WSS Voice Pilot Deactivated When Playing Waveform (.WAV) Files (94800)

MORE INFORMATION

Voice Pilot is a tool provided with the Windows Sound System that enables you to control your computer by issuing verbal commands through the Windows Sound System microphone. Voice Pilot is trained to recognize voice commands for many popular Windows-based applications.

Voice Pilot is designed to deactivate itself and the microphone whenever the digital-to-analog converter (DAC) on the Windows Sound System sound board is being used to play digital sound (.WAV sound files). When the .WAV sound file has finished playing, Voice Pilot and the microphone are reactivated.

Steps to Reproduce Problem

1. Run Voice Pilot.
2. Select the Menu button from the tool bar.
3. Choose Options.
4. In the Options dialog box, choose Input Level.
5. Run the Sound Finder application and play a .WAV sound file.

These steps display the Voice Pilot, Recording Control, and Sound Finder applications on your screen. When you play a .WAV sound file in sound finder, the input level indicators in Recording Control are turned off. Also, Voice Pilot will no longer provide feedback in the Recognized box for any voice commands issued while the .WAV sound file is playing. Both of these Windows Sound System features are disabled when Voice Pilot determines that the DAC is in use.

Workaround

It is possible to play MIDI sound files and maintain the use of Voice Pilot. Because MIDI files are not digitized sound, utilization of the DAC is not required to play MIDI files. Therefore, Voice Pilot and the microphone will continue to be accessible when playing MIDI files.

NOTE: Any background noise, including sound produced by playing MIDI files, will be a factor in Voice Pilot's ability to accurately perform voice recognition. Voice Pilot operates by comparing the input produced by the user's voice commands with acoustic models stored as vocabularies. The additional input produced by the background noise can make it difficult for Voice Pilot to recognize the user's command and find a match in the stored vocabulary.

For more information about Voice Pilot, see Chapter 8 of the "Microsoft Windows Sound System User's Guide" or query on the following word in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: