rflores2323 Wrote:I think a start command would work.. like if you say the name Jarvis the program will start to listen for commands. This is the way VOX commando has it "starts command with pay attention" and it works pretty well.
Using the "pay attention" and "ignore me" commands in VoxCommando works reasonably well. A timer can put VoxCommando back into ignore mode after a period of inactivity. Also using the "prefix" mode where any command must start with a special keyword can be effective. In any case you still need a relatively quiet environment unless you are using a wireless headset.
Ultimately I have found the only truly worry free practical use is with something like the Amulet remote. It actually works incredibly well even when I am listening to very loud music, but it does require you to use a hand to lift the device.
I am also waiting to see if the Kinect Microphone will be of use when the drivers are released, but I am not expecting miracles.
Looking forward a few years, for a system to be really usable by the general public will probably require a combination of a number of technologies such as facial and skeletal tracking paired with voice recognition and a powerful form of AI. For example (and I am sure this is techincally doable now - but I haven't tried it yet) the speech recognition could ignore you until you looked at the camera. This is just one technique that can be employed.
The other problem is that it is very difficult to allow for natual language speech comands, where you can just say anything. If you have a relatively small number of commands you can make this appear to work, but once you get into a library of hundreds of commands and possibly accessing 10s of thousands of "items" like the names of songs, it becomes very difficult to maintain flexibility and accuracy at the same time. The example where you can say anything you want to turn the lights on breaks down when you consider that you may end up instead listening to the song "you should have left the light on"... (OK I'm not sure that is the actual title of that Sinead Oconnor songs, but you get the idea). In this case the user must accept that they will have to adhere to a certain syntax to let the computer know what general class of command they are trying to access. With VoxCommando you can customize it how you want and use as many variations as you want, but at some point you will find that you are getting in your own way.
In the end it's not very different from the other ways that we interact with computers. If you are using the mouse and keyboard, you still have to do things a certain way, or the computer won't know what you want.
Still the learning curve is not so bad, and you can start with a printed "menu" of commands. The pay-off is huge when you want to listen to a particular song, or artist, watch a certain TV show or movie. With a few simple speech commands you have instant access. Even if you have a mouse and keyboard available, it is much faster to use voice commands, and obviously way cooler and more fun!
