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Voice Activated MP3 player

Posted by samzenpus on from the pushing-buttons-is-hard dept.

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."

27 of 236 comments (clear)

  1. One song you'll not be able to play by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Stop, what's that sound." It'll shut off right after it starts.

    1. Re:One song you'll not be able to play by Marvelicious · · Score: 2, Insightful

      ...a voice controlled MP3 player for applications like cars where touch control is not as feasible

      Good God! To think all these years I've been controlling my music without voice control when it is "not feasable." I must be a pretty amazing guy to pull this off!

      --
      Send whiskey and fresh horses!
  2. Not for me, thanks by drivinghighway61 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'll actually be avoiding this, as I don't want anyone else to hear that I'm listening to Britney Spears.

    Wait.

    Damn it!

  3. KITT was in Knight Rider by Vietomatic · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...and ITT was in Night Rider.

  4. Don't break the radar by Dancin_Santa · · Score: 3, Insightful

    How much training is required to operate this thing reliably? With voice training, you can get any piece of software to ignore non-operator commands.

    But I'm loath to sit out in the cold just to program the stupid thing in my sleigh.

    How big a deal is it to take a fraction of a second to change the song anyway? We do it all the time with the radio, A/C, and speedometer already.

  5. Scenario by k4_pacific · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm sitting in a crowded place, listening to the White Album on my new voice activated MP3 player.

    Me (quietly): Play Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey.

    MP3 player: Please speak louder.

    Me: Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey.

    MP3 player: Please speak louder.

    Me (shouting): Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey!!!

    Everyone turns and looks at me. I make a mad dash for the exit.

    --
    Unknown host pong.
    1. Re:Scenario by MikeXpop · · Score: 3, Funny

      I'd be more worried if I wanted to play "Why Don't We Do it in the Road?".

      --
      Etiquette is etiquette. He kills his mother but he can't wear grey trousers.
  6. My two cents... by odano · · Score: 2, Informative

    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.

    1. Re:My two cents... by }InFuZeD{ · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You seem to be missing the point.

      If your mp3 player has 3000 songs, and you're looking for one... you're gonna be doing quite a few clicks on that radio to get to it.

      The voice navigation will work a bit faster. Make that a lot faster.

    2. Re:My two cents... by pchan- · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I have a phatbox too (Nissan version). When you tell people it uses voice navigation, they automatically assume that you talk to it. But the way it talks to you is really ingenius. You don't need to look down to find the controls, because you already know where they are, and you don't need to read the display, because you hear the titles. Sure, pronounciation is not perfect, but I can figure out what it's saying, and would rather have that than be screaming "B-jork" (*you* you have to be mis-pronouncing it for it to understand what you want) in my loud car with the windows down. I guess that's why Audi and Volkswagen sell Phatboxes, It's a safety thing. Plus, you can't beat true integration with your native stereo.

  7. Wish the iPod had this... by mikeb39 · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's my biggest gripe with the iPod that nobodys built a voice activated accessory yet. When I'm drunk off my rocker and want to select a particular song, it takes forever. Overscroll, scroll back, overscroll, scroll back, etc. Very frustration. (I suppose it would also be useful when you've been running or just naturally get sweaty hands, as it's near impossible to use the touch wheel with moist fingers).

    Okay, so an interface like that with the iPod is probably not possible, how hard could it be to introduce it on new iPods? Just say a artist, song name or album and get zipped right to it!

    1. Re:Wish the iPod had this... by Propagandhi · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I doubt the little CPU in the iPod is robust enough to provide any kind of voice recognition support. Not to mention those little mic accessories aren't exactly Hi-Fi, they're just unpowered microphones IIRC. Besides, this won't be the smallest software sweet, and I'm definitely not willing to give up a couple hundered mb's of space on my DAP just to look like a fool yelling at it belligerently...

      The way I see it one of two things needs to happen before this becomes truely feasible:

      1) Voice recognition software needs to become much more effiecient.

      -or-

      2) The low power\ultra compact CPU's in DAP's need get significantly more powerful..

  8. you're fine until.... by Elminst · · Score: 3, Funny

    They have a voice activated car with one of these in it....

    Telling it to "Back up" while you're cruising at highway speeds would end up with your transmission in the middle of the road and you looking at the bottom of a ditch!! ;)

    --
    No unauthorized use. Trespassers will be shot. Survivors will be shot again.
  9. W00t by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny
    This will now allow me to fulfill my David hasslehoff fantasy!

    -Kitt, find me some women!

    -I'm sorry, I can't do that Dave.

  10. clapper syndrome by evilmousse · · Score: 3, Interesting


    will it suffer from clapper syndrom, like when you have a stereo plugged into the clapper and the song includes clapping?

    idunno what the control words would be, but i bet there's enough songs with the word "louder" in it to make it suck.

  11. touch control isn't feasible? by dj42 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Are there a bunch of armless drivers I'm not aware of? If you're too incompetent to take your hand off the wheel and adjust your music track, you probably shouldn't be driving anyway. Or allowed to own a car.

    --
    We are one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. Back to you with the weather, Bob!
    1. Re:touch control isn't feasible? by Medgur · · Score: 2, Informative

      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.

  12. Re:Nah.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Imagine trying to play a song called "Sk8r Boi" or something similiar...

    That's not a bug, it's a feature.

  13. voice control is hard why? by mobiux · · Score: 2, Informative

    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.

  14. Important site for carputers by Chairboy · · Score: 3, Informative
    If you're interested in puting a computer in your car and this article interests you, definately check out the following site:

    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.

  15. Simpson's Nightboat! by Man+in+Spandex · · Score: 3, Funny

    Michael: Faster, Knightboat! We gotta catch those starfish poachers.
    Knightboat: You don't have to yell, Michael, I'm all around you.

  16. Re:You fail it! by djupedal · · Score: 4, Funny

    I don't want my car to talk to me. I want it to run on water

    Hell, I'd be happy if mine could walk on water...

  17. asshole by anagama · · Score: 5, Funny
    Reminds me of the joke that goes something like this:

    • A lady goes to a car dealer to get a fancy car. The salesman shows her a model with a voice activated radio. He says "classical", and a classical station comes on. He says "rock" and a rock station comes on. Impressed, the lady decides to take it for a test drive. As she is pulling out of the lot, a car cuts her off and she yells "asshole" .... and Rush Limbaugh comes on.
    --
    What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
  18. It's all about the filters by Columcille · · Score: 2, Informative

    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.

    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. :) 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.

    --
    I love my sig.
  19. Your Future Talking Car by BlakeLupa · · Score: 2, Funny

    "Your door is ajar."
    "Your taste in music is banal."
    "RIAA validation code not found."
    "Your door is closed and locked."
    "Ingition disabled."
    "RIAA lawyers and approprite law enforcement has been notifed."
    "Please stand-by."

  20. Ummm.. this already exists in cars by tm2b · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.

    --
    "It is our blasphemy which has made us great, and will sustain us, and which the gods secretly admire in us." - Zelazny
  21. edigital has done this 2 years ago. by 314m678 · · Score: 2

    I got my MXP100 off ebay for 40USD

    It takes CF and accepts voice commands.

    www.edigital.com