64 bit version installed in Win 10 ... now what ?

[BWoo]

Jumped all the hurdles to activate the Win speech engine, etc.

The desktop widget appears, suggests I say, "Start Listening:" I say, "start listening," and the widget goes back to inactive mode immediately.

Is there a special kibble I need to offer the widget, or a mantra to keep it awake ?

thanks, Bill

[Pfeil]

Are you referring to the Windows Speech Recognition application (that appears at the top of the screen, with an "orb" on the left-hand side)?

Have you completed speech recognition training?

Assuming you have, and you are indeed running the Windows Speech Recognition application, does the same behavior apply to VoiceAttack?

[BWoo]

Hi, Thanks for your response !

The widget I assumed was VA was, indeed, the MS engine UI.

I launched VA, set it to use the MS engine, since it is the only one I am familiar with, and the VA setup instructions had me go and fiddle with it.

I see microphone input is being received by VA when I speak.

Repeating "calculator" results in nothing. Are there any other default actions I can trigger ?.

fyi: my goal is to experiment with using this to trigger PhotoShop (CS) actions ... a video by Piximperfect demonstrates this, but gives no details.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnRfNqch3bc&t=325s

That video led me to your very interesting software.

thanks, Bill

[Pfeil]

Are you referring to the tips in the application itself, or are you following the steps in this guide?


It may help to have some insight into your current configuration.
Click the wrench icon on VoiceAttack's main window, and on the "General" tab of the VoiceAttack options window click "System info >", choose "Generate Settings Summary", then "Write to File"; Save the file and upload it here.

[Gary]

@BWoo

Are you saying commands into your microphone and nothing is being executed - or is the audio just not getting through (is the bar at the bottom of the main screen moving when you speak)?

[BWoo]

Are you referring to the tips in the application itself, or are you following the steps in this guide?

both ?

It may help to have some insight into your current configuration.
Click the wrench icon on VoiceAttack's main window, and on the "General" tab of the VoiceAttack options window click "System info >", choose "Generate Settings Summary", then "Write to File"; Save the file and upload it here.

thanks, file enclosed

[BWoo]

@BWoo

Are you saying commands into your microphone and nothing is being executed - or is the audio just not getting through (is the bar at the bottom of the main screen moving when you speak)?

Thanks !  As mentioned, I see the visual indicator at screen bottom that VA is receiving mic input. The mic is working as expected in Skype,

The only predefined command example I saw in the VA docs was "calculator" ... saying that does not launch the MS calculator app ... which I know is available, and installed in the usual place.

fyi: I am a C#/.NET developer, so I know the necessary versions of the Framework are in place.

But, right now, I feel more like an idiot than a software developer for 30 years (ex Adobe, Cricket, etc.)

cheers, Bill

[Pfeil]

The settings look like they could be correct.

Is the microphone input indicator at the bottom of the main window red when you speak? Are there any red symbols on the right-hand side of the main window?

When you do speak "calculator", does that produce any log entries? If so, which (you can select them and use Ctrl-C or the context menu to copy them directly)?

[BWoo]

Thank you !

As I've said, twice before, the microphone input activity indication is showing up in VA in the bottom of the UI.

Log entries ?  Where would these be located ? File name, or type ? A search in the usual places (for .NET apps, AppData) shows no probable files.

fyi: the red X notification indicating failure to recognize is now appearing when i say "calculator:" ... that's progress

cheers, Bill

[BWoo]

Thanks @PFeil and @Gary,

Something must have wiped out my previous Win Speech Engine training ... I trained it again, and now am able to say "calculator" and get the Calculator app launched as expected.

So if I can find time to study the VA docs, I'll assume I will be able to experiment with PhotoShop and VA.

cheers, Bill

[Pfeil]

As I've said, twice before, the microphone input activity indication is showing up in VA in the bottom of the UI.

I asked whether it was red (rather than gray)

Log entries ?  Where would these be located ?

On the main window itself, directly below the "Profile" dropdown. It's not a permanent log file.

Under normal circumstances either a "Recognized" entry should appear when you have finished speaking, if the command is recognized, or an "Unrecognized" entry (with what the speech recognition engine interpreted) if no command is recognized.

Something must have wiped out my previous Win Speech Engine training ...

If you had already trained your speech recognition profile at least three times, in many cases that should be sufficient, but not always, and not necessarily for all words/phonemes.


Normally there would be at least "Unrecognized" entries displayed, however if the speech recognition system was not confident enough in its interpretation, it could have been under the default 50% threshold for displaying it in the log.

That doesn't usually occur unless there are other issues at play. Even untrained, confidence generally shouldn't be that low when speaking clearly, in a quiet environment, using a microphone suitable for speech recognition.


If you are in a noisy environment (including E.G. fan noise from a nearby computer that's picked up by your microphone), you'll want to enable (check) the "Disable Adaptive Recognition (useful for noisy environments)" option on the "Recognition" tab of the VoiceAttack options window.

Also note that any filtering applied to the recording device can impact speech recognition accuracy. It's worth checking the software that came with your device for any filters or "enhancements" that apply to the microphone.

If you do find that recognition accuracy improves by disabling filtering, you'll want to create a new speech recognition profile (instructions can be derived from this topic) and train that instead.
Speech recognition profiles are speaker (user), microphone and input path, and environment (acoustics and noise) specific.


Lastly, I will mention that some users have reported issues with Logitech headsets where recognition ceases to work entirely either seemingly at random, or after muting and unmuting the microphone.
This is unfortunately an issue with Logitech's driver software (which affects multiple applications, not just VoiceAttack; various people reported this issue to Logitech), which at the time was seemingly only worked around by uninstalling the software entirely.

[BWoo]

Thanks for the extensive advice !

Until today I never "saw red" in the UI.

cheers, Bill