SAPI Speech Client

©2003 Brainhat, Inc.
All rights reserved.

November 13, 2003
Brainhat, Inc.
Kevin Dowd

This page is for download of a SAPI4 speech client for Brainhat and Pandorabots servers. The client works with speech recognition (SR) engines and text to speech (TTS) engines complying with the Microsoft SAPI4 specification, including Dragon NaturallySpeaking, IBM ViaVoice and Microsoft. You will need the MS SAPI4 API layer, available from Microsoft at http://www.microsoft.com/speech/download/old/sdk40a.asp . Choose the "suite" if you have no alternate speech output (TTS).

The client can also operate as a text-only interface; speech components are not required.

Configuration:

Use "Preferences" to select a server and/or speech interface:

Speech Recognition (SR):

Available SAPI4 compliant speech engines will appear within the "Speech Recognition" box. Choosing an engine will cause a list of known users to be displayed in the "User" box below. Select a combination of engine plus user. If no users are displayed, please see speaker enrollment tools that come with your speech engine; speakers must be known to the engine in advance.

Text to Speech (TTS):

Available SAPI4 compliant TTS engines will appear within the "Text to Speech (TTS)" window. Several TTS choices come with the SAPI4 distribution. Select a TTS engine/user combination.

Connections:

You may edit existing connections or create new ones. Click the "New" button to create a new connection. Choose a name for the connection in the "Name" box. The "Address" box must contain a domain name or IP address. The "Server Type" can be one of "brainhat" or "pandora". The "ID" field is ignored for a Brainhat server. The ID field must contain a BotID for a Pandorabots bot server (see below).

Press "Add/Save" to store the connection information.

SR and TTS components will be restarted when you leave the "Preferences" menu.

You have to train your speech engine for this to be a satisfying experience! Speech recognition can be improved slightly by supplying hints to the SR engine. Brainhat servers supply these hints from the context of the conversation, or from a hand-crafted set of statements residing on the server. When using this client with a bot, you can improve the SR rate by populating the file hints.txt with statements you expect to handle

About the Servers:

Pandorabots

To enable a Pandorabot AIML bot server, visit www.pandorabots.com, create an account and publish a bot. Your bot will have a botID associated with it. To find the bot ID, go to the "Botmaster Control" page and mouse-over "Run Last Published" for the bot you wish to connect to. The URL will contain the bot ID that you need for the "Preferences" menu discussed above.

Brainhat

Brainhat is a platform that represents knowledge, runs inferences and creates output. It can be a good companion for a bot because it can be goal oriented; Brainhat can help drive a conversation toward a given task. Brainhat can also help with speech recognition because it continually feeds contextual hints to the speech recognizer.

You may run a Brainhat server alone or in conjunction with an AIML bot on the Pandorabots site. When running solo, a Brainhat server will converse from the domain(s) available to it. When Brainhat runs in conjunction with a Pandorabots AIML bot, it will share everything it hears with the bot. Responses from the bot and Brainhat will be combined.

Please visit www.brainhat.com regularly for speech client and Brainhat server updates and new products.

Bugs to bugs@brainhat.com.