voice entry issues with x10 home automation

vanner · 09 Dec 2010

I'm having a small dilemma. I am running and home automation computer with Windows 7, BVC (bills voice control), Active Home Pro (X10 home control) all to voice control my television, stereo and cable box as well as some household appliances and lights. Basically I speak to the computer, it transmits an infrared signal via a USB UIRT to what ever I want to control. My issue is happening with the Windows 7 voice input program. When I get the TV a command such as "mute" the computer doesn't know it's not for it so it deciphers the command as a command for Windows 7. What I'm curious about is is there a way to disable the voice input program that comes with Windows 7 or is there a way to tell it to listen but not perform any task within Windows. I hope I've made myself clear and not just confused every body? I think I can use myself! I was doing this with windows XP and it was working very well with a download voice engine.

Kari · 09 Dec 2010

Hi Vanner, welcome to the Seven Forums.

Isn't it enough just to stop the Windows Speech process? If not, you can find the speech recognition in C:\Windows\Speech\, the application itself is sapisvr.exe in C:\Windows\Speech\Common.

Kari

vanner · 09 Dec 2010

I guess this might help explain things better. I use this as a verbal remote control to control my house and audio video equipment, I need this because of a disability. When I first started using Bills Voice Control (wgjohns.com/bvc) I was using XP (my XP computer died due to hardware malfunction), anyway in order to run the programs on Windows XP I had to download Microsoft's Speech SDK 5.1 for Windows. This program worked great because it did not do anything but allow speech entry for the BVC program which was specifically used for sending commands to either an X10 transceiver or a USB UIRT (Universal infrared remote transceiver). This worked really good. After the burial at a suitable morning time I purchased a refurbished PC running Windows 7, and I really like 7 and would like to keep it. However what I need to do is have a speech engine that listens but does not try to control the computer itself when it hears similar commands for BVC. In other words I need to keep the microphone on and the speech engine listening for BVC but be able to turn it off at the computer control level, similar to DragonDictate where you can turn off dictation and leave on command mode, something like that anyway. If I can't fix this I guess I will revert back to XP but I really don't want to do that if I can't keep from it.

Kari · 10 Dec 2010

Sorry for misunderstanding you. I understood that your special application already has a speech engine and you are looking a way to disable the built-in engine interfering.

I'll check if I can find out something. I'll also tell some other geeks to look this thread, in case they have ideas.

Kari

Kari · 10 Dec 2010

I do not find anything regarding how to tell speech recognition the commands are not ment to Windows.

However, this might just work:

Right click Speech Recognition on Windows Desktop to open its context menu. Choose Open the Speech Dictionary:

voice entry issues with x10 home automation-speech_context_menu.png

A new window opens. Click Add a new word:

voice entry issues with x10 home automation-speech_add_word.png

Follow instructions given on screen to add a new word, new command for instance to mute television.

Sorry, this is the best I can come on now.

Kari

Anak · 10 Dec 2010

Hi! vanner, welcome to 7F :)

Unless You, Bill, Dave_X10_L or members here at 7Fs can find a way to turn off input to Microsoft's Speech SDK 5.1 for Windows, but still leave it as an engine for BVC you are going to need a different combination for win 7.

Your specs show you are running 7x64, and BVC has yet to be programmed for x64.....yet.

See Your, Bill, Dave_X10_L reply #11 & #12 at:
Windows 7 compatible with BVC (Short answer is YES!)
Bill seems willing, but as many of us he has too many irons in the fire.

I do not think that with all the grey-matter-power we have here at 7Fs (Think Developers) it would take too long to solve this.

Though it may take a collaboration with your Bill, and our Admins to accomplish it.

Say something to Bill, and I will approach our Admins to see if we can start a collaboration.

Please do not be discouraged if the answer is Nyet!

Best Regards

Steve

vanner · 10 Dec 2010

as I said before I need to speech engine and the one that comes with Windows 7 works really well so I really don't want to disable it as much as I guess I want it to ignore the verbal commands for the computer and hear them for BVC. When I was using XP with the Microsoft speech engine it only listen for commands that were for BVC, but with Windows 7 the entire computer is listening and has difficulty deciding which program the verbal command was used for. I guess what I really want to do is direct all verbal commands that the computer hears at BVC... I will speak to Bill first chance I get but with this schedule I hate to add more to his plate.

Anak · 10 Dec 2010

vanner said:

as I said before I need to speech engine and the one that comes with Windows 7 works really well so I really don't want to disable it as much as I guess I want it to ignore the verbal commands for the computer and hear them for BVC. When I was using XP with the Microsoft speech engine it only listen for commands that were for BVC, but with Windows 7 the entire computer is listening and has difficulty deciding which program the verbal command was used for. I guess what I really want to do is direct all verbal commands that the computer hears at BVC... I will speak to Bill first chance I get but with this schedule I hate to add more to his plate.

And there in lies the rub.......You have a program that doesn't play well with win 7.

Kari, and I have asked around to see if there are any possibilities for you.

So far none.

It is getting late for me (3pmedt) to try and pursue this any further for you. If you would like to try. get in touch with Brink (my apologies Brink, I owe you an OX roast!)

pebbly · 11 Dec 2010

Hi vanner, welcome to the forums, have you tried this piece of software Voice Finger - Essential Improvements and Add-ons for Speech Recognition in Windows Vista and Windows 7 - Avoid and heal Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) it diplays a programmable grid overlay which is configurable :)