Hello,

I have a question about the Amulet Remote software. Would it be possible to install the Amulet Remote software, but use the Kinect for voice commands instead of the remote?? I really love Amulet Kinect, but the custom commands are limited it seems.

Hi,

Unfortunately, this isn't really feasible. The Kinect microphone doesn't work well for voice recognition as a normal mic, it really needs the additional smarts provided by Microsoft's custom Kinect recognition engine to properly use the array microphone / echo cancellation technology for good results.

So, even though the Kinect shows up as a normal USB mic, you wouldn't get good results using it as an alternative to the normal Amulet remote mic with our Voice Remote software. You can easily try it out by installing the Remote software (you'll need to uninstall Amulet Kinect first), then changing the default audio input device to the Kinect. The Amulet software will only run in demo mode, with a time limit, but it will be sufficient to do some testing. The results aren't good.

Using the Kinect recognizer, unfortunately, requires .NET 4.0 which is not directly compatible with .NET 3.5 as supported by Media Center. So, for Amulet Kinect, we had to make substantial changes to facilitate having the speech recognition element running outside of Media Center while all the media control code remains within. We initially did this just for the music interface, so we could garner feedback from Kinect users; we haven't yet had sufficient response to justify the development effort needed to port the rest of the functionality.

Sorry I can't give you better news.

Eddy

Well, its a shame Amulet Kinect development is dead... Chef and I have it controlling all aspects of MCE and Media Browser very well. We just recently integrated Event Ghost and a USB-UIRT for full voice home automation. I understand that demand did not meet development requirements... But, what a waste of serious potential. I really like Amulet Kinect, but the music app left much to be desired.

One of the things we've discussed internally is open-sourcing the current implementation, if there were developers externally interested in continuing development.

Is this something you'd be interested in?

Eddy

Holly S#%t xzener! he's offering you the source! say yes! We could get Tobias on board!

Eddy,

I would love to see this go open source... Im no programmer, so I could only cross my fingers that someone would come across it and take over where you guys left off. The voice commands seem to work well, but gestures is where Amulet Kinect is lacking... I would love to see something like this... You are watching a movie and decide to get more popcorn. You stand up, the Kinect senses this, pauses the movie and the lights dim. You come back in the room and sit down... The Kinect senses this, turns the lights back off and plays the movie.

So, yes... I would love to see Amulet Voice Kinect go open source. Now... Where can I find some coders?? Chef, not sure if your in contact with Tobin, he hasnt been by the CT in months.

Thanks Eddy,

Xzener