XBMC & in the window it will display launch x b m (launch) & nothing happens.
If I speak very slowly & clearly & say Launch XBMC is will display launch x b m c (70.7 something else hidden by the trial bar)
Nothing launches.
It did launch XBMC once, but when inside XBMC, browse movie, play tv show etc, absolutly nothing happens.

I have checked my ports in both programs & they match as do username.

MS Speech is closed whilst I'm running Vox, as said MS Speech works great but VC doesn't seem to understand any of my speech, also when VC is running can it not deal with windows commands such as maximise window, show desktop etc?

Appreciate any help, looks like good software I want to buy & get the best out of, Heeeeeeeeeelllllllppppppp please :-)

[jitterjames]

Hi SteveB69,

That is pretty strange sounding behaviour.  I can use VoxCommando on a profile with ZERO training.  1.5 hours is probably way more than you need, although I guess it depends on your accent and microphone.

- What version of XBMC are you using?

- Which youtube video did you use as a guide?

- What kind of microphone are you using?  Do you have more than one microphone installed on your system?

- Where are you from / What kind of accent do you have?  (e.g. American, Canadian, British, Australian, Indian, or other.)

You do need to use the correct commands, and you can see what they are by pressing "help" and then "generate help menu"

also when VC is running can it not deal with windows commands such as maximise window, show desktop etc?

No VoxCommando does not use the standard WSR voice commands, although you can recreate many of the same commands if you want to.

[SteveB69]

- What version of XBMC are you using?
Frodo

- Which youtube video did you use as a guide?
Er, not sure now

- What kind of microphone are you using?  Do you have more than one microphone installed on your system?
HTC One X via WO Mic Client 2.3

- Where are you from / What kind of accent do you have?  (e.g. American, Canadian, British, Australian, Indian, or other.)
British, southern english accent.

You do need to use the correct commands, and you can see what they are by pressing "help" and then "generate help menu"
I tried a few of the basic commands just to see & nothing

As said all is working fine in MS Speech
Example, just said Don't listen, the text displayed in orange with (72.6 - too low)
So it would appear that for some reason the mic quality suffers, unfortunately I don't have another mic to test on but anyway if working with MS Speech why not this?

[SteveB69]

Nope, no luck at all.

I just got it to browse movies & to play iron man, but that was it, it wouldn't stop it, pause it, wouldn't browse tv shows?
Erggghh, I know this is great software so why won't it darn well work.

Win 7 by the way 

[jitterjames]

OK, don't worry.  I'm pretty sure we will be able to get it sorted out.  If the obvious stuff doesn't pan out, I'd be happy to use teamviewer to give you direct support.

The first thing to try, if you haven't already, is to set the speech engine to use British.  Go to "options" and then on the default "General" tab set the pull down for "speech language" to en-GB.  See the attached image for clarification.

[jitterjames]

- What version of XBMC are you using?
Frodo

- Which youtube video did you use as a guide?
Er, not sure now

Well, it is important that you follow the setup guide for Frodo, and not the one for Eden, because they are quite different.

As said all is working fine in MS Speech
Example, just said Don't listen, the text displayed in orange with (72.6 - too low)
So it would appear that for some reason the mic quality suffers, unfortunately I don't have another mic to test on but anyway if working with MS Speech why not this?

If, after changing to the GB (british) engine, you still find that VC is getting the correct commands, but is deciding that the confidence is too low, you can adjust the threshold for this in the options.  Options >> General >> Required Confidence.

[jitterjames]

- What kind of microphone are you using?  Do you have more than one microphone installed on your system?
HTC One X via WO Mic Client 2.3

I'm not too familiar with WoMic but the good news is that if you have an Android you can use VoxWav.  I don't think we should get into that yet though, until the other issues are sorted out.

[SteveB69]

>>>Well, it is important that you follow the setup guide for Frodo, and not the one for Eden, because they are quite different.
Yes I did see there were different installs & def did the Frodo install.

I switched to en-gb, yes it was configured to us.

XBMC just launched via voice, & it is now picking up some more words so that has certainly made a difference  

Now XBMC keeps crashing, so I guess a reboot is called for. I'll no doubt be back tomorrow or so.

As far as the trial goes on the software, is it 25 action ed phrases before it trials out or just any 25 sounds picked up?

Thanks for your help & the offer to TV. I've just dl Vox Wav & will have a read & play of that later also.

[jitterjames]

I think it is 25 recognized commands, but I'm not 100% sure without looking at the code.

[Mark Norville]

Steve I am from the South West so a West Country accent. I think that the Canuck has taken his revenge out on everyone as he is not American nor British

Seriously though all Canuck jokes aside, I installed this program a few days ago, and my result's was better than yours by the sounds of it.

I am still on a trial version and I have been looking for other programs such as this, and dare I say it to pirate the software.

I went to a lot of review sites, and googled home automation, came across open source programs, downloaded and I could not even run the program.

My microphone is a £1.00 mic from Poundland which is sat on the floor rather than on my head, it is a boom mic kind of thing.

This software works 90% perfect for me and is getting better every time I use it.

I have not used it for home automation so I cannot say the results on that, but for XBMC or to launch other programs such as I have got HyperSpin which loads when I say emulator, HyperSpin, Retro, Shall We Play A Game.

I am semi technical, but my brain is dead now due to age, but I find that Voxcommando is inside my old skool programmer language.

Technically I could afford to buy this today, but I have other bills at the moment and stuff in cash converters that I need to get out. Otherwise I would pay the money for it.

Make sure that you have installed on XBMC and clicked the right tabs, make sure your mic is loud enough.

I will find the other option that you need which if you reduce the word match then it works better. I have had a couple of beers but this is still working excellent.

I shall do a video soon but as it has gone 4am too tired and drunk to do so now.

I have worked for some of the biggest companies in the UK for sales Summerfield's, Threshers, Spar etc etc and I was a top sales person.

My sales view was not to follow what I was told, but if I could not sell something to my Nan then I would not sell it.

My Nan god bless her soul would love this and I would not sell it to her, but I would give it to her for free. I would buy it for her.

This really is amazing.

This is my channel on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7gXF_EOTiQSJWIW3JTPfiw/videos I hope that that works, but I shall do a video which is a non tutorial, but shows that it does work.

Regards

Mark

[Mark Norville]

Hi Steve,

I done a very rough video which is here on YouTube

This was done live and on the fly, no special production effects or anything like that.

I am still new to VoxCommando but having a lot of fun playing with it.

Regards

Mark

[Kalle]

Hi Steve,

I done a very rough video which is here on YouTube

This was done live and on the fly, no special production effects or anything like that.

I am still new to VoxCommando but having a lot of fun playing with it.

Regards

Mark

Hi Mark, I've take a quick look on your video and I'm sure In your case VC works even better when you use the "prefix mode" in VC.
Go to the options menu to advanced tab and select prefix mode and as prefix type "joshua" - if VC is in standby you must say for each command "joshua" at first follow with the command. Example: "joshua, start xbmc" or "joshua, playartist bon jovi"
VoxCommando trigger only a command when it here the magic word and you can run VC always in standby mode.
If you want use joshua as prefix, you must delete the phrase from your "listen" command otherwise VC don't know it is a prefix or a command.

[Mark Norville]

Cheers Kalle,

One good thing about the trial, means I can use and abuse it as much as possible and learn from it before I purchase the full thing. I keep hoping to find something better than VoxCommando but I just cannot.

I have to wait till June now until I can afford to purchase as need to pay the rent and it is my birthday this month so I want money to go for a few drinks. Still overall I am very impressed with what I have seen so far, and have even been looking at home automation lights and stuff. So far like a kid in a sweet shop.

Regards

Mark