Drill phrases and google voice recognition quirks

We already answered individually but this is important enough to deserve a blog post. The "drill" function on the DL Uplink app for the Android smart phone utilizes Google Voice Recognition to translate a spoken utterance into a series of words, which is then matched against a predetermined sentence. This allows the controller to enforce a certain number of daily repetitions of affirmations meant to "drill" deeper into the male's subconscious the various character traits and behaviors that are desired.

Because we are using Google Voice Recognition, we are subject to its quirks and limitations. It actually works very well, 10 years ago this would have been sci-fi. However, one thing you want to keep in mind, is that it doesn't do punctuation very well. As a consequence you won't be using commas, periods, semicolons or anything of that sort in your sentences. If you do, the sentence will not be recognized because one of the "candidates" that are output by google must EXACTLY match, character by character, the sentence to be repeated.

You can see the candidates appear when the software does NOT recognize the sentence. For instance, let's say the sentence was:

"Every day, when I go to work, I drink a coffee."

Google may output:

"Every day when I go to work I drink a coffee"
"Every day when I go to work I drink on coffee"

The sentence won't be recognized. That is why you need to test the drill yourself before assigning it to someone. In this case, go back to the editor and remove punctuation. Similar issues occur with acronyms (which are recognized with no dots), abbreviations ("maam" vs "ma'am") and more.

When words sound similar (ex. Maam & Man) it is often just a matter of pronouncing the words more clearly with a neutral accent (which helps training the male to take the drill seriously and improves his diction in the process!) - or, if you are still keen on using words that Google easily confuses, and can't change them (which would be your best bet), the male can also through practice learn to tweak the pronunciation just slightly to get the algorithm to recognize the right word.

Since the drills aren't meant to train the male to speak the way google likes, the official recommendation is: test the drill, if any words are hard to recognize properly, use a synonym.

Finally make sure you have internet connectivity when taking drills. Being unable to contact google makes the algorithm perform very poorly.

Quirks aside though, the recognition is normally more solid and reliable than one would expect!

Comments

By MsDarlene at 2013-10-15 13:56:56 Reply

We have an issue with Goggle Voice dialogue box appearing at the bottom of the Screen while attempting to complete a drill. Its the NOT the DL Conditioning App dialogue app message that normally appears directly underneath the drill sentence. Instead the message box appears at the very bottom of the Galaxy Screen when attempting to complete the drill.

It says " Please speak more clearly." "Did you mean" and then under those statements it offers a list of potentials. Unfortunately he can not click on any of the potential examples as they are in fact actually exactly what he was to have repeated from the drill text. GVR has in fact not only heard him but has interpreted what he spoke precisely. This means he is speaking clearly and has spoken the drill exactly as instructed.

I have checked numerous settings within his phone. All "appear" to be correct.

1) Google Voice instead of Samsung

2) Noise Reduction settings; I have selected both active and non active. Neither seems to make a difference by the way. Google interprets what he speaks exactly, perfectly, correctly with or with out Noise Reduction (background noise filter)

3) I have even gone in and "stopped" "disabled" Samsung Voice... Which still didn't make any difference either way.

4) I have signed in to google plus, to no avail.

So where oh where is the "ONE" thing / switch I have not tried, adjusted, turned on?

We have gone to great lengths to find and to correct this issue, including replacing the "brand new" phone. Purchasing a total of three Apps from DL. Factory resets. For us it would be extremely helpful at this point if we were able to connect with you via phone.

I was also wondering the purpose of the "Debug Mode" ... Is there a way you can utilize that at your end to print out the problems.

With thanks

By dreamloverlabs at 2013-10-16 11:15:02 Reply

This is a dialog box output by our app, it is not clickable, and as in this blog post we tried to explain, it signifies that the sentence cannot be recognized because either the person is not speaking clearly, or the sentence itself (written as it is) is unrecognizable (ex. it includes punctuation, abbreviations which Google Voice doesn't like, etc). If you look at the "failed candidates" our dialog box shows, you get to see what the phone thinks you have said, and can based on that modify your sentence so that it is recognized.

By dreamloverlabs at 2013-10-16 11:15:55 Reply

By the way if the candidates appear where it says "did you mean..." then voice recognition is working, no settings need to be changed.

By 2B All I can at 2013-10-16 12:03:45 Reply

We have reduced the drills to extremely simple, no commas, no periods four basic words. It still says that it can't hear us and to speak clearly. With a sentence like "bob is an idiot" shouldn't it work? Regardless of what EASY sentence is put in the drill it still does not work. We speak very clearly, and have no accents either. We have yelled, we have slowed right down, we have spoken normally as we do with all VR software. Google search works perfect. Samsung voce works perfect. Yet once in the drills it ones not.

By Stephanie The Sissy Slave at 2013-12-17 20:08:48 Reply

We are still having the same issues. We feel stupid. Lol. The app is still telling us it wants us to speak louder...yet... What it thinks we are saying is in fact correct. No punctuations, no errors. We say it correctly and it receives it correctly YET. It still says it can't hear us

By armytied at 2015-11-03 17:41:09 Reply

I'm having a different problem with the mobile app and drills (that's what I bought it for, I don't have any DL hardware yet):

The 1st sentence is recognized quite ok. But multiple repetitions don't work. I've been trying multiple repetitions and several single ones in a row. The result is always the same: after passing the 1st sentence, the 2nd one is not being analysed or "heard".

I noticed that the little counter bar is glowing purple like a level indicator, matching the level of my speech. But that only happens on the 1st sentence / repetition. On the 2nd one, it stays dark. The app behaves, as if it wouldn't listen to speech any more. And it doesn't suggest corrections or speaking louder, as on the 1st time (when not pronouncing correctly).

I noticed, the "jingle" that plays after successfully recognizing a phrase doesn't play completely on multiple drills. It's as if it would indicate something is stuck.

I also noticed, that it seems to restart listening, when turning the smartphone / display by 90°. It then gives a beep, as if it would listen again. And sometimes, it does: the level bar goes purple again when speaking and the phrase is recognized. But the counter doesn't advance, so basically, you stay, where you are: at the start of the 2nd repetition, that will never terminate.

Sidemark: it's a little odd having to confirm each time, that I'm aware, a drill can not be interrupted.

I have been trying single repetitions and these work ok. But a single repetition doesn't really work for conditioning someone...

All I can do on multiple repetition drills is quit. So basically, any kind of repetition of a drill is not working.

My smartphone is running Android 4.2. Apart from a web and server connection, do repetition drills require some other prerequisites? Like SMS, SIM-card, GPS?

What else could get the recognition of the 2nd sentence get stuck? Any suggestions...?

Thanks!

By dreamloverlabs at 2015-11-27 22:01:07 Reply

There is a bug, thanks for reporting this - please add an image to the drill text for a quick fix.