Amulet Voice Remote

[Kalle]

Thanks for your reply James. Nice to see your prompt response, i am assured VoxCommando is one of the top noch softwares in the market today. You are true about external factors affecting the effectiveness of voice commands and microphones reception. I just want to be sure that whatever technology is present today I am able to take full benefit of it, am sure in the future there will be more add-on hardware's available in the market that will identify human sound and automatically reduce the sound of audio on the speakers.

I have spent a couple of hours going through this entire microphones section of the forum, including the wiki.. having understood my requirement.. i realize that an open mic, such as the array microphone will be best suited for my scenario. I did some research on the internet to see what people use with dragon speech recognition (as a lot of people use them for writing novels and all), i see multitudes of product, and one product does stand out is "Acoustic Magic Voice Tracker I Array Microphone". I dont see anyone has posted their experiences about this product with voxcommando, however i am planning to drop the ball on this, and if it does not turn out to be that good i can always return it and get something else.

The list of universities in here does say that the product is capable enough. Also many govt agencies use it too.

http://www.acousticmagic.com/university-list.html

Another quick question is, how hard is it to integrate VC with Vera 3 home automation controller. All the switches, and other components on my home network is based of Z-Wave.

Hi MANswer, if you test this voice tracker mic with VC, let us know how it works - we are curious about that.

To control your Vera3 with VoxCommando isn't hard - VoxCommando has a plugin for the Vera, we have tested it with VeraLite and it works perfekt.
Vera can send commands to VC and also VC to vera - we have realized some cool things with vera and VC (thanks again James   ) so I can say: You are here on the right place  

Kalle

[jitterjames]

Yes the voice tracker looks like a promising option, but we have not tried it yet because it is a bit expensive.  I think you will probably be able to get good results from it from 15 feet away, however, don't take the "magic" part of it too seriously.  You will probably still have problems if there are a lot of other sounds present in your room.

As Kalle says, Vera is supported.  Kalle and I both have a VeraLite running UI5.  It should work fine with Vera3 as well, if you are running UI5.  If you are running UI4 or earlier, it may still work but I'm not sure.

The Vera plugin for VC is still in development and will continue to improve.  Basic functions and events are there already, and more will be added.  It is possible that some functions on Vera won't be supported right away.  For example, I don't have any door locks to test with, so if they function much differently from other Z-Wave devices, then I'll need to work on it.

In terms of sending commands from VC to Vera, we can activate Scenes, Turn lights on / off, Set Dim level, etc.  We can also read the status of lights.  There is a Vera.Raw command which allows you to send any command to Vera, it is just a matter of figuring out the correct syntax.  In this way the plugin is essentially "unlimited" in terms of sending commands to Vera.

It is also possible (with a bit of LUA scripting) for Vera to send commands to VoxCommando.

For example, I have a Z-Wave remote control.  Button 5 is my "listen to music" button.  

- When I press button 5 on the remote it activates a scene on Vera.
- This scene, first sends a WOL command to wake up my computer which is running VoxCommando.
- Vera then waits 20 seconds for my computer to fully resume from sleep.  
- Vera then sends an event to voxCommando which triggers the command "Listen to Music".
- VoxCommando then does various things: turns my stereo on (using my Halx to send IR to the amp), launches MediaMonkey, sets my stereo to PLII - Music mode (using the Onkyo plugin), sets the volume to a moderate level, and finally asks MediaMonkey to play the playlist "mix".


Another example:

When I give VC the voice command "Go to Sleep"

- VC checks the time of day.
- If it is daytime, it just turns the TV and stereo and computer off.
- If it is night time (after 8:00pm) it first executes the "Sleep" scene on Vera, then turns the TV, stereo, and computer off.
- Since Vera is now running the Sleep scene, Vera turns the bedroom light on and then executes a number of actions over the next 15 minutes, gradually turning various other lights off so that I have time to get my teeth brushed and into bed, without having to turn any lights off, except the bedroom light, when which I turn off when I am ready.

[MANswers]

I have placed an order for voice tracker I, should be in my monday, i will definately post my feedback and will also do a youtube video demostrating the voice trackers capabilities and response, i am looking forward to doing a lot with voxcommando and eventghost.

All that you said above about automating your audio video using various plugins and evenghost isnkind of greek for me as i havent started using voxcommando and eventghost until now, waiting on the voice tracker mic. Gradually i will read through the forum and figure out how i can do all the magic as you stated above in your setup. Is this a good place on the forum to start reading about all these you mentioned above? Currently i use itach ip2sl and Ip2ir with irule.

I have a zwave kwikset doorlock, i will try my level best to test with voxcommando, i do some luup/lua coding aswell so i guess. Can custom do some work aswell

[jitterjames]

The forum contains a lot of information but it is not well organised so it is mostly helpful later on when you are looking for something specific.

To get started, look at the wiki:
http://voxcommando.com/mediawiki/index.php

To get started with customizing commands, you can also watch these tutorials:
http://voxcommando.com/forum/index.php?topic=1004.0

If you are using XBMC there is also a video tutorial on setting that up.

[MANswers]

My Voice Tracker I™ Array Microphone has arrived today, wanted to upload few pictures and initial impressions, although i am still in the process of configuring voxcommando and make even the basics work.. hence will take time to upload final details, although can i open a new thread with pictures and impressions, did not feel hijacking the amulet thread.

[jitterjames]

Yes please open a new thread under "What is a good microphone for speech..."

I'm looking forward to seeing/hearing more.

[Phobophile]

Ok, now that I've used Amulet Remote for some time, I can tell few things about it. So here's a little review.

First of all, the sound quality is really good. Recognition works ok, though my accent is the mix of Borat and supervillain Russian general who just stole a nuclear warhead and now threatens the world with it. When I tried some cheap multimedia microphones, the results weren't so good (more like not good at all).
As for universal remote properties, there are some problems.

The saddest thing is the battery charge. Even when I'm not using much of voice recognition, the charge holds for about 3 weeks. Maybe one of the reasons is too sensitive backlight which turns on when somebody walks by (couldn't find the way to turn it off completely). Discharged battery always comes as a surprise when you take your place in front of the TV with a glass of beer and then forced to run around the house looking for your old MCE Remote. The thing that is even more sad is that discharged Amulet Remote forgets all learned buttons.

By the way, I wasn't able to teach Amulet Remote controls of my Pioneer receiver - it learns something but these commands do not work. And there's nothing wrong with the receiver itself cause I'm able to learn and transmit these signals via USB-UIRT. The support of Amulet Remote didn't provide any answers to this. Something of a workaround is using Eventghost+USB-UIRT for receiver controls, only downside is that the volume can be changed only discrete (i.e. no fast change when holding the button - maybe someone has some advice on how to do this?).

So, as you see, its learning capabilities are totally useless. Don't count on it as a universal remote control. But still, I thinks it's the best solution for home voice automation at the moment.

[Kalle]

Nice to hear that you are happy with you amulet. A good chance to have a longer battery life is shut it complete off (for example over night) by press and hold the DVD menu and TV power button simultaneously for deep sleep. If you press the mediacenter button in the middle of the amulet it will awake. It is also possible to charge the amulet when the battery is no low (you can build your own cradle)

http://voxcommando.com/forum/index.php?topic=514.msg3934#msg3934

I hope this give you hint

[jitterjames]

Thanks for your review Phobophile.

I agree with everything you said, except for the part about the battery.  3 weeks is amazing, and it is very easy to charge the amulet.   I just plug mine into a mini-usb cable with a wall charger (as you would for your phone) about once a week overnight.  I think that most of the battery drain comes from the RF connection used to transmit audio data.  I doubt that the backlight being on now and then uses much battery power by comparison.

I think we all agree that as a learning IR remote, the Amulet sucks.  It is too bad, because they were not exactly breaking new ground in that respect and they probably could have used some very inexpensive existing technology that worked well.  I wonder what went wrong?

[Phobophile]

I think that most of the battery drain comes from the RF connection used to transmit audio data.  I doubt that the backlight being on now and then uses much battery power by comparison.

You're right, that's pretty unlikely. But I didn't use audio transmission during those 3 weeks (just to make an experiment). Something drains the charge anyway and it makes me miss simple MCE remote - you know, when you forget the remote has any batteries at all. Maybe that's not a big deal. After all, we've got used to charging our fancy cell phones everyday and that would also seem very strange in the times of Nokia 3110. 

A good chance to have a longer battery life is shut it complete off (for example over night) by press and hold the DVD menu and TV power button simultaneously for deep sleep. If you press the mediacenter button in the middle of the amulet it will awake. It is also possible to charge the amulet when the battery is no low (you can build your own cradle)

Wow, thanks for the info about sleep mode. But I think that some switch for turning audio transmission on and off also would be a great feature. I wouldn't whine about battery life then. 
Great cradle design, by the way!

[nime5ter]

After all, we've got used to charging our fancy cell phones everyday and that would also seem very strange in the times of Nokia 3110.  

No kidding. Or in James's case, charging fancy tablets and laptops every day -- but no cell phones! (Which confuses Google to no end. Those guys refuse to accept that we don't have a cell phone number.  )

Weird that your battery drained like that without audio use. We've had ours since 2010 (I think?) and haven't experienced that kind of battery problem. Not sure if James knows whether the hardware has changed much since that early batch of remotes.

[jitterjames]

I don't think I've ever left it for 3 weeks without charging it, so I have no idea how long the batteries would last if not using it. 
Even if you don't use it to actually speak though, I think that when it does light up it is also trying to establish an RF link with the USB dongle.  I imagine that putting it somewhere where it won't get jiggled periodically will extend the life quite a bit.

BTW... I can't imagine going 3 weeks without using VC ! ! !   

Compared to a wireless headset for example, which will maybe offer you hours of use, unless you are manually turning it on and off all the time, I consider the 3 week charge of the Amulet a total non-issue.  If actually using it for voice intermittently every day the way we normally do, it probably lasts about a week, which is fine with me!

[jitterjames]

Also of note.  You can still use the Amulet while it is charging, for both IR and RF.

[Kalle]

I use my amulet not often and have the same problem - after 3 or 4 weeks the battery is empty    but if you shut it to deep sleep mode it will work after 2 month without charging. The tilt switch in the remote is a bit to sensitive that also drain the battery

[vulcanjedi]

I know I'm late to the game for the amulet but I am thinking about revisting this.
Do most VOX users get the OEM version?
Also is the code(s) that used to be available via partnership via VoxCommando still available?