Voice Activated commands

Technical Technical Discussion
1

Okay, I had this crazy idea this morning while I was working on the book (about a group of fictitious FIRST team members).

I have this computer program that will take voice activated commands for word processing and will pretty much type whatever I say after given a certain command.

How off the wall or unrealistic would it be to program a bot to respond to a set of vocal commands through a headset instestead of a joystick (or whatever). This way the command chain from strategist, to driver, to control panel would be eliminated.
The strategist becomes the driver, eliminating the “crowding in the box” (Or the driver and strategist are one and the same).

2

i don’t think this would be as good as a joystick. for one, with the current controls, if it’s programmed good :p, you know when you push forward, it’s going forward. but, with a voice control system, it might not work. it’s quite loud on the field. so, while it’s a cool idea, and does have practical applications in the real world, in FIRST i don’t think it will work right.

3

And then someone runs by the box screaming “TURN OFF AND START SMOKING”

:smiley:

4

The program I have recognizes only the one voice it is trained to. Background noise and joke commands from some sideline prankster wouldn’t make a difference.

5

Hehehehe, What about the robot talking to us??? We did that this year through our blind drive system. Our robot would send a signal back to the players station to a laptop and then to a set of headphones and it would tell us what zone we were in and what not.

Don’t know if it would work that well the other way with all the noise that is involved in a competition. It would get mixed signals unless you locked the voice frequency onto one person’s voice range.

6

Oh, I forgot to mention that the program can store “training” for a few other voices as well.
That would mean backup in case the driver got sick or lost his/her voice. They simply log into the program like logging onto a desktop on a shared computer.

Any other obstacles or suggestions from the peanut gallery? They would be very welcome.

7

  1. Analyzing the waveforms of the human voice requires a lot of processing power (you are not going to be able to do this on a Stamp chip). It also requires a lot of research. You are not allowed to use computers in your control system, since they are not in the digikey catalog. Computers can only be used for feedback, as said in the Rule Book. This means you can’t use your computer program to control the robot.

  2. It will be rather unresponsive. Do you really want to have to shout out commands to your robot? Think of every thing a robot does during a match. Now imagine shouting every single movement out… from ‘move forward’ to ‘stop’ to ‘grab goal’ and ‘rotate right/left’, etc. Some manuevers are complex and need to be done back-to-back.

8

Thanks guys! That was a big help.
Considering the rule about not using your computer program to control the bot pretty much nixes it.

Too bad. Would’ve been fun.

Thanks for your help. I need to make at least the part in the book where FIRST is portrayed believable.

This forum has been probably the most fun I’ve had in my research for the book so far. Thanks again.

9

hehe…that would be so cool.

Unfortunately there would be no way to do it accurately enough that you could reasonably control it…unless you had it change speed with the pitch of your voice or something…but that would be mad crazy.

10

*Originally posted by Chris Nowak *
**hehe…that would be so cool.

Unfortunately there would be no way to do it accurately enough that you could reasonably control it…unless you had it change speed with the pitch of your voice or something…but that would be mad crazy. **

Well…mad crazy is what a couple of the characters are developing into after seeing some of the stuff on this forum site:) .

Jnadke is right though. It takes way to much power for the program to “learn the voice” Although simply transferring it after it has “learned” might be an option. I think that would still take too much processing power though, just for the translating capability. Then of course, there are the rules sigh

11

if you were really desperate you could make something that could be used in the offseason. get a computer with many (4) serial ports, along with the converter to the stamp serial ports (i believe they use a different type to cut down on signal interference), and develop some program that sends the right input out. it’s doable, just not under FIRST’s rules. so, if for your book, you want to have them do that in the offseason or something, it’s possible to do. just need someone who has no life and a lot of money to make it work… :stuck_out_tongue:

12

“You are not allowed to use computers in your control system, since they are not in the digikey catalog. Computers can only be used for feedback, as said in the Rule Book. This means you can’t use your computer program to control the robot.”

From Jnadke

Where exactly is this rule and wht number and heading is it under?

All I have found so far is:

“GM9 -During a match the robots may be operated only by the students and/or SOFTWARE running the onboard control system.”

Pleas forgive my ignorance, but couldn’t the on board computer handle this? or is it too small? What are it’s capabilities for memory and processing? It seems to me that all it would have to do is recieve the signal from the station. Or is it not equipped for that.
I’d really like to know. It’s been a long time since I’ve dealt with anything of this nature.

I feel so totally ignorant for this challenge.

13

*Originally posted by Ian W. *
**if you were really desperate you could make something that could be used in the offseason. get a computer with many (4) serial ports, along with the converter to the stamp serial ports (i believe they use a different type to cut down on signal interference), and develop some program that sends the right input out. it’s doable, just not under FIRST’s rules. so, if for your book, you want to have them do that in the offseason or something, it’s possible to do. just need someone who has no life and a lot of money to make it work… :stuck_out_tongue: **

Cool! Off season is a great idea!

Hmm. could make an interesting plot twist somewhere. Thanks!

(Oh man have I got a lot of work to do!) (stuff to learn etc.)

It’s hard when you’ve been out of the loop for fifteen years. Any input you guys had to offer would be a great help.

14

*Originally posted by Miss Tree *
**[Pleas forgive my ignorance, but couldn’t the on board computer handle this? or is it too small? What are it’s capabilities for memory and processing? It seems to me that all it would have to do is recieve the signal from the station. Or is it not equipped for that.
I’d really like to know. It’s been a long time since I’ve dealt with anything of this nature.

I feel so totally ignorant for this challenge. [/b]

Just so it’s only ignorance. Ignorance can be fixed, it’s stupid that’s forever.:wink:

To answer you question, the STAMP processor currently used is much to small and probably too slow to do any voice processing. That is why they suggested using an auxillary processor.

A related factor is the noise during competition. While your filter may be able to pick out a voice from random noise, can it do so out of noise that is many times louder than the desired signal? Or have you ever tried to outshout 1000s of people?

The best drive team we have had were brothers, they never had to talk on the field, the manipulator guy “just knew” what to do based on the drivers actions. They claimed it was the result of 1000s of hours of playing video games together.

Now a telepathic robot, that might work! Oh wait Azimov did that one already.**

15

Well…The filter worked over four very noisy children that I thought sounded like a thousand at the time, but that’s just a matter of perspective. The noise would definitely be a major problem in addition to the other seemingly insurmountable challenges.

The brothers as a drive team sounds interesting. I already have pair of brothers in the character list. Perhaps I should put them in as the drive team with a similar relationship. Interesting duo with a dramatic flair. They almost crash their van in a chase scene toward the end (coming to the rescue of their coach) because one of them decides that there should be some kind of music going in the stereo to accompany what their doing. (like a sound track to a movie) They get into a fight over it and veer into oncoming traffic while they struggle over the tape.

16

And thus…the Furby was created. :smiley: (technical shmecnical)

17

*Originally posted by Miss Tree *
** They almost crash their van in a chase scene toward the end (coming to the rescue of their coach) because one of them decides that there should be some kind of music going in the stereo to accompany what their doing. (like a sound track to a movie) They get into a fight over it and veer into oncoming traffic while they struggle over the tape. **

Tape…What is this thing you call “the tape”??? They fight over Duct Tape?? YES!!! Fighting over Duct tape is a pastime!!!
J/K
Two Letters- CD lol -you can even have the driver get blinded by it!!! Not fun in real life but would sound good in a story.

Seriously though, I like the soundtrack idea!! We’ve done that in the car. I know people who have played Song 2 by Blur over a series of hills (7 hills to be exact) in town and match the screaming descent on the hills to the “Whooo Hooo” parts of the song!!!

EDIT- I just realized this post has nothing to do with the original topic but eh- what are ya’ gonna do?

18

*Originally posted by Elgin Clock *
**

Tape…What is this thing you call “the tape”??? They fight over Duct Tape?? YES!!! Fighting over Duct tape is a pastime!!!
J/K
Two Letters- CD lol -you can even have the driver get blinded by it!!! Not fun in real life but would sound good in a story.

Seriously though, I like the soundtrack idea!! We’ve done that in the car. I know people who have played Song 2 by Blur over a series of hills (7 hills to be exact) in town and match the screaming descent on the hills to the “Whooo Hooo” parts of the song!!!

EDIT- I just realized this post has nothing to do with the original topic but eh- what are ya’ gonna do? **

I origionally had a tape, because it makes a more satisfying “THWAK!” when you thump someone on the head with it. I like the getting blineded by the CD though. If I left it in the case at the beginning of the argument, I could still get a satisfying “THWAK!” out of it.

AS for voice activated movement in a bot; I think what I’ll do, is base this story in the off season and have it be an outside project by one of the kids on their own.

Honestly I think I’ve collected enough information for this book to start a series.

Maybe we’ll just call the series “Team Mayhem” or something like that, and just tag on whatever adventure they’re on to the title of each book. Is that name taken already? Would they mind if I used it? Anyone have a better suggestion?

EDIT- I think I’ve edited this at least three times already. I am soooo not awake right now.

19

There is a Mayhem on the Merrimack* Competition I believe.

Also look at the names of the previous years FIRST Games and you’ll notice a trend. Names like Maize Craze, Ramp Riot, Zone Zeal, and Co-Operation FIRST come to mind but there was a cool name attached to every FIRST competition.

Help me out fellow posters what were all the other names???

A catchy name for the series is a very good idea, I like it!

20

*Originally posted by Miss Tree *
**“You are not allowed to use computers in your control system, since they are not in the digikey catalog. Computers can only be used for feedback, as said in the Rule Book. This means you can’t use your computer program to control the robot.”

From Jnadke

Where exactly is this rule and wht number and heading is it under?

All I have found so far is:

“GM9 -During a match the robots may be operated only by the students and/or SOFTWARE running the onboard control system.”

Pleas forgive my ignorance, but couldn’t the on board computer handle this? or is it too small? What are it’s capabilities for memory and processing? It seems to me that all it would have to do is recieve the signal from the station. Or is it not equipped for that.
I’d really like to know. It’s been a long time since I’ve dealt with anything of this nature.

I feel so totally ignorant for this challenge. **

Read the Robot, rules & specs Manual. Do a search for computer. Either that or it’s rule 2.2.3.

Portable computing devices may not be connected to inputs on the Operator Interface.

I admire your effort, but by on-board control system they mean the robot controller. That rule was designed to specify that they robot can perform it’s own automatic commands programmed into it (the software part), or the student’s commands that is operating it.

You still can do your voice thing, you just can’t hook a computer up to it. It will make it much more difficult, though. The stamp chip only gets new data at the mininum every 25 milliseconds. That’s not a high enough sampling rate to process human speech. That’s only 40hz… So only 40 tone changes in a second…

With the limited number of commands needed you could do it in 40 tone changes… it’s just finding the right words that produce a noticable change in tone for the programmer for all your commands.

The microphone itself can be adjusted to accept different noise levels, either by dampening it with foam, or using different microphone technologies. It will be hard to see if background noise will affect it or not…