Asked
— Edited
Voice recognition is one of the most used controls within ARC however many struggle with accuracy and confidence, more so with the Pandora Bot control. So here are a few tips to improve the accuracy and confidence levels.
Improve Speech Recognition Start Speech Recognition
- Go to the Start button.
- Click on Control Panel.
- Click on Search box in the upper right-hand corner.
- Type "Speech".
- Click on Speech Recognition.
- Click on Start Speech Recognition.
- Click on Next.
- Select the type of microphone you are using and click on Next.
- Check the position of your microphone and click on Next.
- Read the sentence provided and click on Next. Note: You can proceed to the next page only after reading the sentences.
- Click on Next.
- Choose "Disable document review" radio button and click on Next.
- Choose "Voice activation mode" radio button and click on Next.
- Click on Next.
- Click on Next. Note: you can access the list of commands the computer can respond to later if you do not want to print it out at this time.
- Click on Next. Note: you can uncheck "Run Speech Recognition at startup" box if you do not want Speech Recognition to start automatically.
- Click on Start Tutorial if you are new to Speech Recognition or Skip Tutorial Note: you can take the tutorial at another time.
Accuracy
- Right-click on Speech Recognition Bar.
- Move mouse over Configuration.
- Click on Improve Voice Recognition from the sub-menu.
- Follow the Speech Recognition Voice Training tutorial.
To Train a word or Phrase
- Say "Open Speech Dictionary" OR
- Right-click on Speech Recognition Bar.
- Click on Open the Speech Dictionary.
- Click on Add a new word (You can also say it).
- Type in the word or phrase you want to train.
- Click on Next.
- Check the Record a pronunciation upon Finish box.
- Make sure speech recognition bar says "Listening".
- Click the Finish button.
- Click the Record button. (Note: Make sure you are satisfied with your recording before moving further. If not, repeat step 8.)
- Uncheck I want to make more modifications to the Speech Dictionary upon Finish box.
- Click on Finish.
When I have time I'll add some supporting images to this to make it easier.
does speech Recognition need to be on while using ARC
No, but training it is easier with it open since all of the options are there for you. Close it once you are done training.
Thanks Rich, this was much needed. I know it was for me. I didnt know some of this stuff. Do you know what the confidence box is within ARC's Speech Rec control is and what it does when you change the setting that is in there?
Thanks again, Dave Schulpius
I can only make an assumption but I would assume confidence is basically how good a match the phrase the computer heard was to a command. If you lower it, then it will accept a command as being good even if it's miles out... i.e. if you said "robot burn Geoff" it would probably hear it and accept it as "robot turn left". But if you were to increase it to a higher value it would not accept it as a valid command. Higher is very useful if you have commands like "robot turn off the lights" and "robot turn on the lights", or even "robot turn left" and "robot burn Geoff" (if you know someone called Geoff who you don't much like).
The adding a command/phrase to the dictionary is a bit of a hidden option, but it really helps improve accuracy/confidence, especially for the Pandora Bot control.
rich, your assumption is correct about the use of the confidence setting (part of my job is working with speech technology. Way more complex and expensive than sapi, and way more tuning than just confidence, but that is where we start).
OK, I've been wondering about that for a long time. I did I just did a few times and noticed a difference in speech recognition accuracy. Thanks for the confirmation an explanation.
I picked up a copy of Dragon NaturallySpeaking today and I have to say that the £75 I have ever spent. In fact I am typing this by speaking now. Dictation mode is really accurate I only had to correct one word in this entire paragraph.
I would highly recommend it. However I have yet to try it with ARC.
Looking forward to how it works with EZ-B builder and bow you set up windows/EZ-B builder to make it work. What mind of microphone are you useing? It would be a great help to see the different results you get with different microphones.