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[-Bill- (of wgjohns.com)]

 (even if I end up being the only one using it )! 

I will give up BVC only when they pry it out of my cold dead........ computer.

Homevista's entry into voice control is a well deserved form of high flattery (you should be blushing). You should also expect more imitations to pop-up as time goes by. But it will be hard to beat the years of user-feedback that has been intergrade into your program.

Thanks Dave!

Nice to know there is still such a thing as "user loyalty" out there!      

[HA Dave]

I just found a new trick for BVC. Today I created a confirmation request into BVC, by using a macro in AHP.

I give a command, and BVC says: "Confirmation required. Do you wish the (in this test case/macro) rope lights turned on"?
I have 30 secs to say "Affirmative". If I don't... no action is taken. If for some reason I was to say affirmative (normally I say "yes dear")... without the preceding request.. no action is taken.

To create the confirmation required set-up.

First, in BVC device manager, I created a device named "rope light" (this is a test... and the lights are there...so...). In device manager the rope lights are [house/unit] C1. I hadn't used the C house code yet... these are fake modules.

The in BVC listener, I set BVC to listen for C2. When it hears C2 it responces with a custom phrase only. It says: Confirmation Required. Do you wish the rope lights turned on?

In BVC custom commands, I created a custom command named: "affirmative".  "Affirmative" requires no attention phrase (I unchecked the attention phrase required box). The affirmative command turns on C3

I created two macros. Confirm request macro simply is triggered by C1 ON. Which (delays for 1 sec then) turns on C2. A timer (delay) runs for 30 secs then turns on C2 OFF.

Macro #2: Confirm request 2 is triggered by C3, it is a conditional, it looks to see if C2 is ON. If C3 is triggered AND C2 is ON.... BVC/AHP turns on the rope lights (B7).

I have been wanting to incorporate more (and more) control and use into my BVC setup. I keep a little list, of things I know BVC could be made to do... but as of yet... haven't been done. I think a confirmation request, could be useful. Now I just need to create that "rope lights OFF set of commands.

[-Bill- (of wgjohns.com)]

I just found a new trick for BVC. Today I created a confirmation request into BVC, by using a macro in AHP.

I give a command, and BVC says: "Confirmation required. Do you wish the (in this test case/macro) rope lights turned on"?
I have 30 secs to say "Affirmative". If I don't... no action is taken. If for some reason I was to say affirmative (normally I say "yes dear")... without the preceding request.. no action is taken.

   ...

Very cool Dave!   

Eventually I intend to write "question and answer" capabilities into BVC, but for those who want it now, this looks like a great work-around!   

[philliec]

I have been using BXVC for a while and it works great, but now that I have gone to BVC my verbal commands are not recognized. I have performed more training sessions, but BVC still is having trouble recognizing my verbal commands. I actually tried both a few minutes ago, and BVC did not recognize the commands that BXVC did. Any comments on what to do?

[-Bill- (of wgjohns.com)]

I have been using BXVC for a while and it works great, but now that I have gone to BVC my verbal commands are not recognized. I have performed more training sessions, but BVC still is having trouble recognizing my verbal commands. I actually tried both a few minutes ago, and BVC did not recognize the commands that BXVC did. Any comments on what to do?

Without more specific information, I have to ask; "After starting BVC, did you go to the "File" menu and select "Import Settings From BXVC..."?"

[HA Dave]

"After starting BVC, did you go to the "File" menu and select "Import Settings From BXVC..."?"

Is that in the manual Bill?

[philliec]

I did import my settings. It was not explicit to do this during the install (from what I remember), but after searching around it was rather obvious that that importing the settings from BXVC was the thing to do.

Now, not to worry. Both programs are now working equally bad. I now think that the problem could be a result of my 13 year old daughter who loves your program. She has been training the speech recognition portion of the program and has customized it to her voice. I need to dig into the Microsoft portion of this and see how you deal with different users. The good news is that she has learned something practical about this technology and her friends are learning too.

Thanks Bill

[-Bill- (of wgjohns.com)]

I did import my settings. It was not explicit to do this during the install (from what I remember), but after searching around it was rather obvious that that importing the settings from BXVC was the thing to do.

Now, not to worry. Both programs are now working equally bad. I now think that the problem could be a result of my 13 year old daughter who loves your program. She has been training the speech recognition portion of the program and has customized it to her voice. I need to dig into the Microsoft portion of this and see how you deal with different users. The good news is that she has learned something practical about this technology and her friends are learning too.

Thanks Bill

philliec,

Thanks for the update.   

That was the most obvious reason I could think of that the two programs would act differently on the same machine.  I'm sorry I didn't make it more obvious that importing settings was required when upgrading from BXVC.  All the worse, upgrades from one version of BXVC to another didn't require an import step, which made the need to import even less obvious.  That is certainly something I should work on.

Sorry about the multi-user issue... something I still haven't sorted out yet.  One possibility I can think of though is that since the MS Voice Recognition engine chooses the default Speech profile for the currently logged in Windows user, it may be that if you create separate Windows user accounts for yourself and your daughter on your machine that any training and such done for MS VR would only apply to the currently logged in Windows user.  I'm not sure this is true, as I have been too busy to try it myself, and it also has the drawback that changing the user to recognize requires manually logging in and out Windows users.

I'm glad to hear you, your daughter and her friends are all having fun with it!   

Thanks again for reporting back!

[-Bill- (of wgjohns.com)]

Wow, how quickly time passes!

About time for another "status report" I think.

First, thanks go out to Tcat, and a couple others (I am waiting for a response to my emails about how they would like to be listed), for their monitary donations!   

Second, thanks again to GLT and Dave_X10_L for testing a (hopefully soon to be released) version of BVC that supports IR control.

Third, as mentioned above, the soon to be released version of BVC supports learning IR (Infra-red) Codes from your TV, VCR, etc. remotes, and adds functionality to "Custom Commands" and "Listeners" to allow for sending those codes out to control your IR devices!   

The IR device I am working with at present is the USB-UIRT (I personally prefer the "USB-UIRT w/additional 56KHz IR Sensor *BLACK USB CABLE*", as some remotes use 56KHz and it is only $5.00 more!).  It hooks up to the computer running BVC through a USB port.  If you choose to order one, please try and tell them that "bill@wgjohns.com" sent you!  I am trying to work out a deal with them to get a better price for BVC users and / or a small commission for improving their sales!  (every little bit helps!)    However, I don't think they are taking me seriously so far!   

[HA Dave]

BVC Voice Control just keeps getting better and better.

Last night and (early this morning) I added weather reporting to my BVC setup. I wasn't the first to do this, that honor goes to david3336 at Bill's own forum, where I read about it. I followed david3336's directions, while chatting with Bill (and KDR) in KDR's HA Chatroom. Bill discovered a simpler method.... which I will describe.

I downloaded and installed the free trial version of Weather Aloud. For $19.99 ($US) I will likely buy it. There are a few settings to get correct, and I don't have directions. But the basic idea is have ONE cities weather conditions and forecast downloaded to file. The file (which Weather Aloud will name) can be read (in the background) in the voice you select (I use a third-party voice from Neospeech) and then it is saved as a WAV file. I set mine to re-save every 15 minutes.

I saved the WAV file (Bill's idea) in the BVC audio file folder (C:\Program Files\wgjohns.com\BVC\User Data\Audio Files). Then I simply created a BVC Listener that plays the audio file triggered by X10 code D9. Then I created a BVC custom command the triggers D9 (the listener).

The reason I used the listener and the X10 house/Unit code is so I can trigger the weather report manually (if manually means pushing a button) or by a timer, or other (X10 triggered) event.

Now I say "computer...... outside weather please". And Kate tells me the temperature, humidity, wind speed & direction, and the time & date this information was collected (never more than 15 minutes old).

[-Bill- (of wgjohns.com)]

Yes!
Dave_x10_L finally got me to try out Weather Aloud and it is really neat!

By having it read the weather to a .wav file (stored wherever you like) every so often, all that is left to do is create a "Custom Command" in BVC and tell it to play that .wav file and you have a verbal command to get the current weather conditions!

If you want to have the conditions read with an X10 signal as a trigger, you just need to set up a BVC "Listener" that responds to the X10 signal by playing that file too.

Very cool!

While I have been considering adding a feature to read the weather to BVC, I'm really not sure I can top what you get by combining Weather Aloud with BVC now!

Not to mention that at about $20 Weather Aloud is a pretty cheap add on with many extra features (like a current temperature on the Windows task bar) that I probably wouldn't have included myself!   

[HA Dave]

And..... I recently ordered a powerflash unit and garage-door magnet switch (though the read switch off a DS10A would have likely worked just as well). When they arrive BVC will "remind" me when the garage door is left open.

Since I already have a universal module laying around, I might also create a macro to make the door auto-close.

Gosh BVC makes X10 FUN!!!

[Tcat]

You are certainly welcome Bill. And yes, my real first name is Tcat. (google me if you think I am kidding).

Really, I'm ashamed of the amt. of the PayPal donation. My only excuse is I'm not actively using the great work you have done. That was just a moral support "you rock".  I'm not at home much as a travelling computer security trainer. (Gotta make hay while the sun is shining as an independent trainer).

I know that as the fall holidays approach, I will be "home" as people don't want to be in classes...

A brain "fart" which may or may not work.... Dragon Naturally Speaking blows away L&H, now MS speech. Seems better than IBM too. The Open Source *nix project  is years behind... So if you could find "hooks" to Dragon, your efforts would multiple.

Dragon Standard is basic just outside of dictation. Dragon Preferred is available new for about $60. The ability to create custom speech (e.g. "Wish you we're here" will type  "My wonderful wife, I'm warm for your form!") if you want it to. This may have excellent methods to extend BVC.

Dragon V8 is OK. Dragon 9.x is truly amazing. They are up to 9.5, which is compatible Vista. Any V8.x or 9.x licence upgrades to 9.5 I understand they also accept ViaVoice V9 for an upgrade.

I'm jazzed about Dragon V9 as it can "learn" 8-bit Bluetooth. They have done a good job with pocket recorder "training" for some time....

I don't mess with the Medical or Legal versions... seem expensive, however my students tell me its rocks in those industries.

I do know that, please forgive the term, Quads use it successfully with some small 3rd party software to do total mouse command movement.

There is major discussion about all this at http://www.speechcomputing.com

It appears to me that since it all becomes "keyboard output", hooking to the premiere SR engine would extend BVC to levels MS hasn't dreamed of. Yes, Vista Speech is a far cry from the L&H purchase. It is a total re-write.  In my research, a couple folks call the new Vista speech on par with Dragon. Those who use this stuff daily, say Dragon is still far ahead of the game.

My early look agrees that Vista has done a better job with "accuracy" than before. Maybe really close to Dragon. And it appears that Dragon, even without 3rd party assist, has much more "if-then" macro capabilities.   I have not tried the low end "BlueTooth" input. Not what I use Dragon for. I use it to create piles of tech books, FAST. The accuracy has "sold" me on Dragon, 5-6 years ago. Again, the Law Enforcement folks I do training with have been blown away at what the Dragon can do for them using BlueTooth and Digital Recorder.

One thing Dragon  is really good at is the "context" of what was said. With a bit of work, it can really tune to a user and deliver mountains of accuracy...

Bill, I would be happy to send you a new 9.x licence and CD out of my collection of them if you want to see how it can "hook".

It is my opinion that with where you are going, if coupled with a "serious" <$500-600> PC, you really could have the 21st century "Jetson's Rosie" that would do everything but clean the house.

My last gripe is Dragon *still* uses SAPI V4 for the engine. That limits the use of my Text Aloud, Weather Aloud, and other fun and real work as I prefer to use SAPI V5 voices. So it will not "read" to me, news, emails, etc. while I walk around the house, with voices I have licenced. I'm forced to use Text Aloud. And I can see where the macro capabilities of Dragon Preferred will let me "join The aloud series" to Dragon. 

In my humble opinion, the $60 or so extra expense of Dragon Preferred would really pale in comparing to putting in high-end mikes, verses the built-in mikes in X10 low end cameras. Further, I "think" there are some external DSP circuits that would take X10 audio in that would clean up the signal before Dragon got it. This would be an incredible jump in a larger install or a family where voices range from grandfathers like me, to 8 year old girls...  Switch user is a given in Dragon... It is changing from one human language to another (English to Russian, for example) that is seems to come up a bit weak to make this happen on the fly... But I really haven't played with the macros... So maybe I'm the ID10T here...

Just a thought as I have 4 whole days at home

Tcat

[TakeTheActive]

You are certainly welcome Bill. And yes, my real first name is Tcat. (google me if you think I am kidding)...

Long time professional computer geek. Author (Formally as Tim Catura-Houser), since June 2000 as Tcat Houser).
Multiple certifications.

Course designer.

All around friendly geek who cares about people and computers.

Lived in Seattle for 30 years, currently a digital nomad.

[NOTE the special attention to a GEEK-type FONT. ]

Really, I'm ashamed of the amt. of the PayPal donation...

Let's see:

• Cher
• Hildegarde
• Liberace
• Madonna
• Prince
• Sting
• Tcat

[/color][/b]
Should be AT LEAST 3 significant digits to the left of the decimal point, considering the company...

...Just a thought as I have 4 whole days at home

*ANY* original THOUGHTS, compared to the usual fare of " WAH! WAH! IT DON'T WORK! " whining are a pleasant change-of-pace.

[-Bill- (of wgjohns.com)]

... And yes, my real first name is Tcat. (google me if you think I am kidding).

Actually, I looked you up from your email address when I was asking about listing you as a contributor. 

Really, I'm ashamed of the amt. of the PayPal donation. My only excuse is I'm not actively using the great work you have done. That was just a moral support "you rock".  ...

Don't be ashamed.  Any amount helps!     Truthfully, at this point it is mostly about the moral support.  The donations and "atta boy's" help offset the feeling I get (as I watch the download count go up and receive no donations and no feedback) that everyone out there is a "user" (in the bad sense of the word) and I am a fool for allowing myself to be taken advantage of.  So, thanks for reminding me that there are still good people out there who understand that a good deal of work goes into this stuff and have the conscience to show their appreciation!   

...
A brain "fart" which may or may not work.... Dragon Naturally Speaking blows away L&H, now MS speech. Seems better than IBM too. The Open Source *nix project  is years behind... So if you could find "hooks" to Dragon, your efforts would multiple.
...

Yes, DNS is a much better VR engine IMHO also.  So far, however, I have only support for SAPI 5 compliant VR engines.  Hopefully in the future, Dragon will update to SAPI 5 and / or I will get around to working out support for SAPI 4.

...
Bill, I would be happy to send you a new 9.x licence and CD out of my collection of them if you want to see how it can "hook".
...

It would be interesting to look at.  My initial idea was to use what was included for free or freely downloadable, however many people have asked about support for Dragon and / or SAPI 4 voices, so I am getting more "into" the idea of supporting these.  "The customer is always right", right?   

It is my opinion that with where you are going, if coupled with a "serious" <$500-600> PC, you really could have the 21st century "Jetson's Rosie" that would do everything but clean the house.

I was thinking more HAL 9000, or the Enterprise computer in Star Trek the Next Generation, or even Disney's "Smart House", but yes like George Jetson, my "button pushing finger" was getting sore!   

...
Just a thought as I have 4 whole days at home

Tcat

I did that once.