Well god_of_cpu got me all worked up about putting a computer in my car so I had to come up with....cough.....a legitimate reason to do so. Voice control was enough to push down my feeble attempt at being sensible so I made this relay controller. It is controlled through the serial bus by a little VB code I wrote. It can control my lights and windows or anything else I want. I tested it out with dragon speak on my PC and it works perfect.

I would show you pics in the car; however, my woman spent my car computer money on my birthday present (how thoughtfull of her). Next month when I can afford the computer i'll show the full deal but for now here is the actual circuit.





-JustICE

 

Not to burst your bubble, but have you tried the voice control in the car yet?

I wrote an app that does voice control mp3s a number of months ago and it works beautifully at home using just a cheap webcam mic, I probably get over 95% recognition, but after putting it in the car it sucks. I tried a number of microphones including an array microphone made for in car use and none of them work very well when actually driving.

If your stopped and you yell real loud you have a good chance of getting it to work, but on the highway with the windows closed going 60 mph or so, theres just too much road noise and even when yelling I get less then 50% recognition and don't even think about opening your windows.

If you do ever end up getting this operational in your car and find your results better, i'd really like to know how you did it though and what microphone you used.

Also that relay controller looks really awesome, I bought a parallel port based one and wrote some software to control it, but then I come to find out the relays get triggered randomly when the computer boots up, so that nixed that idea. Any chance of posting your specs for yours?

 

I had the Pioneer voice commander for Pioneer CD changer years ago, it worked almost perfect, but the mic had to be mounted on the drivers visor. Where was your mic installed during your attempt? The mic used with the Pioneer unit seemed to be a small, cheap one, so it would seem feasable to make it work in a car.


Kevin
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<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr>

I wrote an app that does voice control mp3s a number of months ago and it works beautifully at home using just a cheap webcam mic, I probably get over 95% recognition, but after putting it in the car it sucks. I tried a number of microphones including an array microphone made for in car use and none of them work very well when actually driving.

<hr></blockquote>

I found that the microphone quality wasn't the limiting factor. I used a mic that was shoved in the depths of my junk drawer for many many years. The program was definitely the limiting factor. I was having problems getting anything to work in my car with the radio up. I finally found a good piece of software and the difference was night and day. Another issue I had was "teaching" the software. I had to re-teach the voice commands when I put the mic in my car because the ambient noise changed so much.

I have not yet tested it while driving because I do not have my car computer yet=(. I just used my womans laptop. But I would think the radio (and air conditioner) noise--which was tested--would be much more then driving noise. I guess we will see=).

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr>

Also that relay controller looks really awesome, I bought a parallel port based one and wrote some software to control it, but then I come to find out the relays get triggered randomly when the computer boots up, so that nixed that idea. Any chance of posting your specs for yours?

<hr></blockquote>

Thanks. This microcontroller has memory and does not require power to maintain the memory. The "state" of the outputs are also saved in memory so it will go back to any state it was in when the computer--which I also use to power the circuit--shuts down.

Another thing I did not point out was that I did not use a demux on this circuit. If a demux is added then you can have control of 2^7 relays. Would be a bit of overkill I think heh.

-JustICE

 

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr>

I had the Pioneer voice commander for Pioneer CD changer years ago, it worked almost perfect, but the mic had to be mounted on the drivers visor. Where was your mic installed during your attempt? The mic used with the Pioneer unit seemed to be a small, cheap one, so it would seem feasable to make it work in a car.

<hr></blockquote>

Yeah I had my mic up there too. I will probably go out and get a nice mic since mine is a relic.

-JustICE

 

I was mounting it on the rearview mirror. Recorded sound from the mic was also dicernable, but there was always a background hum from road noise that was probably throwing off the recogintion, I'm assuming the aftermarket units do some filtering for this, but I've even used the clarion autoPC and found its recognition bettter, but I would often have to say things multiple times.

 

If there is a problem later on with the mic or with the recognition that is ok too. I found a really cool remote (bookmarked somewhere) that is a mouse, mini key board and has programmable buttons so I can just configure everything to work with that as well.

-JustICE

 

hey fellow transporter,

how much does your set up cost and can you hook my car up like that?

http://teamtransport.org/gallery/Sam56n

 

Hi,
I think I was kicked out of transport because I never paid any dues.=(. Ah well. Anyhow, I really had not thought of selling it but I suppose if people really wanted it I could.

-JustICE

 

Anyone happen to know where microphones are typically installed on cars that have voice built in features (the new TL, etc)?

I've never used any of those systems, but I figure if those work well, why not.

---
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so where the heck do you plug or wire it into your car at? directly to the ecu?

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<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr>

But I would think the radio (and air conditioner) noise--which was tested--would be much more then driving noise. I guess we will see=).

<hr></blockquote>The Acura TL solves the radio noise problem by "muting" the car audio when you press the "I'm about to speak my command' button. What are you usng for the serial control (or, where did you get that little green PCB?)

<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small"><EM>Edited by djrobx on 10/13/04 02:57 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr>

Anyone happen to know where microphones are typically installed on cars that have voice built in features (the new TL, etc)?

<hr></blockquote>

Not sure about other cars but I will mount mine inside the pilar near the driver. The mic will stick out at the top.

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr>

so where the heck do you plug or wire it into your car at? directly to the ecu?

<hr></blockquote>.

Depends what function you are trying to control. After, I get the thing in my car I can draw up a wiring diagram that shows how I wired up the controller to the car.

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr>

The Acura TL solves the radio noise problem by "muting" the car audio when you press the "I'm about to speak my command' button. What are you usng for the serial control (or, where did you get that little green PCB?)

<hr></blockquote>

Interesting. I didn't realize they hit a button before speaking.

On another note, I did some playing around with my software and noticed that you can save different profiles. If there is a noise issue down the line I don't see any problems with having an autoswitch to choose between profiles. One with normalized ambient noise and one without.

I already planned to look into using a similar control to create an on-screen gauge cluster that is fed information from the EDU. I havn't looked into the details--I refuse to look because once I get started I won't stop and I need a break LOL--but I believe the RPM's and speed output signals are available in voltage form. I can use this to send messages back through the serial bus and build some software to make it purty. Then display it on my nav screen.

-JustICE

 

I wrote a plugin dll that can be called from pretty much any laguage that can read anything avialble through the OBD II port. This includes speed, RPM, as well as about 30 different parameters and the typical diagnostics OBD II is used for. It creates its own thread and takes care of polling the ECU and converting the serial signal communications into a easier to work with data structure. You just have to write the interface and tell it what parameters you want it to get for you.

Right now I have written a faker plugin so you can test stuff without going into the car and one for ELM based hardware (i.e. www.scantool.net) which is what I currently use in my car.

It's all open source and can be found here:
http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=32692

 

Hey nice. I'll check it out. Hehe I have yet to enter that ODB II forum over there because I know I am going to get excited and spend hours on end making something "cool" for my car. I guess the time has come. Thanks,

-JustICE