Latest Little Voice Commander Release v1.36.01 - June 3, 2011

[mouser]

Download latest version from Official Web Page: HERE.



v1.36.01 - June 3, 2011

• Better reporting and options to disable speech if SAPI runtimes not found.

v1.35.01 - May 31, 2011

• Now includes over 100 audio voice files provided by DC member Renegade (Ryan Smyth) that can speak each word as it is displayed.  Thanks Ryan!  Users can create their own audio files (as well as their own image files).

Little Voice Commander is a toy program for young toddlers who are just learning to start to speak.

The program runs full screen (across multiple monitors if present) and listens for a child to speak or press a key.

If the program detects something being spoken, it finds the best match for a word it has photos for, and displays some random photos for that word, as well as the word text. If a key on the keyboard is pressed, a word beginning with the pressed key is displayed, along with some photos for that word.

Users can add their own photos easily, so you can customize it with pictures of mom, dad, sister, brother, dog, cat, house, etc. It will scan labeled photos on startup and add those words to its vocabulary.

It uses the microsoft speech recognition engine, which is ok but not ideal. I wouldn't expect to be able to use this to teach any kid how to pronounce words -- it's more to encourage very young kids to babble and give them the experience of having what they speak affect what it shown in a semi-consistent manner.

I hope people will help by making some additional image packs for the program from royalty free photo sources. Thanks to DC member App103 (and http://www.freestockphotos.biz) for collecting the initial set of royalty free images, and to Stoic Joker for the program name suggestion.

Note: This program is based on my more grown up MultiPhotoQuotes screensaver engine.

[mouser]

Martin at ghacks posted a very sweet write-up of Little Voice Commander today  

http://www.ghacks.ne...n-software-for-kids/

One of the coolest features of the program is the ability to add your own photos to it. You could add photos of parents, grandparents, pets or locations that are familiar to the user to add a personal note to the program.
...
All in all it is a great program that will keep kids entertained for some time on the computer. Even better, it makes them associate words with images.

[Ath]

That's nice

[mouser]

Version 1.35.01
Now includes over 100 audio voice files provided by DC member Renegade (Ryan Smyth) that can speak each word as it is displayed.  Thanks Ryan!  Users can create their own audio files (as well as their own image files).

[capitalH]

The download page states that is 29MB (it is 33.3MB)
Also it would be helpful to the size of the speech engine as it is large (20MB downloaded - unknown size) and DoCo seems a bit slow on the download side...

One comment that I do have (before being able to run the program) is that I am not interested in the speech engine part - it would have been nice to have this as an option so that one does not have download and install another bloated piece of software.

[Deozaan]

One comment that I do have (before being able to run the program) is that I am not interested in the speech engine part - it would have been nice to have this as an option so that one does not have download and install another bloated piece of software.

-capitalH (June 03, 2011, 01:39 AM)

If you don't want it to recognize your speech then it sounds like you want CrazyLittleFingers.

[mouser]

A few quick points:

• You can disable the speech recognition part, and it will just respond to keys tapped on the keyboard.
• The download size is large, but that has nothing to do with the speech support, it's because the download includes a couple hundred images.
• At some point I very well may break up the download into two parts, a core download, and an image pack download.  That would make it easier to update.

[capitalH]

A few quick points:

• You can disable the speech recognition part, and it will just respond to keys tapped on the keyboard.
• The download size is large, but that has nothing to do with the speech support, it's because the download includes a couple hundred images.
• At some point I very well may break up the download into two parts, a core download, and an image pack download.  That would make it easier to update.

-mouser (June 03, 2011, 03:45 AM)

Your program (https://www.donation...ceCommanderSetup.exe) is 33.3 MB.

The speech engine ( https://www.donation...ognition_Runtime.msi) is 49.7MB

About disabling the speech recognition - I would rather not install the second download (SAPI 5 runtime) at all than just to disable it.

[capitalH]

If you don't want it to recognize your speech then it sounds like you want CrazyLittleFingers.

-Deozaan (June 03, 2011, 01:46 AM)

Thanks - although since my kid is learning the alphabet I want to display the letters on screen as well.

Busy hacking up an AHK solution - almost done at least (but pictures only - mp3s would have to wait for translation).

[mouser]

Ah well the speech engine download is only needed for windows xp, and should not be needed if you dont enable speech option in the program.
i'll check and fix it if it is.

[capitalH]

Ah well the speech engine download is only needed for windows xp, and should not be needed if you dont enable speech option in the program.
i'll check and fix it if it is.

-mouser (June 03, 2011, 07:40 AM)

I have Windows XP and your program crashes immediately upon running (main program, configure program and test window crashes).

I edited the .ini file and set everything with speech in it = false - still crashing

I cannot figure out how to add a screenshot as an attachment - but the error is

"OLE error 8004503A, ClassID: {73AD6842-ACE0-45E8-A4DD-8795881A2C2A}"

My ahk hack is done at least so not a big problem - although not as pretty as yours, and no sound (yet).

[mouser]

right ok, so it sounds like its needing MS speech to be installed even if you try to disable it.  i'll fix that.

[mouser]

A new version has been uploaded (v1.36.01).

In this version if the SAPI speech runtimes are not found, a much more intelligible warning is displayed explaining the problem of the missing SAPI runtimes and instructing how to fix.

And furthermore, the program will then continue to operate with simple keyboard presses instead of speech.

And a new option is present to disable speech recognition features, which will also disable the initial warning.