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
1. Go to the Start button.
2. Click on Control Panel.
3. Click on Search box in the upper right-hand corner.
4. Type "Speech".
5. Click on Speech Recognition.
6. Click on Start Speech Recognition.
7. Click on Next.
8. Select the type of microphone you are using and click on Next.
9. Check the position of your microphone and click on Next.
10. Read the sentence provided and click on Next. Note: You can proceed to the next page only after reading the sentences.
11. Click on Next.
12. Choose "Disable document review" radio button and click on Next.
13. Choose "Voice activation mode" radio button and click on Next.
14. Click on Next.
15. 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.
16. Click on Next. Note: you can uncheck "Run Speech Recognition at startup" box if you do not want Speech Recognition to start automatically.
17. Click on Start Tutorial if you are new to Speech Recognition or Skip Tutorial Note: you can take the tutorial at another time.
Accuracy
1. Right-click on Speech Recognition Bar.
2. Move mouse over Configuration.
3. Click on Improve Voice Recognition from the sub-menu.
4. Follow the Speech Recognition Voice Training tutorial.
To Train a word or Phrase
1. Say "Open Speech Dictionary" OR
2. Right-click on Speech Recognition Bar.
3. Click on Open the Speech Dictionary.
4. Click on Add a new word (You can also say it).
5. Type in the word or phrase you want to train.
6. Click on Next.
7. Check the Record a pronunciation upon Finish box.
8. Make sure speech recognition bar says "Listening".
9. Click the Finish button.
10. Click the Record button. (Note: Make sure you are satisfied with your recording before moving further. If not, repeat step 8.)
11. Uncheck I want to make more modifications to the Speech Dictionary upon Finish box.
12. Click on Finish.
When I have time I'll add some supporting images to this to make it easier.
Asked
— Edited
Thanks again, Dave Schulpius
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.
I would highly recommend it. However I have yet to try it with ARC.
I think it'll just work with ARC but not entirely sure since the last time I used Dragon was when it was first released probably over a decade ago, it may just be coincidental but my other voice software I use seems to be working much better now.
I've very interested in how you will get ARC to integrate with Dragon through Windows. Please keep us informed on all the hows and whys. If you can get it to work with ARC I'm going to pick up a copy.
What version did you acquire? I see the Home version is up to 12.0 and they offer a premium version that does more.
Also, it still is a little clunky, or it is on my PC (which desperately needs upgrading!). I'll put more in to it when I eventually upgrade.
On another note, I did find a cool little program that saves voice profiles. Microsoft Speech Recognition Profile Manager Tool - I haven't tried it yet but it looks like it could prove to be very useful.
In my experience, Dragon is miles better than the Windows engine, but you have to buy it. I will in the future be looking into ways of trying to do connect DNS and also our face recognition (and eye tracking) software with ARC via something like telnet.
I'll be looking at figuring out how to use it with ARC eventually but for the time being I have a lot of work to do moving all voice commands for non EZ-B related stuff to DNS... which should prove to be rather "fun"
Telnet seems to be the easiest way to connect/control ARC since it can use EZ-Script and is very simple. A ControlCommand to set something going or stop something, even passing variables through (which could be very good for the Pandora Bot control I know a lot of people want but can't achieve high enough accuracy).
For now though, stick to basic windows voice recognition (or what I've come to think of as voice activation since it's not very good at recognition without a set phrase list).