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Subject: 
Re: RCX Programming Questions and Sensor Ideas
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics
Date: 
Sun, 29 Aug 1999 02:29:16 GMT
Viewed: 
941 times
  
In lugnet.robotics, Laurentino Martins writes:
I think it would be more interesting to synthesise human voice, that is to make the RCX speak! :-]


Maybe AS interesting..

I also have a TI Speak 'N' Math that I would like to rip the guts out of, too.

Has anyone hacked a Speak 'N' Whatever before?  Is it worth it?

Amos
Turn my address umop episdn to shake out the spamcake.

At 09:32 27-08-1999 Friday , abieler wrote:
I hope someone reads this reply to a reply to a very OLD message.
I've been lurking for almost a month and, during a search, I found
a thread I can expand.

In lugnet.robotics, lego-robotics@crynwr.com (Peter Hesketh) writes:
In article <255199E650C3D11194BF00805FA785365101AB@cs03mail.BestBuy.com>
, Cwikla, Brian <Brian.Cwikla@BestBuy.com> writes

[snip]

A voice recognition module.  The module has, say, 8 memory banks where there
can be 3 or 4 seconds of 8-bit audio.  Then, the on board voice recognition
processors analyze the sound, match it to the proper bank and then send a
number value to the RCX input port that it is attached to.  I know this
sounds really far fetched and probably really expensive, but I thought it
would be cool to verbally tell my RCX to turn right etc...

Voice recognition is much more difficult than comparing digitised sound
with an 8-bit audio file.  Just try recording and comparing the binary
of 2 wav files of the word "Left"

It is more difficult than this to recognize speech, but it can be done.

And, in a 14-pin Plastic DIP!

I have an old (early 90's ??) chip from RadioShack that contains a
fully functional 5 word (go, back, stop, turn left and right turn)
or 2 word (on/off, up/down etc.) selectable voice recognition system.

Does anyone know if this or a similar product is still in production?

The way this chip works is:

1. It filters the speech until it is a sqare wave with a changing
  pulse width and frequency, but a constant amplitude.

  For each of the recognizable words, this wave will be *very*
  similar between any two speakers, also *totally* unrecognizable
  as speech by a human.

2. It uses this wave as a sort of "audio barcode."  A barcode (or magstripe)
  uses the *ratios* between pulses, instead of their frequency, because
  the card can get swept through the reader quickly or slowly.

  Since people all speak at different pitches, the frequencies will
  be different.  To compare, again, with a barcode, a person with a
  high pitched voice would "swipe" quickly, whereby eg. Barry White
  would swipe slow.

3. Just like a barcode reader, the chip then determines whether a word
  was said, if it was valid and which one it was.

4. To interface with the controlled circuit, it lowers one of 5 lines,
  plus an 'enable' signal, for each word.

The way it outputs which command was spoken will be a major obstacle
to using it with the RCX/CyberMaster.

I'm not sure about how the inputs on these work, but, maybe a resistor
ladder where each word has it's own unique resistance.

Also, I think my chip requires a 'dual rail' (eg. +5v and -5v) power supply.

Perhaps there is a better chip on the market that will be more compatible.

-------------
Amos Bieler
Turn my address umop episdn to shake out the spamcake.

Why not a sensor that relates to a remote beacon.  The remote beacon is a
battery operated, stand alone unit that emits a IR pulse/signal every x
amount of time.  The sensor connects to the RCX has four detectors on it all
facing in opposite directions.  The sensor receives the pulse and the two
detectors that receive the strongest signal (from the direction the beacon
is) derive some number that is sent to the RCX.  Multiple beacons would have
different 'carrier' signals so that the program can determine from what
beacon the signal came.  I think the reason I thought this one up is for a
very specific device I was building and am not sure how useful this would be
in a general sense.  However, I can't imagine this being a
complicated/expensive device to build.

IR has problems with obstacles in a room.  A much better method is
ultrasonic beacons as they transmit round corners and under chairs.  You
would not use 4 directional sensors, but measure the time delay for a
distance measurement.

--
Regards - Peter Hesketh, Mynyddbach, Mon.
Forty reasons why a dog is better than a woman: number 6
"Dogs don't expect you to call when you are running late."
--
Did you check the web site first?: http://www.crynwr.com/lego-robotics


Laurentino Martins

[ mailto:lau@mail.telepac.pt ]
[ http://www.terravista.pt/Enseada/2808/ ]

--
Did you check the web site first?: http://www.crynwr.com/lego-robotics



Message is in Reply To:
  Re: RCX Programming Questions and Sensor Ideas
 
I think it would be more interesting to synthesise human voice, that is to make the RCX speak! :-] (...) [ mailto:lau@mail.telepac.pt ] [ (URL) ] -- Did you check the web site first?: (URL) (25 years ago, 28-Aug-99, to lugnet.robotics)

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