Speech Recognition

[Bibsy]

I was playing with the speech recognition last night, while waiting for someone, and was intrigued to discover there were some subtleties in the way that it works.

If, for example, I said to it "rhubarb mumble wheelbarrow" or whatever, it says "command not recognised". But if i said "What's the time?" it instead said something along the lines "command not available here". That implies to me it understood it, but the functionality was disabled.

I also noticed the manual clearly says you can say "home" OR you can say your address - but no variant of my address would yield anything other than "command not recognised".

I think I only ever use it either to show off to a guest, or occasionally to say "home" to it whilst driving. I never use it to change the temperature. It does a load of audio related stuff apparently but I never have any audio in the car.

But reading the manual showed me I could say "nearest park and ride" (or whatever POI) which I didn't know - and I think it gave me a list of restaurants when I said "I'm hungry", which isn't documented.

Mine is a gen2. Is the gen3 speech better/worse?

In fact, do you use it at all?

[Raistlin]

Talking cars...

That's what the wife is for... :)

[Joseph D]

I also noticed the manual clearly says you can say "home" OR you can say your address - but no variant of my address would yield anything other than "command not recognised".

You have to say "Go Home", but I found it was a bit hit and miss, but great when it works. (I think you have to have set an address in the "Home" position for the command to work properly.) The commands I found most useful and reliable were "Stop guidance" and "Resume guidance".

In fact, do you use it at all?

I tried various commands, but found that, with the exception of the above two commands, I couldn't make myself understood, so don't use it that much. When it works, though, it is handy.

[Bibsy]

Interesting - I certainly only say "home" and it works fine. I don't have any problems with the guidance ones either - in fact it's very rare that whatever I say it gets wrong, assuming it's a command it understands. I can make it fail, though, by being very loud, or trying to SPEAK SLOWLY AND CLEARLY to the poor old biddy - talk normally and it works every time. It also works fine if I press the button and Mrs Bibsy says one of the commands from the passenger seat.

The one I don't grasp is the odd reply "this command is only available in map scrolled mode" or some such, which it says from time to time, usually when trying to tell it to go somewhere and the map is displaying.

[Joseph D]

Interesting - I certainly only say "home" and it works fine.

Maybe because I say "Go Home" is the reason it doesn't always work for me.

I can make it fail, though, by being very loud, or trying to SPEAK SLOWLY AND CLEARLY

Ahh, that's my problem! Ha ha. Trying too hard to annunciate clearly. :)

[Grumpy Cabbie]

Speech recognition lol. Love and hate it. It can work very well such as on my Samsung mobile, but the girlfriends Blackberry is a completely different matter. For that we learnt to speak in a dreadfully cliche American accent and it understands perfectly, but try it in English (yorkshire or london accents) and it just doesn't get it.

So is Toyota the same? Is speech recognition an official UK release or does it just sit there in the background because it's turned off being tuned for the US market? Try it with an American accent for a bit of fun - you never know :)

[orangezorki]

I think the way forward is either a very basic system or an extremely complicated one. The problem is that many try the intermediate approach.

In my 2009 jaguar, I can only say things like this:

"display show audio"

"phone dial number" wait "123456789" wait "dial"

It works pretty well for what it does.

Even Apple's Siri, possibly the most advanced voice recognition in regular use, requires a data connection, and frequently provides entertaining and less than accurate results. Car makers, for the next few years, would do well to concentrate on providing 60% of what we use, with 99% accuracy, instead of reaching for the stars and ending up falling down a ditch.

David

[kithmo]

Interesting - I certainly only say "home" and it works fine.

Maybe because I say "Go Home" is the reason it doesn't always work for me.

I can make it fail, though, by being very loud, or trying to SPEAK SLOWLY AND CLEARLY

Ahh, that's my problem! Ha ha. Trying too hard to annunciate clearly. :)

IIRC it was "Go Home" on the Gen 3

[johalareewi]

My OH has a Jabra Freeway which can handle two phones using voice commands, but you have to put on a USA accent otherwise the results are random. This is despite me installing the UK English firmware!

[duncanda]

I use speech recognition for hands-free dialing, but...........my phone is synced, but if I say "Home", for my home number, it says it doesn't recognise the entry, but if I say "0131 2222222", it recognises it and dials. My home number is on the system.

[Bibsy]

If it works like the gen2, then for reasons that only Toyota knows, it doesn't work the way you might think. If the gen3 is different, sorry, but at least this might help any gen2 owners struggling with the same thing.

The word "home" is inbuilt, and the nav will recognise it. However, the phone system won't.

To get the phone system to "dial by name" you have to go to the address book with your numbers in. Pick the one you're interested in and edit it. You'll see a little microphone icon. When you press that you can record the word(s) you want to associate with that contact. In your case, it might be the the word "home", but it could be "pizza" or "the old witch" or whatever.

The phone system will then dial that number when you say that word or phrase.

[valmiki]

Without wishing to denigrate anyone on here but this thread screams 'First World Problems', lol. :-)

Personally I've never used it but I'm sure I've got my own FWPs!

[Bibsy]

Gosh. If only they could invent a method whereby you didn't have to read it.

Oh well.

:)

[valmiki]

Touche, Bibsy lol, no offence intended :-)

[Bibsy]

None taken I'm sure!

Now I'll just ask my car to take me to Fortnum's so I can order something louche from the petite bourgeoisie.

No, don't turn the aircon on and open the windows, you heap of junk!

[valmiki]

Do Fortnum's sell 12v batteries? One is impressed, lol.

[Bibsy]

Maybe. You could ask them on the number below...

"There's more to Fortnums than even our keenest customers ever unearth - and that is why Fortnums Personal Shoppers are so uniquely useful. Choosing the perfect gift, advice on a special menu or simply something you never knew you needed until captivated by it: to be escorted around our emporium is to emulate an emperor. Please call 020 7973 4145 to make an appointment."