Astra Blaster/Astra.cdr/voice/hearsay2.txt

Text File | 1992-03-31 | 27KB | 548 lines

     2.00 HOW TO CREATE HEARSAY GOLD

          2.01 HOW TO SELECT WORDS IN YOUR VOCABULARY

     The single  most important  factor in  optimizing the  performance of  the
Hearsay Gold voice recognizer  is  the  selection  of  vocabulary  names.  This
section provides guidelines  that will lead to consistently  higher recognition
performance in your applications.

          AVOID SIMILIAR SOUNDING NAMES

    Remember to consider  how the words sound,  not how they are spelled. Avoid
reliance on final sounds to distinguish words. In normal pronunciation they are
often left  off words.  Consider the  words "Eight"  and "Aid".  When they  are
carefully pronounced they  are quite different  from each other,  but when said
quickly or casually  they are very  similiar. Other examples  would be  "Harp",
"Heart", and "Hard".

          AVOID VERY SHORT WORDS

     When listening for words, Hearsay Gold ignores a very short burst of sound
as background noise. If a name is very short, it may sometimes be ignored, such
as the word "Up".  If you choose  "Page up"  instead of  "Up" you  will achieve
higher  performance.  In general,  the more syllables  in a word,  the high the
recognizer performance will be.

NOTE: Many other two letter words do not  have this problem (eg. to, my, etc.).

          BE CAREFUL OF UNSTRESSED SYLLABLES

    If a word begins or ends with an unstressed syllable, sometimes the Hearsay
Gold may  not hear  the syllable.  The first  syllable of the  word "About", is
unstressed and usually low in volume.  In the  presence  of  background  noise,
Hearsay Gold may hear the  word as "Bout". If the word  "Out" is present in the
same vocabulary,  the system may decide  that what it hears  is closer to "Out"
than it is to "About". One  strategy for avoiding  this difficulty is to put an
additional word  in front of the  problem word such as  "Tell about" instead of
"About".

          2.02 HOW TO DEFINE HEARSAY GOLD VOCABULARIES

     A  Hearsay Gold  Vocabulary is  a  list  of words  or voice  commands that
execute keyboard commands. Each word consists of the following:

          * A name
          * A template or the users stored voice recording
          * Keystrokes that are automatically entered into the PC when the
            voice command is recognized

     Vocabularies  are saved  in files  known as  Vocabulary files.  Vocabulary
files have an extension of .VOC  and contain all of the  information associated
with a particular vocabulary. Vocabulary files are created and edited using the
Hearsay Gold Editor program, which  is explained briefly in this section and in
depth in section 5.00.

     A Hearsay Gold vocabulary can contain up to 64 seperate voice commands. If
more than 64 commands  are needed,  you may  define multiple  vocabularies, and
load them into the library.  Library vocabularies  can be used to "overlay" the
current  vocabulary automatically  on a word  by word basis if  necessary. This
allows a given  vocabulary to  be changed  to suit the  changing syntax  of the
application. For  information on  this feature  and how  to use  it,  refer  to
section 2.05 HOW TO LINK VOCABULARIES.

     A Vocabulary also contains other information general to the particular set
of commands. Examples of this type of  information would be a mouse sensitivity
or scale factor parameters is described in section 5.02.

     In order to create a vocabulary the appropriate recognition driver must be
loaded first.  The drivers  are  incorporated  in the  two startup  batch files
created in SETUP called XXXE and XXX.

     XXXE: (Where XXX  are your initials)  loads a driver  that includes  an on
           line  vocabulary  edit  capability described  in section 5.00.  This
           driver allows vocabularies  to be created  or edited without exiting
           from  application programs.  When  creating  a new  vocabulary where
           changes are inevitable it is wise to use this driver instead of XXX.

      XXX: Loads a driver that does not include  an on line editor. In order to
           edit using XXX you must  exit your program  then load  "RE" which is
           described below.

NOTE: XXXE takes up  considerably more  memory than the  XXX driver  (About 40K
      Bytes more.  It should be  only used for  development when  the memory is
      available. After developing a vocabulary it should be saved then reloaded
      using XXX.

     After loading the appropriate driver  memory space for the library must be
allocated in the computer. This is accomplished by use of the MKLIBXX statement
(Where XX is  the amount  of memory  in K bytes).  25K  would  be enough  space
required  for the  first 64  word  vocabulary  and an  additional  12K for each
additional 64 word vocabulary.

NOTE: After  final creation  of a vocabulary  the allocation of  memory will be
      automatically specified by  use of the loading  command REDT (See section
      3.00 and the MKLIB command is not necessary. is used only for development
      of new vocabularies or when adding to existing vocabularies.

     TO DEFINE A HEARSAY GOLD VOCABULARY:

     In order  to define  a vocabulary the  Hearsay Editor must  be loaded. The
Hearsay Editor is a utility program which is used to define, edit, train, load,
and save Hearsay Gold  vocabularies.  It can also be used  to erase the Hearsay
Gold Library. The Hearsay Editor program is included on the Hearsay Gold system
disk under the name "REDT.EXE" and "RE.EXE".

     The two most important areas of  the Hearsay Editor are  the Main Menu and
Edit area.

     MAIN MENU

     The Main Menu provides access to all functions of the Hearsay Editor. This
option appears in the top row of the screen.  They are HELP, LOAD, SAVE, TRAIN,
and QUIT. To select an option, highlight it by pressing the spacebar, direction
keys, or by  moving the mouse  if one  is in  use. When  the desired  option is
highlighted, press the [ENTER] key. The HELP Menu will appear. The options are:

     CANCEL - Exits from the main menu help option, & returns to the main menu.

     HELP SYSTEM - Is an explanation of this section.

     MAIN MENU - Is an explanation of the Main Menu.

     OVERVIEW - Is a brief description of the Hearsay Gold system.

     LIBRARY - Is an explanation of the Hearsay's Library system.

     SYSTEM USE - is a brief description of the Vocabulary & Control Windows.

     MOUSE USE - Is an explanation of Hearsay's use with the Microsoft Mouse.

     VOCABULARY - Is reserved for Hearsay's Execuware products.

     To select any of the above highlight the desired function & press [ENTER].

     The On-Line  Help System  screens can  also be  brought up at  any time by
pressing the  F1 key on the  keyboard. The F1  key is the  first function  key,
which is usually located  at the  upper left  hand corner  of the  keyboard. To
obtain information on a particular command or option,  highlight the option and
press the F1 key.  Pressing the F1 key  will not cause the  loss of data during
any of the modes of operation except during a train operation. In  this case it
would be  necessary to  start the  training procedure over  again. The messages
displayed are  context sensitive, and are intended  to give information related
to the currently highlighted command option.

     EDIT AREA

     The center of the screen is  referred to as the  Edit Area. The vocabulary
is displayed in a layered window format. The Vocabulary created may be saved in
a disk file,  or into  the library.  If desired  the Vocabulary  may be erased.

STEP ACTION

     1. Type CD\HEARSAY [ENTER] to change to the Hearsay directory.

     2. Type XXX (Your initials) [ENTER] or XXXE [ENTER]

     3. Type REDT
           or
        Type MKLIB25 and then RE.

     4. Select EDIT by either  pressing [E] or moving  the cursor over EDIT and
        pressing [ENTER] from the Main Menu.

     5. Select VOCABULARY by either  pressing [V] or moving  the cursor over to
        VOCABULARY and pressing [ENTER].

     6. Type the vocabulary name you wish to enter  when prompted at the bottom
        left of the screen "Select or Enter Command Name>_".

NOTE: Vocabulary Names may be edited with the INS, DEL, BACKSPACE & CURSOR Keys

     7. Press [ENTER]. The name will now appear in the Edit Area.

     8. Hearsay will prompt you in  the lower left hand  portion of the screen,
        to say the word aloud you just typed in two or more times.

NOTE 1: The Hearsay  Gold should  be spoken  to in  a similiar  fashion as when
        speaking to a dog.  A commanding authoritative  tone usually results in
        the best performance. If Hearsay prompts you to say the  word more than
        two times it is interpreting your second training pass differently than
        the first training pass.

NOTE 2: You may press the [SPACEBAR] to pause the  training, [ENTER] to skip or
        [ESC] to exit.

     9. Type the Command's Keystrokes followed by the [SCROLL-LOCK]  key to end
        the sequence.  The [NUM-LOCK] key  acts as a  backspace if you  make an
        error while typing.  The Command Keystrokes  are exactly  what you wish
        the Hearsay Gold to do when you say that word.

NOTE: Depression of  the [ENTER]  key within  the Keystroke  Sequence will  not
      cause  a new  line,  an  [ENTER] will  be executed  along with  any other
      keystrokes entered  for each  vocabulary word.  All  keystrokes including
      Control, Alternate, and Function keys are acceptable in a given keystroke
      sequence. A sequence is terminated only  by pressing a [SCROLL-LOCK] key.

     Hearsay  Gold  prints  the  names of  the keys  pressed in  the  keystroke
sequence even if they are normally unprintable.  The [SCROLL-LOCK] key does not
appear in the printed string because it is only a termination mark and not part
of the sequence.  It is important  to note that  the name of  the vocabulary is
independent of the keystroke sequence.

    10. To continue entering additional  vocabulary words, repeat steps 6 to 8.

    11. When you are finished, to exit you must press [ENTER]  then select QUIT
        EDIT, by either typing "Q" or moving the cursor to QUIT EDIT & pressing
        [ENTER]. Alternatively you can press the [ESC] key.

     As described later on Section 5.03  the recognition  parameter DELAY COUNT
is automatically calculated and the default setting of 20 must be changed to -1
for every vocabulary that you create. Do so at this point.

STEP ACTION

     1. Select EDIT or press E from the Main Menu.

     2. Select PARAMETERS or press P from the Edit Menu.

     3. Select DELAY COUNT or press D from the Edit Parameters Menu. The bottom
        of the screen will read:  "Recognizer Delay Count (Default is 20) >20".

     4. Type -1 (minus one) [ENTER]

     5. Select QUIT EDIT or press Q from the Edit Parameters Menu.

     You now have to  train, save or  erase your vocabulary  before exiting the
Edit Area. To TRAIN see  Section 2.03, To SAVE  see Section 2.04,  to ERASE see
below.

NOTE: If QUIT is selected before saving or erasing, Hearsay will prompt you for
a vocabulary name and save it to the library if there is enough space. See Save
Section 2.04 for choosing a legal vocabulary name.

CAUTION: If Erase is  selected before Saving,  your vocabulary  will be deleted
         and it will not be recoverable.

     TO DEFINE ANOTHER HEARSAY GOLD VOCABULARY :

     To define another vocabulary  the Edit Area must be erased first. When the
(REDT) program is run without any parameters, as in step 3 above, the edit area
is automatically erased.  If however, there  are commands visible  in the  edit
area, it will need to be erased before entering another vocabulary.

     TO ERASE THE EDIT AREA:

CAUTION: Erasing  a vocabulary  that  has  not been  previously saved  will  be
deleted and unrecoverable.

STEP ACTION

     1. Select EDIT [ENTER]

     2. Select  ERASE [ENTER]  or  "E". If  changes  were  made to  the current
        vocabulary, you will be prompted  to confirm the selection. If you wish
        to continue with the ERASE, select ERASE a  second time. If you did not
        save the vocabulary & wish to do so, select CANCEL, & SAVE as described
        in Section 2.04 below.

     3. Repeat steps 4 through 11 above.

     After defining and saving your vocabulary you must TRAIN the Vocabulary at
one time for consistency.

          2.03 HOW TO TRAIN A HEARSAY GOLD VOCABULARY

     In order for  Hearsay to be  able to understand  spoken commands,  it must
have information  on how  the user  says the  words. In  order to  collect this
necessary information, each user must "train" the system. To train a vocabulary
the user is asked to say each vocabulary name two times.

CAUTION: Avoid excessive background noise during training.

     In order to train a vocabulary it must be loaded into the Editor first. If
you have just defined it in Section 2.02 you will  already be in the Editor. If
you saved and erased it before training you will need  to load it back into the
Editor by:

STEP ACTION

     1. Type CD\HEARSAY

     2. Type XXX or XXXE

     3. Type REDT VOCABULARY NAME
        or
        MKLIBXX (XX=kbytes of memory)
        RE VOCABULARY NAME

     You will now have your vocabulary ready for training.

          TO TRAIN:

STEP ACTION

     1. Type "T" for "TRAIN" or move the cursor to TRAIN and press [ENTER].

     2. Type "T" for "TRAIN WORDS" or move the cursor to  TRAIN WORDS and press
        [ENTER].

NOTE: CANCEL - Will return  you to the  Main Menu.  To CANCEL, either press "C"
      or move the cursor to CANCEL and press [ENTER].

     3. The vocabulary  will be shown in  the center  of the  edit screen.  The
        bottom left hand portion  of the Hearsay Editor will prompt  you to say
        each word. Say the words as they appear. When the list is finished, you
        will be prompted to say each word again.

NOTE 1: The Hearsay Gold should be spoken  to in a similiar fashion as when you
        are speaking to a dog. A  commanding authoritative tone usually results
        in the best performance.

NOTE 2: Do not pause between a two or three word vocabulary command.

NOTE 3: If the computer interprets  your second  training pass  as considerably
        different than your first training pass, you will be prompted to repeat
        the word over again.

NOTE 4: Avoid over pronunciation of words,  unless this is the way you say them
        in normal usage.

NOTE 5: To pause training press the [SPACEBAR], to skip a word press [ENTER] to
        exit training press [ESC].

     4. When all of the words  are trained twice,  the file should  be saved as
        described in Section 2.04  below. If you do not feel that you have said
        the vocabulary words in a clear and consistent manner, we  suggest that
        you select train again, and repeat steps 1 through 3 above.

          2.04 HOW TO SAVE VOCABULARIES

     The SAVE  operation allows  vocabularies to  be saved  to the  Library and
permanently to  a file.  The  vocabulary  is  saved  to  a  users  personalized
directory (XXX) which was created  in SETUP (Section 1.00). If you wish to save
the file to  a different  directory, the drive and  directory parameters should
precede the vocabulary name:

          ie. DRIVE:\DIRECTORY\VOCABULARY NAME

     If the file already exists you will be able to overwrite the file with the
updated vocabulary.

     The Vocabulary name  serves two  purposes in the  Hearsay system. It tells
the system the NAME (& optionally the location) of the file that the vocabulary
data is stored in, and it  serves as a LABEL  to identify the  vocabulary. When
the vocabulary is saved to a file or Library you can choose whatever vocabulary
name you like. It is  recommended you use  simple names  such as DOS, WORDSTAR,
123, etc.  If we created  a vocabulary  using DOS commands (The  basic software
that allows you to run programs, copy files, etc.),  we should choose  to label
this this vocabulary "dos". In this case it is easy to remember the contents of
the vocabulary. If the  vocabulary file  is located in your  personal directory
we could  enter the  vocabulary name as  "dos". If  the file  was located  on a
different drive and directory, we could enter the name as DRIVE:\DIRECTORY\DOS.
In this case the drive and directory would be used only to locate where to read
the file from,  or save the  vocabulary to. The  name that would  appear in the
Main Menu, or in the Library list  would be "dos". Hearsay strips off any drive
designations,  extensions,  or  path  descriptors  from  the  vocabulary  name.

     If a  directory has  been previously set  up through the  execution of the
SETUP  program  and no  drive  or  directory information  is  specified  in the
vocabulary name, Hearsay will search that directory for the file first. Each of
the directories specified  in the PATH will then  be searched sequentially. For
more information on  use of the PATH  command the user  is referred  to the DOS
documentation.

NOTE:  The Vocabulary  names are  CASE SENSITIVE.  Saving the  vocabulary using
       lower case  letters is  not  the same  as  uppercase.  The  HEARSAY GOLD
       distinguishes  uppercase differently  than lower case. For example,  the
       name "vocabulary" is different than the name "VOCABULARY". When you want
       to specify  a vocabulary  name BE CONSISTENT  with the  CASE you choose.

     It is good practice to save your work periodically to prevent loss of data
in case of power loss or accidental erasure.

     To SAVE  select "S" or  highlight SAVE and  press [ENTER]  from within the
Hearsay Editor. The SAVE option has four options available.

     They are:

          1. CANCEL  -  Will return you to the  Main Menu.  Either press "C" or
                        move the cursor to CANCEL and press [ENTER].

          2. FILE    -  Used to save the vocabulary to the hard or floppy drive

          3. LIBRARY -  Used to save the vocabulary into the Library.

          4. ERASE LIB  Erases and removes the entire library from memory.

     TO SAVE VOCABULARIES TO A FILE:

     The user must  enter a filename. The  file is automatically  saved to your
personalized directory.  If the  file is not  to be saved  to your personalized
drive  and directory,  a  different  drive  and  directory should  precede  the
filename. No  file extensions  should be used,  (ie. .EXE, .TXT).  Hearsay Gold
automatically appends an extension of .VOC to the filename.

STEP ACTION

     1. Select  SAVE by  either typing  "S" or  moving the  cursor to  SAVE and
        pressing [ENTER].

     2. Select FILE  in the  same manner as  above. Hearsay will  prompt you to
        enter a vocabulary name. Type the name in and press [ENTER].

NOTE: If the filename already exists, Hearsay Gold will  ask you if you wish to
      OVERWRITE the existing Vocabulary file with the current  Vocabulary file.
      If you  are saving  an existing  Vocabulary, the  name of  the  file will
      appear at  the bottom of the screen.  If you wish to  save the vocabulary
      under the same filename, press [ENTER]. Hearsay  will again prompt if you
      wish to OVERWRITE the old file.

     3. Select OVERWRITE if you wish to save the current vocabulary file. under
        a different name, select CANCEL and repeat steps 1 and 2. When prompted
        to enter a Vocabulary name enter a new name.

NOTE:  HEARSAY will  assign a  .VOC  extension  to your  filename and  show the
       directory to which  this file will  be saved. This is  your personalized
       directory you set up. If you wish to enter  a new drive and directory do
       so at this point.

     Now that your vocabulary is saved, you may load  it at any  time using the
REDT program  described in  Section 3.00.  It is  not necessary to  retrain the
vocabulary every time it is loaded.

     TO SAVE VOCABULARIES TO THE LIBRARY:

     This option places a  vocabulary in  the Hearsay  Editor into  the Library
which is located in the computer's  memory. If a library is not allocated or is
not large enough, your file will not be saved to the  Library. A message on the
bottom left hand portion of the Edit Screen will say "No Space In Library, File
Not Saved". Loading a large number of vocabularies into  the Library will leave
less room  for application  programs. The amount of  Library space  required to
store a vocabulary is a function of the vocabulary size.

     The Hearsay system requires about 25K bytes for the 1st 64 word vocabulary
and an additional 12K for each additional vocabulary.

NOTE: The SAVE to the LIBRARY  operation is  automatically performed  each time
      you exit the Hearsay Editor.

STEP ACTION

      1. Select the SAVE Option.

      2. Select the LIBRARY Option.

      3. Enter a vocabulary name.  If the  file was  saved previously  the name
         will appear at the bottom left of the screen. If  you wish to save the
         vocabulary under the same file name press [ENTER], otherwise type in a
         new name and press [ENTER].

     TO ERASE THE LIBRARY:

     As described above, when exiting the Hearsay Editor the current vocabulary
in the Editor  will automatically  be saved to  the Library if  there is enough
room in  memory. In order  to ERASE the  Library one must  ERASE the  Edit Area
first as described in Section 2.02 above.

STEP ACTION

     1. Select Edit

     2. Select Erase.  If  changes  were made  to the  vocabulary  you  will be
        prompted with a confirmation.  To continue select ERASE again or CANCEL
        to return to the Main Menu.

     3. Select SAVE

     4. Select ERASE LIB

     5. Select ERASE LIB again or CANCEL to cancel  the operation and return to
        the Main Menu without erasing the Library.

NOTE: If the system was installed  using REDT erasing the  Library also removes
      the space  allocated  for the Library  for the system. If  the system was
      installed using MKLIBXX & RE the  ERASE LIB option will clear the Library
      however the space allocated (XX) will still be resident.

          2.05 HOW TO LINK VOCABULARIES

     It is  often convenient  to segment  large vocabularies  into a  number of
smaller  ones to optimize  accuracy, response time  & rejection characteristics
of an application. To support  this type of environment,  Hearsay Gold provides
the capability of activating a new Vocabulary from the memory  Library upon the
execution of a voice command. Each word in a vocabulary can activate another 64
word vocabulary in the Library.

     To  make a  voice command  automatically change  the active  vocabulary to
activate a  new  vocabulary  follow  the  instructions  given  in the  previous
sections for creating  commands, but DO NOT press  the [SCROLL-LOCK] key to end
the keystroke sequence. After a keystroke  sequence for the command is entered,
type [ALT-0] (This is done  by holding down the  ALT key on the  bottom left of
your keyboard then  depressing the 0  key on the  top row).  [ALT-0]  tells the
Hearsay Gold  system to  change vocabularies.  Following the [ALT-0] character,
type the name of  the Vocabulary  to be activated.  End the command sequence by
pressing the  [SCROLL-LOCK]  key as you  would to end an  ordinary Hearsay Gold
command.

     When the vocabulary  word is recognized  and the command  is executed, the
active the active vocabulary will be changed to the new vocabulary specified in
the command sequence. If  the requested vocabulary  name is not  in the Library
when the command  is executed,  two short beeps  will be  heard and  the active
vocabulary will remain unchanged.

NOTE: It is not necessary for the new vocabulary to  be in the library when the
      command is created, only when it is executed.

     As an example, here is a command that will  display a directory listing in
DOS and then make  a vocabulary called  "menu", which is presumed  to be in the
Library, the active vocabulary:

          dir[ENTER][ALT-0][MENU][SCROLL-LOCK]

NOTE: In this example [ALT-0] represents  pressing the zero key  on the top row
      of the keyboard while holding down the ALT key on the bottom row.

     The name entered should be the  exact name of the  vocabulary to be loaded
as it  appears in  the  Library.  Whenever this  command is  executed,  the new
Vocabulary will automatically become  the active Vocabulary. The  LINK function
is only  capable of activating  Vocabularies which  are already in the  Library
resident in the computer memory.

NOTE: If an attempt  is made to link a Vocabulary  that is not currently in the
      Library, the request  will be ignored, and two short beeps will be heard.
      A vocabulary cannot be activated from disk in this manner.

     If an  application uses  several  vocabularies  which are  linked,  it  is
necessary to train  all of these  vocabularies  for each  new user and load all
of these vocabularies into the Library.

     REMEMBER, vocabulary names are CASE sensitive. Trying to link a vocabulary
using lowercase will not work if that vocabulary is in the Library as uppercase
letters. The name "vocabulary" is different that the name "VOCABULARY".

NOTE: If there  is no vocabulary  name specified  after [ALT-0]  the vocabulary
      that called the current vocabulary will become active.

          2.06 HOW TO EXIT THE HEARSAY GOLD EDITOR AND RETURN TO DOS

     To return to the DOS prompt  (ie. to exit the Editor program),  select the
QUIT option from the Hearsay Gold Editor Main Menu. If changes were made to the
vocabulary you will be prompted for  confirmation. To Exit select QUIT again or
CANCEL to  return to the  Main Menu. After  a short pause,  the DOS prompt will
return.

NOTE: When  Exiting the  HEARSAY EDITOR  the Vocabulary  in the  Edit Area will
      automatically be saved to the LIBRARY,  if there is enough space & become
      the active  Vocabulary. If  this is not desired  you must  ERASE the Edit
      Area before Quitting as described above in Section 2.02.