Voice Recognition -> X10 Home Automation

NerdWannabe

New Member
I have recently loaded Microsoft's E-Speaking voice recognition software on my computer and I'm trying to connect it to X10 HomeAutomation program on my PC. I was wondering if anyone has used these two programs together before or if I should hunt around and find another voice recognition program to use. I would appreciate ANY response to this post, Thanks.
JIM
 
I am using the ActiveHome/ ActiveHome PRO program. X10 said that it would interface with most voice recog. programs. The E-Speaking VC program is supposebly a very reliable and common one. But hey, who knows. B)
 
Jim,
I haven't use Microsoft's E-Speaking voice recognition but I do use VR to control devices like lights and TV's, etc using HomeSeer. With HomeSeer VR is built in and all it takes is setting the voice command in HomeSeer and running a voice training session via XP's control panel Speech applet.
 
Another product is HAL, who can do the same thing that Rupp mentioned. It has better speaker independent VR (at least that's what I've heard). With HAL there is no training involved, so it's great if you have more than one person controlling the lights. The downside is that it not as flexible as HomeSeer (HS) because it doesn't have all the plugins HS has available.

HAL Basic will do what you want, and I beleive you can get it pretty cheap on ebay.
 
Does anyone know if ActiveHome has a CLI? If it does, it looks like this e-speaking thing might work. I mean there are all the problems with learning different people and training associated with any program that uses Microsoft's VR, but from a brief look at the e-Speaking website it appears it could pass parameters through a command line.

Just a thought.....
 
Well, I was trying not to have to return the X10 ActiveHome Pro package that I had purchased. Are there any programs that are only Voice Recog. and not a mix of the two? And if so, has anyone used this program with X10? Thanks for any help.
 
NerdWannabe ,
Not sure what you mean by "and not a mix of the two?" but HomeSeer has Voice Control and can control X10, Z-Wave, Insteon, UPB, etc.
 
If voice recognition is a priority I would check out Home Automated Living. I'm not sure if they have a demo of their products.

You may also want to check out a demo of HomeSeer. I believe it's a little more versatile than HAL, but not as good when it comes to voice recognition (just my opinion of course).

CQC is another option, but I'm not sure how good its voice recognition is (someone using it will probably comment on it), plus sticker shock will overcome you (make sure you are sitting down before you look at its price).

I also found THIS post on the HouseBot forum so they have voice recognition as well.

I would recommend looking for an alternative to ActiveHome in lieu of one of the more advanced packages above if you plan on advancing your automation system.
 
Just code it yourself. It does not seem like you are looking for too advanced of features and any product people are recommending costs probably 2-4X what you have invested already...

Active Home gives you an SDK. Go into VB under components and add it to the project. Then add the VR/TTS control. When the software detects a voice pattern match, just send the command out through the Active Home control and you are done...

Now everytime you want a new feature, you can make it. If you spend $400 on HAL and you want a new feature, you just have to log on here and complain about the fact you will never see that feature =)

If you don't code VB, sorry, but consider it. There is plenty of source code already out there.

Vaughn
www.vCrib.com
 
damage said:
hal basic is only $39
Oh, that is not so bad. I still need to borrow $16 for it heheh (j/k)

I have not compared the differences in the versions. I remember pricing the full thing at like $600 with voices, etc back in the day. And it was missing many features that I wanted still.

If that $40 version will do what he wants, that is decent deal. I think the VR quality is better than the MS SAPI SDK from what I hear...

Vaughn
 
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