Newsgroups: comp.speech
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From: bj@hatch.socal.com (Brendan Jones)
Subject: Re: Voice_recogn
Message-ID: <C82Gr3.10q@hatch.socal.com>
Organization: Hatch Usenet and E-mail.  Playa del Rey, CA
References: <C80F48.90F@clss1.bangor.ac.uk>
Date: Thu, 3 Jun 1993 22:20:59 GMT
Lines: 33

I think it'd be a safe bet that the Voice Master Software
for Soundblaster cards that Covox has been advertising is
based on their Voice Master software for their propreitry
Sound Master II card (which didn't feature true Soundblaster
compatibility and was a bit of a pain to install).

Based on that assumption; Voice Master can be programmed to
recognise a large number of phrases each up to a few seconds
long.  From practical experience, 20 or so phrases seems to
be the limit for after that it starts confusing things badly.
There is a time lag whenever it processes a phrase; it can
take a few seconds.  Training is done on a phrase by phrase
basis... it takes three turns to recognise a phrase.  It is
very fussy; a slight change in your pitch, speed, etc of
uttering the phrase and it won't recognise it.  (eg. when
you train it you calmly say "fire", when you're in the middle
of a hot game you scream it.... Voice Master won't connect
the two).  The software can causes some clash problems;
it clashes Microprose's Tank Platoon; it works well with
Microprose's F19 (they include a demo file).  Yes, it is a 
lot of fun to play with and adds a lot to the game, but on
the whole it is more of a toy thing; I can see a few serious
applications but nothing to demanding.  It's a long way from
ideal, but hey, nearly everything in this field is.

NB: Remember I'm talking about the old Voice Master software
for the Covox proprietry card; I'm making the assumption they
made a straight port with no major changes.

enjoy,
bj.

ps. Opinions here are personal.
