Google Speech Recognition

How to use the Google Speech Recognition robot skill

This skill is a test for the Google Speech Service with ARC. There is some configuration necessary for testing this skill, as the Google Speech Service is paid and not free. There is a 60 day trial, which you can sign up for. This skill requires internet access, so if an I/O controller is also being used a second WiFi connection, wired network or direct UART connection to the PC is needed.

Main Window

1. Load Credentials Button
This opens the location of your Google speech recognition key (.json) file. Browse to find it's location.

2. Start Recording Button
This activates Google speech recognition which will then listen for words and respond accordingly.

3. Visual Feedback Waveform
This visually displays the peaks and valleys of the detected frequency. It also shows you if your default recording device is working properly.

4. Response Field
This is where Google speech recognition will respond with its text-based response.

Configuration

1. Response Script 
A response script can be activated when certain words are detected.

2. Variable Name
Here you can change the variable name for the detected words.

How to Use the Google Speech Recognition Skill

If you wish to use this skill with PandoraBot, you can send the detected speech to the PandoraBot control using the ControlCommand(). For example, you will add both a PandoraBot control and this Google Speech skill to your project.

Don't forget to PAUSE the PandoraBot skill so it doesn't attempt to pickup any audio! We will only be using the Google Speech skill for audio, so the PandoraBot skill can be PAUSED. It will receive speech phrases by the ControlCommand() from the Google Speech response script.

Your project would resemble this...


Now you can edit the Google Speech skill and add this code to the response script which will send the detected speech to the PandoraBot:

Code:

ControlCommand("PandoraBot", SetPhrase, $GoogleSpeech)

The configuration would look like the following image. This will send all received data from the Google Speech skill to the PandoraBot skill.



Configuring Google Services For Credentials
These instructions only provide some assistance. Google has their own support if you need assistance Generating a JSON Service Account Key. We have provided some information below.

*Disclaimer: Google's web config is an absolute frustrating experience with outdated documentation and hidden menu options. It's easy to get lost. Venture forward at your own risk

1) To start, visit https://cloud.google.com/speech/ and select Free Trial


2) From there, you will need to create credentials


3) Configure the Google Cloud Speech API when adding credentials


4) Now create a new credential to get a Service Account Key


5) Select the Service Account that you had already created earlier and choose JSON


6) A JSON file will download automatically. This is the file that you will load in this skill for authentication before it will work. So save it somewhere useful that you can find in the future. Your Downloads Folder is probably not the best place...


Enable Billing
You will need to enable billing, if you get an error that billing is not enabled. Here is assistance link from google: https://support.google.com/cloud/answer/6293499?hl=en

A credit card is necessary for Google's service. However, they won't charge you after the 60 day trial.

Requirements

An internet connection is required to access Google's speech recognition database.

Resources

Here's an example project: testgooglespeech.EZB