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Google Voice Controls Giant LED Display

Posted by kdawson on from the can-you-understand-me-now dept.

compumike writes "What geek among us has never thought about how cool it would be if you could call your computer and have it do stuff? Josh Davis put together a quick video demo and source code of his Voice Controlled LED Marquee, powered by Google Voice speech recognition and a DIY LED Array Kit. Imagine using the same display for monitoring server uptime, or RSS feeds!"

50 of 66 comments (clear)

  1. How my computer knows I'm ordering it to do stuff? by Provocateur · · Score: 2, Funny

    Certain keywords will trigger its response (and possibly its speed)

    Give me slashdot dammit!

    I need the f***ing RSS feeds off CNN's news from Baghdad!

    Where the HELL is Taco!

    --
    WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
  2. Completly built from scratch? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I was not aware this man invented the Universe.

    1. Re:Completly built from scratch? by munctional · · Score: 1

      Mod up for Cosmos.

      --
      Functional programming... for real men!
    2. Re:Completly built from scratch? by Kingrames · · Score: 1, Funny

      Josh Davis, the most interesting man on Slashdot.
      Stay thirsty, my friends.

      --
      If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
  3. Google's speech recognition is uncannily good by rolfwind · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Of course, they have been using Goog-411 to improve it, and Google Voice will only accelerate that (on the plus side, I don't need a landline at all anymore with cheap international calls).... but Google's voice search on the iphone is much better than I could ask of it.

    If they came out with a voice recognition product, the field currently dominated by the mediocre Dragon Naturally Speaking, I'm sure they could completely kill the competition.

    1. Re:Google's speech recognition is uncannily good by Z1NG · · Score: 1

      Google's speech recognition is uncannily good

      What, for unusually small values of uncanny? I love google voice, but the voice recognition could still use some work.

    2. Re:Google's speech recognition is uncannily good by rolfwind · · Score: 1

      I just tried it. Pretty good! Thanks.

  4. Re:How my computer knows I'm ordering it to do stu by XPeter · · Score: 2, Funny

    *Work laptop with Google Voice on nightstand*

    Woman: Oh yes, make love to me baby. Fuck me!!

    I'd like to see how that conversation goes down when your boss looks at your search history.

    --
    "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has it's limits" - Albert Einstein
  5. Now hook it up to Blinkenlights. by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 1

    And you can use the side of a building in Europe.

    THAT would be impressive.

    3. 2. 1. ...

    --
    Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
    1. Re:Now hook it up to Blinkenlights. by acehole · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "Thanks for winning WW2 for us America!"

      *ducks*

      --
      Be you Admins? nay, we are but lusers!
    2. Re:Now hook it up to Blinkenlights. by TheModelEskimo · · Score: 1

      HAHAHAHAHAHA dude, you are so dead. I say that as an American apple-pie eater.

    3. Re:Now hook it up to Blinkenlights. by wondershit · · Score: 1

      They have been to Canada too.

  6. Google voice speech recognition needs a little wor by Vyse+of+Arcadia · · Score: 3, Informative

    Google Voice speech recognition isn't exactly the best. "Hey, Zack, this is Terrence at [company name here]. Please give me a call as soon as you get the chance to. We need to, uh, we wanted to know if you were going to make it in to day. Thank you." somehow becomes "Hey there, This is Sarah positions. Please give me a call as as soon as you get a chance to. We need to we. What's up for you not be able to make it today. Thank you."

    And he speaks pretty clearly too.

  7. Makes sense by sleeponthemic · · Score: 1

    "Did that display just ask for Sarah Connor?"

    --
    I record my sleeptalking
    1. Re:Makes sense by Yvan256 · · Score: 1

      Nope, it just said "THERE IS ANOTHER SYSTEM".

                                                                                                 

    2. Re:Makes sense by hoggoth · · Score: 1

      I bring you peace. It may be the peace of plenty and content or the peace of unburied death. The choice is yours.

      --
      - For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat /dev/random (may take some time)
    3. Re:Makes sense by TheModelEskimo · · Score: 1

      Oh man, GOOD movie. That's from "Colossus: The Forbin Project," A.K.A. "Your Local Video Store Doesn't Have This Film"

  8. Naughty talk by Mishotaki · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So... you can ask your computer for porn?

    1. Re:Naughty talk by fizzer06 · · Score: 1

      More importantly, can you GET the porn?

    2. Re:Naughty talk by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 1

      Sure, but the output is on a 5x24 pixel array of red LEDs spaced about a half inch apart...

      --
      You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
    3. Re:Naughty talk by TheModelEskimo · · Score: 1

      So THAT's what all that Scantron art was training me for. Thank you, public school system!

  9. Server Uptime? by Mr_Plattz · · Score: 1

    I'm sorry, but none of us at /. monitor server up time.

    We monitor servers and services. I thought we all accepted that most modern day Operating systems are good for 3+ months uptime. At least until the next patch cluster comes through.

  10. Whoa dude by Zouden · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Imagine using the same display for monitoring server uptime, or RSS feeds!"

    I'm trying to imagine it, man, but it's BLOWING MY FREAKIN' MIND.

    Wait, I thought this article was about using voice control with the display, not the display itself (which is ancient).

    --
    "A week in the lab saves an hour in the library"
  11. Re:A fun hack by JrGrouch0 · · Score: 1

    what is this "girlfriend" thing of which you speak? And at what was she cheating, Halo?

  12. Re:Google voice speech recognition needs a little by JDHannan · · Score: 1

    So, you work at Cision?

  13. Re:Google voice speech recognition needs a little by bennomatic · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sarah Positions? She sounds hot.

    --
    The CB App. What's your 20?
  14. Steampunk cool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Get the LED board to flash the voice message in Morse code

  15. Why 5x24? by Yvan256 · · Score: 1

    Why isn't it 24x5? Isn't it always X before Y? Ex: it's 1024x768, not 768x1024...

    1. Re:Why 5x24? by Idiomatick · · Score: 1

      That is why I hate matrices. Fucking y,x bs... happened in some java course too.

    2. Re:Why 5x24? by technocolor · · Score: 1

      No. Matrices are always ROWxCOLUMN. wikipedia. Why they label monitors in that fashion I don't know.

    3. Re:Why 5x24? by Yvan256 · · Score: 1

      In graphic memory the pixels are ordered that way, "0,0" being top/left and "max_X,max_Y" being bottom/right.

    4. Re:Why 5x24? by Yvan256 · · Score: 1

      Also, a lot of languages go from left to right, from the top to the bottom of the page, line by line. Using ROWxCOLUMN is completely backward. I wonder who thought that would be a good idea.

  16. You're missing the point by InvisiBill · · Score: 1

    "Imagine using the same display for monitoring server uptime, or RSS feeds!"

    I'm trying to imagine it, man, but it's BLOWING MY FREAKIN' MIND.

    Wait, I thought this article was about using voice control with the display, not the display itself (which is ancient).

    I just managed to get my server to stop calling 900 numbers and start calling my Google Voice. RSS feeds haven't worked so well though. With the server calling and leaving a new voicemail every millisecond, the website can never seem to get through.

  17. Welcome to the year 2000 by amliebsch · · Score: 1

    Ho-hum. I was doing this crap with a voicemodem, Homeseer, and a BetaBrite display like 10 years ago. It had far less latency, too. I mean kudos for building your own LED grid, I guess, but neither voice recognition nor LED control, nor tying the two together with scripts, it particularly new.

    --
    If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
    1. Re:Welcome to the year 2000 by IndustrialComplex · · Score: 1

      Big deal.

      I did it with two tin cans, twine, and a lite-bright.

      --
      Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj
    2. Re:Welcome to the year 2000 by TheModelEskimo · · Score: 1

      What are the tin cans for? My twine and light bright system has been doing just fine here.

    3. Re:Welcome to the year 2000 by Lectrik · · Score: 1

      What are the tin cans for? My twine and light bright system has been doing just fine here.

      Light bright?
      In my day we only had twine.
      And no one had invented language yet either!

      --
      --- As to make my comment seem, by comparison, more intelegent... doodie doodie doodie poop poop poop!
  18. Aurgh by Urza9814 · · Score: 1

    Damn, I thought he'd figured out a direct way to interface with the google voice recognition software. THAT is something I could really use right now. A project that does it through the phone though....not so much.

    On a related note, anyone know of any very good and easy to interface with free (open source is very highly preferred, but free beer is ok too) voice recognition software? I'm currently looking at Sphinx-4, but I have absolutely no experience in this area.

    1. Re:Aurgh by GodKingAmit · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I used sphinx recently (pocketsphinx) to implement a voice recognition system for a sailboat, allowing quadriplegic sailors to control the boat. Sphinx is a decent voice recognition system but can't match big time commercial products like Google voice or Dragon naturally speaking. This is especially the case if you want recognition of natural speech (instead of the few code words used in my project). Have you considered the microsoft speech API (http://www.microsoft.com/speech/speech2007/default.mspx) ? I don't have any personal experience but I've heard that it is a fairly powerful system.

  19. If only you could control things without voice. by mirix · · Score: 1

    Say via http. with buttons, or text or something. Oh wait.

    --
    Sent from my PDP-11
  20. nice little hack but... by Chryana · · Score: 1

    It's an interesting hack, but I really don't like the commercial feeling the story has, with a link in the slashdot post, an oral mention of the LED kit seller in the video, and a big "Thanks nerdkits" displayed at the end.

    1. Re:nice little hack but... by Chryana · · Score: 1

      Oh yes, and the poster's link is to the company website, so he's definitely affiliated with them.

  21. lol by dUN82 · · Score: 1

    it appears a free text msg to your phone is too much to ask...but, yeah, nice twick...

  22. GIANT LED display? by war4peace · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Well to be honest, I was expecting a GIANT LED display, like the ones used for outdoor advertising; something in the range of 15x10 feet or something. This one is huge in terms of big LEDs, nothing else.

    --
    ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
  23. Imagine by l3v1 · · Score: 1

    Imagine setting up scripts like one in the demo for certain commands, like poweroff, hdd wipe, switching on/off heating/lighting, and so on. Now imagine a funny friend learning your trigger word. Now, how cool is that ? :))

    --
    I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I can think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.
  24. ads by StripedCow · · Score: 1

    I guess it will not take long until Google will have their ads displayed on that LED array...

    --
    If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
  25. You wanna BIG matrix display... by Linker3000 · · Score: 1

    Keep an eye on local business (call centre) sales or ebay - I picked up a 1m long AAC Corp 'AgentView' call centre display for 25UKP - there's a lot of 'closing down' kit around at the moment.

    Currently, the displays is hooked up the BBC news RSS feed in the support room, but the control software can display pretty much anything.

    --
    AT&ROFLMAO
  26. Killer application for this by srussia · · Score: 1

    LED marquee mounted on rear window of car.

    --
    Set your phasers on "funky"!
  27. Re:Google voice speech recognition needs a little by Sporkinum · · Score: 1

    Heck, I just did "This is a test", it transcribed it as "Hello".

    --
    "He's lost in a 'floyd hole"
  28. Nice, but.... by Tmack · · Score: 1
    The Asterisk crowd has been playing Zork over phone systems for quite some time now... all thats needed to make a computer do anything via voice command is a decent speech to text lib, like sphinx, and a way to get your verbal noises into the computer for it to decipher. Past that its the same old scripting game. Voice recognition is about like the Internet, it was really exciting the first few years when it was new and actually innovative, now doing something via the Internet/via Voice Recognition is nothing special (and often just annoying... "Operator" "Im sorry, I did not understand.." "I want to speak with an Opera.." "Transfering you to sales").

    Tm

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