the best voice command software????

[zohaer21]

hello
with so many aps offering voice comand to launch calls and apps which one is the best one?
thanks

ps: impt to me is launching games and other apps in addition to voice dial

[Darius Wey]

I think you will find Microsoft Voice Command (http://www.handango.com/ampp/store/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=311&productId=90635&productType=2) to be the best one suited to your needs.

[aristoBrat]

I agree w/ Voice Command. IMO, it's expensive ($40), but does offer a 5 day free demo. I liked it better than Fonix.

Oh, and Voice Command can launch any program on your PPC. :)

[Chris Spera]

I've used Voice Signal (i700 and MPx220) and Voice Command (i700 and i-mate PDA2k), and like Voice Command the best. It may be a bit pricey, but the cost is worth the benefits.

[q-live]

microsoft voice command is STR8 GARBAGE :evil: :evil: .... thank god i didnt have to pay for it because i would even be madder than i am now.... fonix has one out that i am gonna try soon.... my thing is try both of the demos out and see which one you will like the most

[aristoBrat]

What problem did you have with Voice Commander?

On my XDA, it was way more accurate finding my contacts than Fonix.

[Darius Wey]

microsoft voice command is STR8 GARBAGE Evil or Very Mad Evil or Very Mad .... thank god i didnt have to pay for it because i would even be madder than i am now....
What problem did you have with Voice Commander?

My experiences with Voice Command have been excellent. It caters for American English though (but Australian and British accents work fine), so for those with a heavy English accent, it may not work to your liking.

[q-live]

havent tried fonix yet so i cant comment, but will try it soon. MVC is no good. im american and can speak english quit well but it still have a hard time. i have even dabled with the volume and that "agc" thats associated with volume control and its still finds the contacts only 65 percent of the time if that :evil: :!: :evil: :!:

[aristoBrat]

havent tried fonix yet so i cant comment, but will try it soon. MVC is no good. im american and can speak english quit well but it still have a hard time. i have even dabled with the volume and that "agc" thats associated with volume control and its still finds the contacts only 65 percent of the time if that :evil: :!: :evil: :!:
FWIW, the only time I had problems w/ MVC not finding a contact 100% is when I wasn't saying the contacts full name.

[ebadger]

q-live, what device do you have?

MSVC 1.5 is coming soon and is optimized for the HP6315, XDA II and XDAIII devices. All three of these devices have latency issues when opening the audio device that can impact recognition quality that have been worked around. The XDA II and XDAIII seem to have random gain settings which have caused all kinds of problems on these devices - that has been fixed with 1.5. I believe 1.5 will be released on Handango within days.

Additionally the latency between when the TTS is speaking and when you can speak has been optimized. I think people will find the experience to be much better. Also there are some cool new features :)

[aristoBrat]

I'm using a old XDA -- maybe that's why I haven't had any problems. :?:

[q-live]

q-live, what device do you have?

MSVC 1.5 is coming soon and is optimized for the HP6315, XDA II and XDAIII devices. All three of these devices have latency issues when opening the audio device that can impact recognition quality that have been worked around. The XDA II and XDAIII seem to have random gain settings which have caused all kinds of problems on these devices - that has been fixed with 1.5. I believe 1.5 will be released on Handango within days.

Additionally the latency between when the TTS is speaking and when you can speak has been optimized. I think people will find the experience to be much better. Also there are some cool new features :)





i have the 6315

[capo]

"MSVC 1.5 is coming soon..." ebadger, where did you get this information? (I'm not arguing, just salivating heavily for "cool new features") :-)

FWIW, I've tried both Fonix Voice Alert and MS Voice Command on my iPaq 4155. I went for Fonix first because of the $40 price tag on Microsoft's app. Fonix worked very poorly for me and Fonix never once answered any of my requests for help or those submitted by Handango on my behalf. After a refund (thank you, Handango) I tried the demo of MVC - it worked very well, so I swallowed hard and bought it. I currently use it a lot to play audio files in my car (a noisy convertible) and it works very well. Don't take my word for it - try the demos.

[martin_ayton]

Looks like I might need MSVC too - I like Fonix VoiceDial, but I can't live with the fact that you can't start it up from the headset button (wired or bluetooth). So, I have two questions:

1) Will MSVC stay resident and 'listening' on the PPC (I have an Xda2s), so that I can just 'wake it up' with the headset button?

2) I notice from Darius' link that customers have to be residents of the USA or Canada. I'm based in the UK - is this thing going to work for me?

[I apologise for effectively dual posting. I missed this thread when I started a new one asking about how to start voice recognition software from the headset.]

[Darius Wey]

1) Will MSVC stay resident and 'listening' on the PPC (I have an Xda2s), so that I can just 'wake it up' with the headset button?

Yes, Voice Command is mapped to a button of your choice. All you need to do is press it and it will be listening to what you have to say.

2) I notice from Darius' link that customers have to be residents of the USA or Canada. I'm based in the UK - is this thing going to work for me?

If you can purchase it from those countries, then yes, it will work when you're back in the UK, and it should be fine with your accent as well. :)

[martin_ayton]

Thanks, Darius. One more question if I may: my PPC uses WM2003SE. I read somewehere that MSVC doesn't support SE. Does anyone know if that is true?

[EddieH28]

just be careful if you use the XDA III or one of the clones....some of the bluetooth headsets do not have an audio gateway. that means you can say commands into the headset and MSVC will acknowledge them. you have to speak directly into the device to say a name to dial, then the sound will transfer into the headset.

on another note. version 1.0 sucks big time for the XDA III. i had 1.1 demo but it ended after 5 days and because i got 1.0 as a gift i have to buy 1.1. can someone tell me how much better 1.1 is from 1.0?

[martin_ayton]

To be honest, I have had few of the problems others have reported with this: it picks up WiFi reasonably well and, since I installed the BT patch, I have had no problems with my Jabra 250v headset. The headset does not offer profiles other than 'hands-free' and 'headset' though...

I'll go try the demo and let you know how I get on.

[Darius Wey]

Thanks, Darius. One more question if I may: my PPC uses WM2003SE. I read somewehere that MSVC doesn't support SE. Does anyone know if that is true?

No. It works fine with WM2003SE. The only incompatibility seen thus far is on devices featuring WMP10 Mobile. All other voice command functions work fine on those devices except for the media commands. There has been talk of an update providing WMP10 Mobile support, but it is not yet known when it will be released.

[dignow96]

So how do you assign VC to a button on a BT earpiece? Thanks.

[Darius Wey]

So how do you assign VC to a button on a BT earpiece? Thanks.

If the native buttons applet won't do it for you, you may need to resort to a third-party button mapping application, as long as it supports it.

[Jeff Rutledge]

I'm not sure that will work. Voice Commander isn't a Program and that seems to prevent it from showing up as an assignable option.

I don't know about all button apps, but I can't assign Voice Commander to a button using Vito Button Mapper. I just tried it today for the first time (this thread made me want to try Voice Commander again). I've had to disable Button Mapper for now. I'm going to send a message to Vito to see if they have any suggestions. Hopefully there's a fix as I'd like to have both working together.

[dignow96]

Ok, so do you think that Vito's voice dialer could be mapped to my earpiece? I've used both programs and was seriously unimpressed with Voice Dialer but would give it another shot if Vito's button mapper would let me wake it up via my earpiece. I guess I'll download a trial and find out. Please let us know what they say about VC since I would much rather use it. Thanks!

[Darius Wey]

I'm not sure that will work. Voice Commander isn't a Program and that seems to prevent it from showing up as an assignable option.

Interesting. I don't use Button Mapper so I can't say for sure if it works or not. In the native buttons applet, Voice Command appears as an option and that's how you enable the button functionality.

[dignow96]

I can map one of my PPCPE's buttons to VC but there is no option to map any of the buttons on my earpiece to software on my device. That's what I'm trying to do. I want to push the control button on my ear piece, have it activate VC, speak as I would on any other call, have the sound transmitted thru my earpiece to my phone, have VC on the phone recognize the speech, and place the call.

[Darius Wey]

I can map one of my PPCPE's buttons to VC but there is no option to map any of the buttons on my earpiece to software on my device. That's what I'm trying to do. I want to push the control button on my ear piece, have it activate VC, speak as I would on any other call, have the sound transmitted thru my earpiece to my phone, have VC on the phone recognize the speech, and place the call.

Okay, thanks for clarifying what you were after. I'll stick it on my "To Investigate" list and if I find a solution, I'll let you know.

[martin_ayton]

OK - Here's the low down:

I can't manage to assign the MSVC start-up button to a headset button (wired or BT). That option is just not available in the buttons menu. I can assign it to an easily accessible button on the XdaII so that is a just-about-useable solution. Unlike Fonix VoiceDial, MSVC goes straight into listening mode with the button press.

Despite having a BT headset with an audio gateway profile, the gateway appears to be one-way for this app.: i.e. MSVC listens to me via the BT headset, but talks to me via the PPC loudspeaker.

The warnings about USA-only use have some meaning to them: MSVC expects particular number formats when dialing numbers (as opposed to picking contacts). None of these match UK 'phone no. formats, so you cannot dial numbers by voice in the UK.

MSVC is very picky about how fast you respond to prompts: I couldn't get it to dial anything at all until I realised I had to pause for a heartbeat or two before saying 'yes' or 'correct' in response to it's query.

All in all, not a particularly stunning performance, but probably the best available :? . I will probably uninstall Fonix VoiceDial and go and buy MSVC.

[koppee1]

if you go to the button settings, there will be a choice there for "voice command" and that will let you set a button for it.

As for Fonix and MVC, they are both driving me crazy. I can't imagine how it works "perfectly" for many people as both are driving me nuts! : :mrgreen:

I speak good english and no matter how i say it or try to say it, it doesn't always get it right. Especially Fonix, half the time, when I say "contacts", it opens up tasks. argh. hehe. Even when i "trained" fonix and recorded a nick for a contact it still doesn't get it right all the time.

I did find somethign weird. When I was recording the nicks for the contacts, 90% of the playbacks of the recording caught my kid screaming in the next room. That's one sensitive microphone. I wonder if that's why it's not so accurate for me. The mic picks up everything else around me :/

I'm still deciding what to put in permanently. sigh.

[martin_ayton]

Yeah, I thought that too, after all the button on the wired headset is one that is supplied with the phone, however the headset button is not an option on the built-in button mapper. Sigh.

I am interested in the mentions (above) of 3rd party button mappers which might allow this to happen. Can anyone suggest an app. which they *know* will do the job?

Re.: Fonix - I don't have any problems with it except that I cannot get it to just start: it always goes to the voice selection screen first. That means that it is impossible to use it in anything resembling a hands-free mode and is, therefore, completely useless to me. :roll:

[koppee1]

strange. fonix asked me which button i wanted for it to be mapped to the first time i installed it and ever since that button worked as the launcher. My only problem is I'm starting to believe Microsoft Voice works better for me. It could even understand "call" today when I was driving. Maybe it was the music or something...argh.

[martin_ayton]

Sorry, I appear to have been unclear:

I *can* map Fonix or MSVC to a button on the PPC body.
I *cannot* map them to the button on a plug-in or wireless (BT) headset

Therefore, if I am using my PPC as a 'phone via a headset, I can't just leave it in my bag / pocket / back of the car because I actually have to touch the PPC to get the voice software to work.

I would like to point out to the manufacturers that this is different to *every* other mobile 'phone with voice dialling on the market :evil:

[koppee1]

uhmm yeah. i know. I don't know why I said that button stuff. Guess my brain isn't working 100% :D sue me :p

[dignow96]

Just went to check out MSVC 1.5 after seeing it on the front page. Right there in the middle of the product description on Handango:

"Bluetooth Headset Support: Voice Command does not support using a Bluetooth headset to initiate a voice command but you can use a Bluetooth headset during the phone conversation."

Very disappointing. I've had the best sucess with MSVC actually understanding what I say and doing what I want but I'm still after that truely hands free operation of using only my BT earpiece to activate MSVC and place calls.

[Kadegboye]

Hi,
This is good news that another edition of Microsoft Voice Command ( i.e MVC 1.5) which corrects the latency issues is coming out soon. I tried the current edition of MCV on my XDA II and I was seriously disappointed. I had to ask for a refund. I will be the first person to try it as soon as it comes out.
Kay.

[Darius Wey]

Hi,
This is good news that another edition of Microsoft Voice Command ( i.e MVC 1.5) which corrects the latency issues is coming out soon. I tried the current edition of MCV on my XDA II and I was seriously disappointed. I had to ask for a refund. I will be the first person to try it as soon as it comes out.
Kay.

Voice Command 1.5 is already out. I posted (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=36273) on it yesterday. ;)

[koppee1]

anyone try it out yet? is it really "improved" :D

[dignow96]

I've been using VC 1.5 all day and am seriously pissed off. I'm a native english speaker who grew up in the military and is basically accent-less. I had to reinstall it twice today and each time I only got one use out of it. It doesn't respond to any commands, will not announce incoming or outgoing calls. NOTHING seems to work. I've already deleted it and reinstalled the old version.

[Darius Wey]

I had to reinstall it twice today and each time I only got one use out of it.

I've heard reports of that too. It seems a couple of soft-resets kickstarts it again. :?

[koppee1]

hmm doesn't sound too good. :?

[timcolling]

I am a Nebraska-born person who has lived in California for most of my 52 years, so I believe that I have no accent. I installed the trial of VC 1.5 and I am not very impressed with it. It seems to work best primarily with the native Microsoft apps on my Ipaq 5555 such as Calendar, Contacts, and so forth.

It does not do well at understanding names of contacts to be looked up, and it does not do well at understanding names of non-Microsoft applications that I use all the time such as Pocket Informant, Pocket Plan, Pocket Bible, and others.

It also does not work at all if there is very much in the way of ambient noise. For example, it does not work at all if I use it when I am driving in my car, with the windows all rolled up and with the radio NOT turned on. That's terrible, since my primary use for the product would be to make it safe to look up information while driving.

I will probably not purchase this product when the five-day trial expires.

- Tim

[koppee1]

I have the same experience using either Fonix or MVC. Although with regards to getting the phone to dial my wife's cellphone, MVC did the better job. But yes, both drove me crazy when I tried to do something else. I kept repeating my commands and it insisted of doing something else or calling someone else. Makes me curious about all those raving reviews regarding both software. "WOrks great." "Understood everything including foreign names" blah blah. Maybe they had an ultra secret super performance version that isn't released to the public. 0X

[Kadegboye]

Hi,
I have been trying Microsoft Voice Command for two days now. I am yet to be impressed with it. It picks up a few names from the contact address but does not understand any numbers at all. I want to try it for three more days and if there is no improvement, I will not buy it.
Kay.

[koppee1]

I noticed that Fonix was better with numbers while MVC was better with the names. but not by much hehe.

[ebadger]

I am a Nebraska-born person who has lived in California for most of my 52 years, so I believe that I have no accent. I installed the trial of VC 1.5 and I am not very impressed with it. It seems to work best primarily with the native Microsoft apps on my Ipaq 5555 such as Calendar, Contacts, and so forth.

It does not do well at understanding names of contacts to be looked up, and it does not do well at understanding names of non-Microsoft applications that I use all the time such as Pocket Informant, Pocket Plan, Pocket Bible, and others.

It also does not work at all if there is very much in the way of ambient noise. For example, it does not work at all if I use it when I am driving in my car, with the windows all rolled up and with the radio NOT turned on. That's terrible, since my primary use for the product would be to make it safe to look up information while driving.

I will probably not purchase this product when the five-day trial expires.

- Tim


Tim, Try turning down the input audio gain on your device to a lower setting.

There should be no difference in VC's ability to launch applications based on whether or not they are MS apps or not. There is no preference given to MS apps. All app names are fed to the SR engine in the same way. If you are having trouble recognizing an app name, you can change the name of the shortcut to make it easier for the SR engine to understand how the name should be pronounced.

[timcolling]

I am a Nebraska-born person who has lived in California for most of my 52 years, so I believe that I have no accent. I installed the trial of VC 1.5 and I am not very impressed with it. It seems to work best primarily with the native Microsoft apps on my Ipaq 5555 such as Calendar, Contacts, and so forth.

It does not do well at understanding names of contacts to be looked up, and it does not do well at understanding names of non-Microsoft applications that I use all the time such as Pocket Informant, Pocket Plan, Pocket Bible, and others.

It also does not work at all if there is very much in the way of ambient noise. For example, it does not work at all if I use it when I am driving in my car, with the windows all rolled up and with the radio NOT turned on. That's terrible, since my primary use for the product would be to make it safe to look up information while driving.

I will probably not purchase this product when the five-day trial expires.

- Tim


Tim, Try turning down the input audio gain on your device to a lower setting.

There should be no difference in VC's ability to launch applications based on whether or not they are MS apps or not. There is no preference given to MS apps. All app names are fed to the SR engine in the same way. If you are having trouble recognizing an app name, you can change the name of the shortcut to make it easier for the SR engine to understand how the name should be pronounced.

Hi EBadger -

Thank you for taking the time to reply to my post. I would try your suggestions, except that now my five days are up for the trial, and I am not interested in purchasing the product for forty bucks on the chance that I would be much more satisfied after trying your suggestion (returns of products like this are impossible).

Thanks,
Tim

[Kadegboye]

Hi,
I have tried MVC for the full five days and I am disappointed at it. I am going to delete it now and try Fonix instead.
Kay.