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Voice Activated MP3 player
g0dsp33d writes "A US company is working on a voice controlled MP3 player for applications like cars where touch control is not as feasible. Considering technology like radar breaking and AI steering for robots, it reminds me of the possibility for a real life version of the car from Night Rider, KITT. Minus the cool jump effects, of course."
I dont find using my radio while driving to really be that difficult. I don't even have to look at it to change CD, tracks or alter the volume.
It seems to me that if the system was not perfect, IE it has common errors and played the wrong songs, that would make me more annoyed than the prospect of having to reach down to change something.
I guess you can call me crazy, but I still like adjusting dials and getting some feedback when I change the volume or change tracks, and i'm not sure I would like a voice activated system.
My cell phone can dial things now.
My guess is that the player isn't going to sort your music for you, you will need to put it in the genre you want.
Unless it's something really mind blowing, like it tells me what i want to hear next, and is actually correct, i am unimpressed.
http://www.mp3car.com
A lot of us hobbyists have done a lot of research and put a lot of computers in cars, with fabrication, touchscreens, DC-DC power supplies, and more.
Where does that logic end? ...If you're too incompetent to take your hand off the wheel and dial your cell phone, you probably shouldn't be driving anyway. ...If you're too incompetent to take your hand off the wheel and find which CD you want, you probably shouldn't be driving anyway. ...If you're too incompetent to take your hand off the wheel and turn on the DVD, you probably shouldn't be driving anyway.
I don't know just how sophisticated technology in these things would be, but theoretically it shouldn't be too difficult to keep an audio system from responding to commands issued by the audio file. Voice recognition is done by analyzing the signal from audio, a process known as digital signal processing. When the signal matches something the system knows to look for, the programmed response is called.
:) My DSP experience is limited to working with a group of DSP people, and my project had nothing to do with theirs. I just picked up a fact here and there. :) Still, this seems a possible solution to me.
A major problem with voice recognition technology is when the technology cannot differentiate the speaker from the background noise. Not knowing what is reliable and what is noise, the system can be more prone to error. In this case, however, the system would know what it is outputting and to my thinking should be able to ignore any signal currently being output. Any incoming audio signal would be compared against the outgoing signal and if it matched it could simply be ignored. This should make it possible to eliminate noise coming from various sources, perhaps even something to detect noise outside the car and filter it out as well.
This is just my thinking.
I love my sig.
Mercedes-Benz (or rather, Daimler-Chrysler), for example, has been shipping an electronics system, LINGUATRONIC COMAND (for Cockpit Management and Navigation), for at least three years that is voice controlled. Voice recognition controls the radio, the CD, the integrated Motorola telephone. A 30-word vocabulary doesn't sound like much, but it gets the job done.
It's activated by a steering wheel stalk and is somewhat modal (but an MP3 player wouldn't have as many modes in the first place), but the hard part is all done by voice recognition.
I'm pretty sure other car manufacturers are shipping similar systems by now.
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