Author Topic: Microphone starts and stops responding at random (Read 13618 times)

thesystemera · « **on:** May 21, 2012, 09:35:13 PM »

Hey there... Sadly my first post is a bug report.. Don't worry though as I have some very cool natural language xmls that I wish to share with the community soon.. First thing first though... Must get this resolved..

Basically I'm using my iPhone as a microphone through a piece of software called Pocket Audio. It makes for a good mic and seeing I use my iPhone as the remote also, it makes sense.. It seems however that VC is having issues with this mic and is continuing to drop it out. I have the reinitialise mic function on to check every few seconds but this only helps the problem a little.

There will be periods where the mic runs just fine and then bang the software just decides not to play nice with it any more. I'm pretty sure it's the software and not the system as I can still see signal in my audio settings...

What logs are required and what other testing should I look in to.. This is the only thing holding me back right now...

Thanks.

Kalle · « **Reply #1 on:** May 22, 2012, 04:05:31 AM »

Quote from: thesystemera on May 21, 2012, 09:35:13 PM

Hey there... Sadly my first post is a bug report.. Don't worry though as I have some very cool natural language xmls that I wish to share with the community soon.. First thing first though... Must get this resolved..

Basically I'm using my iPhone as a microphone through a piece of software called Pocket Audio. It makes for a good mic and seeing I use my iPhone as the remote also, it makes sense.. It seems however that VC is having issues with this mic and is continuing to drop it out. I have the reinitialise mic function on to check every few seconds but this only helps the problem a little.

There will be periods where the mic runs just fine and then bang the software just decides not to play nice with it any more. I'm pretty sure it's the software and not the system as I can still see signal in my audio settings...

What logs are required and what other testing should I look in to.. This is the only thing holding me back right now...

Thanks.

Hi thesystemera and welcome in VC forum. We have test "audio pocket" too. Audio pocket is not the best solution, it work but have a big delay. You can use mobiola "Headset" for you iPhone/iPad/iTouch, this work much better. I use it with my iPad2 without any problems.
You find the app in appstore.

Kalle

jitterjames · « **Reply #2 on:** May 22, 2012, 04:48:05 AM »

What he said. Give mobiola a try.

If VC is not recognizing the mic after switching off then on, then there is a deeper problem. If the mic still seems to be working then the only thing that I can think of is that the default mic has changed to another device. Checking the mic status too often may cause more problems than it fixes, and it was designed to work with a USB mic that constantly sends audio, which pocket audio may not do. It could be saving bandwidth with a noise gate.

thesystemera · « **Reply #3 on:** May 23, 2012, 12:32:45 AM »

I have tried Mobiola headset, it was my first choice... The sound quality that I seem to get from Mobiola headset is terrible, it compresses it way down. I"m quite aware that this could be to do with poor wifi but have not found a solution to improving wifi issues and pocketaudio seems to get around this some how... It has a low, medium and high audio fidelity setting in which I can enforce 'high'. Mobiola does not give me this option.

I will keep on tweaking pocketaudio in the hope that I get somewhere.. Thanks

Kalle · « **Reply #4 on:** May 23, 2012, 01:26:43 AM »

Quote from: thesystemera on May 23, 2012, 12:32:45 AM

I have tried Mobiola headset, it was my first choice... The sound quality that I seem to get from Mobiola headset is terrible, it compresses it way down. I"m quite aware that this could be to do with poor wifi but have not found a solution to improving wifi issues and pocketaudio seems to get around this some how... It has a low, medium and high audio fidelity setting in which I can enforce 'high'. Mobiola does not give me this option.

I will keep on tweaking pocketaudio in the hope that I get somewhere.. Thanks

Becareful, "mobiola headset" has two different settings - one for voice and one for music! Set it to music for using with VC. In my first tests I had the same problem, after set it to music it work perfect.

I hope it helps
Kalle

thesystemera · « **Reply #5 on:** May 27, 2012, 03:53:14 AM »

Great... I will try that... Thanks...

thesystemera · « **Reply #6 on:** May 27, 2012, 04:25:51 AM »

OMG I have been spending weeks trying to work this out.. Probably about ten hours trying out different software and solutions. Mobiola headset was my first choice but this is mad... I can't believe I did not try this out earlier...

AAARRRGGGG!!!! But seriously thankyou so so much... It works great... Absolutely great... Thank you..

Kalle · « **Reply #7 on:** May 27, 2012, 05:53:26 AM »

Quote from: thesystemera on May 27, 2012, 04:25:51 AM

OMG I have been spending weeks trying to work this out.. Probably about ten hours trying out different software and solutions. Mobiola headset was my first choice but this is mad... I can't believe I did not try this out earlier...

AAARRRGGGG!!!! But seriously thankyou so so much... It works great... Absolutely great... Thank you..

Haha, we are all not perfect

Kalle

jitterjames · « **Reply #8 on:** May 27, 2012, 10:09:47 AM »

I must apologize. When I read your original comment about Mobiola I was going to suggest checking that the mode was set to music, but then I got side-tracked by something and I forgot to do it! Good thing we have Kalle here!

Kalle · « **Reply #9 on:** May 27, 2012, 11:27:23 AM »

Quote from: jitterjames on May 27, 2012, 10:09:47 AM

I must apologize. When I read your original comment about Mobiola I was going to suggest checking that the mode was set to music, but then I got side-tracked by something and I forgot to do it! Good thing we have Kalle here!

Quote

I have tried Mobiola headset, it was my first choice... The sound quality that I seem to get from Mobiola headset is terrible, it compresses it way down.

thesystemera · « **Reply #10 on:** May 27, 2012, 10:56:54 PM »

AARRGG... still having issues... I have to stick by my guns and presume it might have something to do with my modified XML...

What I have noticed is that the problem mostly happens when I'm relaunching or saving commands to the XML and am applying a reset. As I said though, some times it works great, it just seems to become confused and non responsive over time or at random intervals. But if I use a standard XBMC xml provided I do not loose the mic or get weird results.

I have the impression that the software might be spending too much time on my large XML and is getting distracted from mic operations??? I don't know but I don't have this issue when I revert to standard XML...

Any idea guys... I'm loving this software and I'm not giving up by a long shot...

thesystemera · « **Reply #11 on:** May 27, 2012, 11:49:46 PM »

Here is my XML exported... sorry could not locate the logfile...

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B-J2ut6NUpDTY2dzS2x5X21oRjQ

Kalle · « **Reply #12 on:** May 28, 2012, 04:52:52 AM »

Quote from: thesystemera on May 27, 2012, 10:56:54 PM

AARRGG... still having issues... I have to stick by my guns and presume it might have something to do with my modified XML...

What I have noticed is that the problem mostly happens when I'm relaunching or saving commands to the XML and am applying a reset. As I said though, some times it works great, it just seems to become confused and non responsive over time or at random intervals. But if I use a standard XBMC xml provided I do not loose the mic or get weird results.

I have the impression that the software might be spending too much time on my large XML and is getting distracted from mic operations??? I don't know but I don't have this issue when I revert to standard XML...

Any idea guys... I'm loving this software and I'm not giving up by a long shot...

Ok, if you mean your "voicecommands.xml" it is not big, my one has round about 400KB

I'm not really sure, I think your command phrases make the problems - you use for the most commands the same "optional" phrases (these are the italicized)
I know you would spend VC a bit more human touch, but this could be the problem. I think VC can not always differentiate which command you mean or sometimes you make a longer pause between the phrases and VC noticed as the end of you command phrase and can't find any command to trigger it.
It might be help if you play with "Phrase Processing" Parameters in "Options - Advanced tab"

Kalle

Kalle · « **Reply #13 on:** May 28, 2012, 06:42:48 AM »

Quote from: thesystemera on May 27, 2012, 11:49:46 PM

Here is my XML exported... sorry could not locate the logfile...

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B-J2ut6NUpDTY2dzS2x5X21oRjQ

You can find the logfile in VC mainfolder if you have set it at Optionsmenu "Enable Log"

By the way, I have played a bit with "human touch" and here my results:
You can use as the first phrase a "payloadDictation" as "toggle optional" (so you can say anything to VC) followed by a normal "phrases" to trigger your command.

Example: "payloadDictation" -> "play song" -> "XbmcPayloads\xbmcSongs.xml" ->"please" (the Italicized must set as "optional phrase")

to trigger the command you can say: blablabla... - play song "XYZ" - please or only: play song - "XYZ"

thesystemera · « **Reply #14 on:** May 28, 2012, 06:58:50 AM »

Thanks... That was by design... I was under the impressions that sub-phrases are not included in the potential variables. Also the system has no problem distinguishing between commands, the natural language works really well. It's just some times when I restart and rer-render my Grammer engine the system times out on the microphone. As I said it doesn't do this all the time.

I have addressed this idea of having more natural language integrated in a more efficient way in the forums, I hope this is addressed as it allows for remembering and acting on commands a whole lot more fluent not to mention I don't like being rude to my computer, and especially at front of my four year old daughter.. Please and thankyou are a prerequisites of living in this household LOL...

Thanks again...