Announcing CQCVoice - CQC's All Local Voice Control System

[Dean Roddey]

I was going to say that, if it includes the mics, then in this age of 3D printing someone could just make an enclosure. But, for this type of application, the shape of the enclosure and how the mics are exposed isn't something that can be just 'whatever looks good' or haphazard. It's probably something that requires some good acoustics knowledge for optimal performance.

[dgage]

I've posted in their forum asking if they have information regarding an enclosure. If there isn't one, I'll design one that can be 3D printed. I've asked about enclosure feedback to maximize the capabilities of the microphones. I'll update when I learn more.

[dgage]

Also, there are some application notes about using the UMA-8 with Alexa, Siri, and Cortana. Doesn't give much info but is a quick start for each service. However, it does mention some about the automatic direction detection/beam-forming with requisite settings.

https://www.minidsp.com/applications/usb...mazon-echo
https://www.minidsp.com/applications/usb...uma-8-siri
https://www.minidsp.com/applications/usb...-8-cortana

[DaveB]

Also, there are some application notes about using the UMA-8 with Alexa, Siri, and Cortana.  Doesn't give much info but is a quick start for each service.  However, it does mention some about the automatic direction detection/beam-forming with requisite settings.

https://www.minidsp.com/applications/usb...mazon-echo
https://www.minidsp.com/applications/usb...uma-8-siri
https://www.minidsp.com/applications/usb...-8-cortana

Or just go purchase a few of these;

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ClearOne-White-C...SwblZZGKEe  

One will handle a room of about 15' x 20'.  You also need a multi port DSP box.  Each mic contains three elements so then three inputs are required.  You can buy a 12 input DSP box for about $150 that has USB output.  Route the USB to your CQC server and you then have a distributed mic array system in multiple rooms.

[Dean Roddey]

As long as the DSP box shows up in Windows as a microphone input, then you could use such a thing with Voice as it currently stands. Though you'd probably want to stick with one room unless you live alone. You couldn't use that for multi-independent rooms. And really, right now, what folks are needing is a more distributed mic one room solution, to cover larger rooms. If you could get a 6 input box, and two of those mics to spread around the room, that might be a reasonable solution. Or get the 12 input and put up three, or four if you really need it to get good coverage.

What's the DSP box you need?

[Dean Roddey]

I was just doing some random testing before putting up a new drop, and I found one way to get into one of those 'never recognizes a clarification' type scenarios. I asked if the kitchen light was current on. That was recognized as a zone state query. And there isn't a kitchen light in my test setup, there's only a kitchen table light, whereas there is a kitchen zone. It asked me to repeat, and this time I said is the kitchen table light currently on, which got the correct match of a light switch query. Of course that didn't match what it was asking me to repeat so it never understood it.

So there maybe too much ambiguity between zone and light switch state queries that will have to be dealt with.

[Dean Roddey]

In another thread I just happened to run across someone who listed a number of companies who make products designed for 360 degree, multi-mic audio capture. So some of these may be worth looking at. They were ReSpeaker, Conexant, Matrix Creator, MicroSemi and MiniDSP.