Voice recognition... what am i getting into cost wise?
ahren
but am on a somewhat tight budget. I have the computer control part
and sotware to do it.
I am currently looking for microphones. I dont know what else i will
need. I found a place to get microphones for approx $55 that are tiny
and should work. does anyone know a cheaper place? i figure i will
get about 6 right away.
After the mics, what else do i need? I have had a hard time finding
any info on doing this so i am kind of flying by night. I am by no
means an electrician, but i am by no means a dumb ass (i hope) I have
lots of experience with car/home audio and basic wiring.
It looks as if i may need some sort of amp for the mics to run into?
these look wayyy expensive.... like upwards of $1000. I was hoping to
just splice the mic's together and run into my sound card... by no
means am i on a millionaries salary, but at the same time i want this
to work well. here are links to what i know about the mics...
www.ahreno.com/mic1.jpg
www.ahreno.com/mic2.jpg
www.ahreno.com/info.pdf <------- You will need adobe acrobat (free
program from www.adobe.com) to view this.
If you could give me any feedbacks, dos/dont's, suggestions,
experiences with voice control, it would be sooo appreciated...
ahr...@hotmail.com
Don
is the Crown PZM-11 mikes and a Shure 410 or 810 mixer.
Both are available from iAutomate.com and the Shure mixer comes already with
the standard mods required for software such as HAL2000. Lowes now sells
the lower cost limited edition of HAL and many have a demo PC that you can
see how it works.
You can check out my site to see what I have done with HAL2000, Omni Pro,
Ocelot, BX24-AHT, and Leviton equipment.
--
Don
Home of JEANNIE
The House That Listens
As seen on HGTV's Dream Builder Show
and the Featured Home of the Month
Home Automation magazine
March 2002 issue
ahren <ahr...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:22691732.02050...@posting.google.com...
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Jim Lipsit
.
.
You will need to connect your microphones into a microphone mixer
before it connects to the sound card. If you plan on using it for
voice recognition (as you are) you can't use just any mixer, you will
need one that only keeps 1 mic open at a time. The Shure SCM-410 or
SCM-810 mixers do just this. If you are patient you can find them on
ebay for a steal, just do a search on scm410 or scm810. You must use
good quality microphones or you will not want to do this at all.
PZM-11 mic's are best.
I did an extensive write up on the subject on my web site. Even if
you don't add the "intelligent" control as I have, the fundementals
still apply. If you do not have a good clean signal going to your
sound card then the voice recognition will be poor, and likewise if
you have too much noise (TV's, other voices, noises ect...)
Read this article on the subject:
http://www.james.lipsit.com/whole.htm
Oh, I almost forgot...
If you want to do Voice Recognition on a budget, HAL2000 software can
use any phone in the house as a means of talking to the computer. I
strongly reccommend the product. Later if you want you can add the
mic's and mixer to do it all handsfree.
Go here to see HAL2000:
http://www.automatedliving.com/
Take Care,
Jim
H...@xxxhydrologistxxx.com
<22691732.02050...@posting.google.com>:
Different people have different tolerance levels for talking to themselves
and repeating goofy phrases.
Before trying to extend your voice control system, do make sure that it will
dependably do what you want it to do with a closely-miked arrangement such a
noise-cancelling headset if you haven't already.
If the system is not satisfactory this way, it surely won't be when you try
to extend it. For me, it was marginal when closely mic'd but unacceptable for
whole room even using gating mixers, parametric equalizer, compressor
multiple audio channels and three different pzm's. YMMV
Better performance can be achieved with an old-fashioned push-button-to-talk
intercom-like interface than with expensive gated mixers especially if you
add AGC and taylor the frequency response. Closely mic'd, this is practical
in my experience because one can duplicate the performance of office headset
type mics with a mic-on-stick-on-the-wall at a small fraction of the cost of
the mixer/pzm route. You may want to use local amps and balanced lines
depending on length and electrical noise levels you encounter.
This seems to be what you've shown at your web site (but a link to the source
of the mic preamp+line driver board you show would be useful). If you do
drive the line balanced, you'll need a balanced receiver which can be made
from a Burr Brown INA134 ( <2.50$US) receiver or an audio grade op amp and
two pairs of closely (,0.1 %) matched resistors. A good solution for a line
driver is the Burr-Brown DRV134PA ( <4$US at www.digikey.com )
Last stop for me before setting aside voice control for another few years
(yet again) might be a phone-based system when a personal phone/organizer
emerges that I like.
From all that I've read and experienced, VR/VC technology has not
progressed as quickly as expected in the last several years and the collapse
of Lerner&Hauspie hasn't helped. IIRC, IBM declared 1997 the "Year of/for
Speech"
HTH ... Marc
Marc_F_Hult
H...@xxxhydrologistxxx.com
Anthony Matonak
>
> I am trying to piece together voice recognition program for my home
> but am on a somewhat tight budget. I have the computer control part
> and sotware to do it.
>
> I am currently looking for microphones. I dont know what else i will
> need. I found a place to get microphones for approx $55 that are tiny
> and should work. does anyone know a cheaper place? i figure i will
> get about 6 right away.
You might want to look into wireless microphones. They have some 'bug'
versions that are very small that you could carry around, or clip to your
clothing, quite conveniently. This would give you voice control without
having to get involved with mixers and placing microphones everywhere.
Anthony