INTERACT FORUM

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  
Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Introducing Voice Control (Speech Recognition) for JRiver MediaCenter on Windows  (Read 27229 times)

jitterjames

  • Recent member
  • *
  • Posts: 17

VoxCommando is a voice command utility for Windows Vista or later. It interfaces with various programs and devices to allow voice control of multimedia, communication, and home automation.

As of VC version 1.183 we are offering a standard JRiver configuration for VoxCommando with pre-set voice commands, which allows extensive control and interaction with JRiver.

This configuration has been tested with Media Center version 19, but should work with MC 16 and up (I think).

What does it allow you to do?

Basic playback control such as play, pause, stop, next track, last track, set volume
Ask for any artist, song, album, or genre by name or partial name by saying things like "Play songs by Peter Tosh".
Queue custom filter playlists by saying things like: "play 80s music", or "play the good stuff".
Display photos by keywords, tags, or ratings.
Request information about media currently playing by saying things like "What song is this?".
Some control of the UI is available using voice commands.  (I would like to expand what is possible here in future versions.)
You can switch to a new zone and then control it by all the methods listed above.

You can watch a demo of voice control for JRiver here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSdKDJ8Xzx4
You can watch an installation tutorial here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8USmu57_4ck
There is also information on our wiki: http://voxcommando.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Installation_JRiver_Media_Center

While the pre-set JRiver configuration makes it easy to start using voice commands "out of the box", VoxCommando is all about user customization. You can always change the existing JRiver commands, delete commands, and add your own from scratch.

Requirements:
* JRiver Media Center (duh)
* Installation of VoxCommando version 1.183 or later
* A decent microphone setup (more information about audio input options are available on our wiki and forum)

A fully functional free trial version of VoxCommando can be downloaded on our download page: http://voxcommando.com/downloads.asp.
(The only limitation is that after issuing 25 voice commands you'll have to restart the software again. The trial doesn't expire.)

JRiver has a lot of interesting capabilities and we hope to continue to develop the JRiver plugin and pre-sets for VoxCommando as long as there is user demand. We welcome feedback and feature requests from the JRiver community here or on our own forum.

Thanks for your attention and enjoy!
James Richards
http://www.voxcommando.com
Logged

zxsix

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1753

Trying it out.
Worked for a bit but now when I launch the program I get red line in history tab stating "warnings/errors during build"
hover over that and see "error creating group jriver play song"
Logged

jitterjames

  • Recent member
  • *
  • Posts: 17

You should still be able to use all the other commands except for "play song X".

I am still working on the plugin and the pre-set configuration.  Because I am pretty new to JRiver and have not fully loaded up my library with all sorts of media, I made some mistakes.  I was eager to show something off before Christmas.

One mistake I made was that when I was gathering song titles, I was actually gathering titles for all types of media.

I should also point out that there is a limit to the total number of items you can have in a command.  It is not a fixed limit because it depends on many factors, but usually the software starts to struggle somewhere between 20 to 40 thousand songs.  If your library is much larger than this, then you will either have to live without the ability to play individual songs by name or employ another method.   I know there are some people with libraries that contain > 100K songs but I have found that the majority of people have less than 15K.

After actively using VoxCommando for many years, I can say that I personally almost never ask for a song by name anyway.  I am usually asking for a playlist or artist, or genre.  Sometimes I will ask for an album, and I will almost never ask for a particular song.  If I do, there is a good chance that it is one of my favorite songs.

This leads to the first option to get around a massive library.  Index only a subset of your library for voice commands.  I am updating the plugin and will release a new version in the next couple of days that allows you to apply a filter to your music library when indexing content so you can include only songs you want.  You can apply any kind of valid JRiver filter such as "songs rated 3 or more stars", "songs I have listened to 3 or more times", "songs with a certain tag", "songs stored in a certain path" etc.

The other option is to request songs using regular dictation.  This is very fast to load and gets around the issues of having a huge library but you are much less likely to be properly understood by the speech engine, and "strange" words will not be understood, or will probably be misspelled.  Still if you want to listen to songs that have "love" in the title, it should be no problem.  :P

I will also be adding commands for playing movies and maybe TV shows.  And anything else I can figure out, such as rotating pictures etc.

I don't know if it is possible to do much in the way of navigation using the JRiver web api.  This is too bad because one of the things I like to be able to do (with XBMC for example), is ask to browse a certain TV show and be taken to that series in the UI instead of just playing the show.  If there is a way to do this in JRiver please let me know.  So far I have not found a way to navigate the JRiver UI very elegantly.
Logged

HTPC4ME

  • Regular Member
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 2760
  • LIFE IS A RADIO... CRANK IT UP TO 11!

Quote
I don't know if it is possible to do much in the way of navigation using the JRiver web api.  This is too bad because one of the things I like to be able to do (with XBMC for example), is ask to browse a certain TV show and be taken to that series in the UI instead of just playing the show.  If there is a way to do this in JRiver please let me know.  So far I have not found a way to navigate the JRiver UI very elegantly.
this sounds like a great addition
Logged

zxsix

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1753

I did the purge cache and build missing grammars and left it alone overnight.
I closed and restarted it today and no error this time.
I would search for songs by artist or by playlist.
Is there something we should disable to ignore song titles?
Logged

jitterjames

  • Recent member
  • *
  • Posts: 17

Yes you can edit your command tree and remove that command, or if you prefer you can remove the payloadXML file that contains the list of all your songs.

To remove the command, click "edit" from the main VoxCommando window, then browse through the tree of commands to find and highlight the command, right-click it and select "delete". Then save and close the editor.

Here's a tutorial that will familiarize you more with editing commands in VC:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPyfxpXRr9Q&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PL5EB7936BE8F07625

There is a wiki that includes information about editing commands:
http://voxcommando.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Getting_Started

To remove the xml file browse to the VC folder, then look in the subfolder .\JRPayloads and delete Songs.xml

If you would like to be a beta tester please send me a PM and I'll be sure to let you know when I have an updated version for you to test.  Otherwise I'll probably post a notice here anyway, but I will probably post the actual software update on the VoxCommando forum.
Logged

jitterjames

  • Recent member
  • *
  • Posts: 17

The new version of VoxCommando (1.184) is available now on the download page and includes the updated JRiver plugin and a new JRiver configuration.

http://voxcommando.com/downloads.asp

The plugin includes improved scanning of the JRiver library data, and offers better user control over what is scanned, so if you have a large library you can employ one of several techniques to keep it manageable.  This is discussed in some detail here: http://voxcommando.com/forum/index.php?topic=1317.0

We have also updated the default JRiver command configuration.  We modified some commands, and added some new ones such as "play movie Avatar" and "play episodes of Friends".

I will try to make a video tutorial discussing the new features soon.

I suggest you install the new version of VoxCommando to a blank folder rather than trying to update an older version.
Logged

robgil

  • World Citizen
  • ***
  • Posts: 137

I downloaded this and after 40 commands the trial version stopped working, I closed it down.
Now I cant find it to uninstall it, I can find lots of XML documents and lots of dll's but nothing to uninstall.
Logged

jitterjames

  • Recent member
  • *
  • Posts: 17

It is a portable install that puts files into whatever folder you installed it to.  It doesn't install any other files outside that folder.  To uninstall you just delete the folder.

The trial only requires you to close and reopen the program after 40 commands.  You can keep using it that way indefinitely.
Logged

Hilton

  • Regular Member
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1291

Hi James

I love the program, it actually works ok in the car too!

I've been having trouble trying to get it to do a custom raw command to just search and list artist albums so I can then manually pick one or follow up with another command to play a specific album.
Something like: Display Albums by "Phil Collins"
 
These would be good too, Display Albums from "2011", Display Songs by "Phil Collins", and just being able to generally search any valid field and create a dynamic list.
Is this possible with the raw command?

Logged

jitterjames

  • Recent member
  • *
  • Posts: 17

Yes this is definitely possible.  It should be relatively easy for me.  Let me see what I can whip up.  :D
Logged

jitterjames

  • Recent member
  • *
  • Posts: 17

Here is XML for a group with two commands in it.

"Display albums by X", and "Display albums from the year Y"

Both commands are set to show a maximum of 20 items but you can adjust that in the action Results.MatchConcat
For year I used a range from 1980 to 2015.  Try to use a reasonable range and not something like 0-2000!

If you have a huge number of artists this will use some more memory because we are using the payloadXML for artists twice now.  If that is an issue it might be possible to combine the two commands (Play artist and Display albums by) into one command to avoid this waste.

If you don't know what to do with the code below, please refer to this: http://voxcommando.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=XML_on_the_forum

Code: [Select]
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?>
<!--VoxCommando 2.0.0.3-->
<commandGroup open="True" name="JRiver test get info" enabled="True" prefix="" priority="0" requiredProcess="" description="">
  <command id="458" name="Display albums by" enabled="true" alwaysOn="False" confirm="False" requiredConfidence="0" loop="False" loopDelay="0" loopMax="0" description="">
    <action>
      <cmdType>JRiver.Raw</cmdType>
      <params>
        <param>Library/Values?Field=Album&amp;Files=[Media%20Type]=[Audio]%20[Artist]={1}</param>
      </params>
      <cmdRepeat>1</cmdRepeat>
    </action>
    <action>
      <cmdType>RegExTool.Open</cmdType>
      <params>
        <param>True</param>
      </params>
      <cmdRepeat>0</cmdRepeat>
    </action>
    <action>
      <cmdType>Results.RegEx</cmdType>
      <params>
        <param>&lt;Item&gt;(.*?)&lt;/Item&gt;</param>
      </params>
      <cmdRepeat>1</cmdRepeat>
    </action>
    <action>
      <cmdType>Results.MatchConcat</cmdType>
      <params>
        <param>{CR}</param>
        <param>20</param>
      </params>
      <cmdRepeat>1</cmdRepeat>
    </action>
    <action>
      <cmdType>OSD.ShowText</cmdType>
      <params>
        <param>{LastResult}</param>
      </params>
      <cmdRepeat>1</cmdRepeat>
    </action>
    <phrase>Show, Display</phrase>
    <phrase>Albums by</phrase>
    <payloadFromXML phraseOnly="True" use2partPhrase="False" phraseConnector="by" Phrase2wildcard="anyone" optional="False">JRPayloads\AlbumArtists.xml</payloadFromXML>
  </command>
  <command id="464" name="Display albums from the year" enabled="true" alwaysOn="False" confirm="False" requiredConfidence="0" loop="False" loopDelay="0" loopMax="0" description="">
    <action>
      <cmdType>JRiver.Raw</cmdType>
      <params>
        <param>Library/Values?Field=Album&amp;Files=[Media%20Type]=[Audio]%20[date%20(year)]={1}</param>
      </params>
      <cmdRepeat>1</cmdRepeat>
    </action>
    <action>
      <cmdType>RegExTool.Open</cmdType>
      <params>
        <param>True</param>
      </params>
      <cmdRepeat>0</cmdRepeat>
    </action>
    <action>
      <cmdType>Results.RegEx</cmdType>
      <params>
        <param>&lt;Item&gt;(.*?)&lt;/Item&gt;</param>
      </params>
      <cmdRepeat>1</cmdRepeat>
    </action>
    <action>
      <cmdType>Results.MatchConcat</cmdType>
      <params>
        <param>{CR}</param>
        <param>20</param>
      </params>
      <cmdRepeat>1</cmdRepeat>
    </action>
    <action>
      <cmdType>OSD.ShowText</cmdType>
      <params>
        <param>{LastResult}</param>
      </params>
      <cmdRepeat>1</cmdRepeat>
    </action>
    <phrase>Show, Display</phrase>
    <phrase>Albums from</phrase>
    <phrase optional="true">the year</phrase>
    <payloadRange>1980,2015</payloadRange>
  </command>
</commandGroup>
Logged

Dawgincontrol

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 679
  • We have met the enemy and he is us.

Trying the trial version and has possibilities.  Have had some problems:

1) Play song Easy by The Commodores plays Easy To Be Hard by Three Dog Night no matter what and does not list easy in the options area.

2) Would like to command keyboard entries or commands such as "select albums".

3) Have had problems with loading playlists especially where numbers are involves (eg 60s Pop Artists)

4)  It would be nice to have a command to go back and forth to Voxcommand and JRiver.

Looks promising, but need to get some of the above consistently before I purchase.

Logged

jitterjames

  • Recent member
  • *
  • Posts: 17

Hi Dawgincontrol,

Most of your problems stem from a lack of familiarity with the program.  VoxCommando is a complex platform for customizable control of many things and is not something that you can master overnight.  Take your time getting to know the program a bit.  There is no rush to buy it since the trial mode is fully featured and there is no expiration date.  I will attempt to address each of your items below.

1) This is probably because in VC (VoxCommando) the default JRiver configuration is set to only index songs rated 3 or more stars and in your library the song "easy" is being excluded from the scan because it is unrated or rated below 3 stars.  This is discussed here: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=86173.msg590514#msg590514
here: http://voxcommando.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Installation_JRiver_Media_Center
and here:  http://voxcommando.com/forum/index.php?topic=1317.0

It is not mentioned in our JRiver installation or demo videos because this feature was added after those videos were made.

Basically you can go into your VoxCommando/JRiver plugin settings and remove the rating restriction  "[rating]=>3" from the Songs.xml Query.  Note that if you have a very large library of media this will increase memory use and load times.  If you have a really large library of songs (e.g. more than 30K) it may never load so you will need to filter it down somehow or do without playing individual songs by name.  

More on this topic can be found here: http://voxcommando.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Large_music_libraries

2) I'm not 100% clear on what you want here when you say
Quote
commands such as "select albums"
but you can create commands for any kind of keyboard emulation in VC.  One example of such a command that exists in the default JRiver configuration is the "Select" command in the group "Keyboard Emulation (local PC only)".  VoxCommando offers 3 kinds of keyboard emulation but the "inputkeys" action is probably best for JRiver.  Note that usually any given program must be in focus in order to use a keyboard (real or emulated) to control it.

You can also send some keyboard combinations to JRiver directly through their api.  To see examples of this look at the "Switch to ..." commands in the group "JRiver basic UI".  These commands also include a "focus" action.  See #4 below.

As far as controlling the JRiver UI goes in general, the MediaCenterWebService (MCWS) API offered by JRiver is quite limited in this respect so if you want more features for navigating or interacting with the JRiver UI you should be asking the JRiver developpers to extend the api.  XBMC is one good example of a program that allows much more control of the UI through their http/json api, allowing us to jump directly to almost any page/item/plugin/setting.  They also use static IDs for media items in their database which makes life much easier for us.  http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=86173.msg590064#msg590064

3) It's not clear to me whether you mean that you have had problems getting VC to recognize your voice commands or if it recognizes you but then fails to load the playlist.  If it is the latter then I will need to investigate further, but if it is a case of VC not recognizing you then you should either rename your playlists to make them easier to pronounce ("Sixties" instead of "60s"), or you may need to enable "Subset Matching on Playlists" in the VoxCommando/JRiver plugin settings. It's next to the "Generate XML" button.

4) It sounds like you want a command to focus different program windows.  There is already a command to focus JRiver as part of the default configuration.  You just need to say "focus Media Center".  You can create a similar command to focus any other program including VoxCommando.  Note that Windows may occasionally refuse to completely focus certain programs without real user input.  It's annoying but what can you do?  You can also focus programs on your taskbar using keyboard emulation of the WindowsKey/NumberKey combos.

We have an extensive wiki for VoxCommando.  Here is one page that talks about building your own command macros: http://voxcommando.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Logical_Command_Builder

and here are references to some actions you might need:
http://voxcommando.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Actions#Focus
http://voxcommando.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Actions#InputKeys
Logged

Dawgincontrol

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 679
  • We have met the enemy and he is us.
Jitterjames, really appreciate your response.....
« Reply #14 on: July 27, 2014, 12:50:21 pm »

Actually, it seems to understand my voice better with a little time and seems to be working better and better.

I discovered the "select" and "Move up" keyboard emulations and it really helps.  You are right there is a break-in time for the user.

Will un-check the ratings when I get a chance and see if that clears it up.

It took a while with some artists with numbers (ie 10cc) but seems to have figured it out on its own (probably the voice recognition got better).

When I put the mike in standby, there still seems to be commands which pop-up, but thus far are not executed.

Focus command was what I was looking for.

Really starting to like the program.
Logged

jitterjames

  • Recent member
  • *
  • Posts: 17
Re: Jitterjames, really appreciate your response.....
« Reply #15 on: July 28, 2014, 01:48:58 pm »

 ;D

When I put the mike in standby, there still seems to be commands which pop-up, but thus far are not executed.
This is configurable in the main options: http://voxcommando.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Options#Only_show_OSD.2FAlternates_if_command_is_executed

It took a while with some artists with numbers (ie 10cc) but seems to have figured it out on its own (probably the voice recognition got better).
There are some phrases that the engine is always going to struggle with.  In the end it is still a dumb machine working with a (very long) list of rules.  There are so many other factors too including background noise, and the setup of your microphone.  For something like 10cc it will probably be hit and miss.  10 cc (with a space) will probably work better.  If you are writing a command like "launch MC" it is always better to spell it "launch J.R.M.C" so that the engine expects letters and not a word that sounds something like germic.

For spelling decades; using eighties, or 80's, or maybe '80s will probably work better than 80s.

If you have a title in a foreign language you may also have difficulties.  In these cases you start to get into the habit of pronouncing things phonetically in "American" to get around it.
Logged

Al ex

  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 551

Hi.

I am mainly interested in a feature, where you control MC with a remote control, and VOICE CONTROL is simply saying (announcing) the next title of the song or movie as an information. The reason: I am looking for a very simple HTPC-solution for my father, who is not really capable anymore to use a PC or complex remote control. So I want to make it as easy as possible: a remote control with just some buttons like start/stop next/last volume up/down.

Out of interest: controlling MC with the voice - would that work in other languages as well? Like in German?

Cheers, Alex
Logged

jitterjames

  • Recent member
  • *
  • Posts: 17

Your first challenge will be to find a suitable remote that is easy to use.  Will it be USB, RF, or IR? Based on that you can then decide on what software you need to use.  VoxCommando is quite extensible so you can map various inputs to macros which can control all sorts of things including JRiver MC.  You might want to use EventGhost, or some combination of EventGhost and VoxCommando to control MC.

As an example, if you are handy, you could modify a keyboard (wired or wireless) and then assign keys to various macros.  Both VoxCommando and EventGhost can use global hooks to capture keyboard events.

If you want to use a USBUIRT to receive infrared signals, then you can modify any kind of IR remote, and again you can use either EventGhost or VoxCommando to receive input from this device.  There are many other kinds of input devices and although VoxCommando cannot directly accept in put from most of them, EventGhost often can.

Yes, VoxCommando works in many languages including German.

http://voxcommando.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Languages

At the moment we do not have a pre-built configuration for JRiver in German, but it is not too difficult to translate the phrases from the English configuration into another language assuming you speak both languages well enough to do the actual translation.  We do have a configuration for XBMC in German, and many of the phrases are similar, but the macro actions themselves are completely different.
Logged

csimon

  • Regular Member
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1686

I'm having fun with this actually! Exploring what is possible, and not just for controlling MC but for other home automation purposes. The only problem is the microphone....I'd like something long-range that is still accurate and don't need to shout at, so you could just place it in the room somewhere.  I guess it's probably best if I join the VC forums and talk there.
Logged

kurushi

  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 683

works very well any chance to have the french command version?
Logged

jitterjames

  • Recent member
  • *
  • Posts: 17

Yes, this can be arranged.  It will take us a bit of time to translate it, and we have a number of other tasks that we are currently focusing on.  We are by no means masters of the French language so there may be some errors, but we have many similar commands in our French MediaMonkey and XBMC configurations that we can refer to.  We would appreciate feedback on any mistakes that we make.

I should mention though, that one of the primary advantages of VoxCommando is the powerful command editor and you are welcome to create your own commands, or to translate the existing commands in the English JRiver configuration yourself.  Of course there is a learning curve when it comes to creating and modifying commands so it might take you a while to get started, but once you know what you are doing, translating a command set should not take very long provided that you speak both languages fluently.  Most of our configurations in other languages such as Russian, German, Spanish, French and Portuguese have been generously provided, at least in part, by our users.

http://voxcommando.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Customizing_Commands
Logged

jitterjames

  • Recent member
  • *
  • Posts: 17

works very well any chance to have the french command version?

We have just released Version: 2.1.2.8
http://voxcommando.com/downloads.php

This version includes a French configuration for JRiver.  Please let us know if any of our translations could be improved.

This version also includes a new action in the JRiver plugin that allows you to set the target zone that all JRiver actions will use.
Logged

csimon

  • Regular Member
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1686

This version also includes a new action in the JRiver plugin that allows you to set the target zone that all JRiver actions will use.

That's fantastic, thank you so much!

This means that it is now possible to control zones other than the current one without affecting the currently active zone...and from a home automation/multiroom point of view it means you could run multiple instances of VC on the same server, each concurrently operating on its own zone. Since MC has problems with remotely controlling video zones, it also means you can leave the server on its video zone all the time while still using VC to control multiple audio zones.

I notice from the tool tip on the action that if the target zone is not given then it will operate on the active zone - which is great as this still leaves the functionality intact for the situatiuons when you want to use it that way.

Now to find a decent open air microphone that will work...
Logged

Al ex

  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 551

As I would need this program for a particular setup on a MAC, I was wondering if there are any plans in the near future to port Vox Commando for Apple as well?

Thx
Logged

HTPC4ME

  • Regular Member
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 2760
  • LIFE IS A RADIO... CRANK IT UP TO 11!

Any changes for those of us with larger libraries in regards to artists voice search?

also, its been a long time since i dabbled with this, and i'd like to give it a shot again... Is it possible to have vox running on 2 pc's in house at same time to control jriver? Throughout the day we use 2 main machines (workstation and htpc) And i'd like to be able to control both with voice.
Perhaps one could say HTPC listen command, then workstation listen command?
thanks

Quote
Now to find a decent open air microphone that will work...

csimon, are you still using vox? Did you find a decent mic...your experiences?

Logged

csimon

  • Regular Member
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1686

Yes, I'm still using it, I findit's very useful for things like "play some folk music", "play random music"' or selecting a radio channel from a dvb tuner. Picking up a remote and navgating through menu structures now seems archaic and convoluted.

Haven't found an open air mic, have looked in the vox forums but it all seems a little hit and miss, decent mics are a little too expensive to experiment wth if you're not absolutely certain it will work.

I'm absolutely certain you can use multiple instances of vox to control multiple instances of MC, as you cam target the IP of the server you want to control. It might be possible to do it via a single instance,notsure, but it would prbably require a bit of programming. I've done a similar thing with zones, where I can get vox to control multiple zones by keeping track of what its current zone is via variables. I've also done Playing Now manipulation, e.g. Move 9 to 2, or Remove 3.

For multiple installations, you'd need to condier your mic routing. For example, do you mean sending the same mic to two PCs at the same time?

I've considered a single PC controlling multiple rooms. You'd have a separate sound card for each room, maybe on the end of network USB servers, then run multiple instances of vox that listen on particular mics and send speech to particular speakers. Vox would know which room it's receiving commands from and therefore send music to the relevant MC zone. All a question of configuration, vox is extremely powerful!

The only problem I've had I think is that it seems to take 3 or 4 attempts to wake it up once it's gone into standby. But once it's listening I've found it works very well. It also prevents the Pc frm sleeping, as it's continually listening and takes up a noticeable amount of CPU.

I'm only using an AV amp setup mic with i at the moment!

Logged

HTPC4ME

  • Regular Member
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 2760
  • LIFE IS A RADIO... CRANK IT UP TO 11!

thanks for all the info!

Quote
For multiple installations, you'd need to condier your mic routing. For example, do you mean sending the same mic to two PCs at the same time
what i meant was, being we are in a small home HTPC/workstation on same floor, i'd like to be able to just walk around, be in htpc room, or office, and just say listen HTPC or listen workstation (and Vox would then listen only on that device/room i mentioned.

Few more questions if i may...

Have you tried this with multiple users, could a whole family use it? (once commands are taught to family members?)

is it possible to replace our logitech harmony remotes with this?
Walk into HTPC room (stereo, htpc, sat. tv) Listen to music, it turns on receiver, tv changes inputs, sets volume, turns on tv, and sets htpc to theaterview screen to audio? Watch satellite, if tv/receiver are on then just switch inputs, then voice commands such as show guide, change to channel, etc?

If so, what would all be needed to accomplish this? Right now the household has to hold the logitech towards theater wall due to all components being ir. and sometimes things get a little messed up if they do not point the remote in the right direction... so voice would be stellar.

Are you sending commands via droid's vox commando? or using a webcam on each pc? a desktop mic i dont think would behoove us due to it not being able to pickup well at distances. The webcams we have i can walk a good 20-30 feet away and others can hear me fine on skype, how well they will act once canons are going off, or when there are large crowd scenes, im not sure of.

Are you using vox with windows commands as well? turn on screen saver/turn off, change screensaver, open firefox, answer skype call with video etc?

And last but not least... in the new version can you now tell jriver to load series? instead of playing all, as mentioned above in post reply #3?

Thanks!
Logged

csimon

  • Regular Member
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1686

thanks for all the info!
 what i meant was, being we are in a small home HTPC/workstation on same floor, i'd like to be able to just walk around, be in htpc room, or office, and just say listen HTPC or listen workstation (and Vox would then listen only on that device/room i mentioned.

I see - two computers each with their own mics and trigger words. You'd have to make sure both couldn't be active at the same or, as mentioned before, just one instance running and then keep track of which machine is currently being targetted.  Or two instances on one PC and listening to same mic (I think that's possible).

Quote
Have you tried this with multiple users, could a whole family use it? (once commands are taught to family members?)

I haven't tried multiple users but I don't see any problems with that.

Quote
is it possible to replace our logitech harmony remotes with this?
Walk into HTPC room (stereo, htpc, sat. tv) Listen to music, it turns on receiver, tv changes inputs, sets volume, turns on tv, and sets htpc to theaterview screen to audio? Watch satellite, if tv/receiver are on then just switch inputs, then voice commands such as show guide, change to channel, etc?

It is probably not as easy to configure as more popular home automation systems, but it does have rudimentary things such as loops, variables, conditions so providing the devices you want to control are addressable from a PC in some way (HTTP commands, IR interface etc) then I'm sure VC can control them. It has built-in and plugin methods for various ways of sending commands over a network. Have a look at the VC seb site and forum and wiki for info.

Quote
If so, what would all be needed to accomplish this? Right now the household has to hold the logitech towards theater wall due to all components being ir. and sometimes things get a little messed up if they do not point the remote in the right direction... so voice would be stellar.

You would need a PC to IR interface I guess. For example, I have a Keene Eectronics KIRA module.

Quote
Are you sending commands via droid's vox commando? or using a webcam on each pc?

Do you mean the Android app?  I did install that on my phone but haven't really used it since I plugged in the mic. The mic I've got isn't ideal, it's just an AV amp setup mic. Works well enough put it's on a lead and you have to hold it close to your mouth!

Quote
Are you using vox with windows commands as well? turn on screen saver/turn off, change screensaver, open firefox, answer skype call with video etc?

I haven't done anything like that, but have got basic windows commands such as sleep, shut down, what's the time, date. There are built-in methods of targetting running applications, focussing windows etc, sending keystrokes etc.

Quote
And last but not least... in the new version can you now tell jriver to load series? instead of playing all, as mentioned above in post reply #3?

I'm not sure what you mean.  The reference in post 3 was to drill down into series by navigating the UI. It has built-in commands for cursor control, select etc I think, but I think this could get unwieldy. What exactly are you envisaging?

Basically, the JRiver plugin has a lot of pre-built commands but it's not 100% comprehensive. However, it does have a "catch all" raw MCWS command so you can program your own command if you want. This is how Vox operates - it simply sends MCWS commands to MC and there are a number of pre-built ones.  That's how I've done the Playing Now manipulation, by programming a Vox macro that listens for your parameters, e.g. "move 4 to 2", and sends MCWS commands to do the move.

The way it works out parameters is by parsing the MC library and storing it as XML files which you attach to various commands to be used as lookup lists, but you can also create your own XML files manually for particular parameters you want to hardcode. For example I have an XML file that translates radio channel names, so that I can say "Listen to Radio 6" and it will send a command to MC that tells it to play the TV channel "BBC Radio 6 Music".

You can also define custom auto XML formats that will scan the MC library in a way that you define and then create XML files - I'm not sure if there is already a TV Series one but I think you could program one. It just comes with a basic set of about a dozen I think, e.g. Artists, Songs.

The pre-built Play Album command didn't originally put the track numbers in the right order (I think it executed a Search on album name and then played the tracks in whatever order they were returned), but I modified it to sort the result by track number.

I'd recommend joining the Vox forum and reading the documentation on the wiki which details all the built-in and plugin commands, and getting to know how it works and what is and isn't possible.
Logged

jitterjames

  • Recent member
  • *
  • Posts: 17

I'm just adding another perspective / additional info, to the excellent feedback already provided by csimon:

what i meant was, being we are in a small home HTPC/workstation on same floor, i'd like to be able to just walk around, be in htpc room, or office, and just say listen HTPC or listen workstation (and Vox would then listen only on that device/room i mentioned.
That is definitely possible.

Have you tried this with multiple users, could a whole family use it? (once commands are taught to family members?)
Yes but it depends on your family, their accents etc.  Sometimes the accuracy with children and women is not as high.  The default engine can be trained, but if you train it for your voice it may not work as well for others (although usually it will work fine).  You can train multiple profiles and quickly switch between them, but that requires the user to tell VC who they are first which some people may not like.  The SP version of VC uses a non-trained non-trainable engine.  It may work better under certain circumstances at dealing with multiple users, but I prefer the non-SP version in general.

is it possible to replace our logitech harmony remotes with this?
Walk into HTPC room (stereo, htpc, sat. tv) Listen to music, it turns on receiver, tv changes inputs, sets volume, turns on tv, and sets htpc to theaterview screen to audio? Watch satellite, if tv/receiver are on then just switch inputs, then voice commands such as show guide, change to channel, etc?

If so, what would all be needed to accomplish this? Right now the household has to hold the logitech towards theater wall due to all components being ir. and sometimes things get a little messed up if they do not point the remote in the right direction... so voice would be stellar.
Almost certainly.  Your best bet for something like this is probably the iTach Wifi2IR or iTach flex. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdkHRnv36yY
or the USB-UIRT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNUQacQblXM

The iTach does provide code libraries but in general you will need to learn codes.  Setup is not going to be as easy as with the logitech by a long shot but the end functionality can be extremely effective, you just need to take the time to learn the tools, learn the codes etc.

You can also use any IR blaster that works with eventGhost.  It's very easy to send commands to eventGhost from VC.  So for example you could use an MCE transceiver.

Both the iTach and the UUIRT can blast IR over distances and/or emit ir using stick-on emiters for devices in cabinets.  example: http://www.amazon.com/Cmple-Emitter-Stick--Infrared-Emitters/dp/B004WLATRC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1434728227&sr=8-3&keywords=ir+emitter

Before spending a bunch of money on equipment for blasting IR I recommend becomming familiar with VC and experimenting with your microphone setups to see if voice will work for you.  Open air microphones in a family environment are probably not going to meet with your hopes because the mic will just be picking up too much extraneous information, especially when you add in music and videos.  In the real world an Amulet Remote or VoxWav are recommended over a completely hands-free open air setup for the majority of users.  Otherwise the failure rate just gets too annoying and you won't want to use it.  Some people still do it though.

And last but not least... in the new version can you now tell jriver to load series? instead of playing all, as mentioned above in post reply #3?

I don't understand this question either.
Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up