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[Don N]

I had setup a test environment last year with these intercoms.  At the time I was using BXVC.  However, other interests this year have kept me from doing anymore testing.  But, here is what I did initially; I setup one of the intercoms as the microphone (in one room) and the other intercom next to my PC (in another room).  I placed a microphone that was connected to my PC next to the intercom in the PC room. 

I could then speak BXVC commands into the intercom (in one room) and they would be "heard" by the PC microphone from the intercom located in the PC room.  And that all worked fine.  Next I wanted to "connect"  the intercom directly into my PC.  Thus, eliminating the need for the PC microphone.  But I never got around to testing that.  Anyway, hope that answers your question. 

Are you using it as speakers....as well as the microphone?

[HA Dave]

..........  Anyway, hope that answers your question. 

Yep!  I just wish everyone knew just how easy it is to get Voice Command through-out the house.

[s0urc3f0ur]

Well it looks like Santa  is sending me an early gift! My wife informed me that she has purchased these intercoms for me:

http://www.buy.com/prod/westinghouse-whi-4cupg-4-channel-voice-activated-intercom/q/loc/111/90128815.html

Of course I helped picked them out and they are VOX! and also  pretty inexpensive. My plan when I get these( and I am chomping at the bit for them ) is to mod one of them as a sort of "command" station for BVC. I figured out that by using jacks and soldering them into the speaker and mic that I could possibly create a line in and line out without losing the functionality of the intercom. Hopefully this works. On paper it looks good! I will takes pics and try to write an instructable on how to do this once Santa(UPS) delivers them!

[BSRMAN]

Hello,
New to this BVC stuff I download the trial version and it works!! Just like that what a great job. I have a question concerning these microphone devices.  Does BVC have the capability of listening to two peoples voices. It seems I only saw it wanted one user. SHMBO will not let me spend money if she couldn't get the benifit also. 

[Don N]

Well it looks like Santa is sending me an early gift! My wife informed me that she has purchased these intercoms for me:

http://www.buy.com/prod/westinghouse-whi-4cupg-4-channel-voice-activated-intercom/q/loc/111/90128815.html

Of course I helped picked them out and they are VOX! and also pretty inexpensive. My plan when I get these( and I am chomping at the bit for them ) is to mod one of them as a sort of "command" station for BVC. I figured out that by using jacks and soldering them into the speaker and mic that I could possibly create a line in and line out without losing the functionality of the intercom. Hopefully this works. On paper it looks good! I will takes pics and try to write an instructable on how to do this once Santa(UPS) delivers them!

s0urc3f0ur  --  Perhaps I missed it.  Did you ever complete this project?

[-Bill- (of wgjohns.com)]

Hello,
New to this BVC stuff I download the trial version and it works!! Just like that what a great job. I have a question concerning these microphone devices.  Does BVC have the capability of listening to two peoples voices. It seems I only saw it wanted one user. SHMBO will not let me spend money if she couldn't get the benifit also. 

At present, BVC (even the Full Version) only supports a single speech profile.  As-is, it will recognize multiple users best if the speech profiles are "trained" as little as necessary.

I intend to add support for multiple speech profiles in future versions as time allows.

Still, for a $30 investment BVC is a cheap "get your feet wet in Voice Activated Home Automation" tool!  (IMHO).

[s0urc3f0ur]

s0urc3f0ur  --  Perhaps I missed it.  Did you ever complete this project?

Yes as a matter of fact I have.. I 've even posted a write up (<link) on how to accomplish this. Pictures included!

[HA Dave]

I recently posted some new Home Automation and BVC videos to YouTube. Then... while chatting with other X10 users at KDR's Home Automation Chat Room someone mentioned that they didn't get as good as speech recognition from their setup. He said that sometimes he had to repeat commands. I've been thinking about that comment a lot since then.

I certainly don't mean to have any secrets about setting up a BVC system! But sometimes I wonder if forget to explain what I've done to get BVC to work so well. I do only use cheap Baby-Monitors for my microphone setup... it doesn't take much as the speech recognition is 8 bit... not Hi-Fi. But here is a couple tips... if I have already mentioned somewhere... I am not sure where.

• Don't feed anymore volume to your computer than you need to.
• Always use a line-in for your speech input... the microphone input won't work [trust me].
• The pointing direction of your microphone is important... my monitor [mic] is always across the room from me... in a corner away from noise.
• Select your commands carefully. I test my device names and custom commands. If the speech recognition doesn't like the word, or the way I pronounce it, or gets it mixed up with another device or command... I try another word.

I don't spend much time doing this! Heck... I rarely spend time on my HA computer... only when I can come up with something new.

[bzellinger]

I went ahead with your great idea and it works great. There is a problem with either my setup or BVC, however. I have line in checked. As soon as it recognizes my attention phrase, the recording control switches from line in to microphone. (BVC no longer hears my commands since it switches to mic.)

Windows Home Server (based on Windows Server 2003)
Latest SoundMAX drivers.

Any help would be appreciated.

[hawk1]

Might want to check in the control panel and make sure its checked in there too!  Windows might over ride your BVC settings.  Just a suggestion though, since I don't have Server running.  Might check permissions.

[bzellinger]

Just tried a different sound card and it did the same thing. This is all through the control panel, btw.

[-Bill- (of wgjohns.com)]

I went ahead with your great idea and it works great. There is a problem with either my setup or BVC, however. I have line in checked. As soon as it recognizes my attention phrase, the recording control switches from line in to microphone. (BVC no longer hears my commands since it switches to mic.)

Windows Home Server (based on Windows Server 2003)
Latest SoundMAX drivers.

Any help would be appreciated.

Just tried a different sound card and it did the same thing. This is all through the control panel, btw.

My best thought would be to check the speech setup in Windows Control Panel and make sure the line-in is set as the "Preferred" input.

[bzellinger]

Thanks. That did the trick.

[-Bill- (of wgjohns.com)]

Thanks. That did the trick.

Cool!