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Speech Recognition Using the Raspberry Pi

Posted by timothy on from the cheaper-than-my-watch-and-more-versatile dept.

aonsquared writes "In a previous Slashdot story, I demonstrated a voice-controlled robotic arm using the open-source speech decoder Julius. This time, I have managed to port the system to a Raspberry Pi to control the same robotic arm, and as usual, posted the tutorial and source code. Some negative reviews of the Raspberry Pi are starting to appear, and they're missing the educational point of this device — I'm hoping this will counter the naysayers, and help inspire a new generation of hackers, as well as also bring open-source speech recognition the same attention as proprietary solutions (i.e Siri) are getting!"

12 of 74 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Would be most interesting ... by CajunArson · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Lol... I ordered mine on March 3 and the last update I got says it might ship in about 2 weeks... maybe...

    I like a lot of things about Raspberry Pi, but they made a big mistake by overhyping the product. The next closest competitor I can think of is the Beagleboard, and while the Beagleboards are more expensive they aren't insane (still $100) and have a much more mature software and developer ecosystem.

    --
    AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
  2. Re:What do I use mine for? by i-reek · · Score: 5, Funny
    You could always give it to me.

    Then we solve both our problems :)

  3. Engadget review negative? by supremebob · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I wouldn't consider the Engadget review to be negative. They tried to use the board for things it wasn't designed to do (like play Youtube or Flash videos), and it failed to do so. Big deal. The people who are actually trying to buy these boards would likely know better.

    The reviewer didn't seem to have a clue what they were doing... they complained about having to type in the startx command to start the GUI, for pete's sake. If anything, the review did a better job of making Engadget look bad than the product they were reviewing.

    That said, it's easy to think of negative things to say about the Pi... like the lack of supply. I've been on the waiting list for one for over a month now, and I haven't even been given an estimated shipping date at this point.

    1. Re:Engadget review negative? by CajunArson · · Score: 4, Insightful

      When I first saw the Engadget review I thought it was a little bit off-kilter since it was trying to use the Pi for desktop & media playback use instead of for simple programming or embedded projects.

        Then I remembered that lots of the demonstrations shown off on the Raspberry Pi website show using the Pi for the same purposes, especially with the heavy emphasis placed on XBMC. I think part of the issue with the Raspberry Pi is that the developers need to focus more on realistic usage scenarios for the device so that reviewers have the correct expectations going into the review.

      --
      AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
    2. Re:Engadget review negative? by SilenceBE · · Score: 5, Informative

      I wouldn't consider the Engadget review to be negative. They tried to use the board for things it wasn't designed to do (like play Youtube or Flash videos), and it failed to do so. Big deal. The people who are actually trying to buy these boards would likely know better.

      The reviewer didn't seem to have a clue what they were doing... they complained about having to type in the startx command to start the GUI, for pete's sake. If anything, the review did a better job of making Engadget look bad than the product they were reviewing.

      That said, it's easy to think of negative things to say about the Pi... like the lack of supply. I've been on the waiting list for one for over a month now, and I haven't even been given an estimated shipping date at this point.

      "They tried to use the board for things it wasn't designed to do"

      Funny that you say that

      What’s a Raspberry Pi?

      It’s a capable little PC which can be used for many of the things that your desktop PC does, like spreadsheets, word-processing and games. It also plays high-definition video.

      http://www.raspberrypi.org/faqs

    3. Re:Engadget review negative? by LWATCDR · · Score: 3, Informative

      I think that the Pi was supposed to be a desktop system. It has a HDMI port and can decode 1080p video. That is a desktop device. Flash is a none starter for sure but YouTube should have worked.
      The Pi is really cool but I think it has real issues at this time.
      1. The GPU is not being used well. From what I hear X is not yet using the GPU for acceleration.
      2. Limited RAM.
      3. Slow IO. SD cards are not very speedy.
      The first they can fix. The third might be fixable with using a USB Hard drive or a NAS.
      It would be great if this could run say OpenOffice and play videos well. Schools and libraries could have whole labs of them all running form an inexpensive NAS and with a print server.
      As a hacking tool this is great. For a general education tool it could also be really good but limited right now. As a programing education tool it could be really good, Do they have Squeak running on it yet? I know Python is up and working and they have a BBC Basic for it.
      The thing is that this is a developers release. It isn't soup yet. It is really cool and full of potential but Endgadet was reviewing it as a finished product which it really isn't yet. I do think it is good that it showed it's curent limitations so the developers can work on eliminating them.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    4. Re:Engadget review negative? by Svartalf · · Score: 5, Informative

      But it can do browsing and other things. The Endgaget reviewer went and did several boneheaded things- whether out of ignorance or deliberation will be left as a determination by the reader...

      XBMC does do what they're claiming it does. It DOES run Quake III:Arena. The thing is...you can't just nab any old Linux binary and run it. You have to code to leverage the GPU to get it to do many of the heavy load-lifting things and only the things they showcased before release have been made to work that way.

      The biggest thing (and they never changed their tune...you lot may have not been paying attention...) is that they've said from the beginning that this was intended for computer science education , not as a general purpose computer (though you CAN make it that way with a bit of effort- effort, I might add, that's being done by several of the distributions working on producing a version of their project for the R-Pi...).

      --
      I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
    5. Re:Engadget review negative? by Svartalf · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It needs software tuned/em for it. It CAN do all of those things. Expect Flash to play? Sorry...Flash for Linux isn't even available on ARM from Adobe except as an embedded application you have to bundle if you're an embedded systems vendor.

      There's more like that. The biggest problem YOU and others seem to have is what a PC really does and the like. A Pandaboard would've failed many of the review items that the Endgadget reviewer did. But...it's a dual-core A9 and it CAN do all those things...so long as you have applications. Lightspark might bring Flash to the R-Pi and other ARM devices...but you'll need to make it work with OpenGL ES before that'll happen.

      --
      I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
  4. Re:CPU by Svartalf · · Score: 3, Informative

    No. It'd raise the price up past where they're at right now. A dual-core config with a similar sweetheart deal on the SoC's is available as the Pandaboard- and it's priced at $179- there's a hint in that that MANY are missing, especially the reviewers without a clue that make themselves and the site actually look bad.

    --
    I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
  5. Re:CPU by Svartalf · · Score: 3, Insightful

    And run a browser properly? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UWwUEPh9EI

    Quite simply, unless you know what you're doing, you're probably better off NOT trying to use/get one right at the moment. It's intended for technical and deep embedded type applications right at the moment. It COULD be a desktop replacement for some categories of things- but it's a bit raw for many of those uses right at the moment.

    Hell, unless you get it "right" you're not going to be able to use a Beagleboard, Beaglebone, or Pandaboard for a desktop replacement. It's very possible to do this with the R-Pi or any of those boards- but the reviewers in the large have been idiots or jackasses trying to do things that they honestly knew better or should have.

    --
    I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
  6. Pi's great by networkz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I got mine yesterday (after my co-workers tricked me into thinking I'd not get it)..

    It's slow like the Engadget guy said.. not up to HD media playback in a fast manner, though that should change once the software's optimised.

    However, it's crazy low power, size and features mean I can make my own mini-nas/access point/controller for my caravan which runs on solar.

    So many different ways to apply the Pi, as long as your aren't expecting it to be a fast desktop PC!

  7. Re:CPU by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    That's very unlikely. These devices achieve their low cost because of the System On a Chip (SOC) design. The board layout and everything else is built around that Broadcom SOC. Simply "swapping it out" with something else would mean respinning the entire board and having to resubmit for all their qualifications. It's not trivial by any means.