This is only a preview of the June 2009 issue of Silicon Chip. You can view 31 of the 104 pages in the full issue, including the advertisments. For full access, purchase the issue for $10.00 or subscribe for access to the latest issues. Items relevant to "High-Current, High-Voltage Battery Capacity Meter, Pt.1":
Items relevant to "GPS Driver Module For The 6-Digit Clock, Pt.2":
Articles in this series:
Items relevant to "Build A Beam-Break Flash Trigger":
Items relevant to "PICAXE Humidity Measuring Using The HopeRF HH10D":
Articles in this series:
Purchase a printed copy of this issue for $10.00. |
Voice Me!
VoiceMe is a voice-activated remote control. It can be used to control up to
ten functions on your TV, DVD player, Home Theatre system or whatever
and it can have up to four separate users. If you are one of those who often
loses remote controls, it could be an attractive option.
W
hile anyone can see the attractions of voice-activated
control, it could be even
more advantageous if the prospective
user is blind, elderly, quadriplegic or
otherwise handicapped and unable to
use conventional remote controls.
In fact, the potential for this device
seems almost unlimited for these people. And since one of my relatives is
blind, I was particularly keen to see if
it would suit that situation.
VoiceMe main unit
The unit has two modes of operation: voice control or via an RF (radio
frequency) remote. As you can see
from the photograph the unit only
has four buttons. Each button selects
a user (1-4).
It also has an infrared receiving
window in front of the buttons and IR
emitting windows to the left, right and
rear. Each window has two IR LEDs.
Finally, there is an electret microphone
under a hole at the apex of the dome.
Power for the unit comes from a 9V
300mA DC plugpack or it can be used
with four AA cells which are fitted
into a compartment underneath the
unit. The unit apparently saves all
commands in non-volatile memory,
so loss of power (ie, when you change
batteries) does not result in any loss
of commands.
VoiceMe extender
The VoiceMe Extender RF remote
control has four buttons corresponding
to those on the main unit, plus mode
and mute.
The iPod-like circle at the top allows
channel up and down with the left and
right symbols and volume decrease and
increase with the top and bottom symbols. A red LED at the top right corner
84 Silicon Chip
lights whenever a button is
pressed.
Three AAA cells power
this unit. In the majority
of situations we assume
that the Extender will only
be used by a person who has
not trained VoiceMe.
Getting it working
Now to the nitty gritty! The unit
comes with the ability to distinguish
the voices of up to four different users,
with each user having a repertoire of
30 commands or at the other extreme,
one user with 120 commands or any
combination in between.
Pressing any of the four buttons on
VoiceMe will trigger the device into
issuing a list of 11 functions. This is
called manual setup and is the default
method.
The 11 functions are listed on the
setup chart in the 4-page manual. Unless you plan to use the remote control,
functions six, eight, nine and ten can
be ignored, as these are only relevant
to that device.
Selecting a name
The first step is to decide what you
are going to call the device. R2D2 and
C3PO were possible but black box
won the day, even though it is silver
and grey.
We pressed the left front button
again and as soon as ‘train keyword’
was spoken we pressed it again. If
you have already entered a keyword
it gives you the opportunity to change
it. If you take no action the keyword
remains, otherwise you overwrite the
old keyword with a new one.
We decided to initially test VoiceMe
using an amplifier which had a remote
control with the ability to turn the
amplifier on and off, mute and raise
and lower the volume. A single-page
instruction sheet recommends using
commands of three to four syllables as
keywords or commands, in order to get
better recognition results.
Recording commands
The next step was to record some
commands. Each time you do this you
are asked to repeat the command and
evidently the software is doing some
fancy analysis. Most remotes use the
same command to turn a device on
and off but we decided the command
‘listen to amplifier’ would be used for
the on function and ‘turn off’ to do
this. ‘Louder volume’ and ‘make sound
softer’ are self-explanatory.
We found commands like ‘volume
up’ and ‘volume down’ were too similar and could not readily be differentiated by the device. Whether this was
due to my voice or the device, I can’t
say. Press and release the button and
wait until it steps to ‘train command’
then push it again. ‘Listen to amplifier’,
‘turn off’, ‘louder volume’ and ‘make
sound softer’ were recorded along with
the IR codes for each action.
siliconchip.com.au
Review by
RICK WALTERS
The VoiceMe main unit (above) with its Extender
unit at left. We imagine that the majority of
people will not have much use for the extender as the
main unit does everything it can – without buttons!
We tried several remote controls but
had no success with ‘mute sound’. The
voice command was recorded and the
IR code was supposedly recognised
according to the beep, which acknowledges acceptance of the IR code.
Now that you can command VoiceMe you need to select its response
to you, ranging from ‘yes sir/ma’am’
through ‘what can I do for you’ to a lot
of fancy sounds.
We chose ‘how can I help you’. Thus
the voice sequence is you address
‘Black Box’ which responds with ‘How
can I help you’? You respond with
‘Listen to amplifier’.
If your voice command is recognised
the pre-recorded command is repeated
back to you, then the IR signal is
output. If your command is not recognised, you are ignored.
Testing
When we said ‘black box’ it responded with ‘how can I help you?’ ‘Listen to
amplifier’ turned the amplifier on and
‘louder volume’ or ‘make sound softer’
increased or decreased the volume by
2dB (the amount programmed for the
remote control).
‘Mute sound’ replayed the recorded
command mute sound but did not afsiliconchip.com.au
fect the volume.
Eventually after several tries we got
‘shut off sound’ to work satisfactorily.
Obviously what you actually say is
irrelevant. As long as it is recognised,
the IR signal should be accepted.
To re-program the IR code you have
to delete the command, re-record it and
then supply the IR code once again.
So far everything seemed to work as
claimed. Now for the big test! VoiceMe
was installed in a lounge room, which
has a TEAC High Definition decoder,
an LG Home Theatre system and an LG
Plasma screen.
‘Turn Television on’ seemed an appropriate command. The individual
devices were then programmed into
VoiceMe. It accepted the three poweron IR signals, beeping after each was
recognised.
We were initially worried whether,
with the VoiceMe sitting in the same
plane and above the units, the IR
output would reflect off the walls and
actuate the units.
Our worries were justified: it refused
to operate at two metres distance from
me but for a different reason – my
voice was not loud enough to trigger
the response. Moving it much closer,
so that it was about 1m distant, al-
lowed it to recognise commands.
It switched on the Plasma screen
and the TEAC decoder but refused
to turn on the sound system. The
remote was an LG 6710CDAP01B.
We deleted the command and
re-recorded it and the three remote signals. Again there were
three beeps of acceptance but only
two units powered on. However, it
worked on the third try, so don’t
give up!
An interesting outcome
was that we did not use
VoiceMe for a couple of
weeks and when I began
using it again it had trouble recognising the ‘Black
Box’ command.
The instructions say to
record with “regular tone, speed
and volume”. You tend to raise your
voice when you issue an instruction
but with sufficient practice we believe
you could address it in a normal conversational voice.
We did not test the RF remote control. Who wants another remote? The
main function of VoiceMe is to do away
with remotes!
However, after all the problems we
had with different remotes and with
getting the mute function to work with
the amplifier, there was one major
problem in attempting to get it trained
so my mother could use it. Her voice
was simply too soft!
So unless the prospective “user” is
able to speak fairly loudly and precisely, VoiceMe will have difficulty.
To sum up: VoiceMe is an interesting
device with enormous potential. If you
can train it successfully, it will let you
relegate all your pushbutton IR remotes
and simply state your commands.
Now, I wonder if it could also be
trained to get me a beer when the
cricket is on?
Wbere from, how much?
VoiceMe is available from Microgram Computers for $389 including
GST. For further information, contact
Microgram (www.mgram.com.au) at
3/7 Tumbi Creek Road, Berkeley Vale
NSW 2261. Phone 1800 625 7777. SC
June 2009 85
|