Asked
— Edited
We have managed to integrate Cortana unlimited (same as dictation mode) speech recognition with ARC which now means we can input any speech into ARC (for no cost unlike Dragon). we are using the HTTP custom server as can be seen on the screendump below.
We added a Pandorabot to ARC (to use it with unlimited speech) but it always seems to use it's own (default MS) speech recognition and we can't see a way to send our speech string into the Pandorabot.
Can DJ or anyone advise how we may do this - running Pandorabot with reliable/accurate unlimited speech recognition would be very neat!
Thanks in advance for any help.
Tony
David, yes when running my Cortana app the resources are up a bit.
With my Cortana app (and ARC) running I get 3 to 8% CPU
With it not running I get 1 to 4% CPU
This is on an i3 Windows 10 Acer micro desktop PC
The main thing is that I seem to be getting SR (dictation) accuracy that is close to Dragon and its free. The ability to say anything into ARC has some good applications and gets it away from having to use pre-defined grammers.
Alan, the TellMe info came from this wikipedia page
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortana_(software)
Tony
Tony, Right. If you had an Atom you would see higher load. It would be up around 10% without running anything just because the service is running on the device. Once the exe is yanked out from under the os you get down to about 2%. This is without running anything at all through the SR engine in both instances.
As you say, it is good for free, if you upgraded to windows 10. The issue with adding it to ARC as a core component is now the software would have to require windows 10, which not everyone was keen on. This is one of the reasons that we didn't use it in our project. We wanted to run on the same platforms that ARC supported. Unfortunately, to get from pre-windows 10 to windows 10 is no longer free, so using cortana is no longer free for people who didn't upgrade. I just wanted to be sure this was out there somewhere so that people would know. I also work with others who have mac's and run bootcamp which doesn't always allow you to upgrade to the latest version of windows. I know that 2010 model macbooks wont allow you to go above Windows 7. If this was placed in as a core piece of ARC, you would then have to make known to these users that their hardware can no longer support all of the features of EZ-Robot or write a component that would simulate the purpose of the service that is running that would be compatible with the older OS's. That could be done and might be done by someone at some point, eliminating the concern.
I am fine with it either way. I just wanted to make it known to people before a huge push happens that requires or recommends that ARC run on Windows 10. I run all different types of OS's and my windows computers are windows 10, except for the computers going into my school. It is easy enough to find purposes for these computers aside from ARC though but just trying to make sure all of the cost information is available...
David, some good points there and you are right it will only work on Windows 10 upwards when it comes to PC, tablet etc.
But I am really surprised how well it works, I thought it would but did not expect this accuracy without any prior training.
Tony
Sounds good to me...I am operating on an upgraded Windows. Anyways, it would not be a core feature it would rather be a plugin right? ARC does not run on Vista btw...
It depends on what DJ decides to do. It could be a plugin, or made to be a core component. DJ builds the core components and anyone can build a plugin.
DJ, it may be my age, or maybe as I get older I am getting a bit thick! I have spent a lot of time trying, but I just cannot see any way to add an external SR input to pandorabot via ARC. There is a script for the output side but this is no use here.
Are you sure there is a way? Maybe you misunderstood what I am trying to do, it may be not possible at present.
The recognised speech string arrives in the HTTP custom server as seen below, this string then needs to somehow get into pandorabot
Obviously in the string the %20 is the space (blank) character.
I would greatly appreciate any advice/example that you can give.
Tony
Ok, not receiving any reply/answers, then I must be correct that there is no way to convert the (HTTP custom server) received cortana SR phrase data into a text string that can then be used in pandorabot.
I must say that I am surprised that there seems to be no interest in linking cortana (unlimited SR) into ARC, I guess I will now need to do this outside ARC (in my own custom software) if the link with pandorabot is not possible.
Tony
This article from Computerworld tends to indicate Cortana is spyware. Not to mention hard to rid yourself of. Perhaps people are wary of using it.