Thread: Speech recognition

well i hope you arent thinking there is a built in mic on the mini. There is not.

Speech recognition in a car environment will not work. You would have to have a noise canceling mic and that is both expensive, and is still very inaccurate.

You would have to have zero engine noise and no music or anything playing to get this to work.

I hope this helps.

It CAN work, but one of the main factors is the quality of the microphone. The store sell this one, which is $330. I see there is another one for $60 but not sure about that.

The issues in the car is the type of noise changes, so you can't just train the computer to ignore the noises. It's louder at higher speeds and very different when the windows are open or the stereo is playing.

You may not the Microsoft Sync product uses a button you push to tell the computer when to listen. That's a good start, but I'll bet you can tune that system to the individual car. You need to do that for the Mac, but I'm not aware of how to do it.

Voice is cool -when it works. But there are lots of reasons it doesn't in the car environment.

Couple things, I have an extremely quiet interior (audi), very little road/engine noise. Second, I work for a A/V company, and have access to nearly every microphone manufacturer, at cost.

In leopard (not sure about previous versions) you can set the computer to only start listening for commands when a user selectable keyword is spoken. There is also a calibration utility, that has preselected phrases you are supposed to say. If you calibrate it while in your normal driving, it would probably work way better than calibrating it in your house, and moving it to the car.

Thanks for the input, I'll definitely try it once I get the mini installed......."oohhhhh, dreamweaver..I believe you can get me through the niiight" /song

- Zack

Good stuff. However, I suggest you open the window on the Audi and you'll find a lot more noise than you think!

Try this: Simply install a mic in the car. Then, hit record while driving. Then listen back. You'll be surprised at how loud it is.

First order of business is to ensure you are not using an omnidirectional mic.

I was thinking of a hyper-cardioid boundary mic, but it may not be as directional as needed. I understand there are a ton of issues, but (as you mentioned) microphone choice can make all the difference. If I find a solution, I'll let you know.

Thanks again