Voice Recognition and XP AGC

[Madcodger]

I use HomeSeer, and had my Voice Recognition / Response working very well for several weeks. Then, things just sort of fell apart. Apparently, and according to the HS helpdesk, the problem rests with the Automatic Gain Control that Windows XP uses for microphones. Here's what's happening:

I adjust the microphone volume level so that the mic works well from anywhere in the room. This has traditionally been only about 25% of the way up the slider scale, so it's not as if I'm maxing it out. I test the system and it works fine, often for several days that include using our whole house audio system (which the mic would pick up), normal conversation in the room, dog barking, etc. Things are fine until some random point at which XP apparently turns the mic down to zero. It's driving me crazy and killing the reliability of my VR system.

Does anyone have an idea of how this might be resolved? I don't use a mixer as I currently have only the one mic, which is a PA-3 high-gain.

Thanks!

 

[Captain Caveman]

Things are fine until some random point at which XP apparently turns the mic down to zero.

I don't use Home Seer but perhaps another program running on your pc such as Windows Instant Messenger is taking over your mic settings when you fire it up.

Is this a dedicated HA pc?

 

[pkoslow]

I use the line-in on my soundcard for VR instead of the mic input as the operating sytem won't monkey with it. Give it a try to see if it works for you. You'll need to make the changes in the speech control panel and speaker app to point VR to to line input.

Cheers,
Paul

 

[Madcodger]

I use the line-in on my soundcard for VR instead of the mic input as the operating sytem won't monkey with it. Give it a try to see if it works for you. You'll need to make the changes in the speech control panel and speaker app to point VR to to line input.

Cheers,
Paul

Thanks, Paul.

I switched to Line In, and started experimenting. That will certainly help, and I appreciate the feedback. The other problem I found rests with the Speech application of XP.

It seems that I had checked the option of having the Speech app adapt to my voice over time. This, I've found, is a very, very bad idea. It probably works well in applications where one is simply dictating commands and memos to a computer, but when there is an open mic with music, tv, conversations, etc. going on all 'round, this option seems to scramble the app into a bowl of jelly. Even simple phrases like "test" and "computer", used as my attention phrase during testing, weren't being recognized!

I switched to line in, and started over configuring the mic, and then the big change came when I retrained the Speech app of XP and started over on the profile. Thanks for your help.

Also, Captain Caveman - Good thinking re: another app and thanks for the response. Certainly a potential culprit, but thankfully in this case it was the Speech adaptation option.

Joe