First of all, I cannot say enough about how awesome this program is. I was already using Eventghost to control my home theater, but now with voice commands, it is just amazing. I purchased a MXL AC404 mic, which so far I am happy with. Of course, I am running into the same issue that everyone expects with an open air microphone. With my system on at any decent volume, the microphone has a hard time hearing my commands over the TV. I am trying to achieve a completely handsfree experience, which is why I did not want to go with the amulet remote. I had the idea that I could have vox commando lower the volume of my sound receiver after it hears my prefix (manually programmed prefix, I am not using prefix mode). This way, it only needs to recognize the prefix command with the higher volume, and the following commands will be much easier to understand with the volume low. I can control my receiver with RS232 through Eventghost (and I am assuming this can be done through vox commando as well) and send a command to set a specific volume level. My receiver also supports providing the status of the volume through RS232. So here's what I am hoping.....
I would like to have vox commando hear my prefix command (which is temporarily "vox commando", open for suggestions), receive that status of the current volume level of the receiver through RS232, remember that volume level, set my receiver to a specific low volume (example -50db), wait for an accepted command, then set the receiver volume back to the remembered volume level
Example:
"vox commando"
-receive status of volume, ex. -25db
-set volume to -50db
"play xbox"
-xbox macro sent
-set volume back to -25db
The idea is vox commando will lower the volume to listen for the command, then return the volume to where it was.
My receiver is a Pioneer Elite VSX23TXH
request volume status RS232 code : ?V<CR>
set volume to -50db RS232 code : 061VL<CR>
set volume to -25db RS232 code : 111VL<CR>
The fun part for me will be inputing the RS232 code for every volume level, since there is no telling where the volume will be set at before I attempt to send a command
I really hope someone can point me in the right direction. I really think this will work out well and be a good approach for those of us wanting to use open air microphones. Thanks