TellMe Speech Recognition

[jrdatrackstar1223]

I I've brought this up on several different occasions, but I wanted to get an actual number of people who have this problem. When I owned a 920, and 2 820s through after a replacement, speech hardy EVER got anything I said right. It would come back with cuss words, and basically anything I DIDN'T say. I also tried to test 4 different Windows Phone 8 devices to make sure it wasn't my device, only to find that, amongst 2 Lumia 920s, an 820, and HTC 8x, that none of them could translate my speech to text correctly. It understands text and call commands, but when I go to actually create the message (or do a voice search), the words I speak are not what gets returned after waiting...

 

[rockstarzzz]

Swap reason to USA, you will notice the difference.

 

[GraemeT]

Hmmm. Okay. I might have some input for you, or maybe another problem. I only installed my first speech package English (UK) Friday, after owning my 820 for a couple of months. Frankly, I think it's brilliant. It doesn't get much wrong. The basic commands (with the caveat that's coming up) work well and just saying stuff to it returns loads of relevant links. It really is like spooky magic, on my phone at least.

However, I'd not tried sending a text message via speech until I saw your post, so I gave it a go. It doesn't work! It recognises that I want to send a text message to the named contact but when I speak the message it says it can't send it and asks me to say it again. That is, not unless I enable my data connection!!! If I do that it works fine. What? Like most folk I have all the clever stuff turned off until I need it. I don't really want to temper the convenience of sending text messages by speech with the inconvenience of having to switch a service on beforehand and then off after. I may as well type it in the first place. This looks like unexpected behaviour to me, and is very disappointing. I suppose it might be carrier specific. I'm on O2 UK, for what it's worth.

 

[anon(5335877)]

Hmmm. Okay. I might have some input for you, or maybe another problem. I only installed my first speech package English (UK) Friday, after owning my 820 for a couple of months. Frankly, I think it's brilliant. It doesn't get much wrong. The basic commands (with the caveat that's coming up) work well and just saying stuff to it returns loads of relevant links. It really is like spooky magic, on my phone at least.

However, I'd not tried sending a text message via speech until I saw your post, so I gave it a go. It doesn't work! It recognises that I want to send a text message to the named contact but when I speak the message it says it can't send it and asks me to say it again. That is, not unless I enable my data connection!!! If I do that it works fine. What? Like most folk I have all the clever stuff turned off until I need it. I don't really want to temper the convenience of sending text messages by speech with the inconvenience of having to switch a service on beforehand and then off after. I may as well type it in the first place. This looks like unexpected behaviour to me, and is very disappointing. I suppose it might be carrier specific. I'm on O2 UK, for what it's worth.

I think that's because it sends the recording to Microsoft where a computer will translate it into text. I don't think the speech to text translation occurs on the phone.

 

[jrdatrackstar1223]

Yes, it send the recorded text over to Microsoft to be transcribed. It is through the TellMe service. It works when I say call or text, and gets the basic commands correct, but it is after it has to go through the servers and get sent to Microsoft is where it comes back completely wrong.

 

[GraemeT]

OMFG alpinestars1z! You're joking, aren't you? Actually, you're not at all, are you. What you say would explain what I experience. Do you know this for a fact or are you just postulating? But when I speak to my phone and say "I want to learn to fly near Peterborough" it speaks the phrase back to me without fault and displays it as text without fault (along with loads of relevant links), so there's speech to text translation there. Hang on. As I write this your reply starts to dawn an awful truth upon me. I've always used speech with WiFi on. Your post has just prompted me to try it with WiFi off... and it don't work. Doh! More playing reveals that for clever speech (anything beyond simple keyword recognition, like Call, Speaker) to work requires a network connection of some sort.

Well alpinestars1z, you've enlightened me tonight. You learn something every day. Thank you very much.

 

[GraemeT]

Hi jrdatrackstar1223. Well apart from demonstrating that I hadn't a clue how all this speech stuff works, all I can add is that speech recognition on my 820 has been near faultless. I've just downloaded Maluuba tonight but haven't had a chance to try it.

 

[Daniel Ratcliffe]

As far as I know this is no different to Siri. Siri on the iPhone also requires a data connection unless I am sorely mistaken. I know back when the 4S was the latest iPhone it required data.

 

[jrdatrackstar1223]

I tried it again today in a tmobile store, using the new app Maluuba. It was accurately getting what I said maybe 3 or 4/10 times. I was on an HTC 8x, and it didn't work at all really when I would say stuff on it. I would say stuff like "Note, remind me to pay the dish bill". It would come back as a note saying "Hey douchebag" or "Hey the dish bill". I swear, it's like it just doesn't even come close to what I say. And this among different devices, with different providers, and different stores. This is a huge make or break for me because if Maluuba doesn't work, I'll have to stick with a 4s, or switch to Android. I know it sounds ridiculous to some to completely switch to a different platform over something that a lot of people don't consider important, but I am always in a situation where I need to send a text by voice, or construct an email by voice, or schedule an appointment or reminders while driving.

 

[jrdatrackstar1223]

I was trying to add a poll to this, but I guess it posted without the poll I had created. Is there anyway you can create a poll after you've created the thread?

 

[Daniel Ratcliffe]

I was trying to add a poll to this, but I guess it posted without the poll I had created. Is there anyway you can create a poll after you've created the thread?

Try clicking Thread Tools, there should be an option called add poll to this thread.

Failing that, please message me the poll question and possible answers please (please find a way to clear distinguish each answer, for example a semicolon between each answer), as well as whether it should be a single answer or multi-answer question (as in, can people select more than one answer?)

 

[jrdatrackstar1223]

bumping this back to the top with the new poll added. Thanks again Paladinleeds

 

[TMavC5]

Using with Jawbone ERA, never had issue recognizing my voice even with Windows down while driving.

 

[jrdatrackstar1223]

Using with Jawbone ERA, never had issue recognizing my voice even with Windows down while driving.

If I used a headset or anything, it would work, but that was on Windows Phone 7.X. So far, I only used it without a headset and speaking to the microphone (at the bottom of the phones) of each different device I tried.

 

[jrdatrackstar1223]

I also have another question regarding this? Does the recognition accuracy depend upon your Microsoft account? For example, me using the phones in the stores are not tied to my Microsoft account, so does that mean that it will not be accurate? It just seems really odd that no matter what device I tried today it just didn't work. It got it maybe 3/10 times (completely accurate) if I spoke really slow, held the phone extremely close to my mouth, and did while there weren't many customers or people speaking...

Another thing that is weird is that it works nearly flawlessly in some parts, and terribly off in others. When I am sending a text, almost ALWAYS gets it right. When I am using OneNote speech command, NEVER gets it right. When I am using apps like Maluuba, hardly EVER get it right. So it seems to be app specific as well...

 

[ruslan124]

I tried it again today in a tmobile store, using the new app Maluuba. It was accurately getting what I said maybe 3 or 4/10 times. I was on an HTC 8x, and it didn't work at all really when I would say stuff on it. I would say stuff like "Note, remind me to pay the dish bill". It would come back as a note saying "Hey douchebag" or "Hey the dish bill". I swear, it's like it just doesn't even come close to what I say. And this among different devices, with different providers, and different stores. This is a huge make or break for me because if Maluuba doesn't work, I'll have to stick with a 4s, or switch to Android. I know it sounds ridiculous to some to completely switch to a different platform over something that a lot of people don't consider important, but I am always in a situation where I need to send a text by voice, or construct an email by voice, or schedule an appointment or reminders while driving.

Speech recognition uses a statistical language model for dictation purposes. The example you give about paying the Dish Bill is likely due to the combination of words that you are using and the low probability of those words in that sequence, as defined in the Speech Recognition Language Model. I would guess that "Dish" is the word causing the misrecognition. It is an unusual word within the context of the short sentence. As a general tip for better recognition try and avoid unusual word sequences. You may get better results if for example you said "pay the bill for the TV service".

 

[jrdatrackstar1223]

Speech recognition uses a statistical language model for dictation purposes. The example you give about paying the Dish Bill is likely due to the combination of words that you are using and the low probability of those words in that sequence, as defined in the Speech Recognition Language Model. I would guess that "Dish" is the word causing the misrecognition. It is an unusual word within the context of the short sentence. As a general tip for better recognition try and avoid unusual word sequences. You may get better results if for example you said "pay the bill for the TV service".

I purchased a new, refurbished red 920 yesterday. Long story short, I think my first 920 (also bought used, which was black) was a lemon because this one has extreme build quality, better looking screen, doesn't creak, people can hear me on calls, etc. I tested the TellMe recognition and it's great on this one. I spoke extremely slow for the first few times using it because I was told that TellMe gets better over time, so I wanted it to get slowly, accurately recorded voice attempts. I said "Note; Pay the dish bill" and I nearly s*** myself because it got it right this morning (when it couldn't get it right last night when I bought it).

I'm so happy right now I can't stand it....selling this 4s today as quick as I can....

 

[kingrewt]

The system can't handle accents. I have a Northern Irish accent and the thing never understands me or most of my friends but understands my (ex-enunciation tutor)Granny perfectly. I have tried saying same things at a slow pace and I get the same results no understanding from my voice, complete from granny. This is just my limited experiment but I think the thing can't handle non-common accents

 

[jrdatrackstar1223]

The system can't handle accents. I have a Northern Irish accent and the thing never understands me or most of my friends but understands my (ex-enunciation tutor)Granny perfectly. I have tried saying same things at a slow pace and I get the same results no understanding from my voice, complete from granny. This is just my limited experiment but I think the thing can't handle non-common accents

This sounds like the exact same experience I was having, prior to receiving my new unit yesterday. Between my old 920, store units from T-Mobile/ATT, nothing worked. My red 920 has been awesome though. I don't have an accent (live in Indiana), and I just started speaking really slow and clear. I'm doing this for a while, hoping that I can speed up a bit once it possibly learns my voice. I was told by @WindowsPhoneSupport that the system improves over time to your voice, and I've always been a fast speaker anyway...