Voice Recognition Options

[upstatemike]

I was wondering, in a side by side comparison how a Microsoft VR setup such as Homeseer compares to a dedicated VR engine like HAL? Is HAL more reliable because it is a dedicated VR app?

I also wonder if using a spare line on a phone system makes more sense than trying to create a reliable open air microphone system? Seems like the phone system, even if you use the speakerphone, would give a more consistent result from location to location than microphones would.

I know some folks are using HAL this way. Is it even an option with Homeseer? How would you hook a Homeseer sytems soundcard to a phone system CO port?

 

[upstatemike]

Just found THIS comparison chart but I think it might be out of date.

 

[compuguru]

That chart is pretty accurate. I've heard that HAL as much better speech reconginition, and being a HAL user, I have had no problems with the recgonition.
For Open Air Mics, James Lipsit (http://james.lipsit.com/whole.htm) has a system like that setup with HAL. He spent a whole lot of $$$ getting the gated mixer and mics. He used an Ocelot SECU-16 with a Sure Gated Mixer to run the system. The gated mixer allows only one mic to be active at a time. The SECU-16 allows HAL to figure out what mic was activated, and react to that.

He's got short demo of his house here: http://james.lipsit.com/Videos/HA1.wmv

 

[upstatemike]

That's a nice setup but a little complicated. I still think using the phone system would be simpler (and much much cheaper).

 

[upstatemike]

From a pricing standpoint it looks like HAL would be $450 (software and phone card) plus additional expense for HAL voices.

Homeseer Phone is $350 (Way2Call and plugin) plus Homeseer and AT&T voices.

I already have Homeseer 1.7 and lots of voices, so price advantage Homeseer? What else should I be comparing?

 

[upstatemike]

Not that many years ago I evaluated HAL, Homevoice and HS all at the same time. The only thing I was interested in at the time was how well each did VR. In my opinion (not worth much these days! ) the VR engine (Verbex) used in Homevoice was the best as far as being able to recognize commands in a fairly noisy environment (TV on, background discussions, etc). One of the more enticing things about their VR was the ability to train individual words and phrases rather than stock training (like MS VR training).

At the time I was using the Houselinc box from Smarthome and the Homevoice software had a hard time with the box (kept getting really bad errors). Since support from Homevoice was pretty spotty, I started looking elsewhere and settled on Homeseer since the support was there and the message board support was stellar. HAL was just too restrictive at the time as far as interfaces. And too dang expensive. And had no web interface (at that time anyway).

Just my $0.02


Chuck

I assume there is no telephone interface for HomeVoice so I should not be considering that option if I want to use my phone system as the voice portal....right?

 

[Rupp]

From a pricing standpoint it looks like HAL would be $450 (software and phone card) plus additional expense for HAL voices.

Homeseer Phone is $350 (Way2Call and plugin) plus Homeseer and AT&T voices.

I already have Homeseer 1.7 and lots of voices, so price advantage Homeseer? What else should I be comparing?

You do not need the way2call. The HomeSeer modem will work just fine if the phone lines are wired correctly.
http://www.homeseer.com/products/hardware/...ty_hardware.htm
http://www.homeseer.com/support/faqs/faqs_...one.htm#install

 

[upstatemike]

Maybe, but remember that I am going to put this on an unused CO port on my phone system. No outside line will be involved. I am going to be using this for VR and DTMF control but will not be using any CID or voicemail features.

Specifically, I want to pick up line 5 and say a command and have it executed and confirmed by a voice response. I want the system in listening mode all the time (no attention word or dial # or anything). I think I may need the Way2Call to do this but I'll look into it some more.

 

[jeffx]

HAL2000 VR does not require any training to your voice--anyone can command HAL and it will recognize commands. This was one deciding factor for me as I wanted my wife to be able to easily use VR also.

Using cordless phones for remotes via voice commands or 3 digit macros has also been simple enough to use that my wife has been using it and it has been working great.

Still waiting, though, for all the bugs to be worked out with Insteon groups, status and linking--but there has been steady progress.

 

[upstatemike]

If I use HAL with a phone system so it has a dedicated line for VR (no outside line attached) can I skip the part where you have to dial # to get HAL's attention? I am hoping to just select line 5 and start talking... will HAL let me do that?

 

[fitzpatri8]

Great question. 'Telephone off hook' (or similar) is a valid HAL macro trigger, and 'turn listen mode on' (or similar) is a valid action, so I *think* you could do that. One minor speedbump is that the modem uses phone line voltage for power, so you'd need to built some sort of box that would "emulate" line voltages on and off hook.

I considered doing something similar at one point with a cordless two line phone, but I didn't want to sacrifice HAL's other telephone abilities--calling people in the phonebook and logging caller id info.

Tom

 

[upstatemike]

Thanks for the details... this might work really smoothly if I can figure it all out! I guess I could use an extension port to feed the modem line in to provide the talk battery.

 

[jeffx]

Great question. 'Telephone off hook' (or similar) is a valid HAL macro trigger, and 'turn listen mode on' (or similar) is a valid action, so I *think* you could do that. One minor speedbump is that the modem uses phone line voltage for power, so you'd need to built some sort of box that would "emulate" line voltages on and off hook.

I considered doing something similar at one point with a cordless two line phone, but I didn't want to sacrifice HAL's other telephone abilities--calling people in the phonebook and logging caller id info.

Tom

I will try to test this out tonight. I'll remove my incoming phone line from the modem, create the "Go to attention when offhook" macro and let you know what happens.