VoxCommando - Speech recognition and command utility (control XBMC by voice commands)

scratch that - sorted . FYI for anyone wanting to do similar, just install Vox on your laptop, follow the guide by james here , remember to put the IP address of the pc running XBMC into the vox settings.

yazgar Wrote:Hi James, great project. Just wondering if it is possible to use the built in mic on my laptop sitting on the coffee table to send commands to vox / xbmc on my media center PC? I've set up HTTP in vox/xbmc on my HTPC but need a mic to test and since the laptop is always close i thought it might be a good option, at least until i buy one.
thanks
gaz

yes you can. make sure to set xbmc network settings to allow control from other computers. You'll have to use the actual ip address of the xbmc machine instead of 127.0.0.1 and as usual the port should be 8080 on both XMBC and VoxCommando.

Some of the default navigation commands in VoxCommando's xbmc configuration use keyboard emulation (on the local machine only) and those won't work but it can be easily remedied by replacing them with other commands. Let me know if you get it set up and working and I'll help you fix those commands.

Doh. I was a couple seconds too slow!

One thing to note. With built-in laptop mics it is the luck of the draw. Many of the ones I have tested get rather poor results, but a few are fine, so it's worth a try. Just remember that if Vox is having trouble understanding you it is probably the mic.

Hey everyone,

I just happened to stumble upon Vox Commando the other day and installed the trial. I've had some up and downs with it so far, but am planning to purchase it once I get home from work today..

I was going to test it out with my Astro A-40 gaming headset for a while until i can find a decent microphone or afford the Amulet Remote.

I just have a couple of questions....

Is the offer for the coupon still in effect? Id love to save a few bucks if i could.

Ive seen some demos on YouTube and read online that users have changed the voice... Is this possible? does the program talk back to you at all?

I'd like to be able to tell the computer to go to sleep and wake up and things like that...

and lastly (for now) would i be able to name the computer? i.e. Sara or something and say "good morning Sara, whats the weather like today?" kind of like a Siri application for the iPhone??


Thanks for the answers in advance and I'm sure ill be bugging you guys until i get this all set-up..

Thanks Again!!

-Joe

DeniedByFleury Wrote:I just have a couple of questions....

Is the offer for the coupon still in effect? Id love to save a few bucks if i could.

Ive seen some demos on YouTube and read online that users have changed the voice... Is this possible? does the program talk back to you at all?

I'd like to be able to tell the computer to go to sleep and wake up and things like that...

and lastly (for now) would i be able to name the computer? i.e. Sara or something and say "good morning Sara, whats the weather like today?" kind of like a Siri application for the iPhone??

Hi Joe. The answer to all your questions pretty much is YES. But that is the *short* answer

First off, yes; The coupon is still valid. Buy VC for $25, and save $40 on an amulet. Not a bad deal...

VoxCommando is actually a macro builder with a visual interface, an event system, plugins, and more. So you can create your own macros to do a ton of different things. You can completely customize what voice commands you use and what they do. When you first install it you will be presented with the option of using a default configuration such as "XBMC - English". From there you can add / modify /delete commands to your heart's content. It's a fairly complex program so the configuration involves a bit of a learning curve, but I've done my best to make it as easy as possible. I think anyone with a bit of a technical background will find it fairly intuitive (I hope).

So you can name your computer whatever you want. There is a prefix mode where it won't respond to commands unless you start by saying a certain key word and this could be set to "Sara" so you could say "Sara, go to sleep".

Yes it can put your computer to sleep, but obviously it can't wake your computer up...

On the other hand you can set your compter to wake up at a certain time using Windows task scheduler and generate an event in VoxCommando so that VoxCommando can wake you up in the morning, and even tell you if you have new mail (currently only for gmail), what the weather is like, turn on the lights, start your coffee maker etc. But all this takes a bit of work to set up. (and the correct equipment for the lights and coffee)

In short, I think it is a "fiddler's dream". but with the default configs you can get up and running with a lot of XBMC commands very quickly.

The best part is that the free demo is 100% functional so you can just go ahead and see what it's all about without paying anything. The only limitation is that you can only say 25 commands. After that you'll need to close and restart it. This allows you to fully evaluate every aspect of the program but hopefully is annoying enough that if you like the software and want to use it you'll be motivated to pay for it.

As for different voices (as in TTS - text to speech - voices) you can use any voices that are installed on your system and switch between them with a simple command, but VoxCommando itself does not come with any voices. Windows usually comes with only Microsoft Anna. You will need to get your own voices from another source, such as AT&T, Loquendo, Accapella, etc. Some of the better voices available can be quite expensive. Whatever voice you use, you can customize what it says and even set it to say different things at random. Here's an example of a command that responds to a command to pay attention:



On the left you can see how the command is triggered. This command is also triggered by an event, represented by the calendar icon (with the 9 on it). In this case the event is triggered when you lift the amulet remote.

You can say "Start listenting" or "Pay attention". If you want to change it you just edit that line.
On the right you can see the macro builder. The TTS speak command will choose randomly from phrases separated by the | symbol

Awesome!!

Thanks for the input and the hard work James!!

Can't wait to get home and try it now!!

How do i assign it a name??

Are u ever going to work on a cross platform program or is windows it? No lov for mac and linux?

rflores2323 Wrote:Are u ever going to work on a cross platform program or is windows it? No lov for mac and linux?

Nope, no love there, not likely to be ever, not by me. Though of course you can still run XBMC on whatever platform you choose and have VoxCommando talk to it from a windows machine.