voxpup - a voice controlled puppy

For talk and support relating specifically to Puppy derivatives
Message
Author
ndujoe1
Posts: 851
Joined: Mon 05 Dec 2005, 01:06

#31 Post by ndujoe1 »

Thanks for the fast service. I apologize for being old fashioned I guess in how I use PuppyLinux. In my scheme of things, the hard drive doesn't have any boot sector on it. I boot from CD with the Personal Storage Files. Use SFS files with regularity, I have set up a partition for my common data, and setup a Linux swap partition that all puppy flavors that I try partake.

Just a lazy, if it ain't broke don't fix it way of using Puppylinux I guess.

User avatar
greengeek
Posts: 5789
Joined: Tue 20 Jul 2010, 09:34
Location: Republic of Novo Zelande

#32 Post by greengeek »

ndujoe1 wrote:Just a lazy, if it ain't broke don't fix it way of using Puppylinux I guess.
Nothing wrong with that methodology. That's one of the great things about Puppy - set it up exactly how you want to use it. Thanks for trying voxpup - all feedback is very helpful.

ndujoe1
Posts: 851
Joined: Mon 05 Dec 2005, 01:06

Restarting Vox Puppy

#33 Post by ndujoe1 »

My diction is not quite correct. I would like for the PocketSphinx to start again and learn my voice cadence.

User avatar
greengeek
Posts: 5789
Joined: Tue 20 Jul 2010, 09:34
Location: Republic of Novo Zelande

Re: Restarting Vox Puppy

#34 Post by greengeek »

ndujoe1 wrote:My diction is not quite correct. I would like for the PocketSphinx to start again and learn my voice cadence.
Actually - pocketsphinx does not do ANY learning of the cadence at all. In fact the opposite is true - it is up to the user to learn how pocketsphinx pronounces it's words. In some ways this is a strength (because other voice recognition software forces you to spend a ridiculous amount of time 'training' the software, which pocketsphinx does not) but in other ways is a weakness - the pocketsphinx programme has been written to perform well with the American English accent and extension to other languages and accents is still under way by the developers.

(Note that the first step in voxpup's usage of pocketsphinx is to get the user to speak "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" - this does not allow pocketsphinx to 'learn' the users voice - rather it allows the decoding software to lock in on sound quality from the microphone - volume & tone etc)

So - the short answer is that if the user is having recognition problems they can improve those issues by sometimes trying to emulate a slight American accent (slight rolling of the R's etc), or by modifying the word vocabulary to get around specific difficulties (this vocab modification is a procedure that needs more indepth description - it is not just a case of modifying text in a file)

Are you able to post specific words or phrases that are giving trouble?

If you open the command list and read each line - do most of them seem to work for you, or are specific ones troublesome?

I found some words are spoken quite differently in American English than in my New Zealand English - so I had to modify my speech.
Examples:
"kilo" seems to be pronounced as "killo" in the US, whereas I say "keelo"
"Lima" seems to be pronounced as "Lyma" in the US, whereas I say "Leema"

For this reason I added some "alternative" words to help get around such problems. (If using the NATO phonetic alphabet to spell out a sentence, I use "London" instead of 'Lima' and I use 'kitten' instead of 'kilo')

How would you describe your accent?

There can be other issues that affect word decoding - usually hardware issues such as power supply hum etc. And there is one other important point to make here - I have set up pocketsphinx to decode what I call 'junk words' if your sentence does not exactly match one of the phrases in the command list.
Example: - if someone rattles the cups in the pantry while you are in the middle of saying "voice-control-start-browser' you may see a decoded phrase such as 'boys cop stump dog blouse wart"

This is not a problem with pocketsphinx failing to understand your accent - simply a problem with purity of sound caught by the microphone.

Any examples you can highlight may allow me to make further suggestions, or help me to tailor the vocabulary / command list to overcome the problems.

EDIT : The best tips I can give for good speech recognition are - speak in a completely normal voice, at normal volume, and normal pace - don't try to separate words artificially, just say the phrase as if you were speaking to a friend in a normal conversation.
Also - after you speak the phrase you must be silent - pocketsphinx needs a moment of silence to 'realise' you have stopped talking and are waiting for it to decode what you just said. Try to avoid loud exhaling or sniffing as it tries to include those in your decoded sentence and of course those sounds do not appear in the vocab list :-)
.

ndujoe1
Posts: 851
Joined: Mon 05 Dec 2005, 01:06

#35 Post by ndujoe1 »

Well that is an interesting lingual approach for the computer. I will try to learn how it speaks the words.

I have a Southern - Midwestern accent according to a google test.

I say keelo, and Leema.

I may be trying to be too artificial in my pronunciation. I will attempt to talk in a more normal cadence. Since I was young always have had difficulty enunciating words properly. Using this interface may in fact help me improve my diction some you never know. I was able to open up the word processor and paint for example. And close the file manager window thus far.

hamoudoudou

That is a nice project, Greengeek.. Really.

#36 Post by hamoudoudou »

That is a nice project, Greengeek.. Really.

Post Reply