Release 2012.12.31.00

(Autonomous Robot Control Software)
Make robots with the easiest robot programming software. Experience user-friendly features that make any robot easy to program.

Change Release Notes

Happy New Year! :)

  • New EZ-Script Command: WaitForSpeech() will wait the specified number of seconds for one of the specified words/phrases to be detected by the speech recognition

  • MP3 Trigger will not unpause the speech recognition control if it was already paused before playing audio

  • speech recognition culture is dynamically detected, but prefers English US Culture to be installed. The Speech Recognition only supports a select number of cultures - that is an issue you can take up with Microsoft :). Check the Debug Control for more information when loading Speech Recognition.

[feature] WaitForSpeech( timeOut Seconds, phrases ) . Pauses and waits for one of the specified phrases to be spoken. . Returns the phrase that was spoken. . Will return "timeout" if no word is detected in the specified timeout length. . Example: WaitForSpeech(30, "Yes", "No") . Example: $value = WaitForSpeech(30, "Yes", "No") [/feature]

This example can be found in Examples -> Functions -> WaitForSpeech The code below will ask the user a YES or NO question if they would like to know today's date. If the timeout is exceeded (10 seconds), then the script will repeat.


:START

SayWait("Would you like to know todays date?")

$response = WaitForSpeech(10, "Yes", "No")

if ($response = "Yes")
  Say("Today's date is $date")
  Halt()
elseif ($response = "No")
  Say("Okay, I will keep it a secret")
  Halt()
else
  SayWait("Hello, is anyone there?")

goto(START)


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United Kingdom
#1  

Happy New Year to you DJ

#2  

Ahh! DJ, your amazing! Thanks for this. I never expected you to do this enhancement so quickly. This will be so nice to have!

Just yesterday I had a few friends over to show off B9 and thought I had the Speech Recognition pauesd. There was lots going on with the group and I was fiddling with some internal settings and all of the sudden he rotated at the waist when he thought he heard a command. He almost ripped out some of his own wires along with my hand. I know I should of had him powered down but I thought I could just make a quick adjustment on the fly.

This is so welcomed and a well received New Years present! Now I need to figure out how to use this. What fun! :D

Thanks again, Dave Schulpius :D Happy New Years right back at ya!

#3  

DJ great work like always and happy new years so far some of the scripts i been playing with not too hard and examples makes it a little easy too

PRO
New Zealand
#5  

Awesome.... it is like you were reading my mind.

I was struggling with the need to write a script to limit the possible voice commands my bot had to choose from.

You've saved me the hard work!

Happy New Year from New Zealand

#6  

Sadly I can't get this new function to work for me :( and I was so excited. Been trying all afternoon but whatever I try, I keep getting the same behaviour as always. If I run a MP3 Trigger file that I've set a timeout for, the Speech Recognition will be paused for that amount of time (as it should be). But if I next want to pause the SR indefinitely and use the Disable box inside and at the top of the SR panel it will only stay paused for the amount of time stated in the earlier command. It also seems that the New EZ-Script Command: WaitForSpeech() is completely overridden by any MP3 Trigger SR function. No matter how many MS pause is stated there is only a few MS timeout for the new command when a MP3 Trigger SR function has been used before. Sorry, Dave

PRO
New Zealand
#7  

Hey Dave... Have you tried saving your file, closing ARC and then restarting the software? The timer function in WaitforSpeech() did not work for me until I started fresh using the example DJ gave us, saved his file and then reopened the software and added the script to my project.

  • Wayne
PRO
Synthiam
#8  

Dave, all tests are successful. Review your project :)

#9  

Just yesterday I worked out some major bugs in my project. There were lots more problems then just my Speech Recognition unpausing. The problems presisted no matter what I tried or what DJ did to help out with upgrades. Thanks to DJ suggesting that I review my project I think I finally found it. I tried a tons of things so I'm not sure what really fixed it but I have an idea;

I was having major performance problems within ARC that were getting worse and worse. The program would lag badly and sometimes lock up and crash. It was driving me nuts. Window 7 was not effected but I could not decide if it was my laptop, win 7 or EZ-B. The problem got worse to the point I couldn't even click on a button within ARC and have it react. Then an EZ-B lock up and Program crash. Win 7 would stay working nicely. Then I realized that the problem had gotten worse as I added ADC port Value monitors from the Add Control feature. I have 9 ADC Value monitors running and all were watching different ADC ports on two different boards. Once I clicked the Pause box on all but a few ADC monitor windows all my problems went away and ARC ran perfectly! No lag, no crashes and also the Pause SR works properly now!

Now I'm able to get the speech recognition software to pause indefinitely by voice command till I speak a phrase it is listening for. Once it hears that phrase it will unpause and and start up listing again. Before this was fixed some of the problems I was having was B9 would move around when it thought it heard a command that was not really spoken. When I was doing something with the robot and thought the SR was paused this was kind of dangerous and annoying. NOW, I can say something like "Be quite you Cantankerous Canister" and he'll say something back to me through a file on the MP3 Trigger like "OK, Fine!". He then stops listening for anything except one phrase. I can program that phrase to be something like "Pay attention you Ninny" and again he'll say something (using the MP3 Trigger) back to me and start listening again. Very cool!

Thanks for all work the EZ-B team has put into this product and all the help!

Dave Schulpius