VoxCommando Forum

Microphones and Speech Recognition in General => "Open air" and "whole home" microphones => Topic started by: davidsilva on November 04, 2014, 11:26:37 PM

Title: Several requests in multiple microphones
Post by: davidsilva on November 04, 2014, 11:26:37 PM
Hi.
I think this topic has been discussed in other topics, but until now I haven't found a good answer about my question.
I intend instaling several microphones in multiple divisions of a home and all connected to the MIC input of my computer. What kind of equipment makes the mixing of microphones, to connect in MIC input? When several people ask different commands in different divisions, the VoxCommando can interpret all requests?

Best regards
David
Title: Re: Several requests in multiple microphones
Post by: Kalle on November 05, 2014, 01:06:49 AM
Hi David, here is example of a mic mixer and it depends absolute on which budget you have available.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/188356-REG/Shure_SCM410_SCM410_4_Channel_Automatic.html (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/188356-REG/Shure_SCM410_SCM410_4_Channel_Automatic.html)

If you mean: "what does VC when more then one people give different commands at once time?"

I think VC will not understand the mix of commands.
I'm not really sure, so far I understand, the mixer above can activate a channel when a configured input level is achieved, but I don't know if the other channels are then deactivated.
Title: Re: Several requests in multiple microphones
Post by: jitterjames on November 05, 2014, 08:12:45 AM
VoxCommando cannot understand multiple simultaneous commands, unless you use VoxWav.

The expensive "smart" or "automatic" microphone mixers will detect audio on one input and then mute the other inputs. This is good because it means that at least one command will be heard correctly.  If you use a normal mixer the noise from all inputs will be combined making recognition difficult even when only one person is speaking and impossible when two or more speak at the same time.

In reality the chance of multiple users giving commands at the same time is probably relatively low.  Once the initial wow-factor wears off, most people are not constantly talking to their computer.
Title: Re: Several requests in multiple microphones
Post by: Kalle on November 05, 2014, 09:00:38 AM
Thanks for this explanation James.  :bignod
Title: Re: Several requests in multiple microphones
Post by: davidsilva on November 05, 2014, 11:29:23 AM
Hi,
Thank you for your explanations.
So, is there any other solution with fixed microphones in various locations?
And using VoxWav, how many can I use at once?

Best regards
David
Title: Re: Several requests in multiple microphones
Post by: nime5ter on November 05, 2014, 12:59:55 PM
Quote from: davidsilva on November 05, 2014, 11:29:23 AM
So, is there any other solution with fixed microphones in various locations?

No, I think using a "smart" mixer or VoxWav are the only plausible options that we know of. User Aussie Mate has the most to say about hardware for the first option: http://voxcommando.com/forum/index.php?topic=1425.msg12382#msg12382

QuoteAnd using VoxWav, how many can I use at once?

Good question. We have not tried to systematically test this. When we have the time, we can do some informal tests and share our experiences. How many different inputs are you hoping for?
Title: Re: Several requests in multiple microphones
Post by: jitterjames on November 05, 2014, 06:24:20 PM
There is theoretically no limit to the number of VoxWavs you can have running at the same time.

However, if you send audio from 2 or more VoxWavs at the same time they seem to interfere with each other, and it looks like only one of them will be understood (I am not sure if it is the first or last).  Subsequent commands will continue to work for all instances, they only interfere with each other while both are transmitting audio at the same time, but then work fine afterwards so you can repeat your command and it will work.

If I get a chance I will look into this to see if there is a solution but I have a lot of other things I am working on so it may be a while.
Title: Re: Several requests in multiple microphones
Post by: davidsilva on November 06, 2014, 06:55:00 PM
Hi.
I meant 5 VoxWavs working. But rarely will be all at the same time, so no problem.
Thank you for your help and explanations.

Best regards
David