Trouble Shooting hints and tips for Amulet Voice Remote users



​Pairing the Voice Remote to the USB dongle PDF Print E-mail
Troubleshooting

During the manufacturing process, your Voice Remote is electronically paired with the USB dongle that comes in your package. In the unlikely event that the pairing established between the remote and the USB dongle becomes broken, or if you need to pair your remote with a new USB dongle, follow the steps below.

WARNING: If the USB dongle shows a solid blue light when you lift up the Voice Remote (even if the red light on the remote is not visible), then your remote and dongle are already correctly paired and you should not attempt to re‐establish the pairing.

To complete this procedure you will need a straightened paper clip or pin to reach the pairing buttons on the Voice Remote and USB dongle. The diagrams below show where these buttons are located.

To access the pairing button on the Voice Remote, you need to remove the battery compartment cover, as described in the installation guide. If you are having difficulty with the cover, the Amulet Remote Hardware video within Media Center shows you how to remove it.

You should also ensure the USB dongle is connected to an accessible USB port, and displaying a slow flashing blue light.

Use a paper clip to push the pairing button on the Voice Remote. When you are looking at the battery compartment, with the top of the remote facing away from you, the pairing button is located through a small pinhole to the bottom left of the battery compartment, where the lip of the battery cover fits in.

You will feel a distinct click when the pairing button has been pressed, and the Amulet Logo will start flashing purple. You now have 10 seconds to complete the next step.

Use the paper clip to push the pairing button on the dongle, accessed through the small pinhole near the front of the casing. Keep the button pressed in until the blue light changes from flashing to solid on the dongle. You will feel a distinct click when the pairing button pressed.

You can now remove the paper clip. The USB dongle has been paired to your Voice Remote. If you raise the remote up, you should see the logo lighting solid red to indicate an audio connection has been established.

Now you can retry any operation you have previously had trouble with.

If you take too long to complete the pairing operation, no harm will result but your remote will not be correctly paired. Simply follow the above steps from the start to try again.

 
When Amulet does not respond to commands correctly PDF Print E-mail
Troubleshooting

If you experience issues with Amulet not recognizing your voice, there are several things you can do to identify the problem. Review the Troubleshooting Help video, available from the Amulet menu strip on the Media Center start page, which provides a visual guide to the steps below.

The Amulet Program group, available on the main Windows desktop Start menu, provides access to the tools you will need. You will need a mouse or other input device to complete these checks.

Select Start Menu ‐> All Programs‐> Amulet Devices ‐> Speech Setup. This gives access to three menu items, which should be used in the following order:

Audio Settings

This option lets you confirm that recording levels are correctly set for good voice recognition. The default settings usually work well, but you can adjust them if necessary.

After selecting this option, a tabbed dialog box for playback and recording devices appears. Select Recording Devices and confirm that an entry for the Amulet Devices Voice Remote is present. (If not, then you should double‐check that the Amulet USB dongle is correctly attached to a system USB port.)

This entry should show a green checkmark, to indicate that it is the default audio device; if not, click on the entry to select it, then click Set as Default at the bottom of the dialog box.

Now raise your Voice Remote until the red light shows, and then speak into it. Check that the green level meter visible to the right of the Voice Remote entry moves significantly, to reflect what you are saying.

If you see little or no movement, you may need to run the Microphone Setup Wizard (described under Speech Training below) to adjust the microphone input level.

Sound Recorder

This option lets you check that there are no external interference sources interfering with voice recognition. Select this option to start the Microsoft Sound Recorder. Click on the Start Recording button, and then speak several commands into the Voice Remote. Stop the recording and save the audio file to your desktop or any other convenient location.

Now find the audio file you just saved and open it to replay the recording. Listen carefully, and make sure that the recording is clearly audible and not suffering from distortion. If the recording is distorted, check to make sure there are no strong electromagnetic sources close to the Voice Remote. Try recording from several different locations. If the problem persists, your remote’s built‐in microphone may have become damaged, and you should contact your reseller for further assistance.

Speech Training

This option allows you to train Amulet’s voice recognition software so that it is more closely matched to your voice. Normally, Amulet will adapt to your voice over time – the more often you use the system, the more accurate it becomes. Running through an explicit training exercise can sometimes speed this up, especially if your voice has an unusual accent or pitch.

(Note that you can turn off Amulet’s automatic learning mode under Amulet Settings, which you may wish to do if you expect your system to be used by many different speakers.)

When you select the Speech Training option, the speech training dialog box appears. Create a new Speech Profile and give it your name (or any other name you wish) – this name is used by Amulet to refer to the profile.

Now click on Train Profile to train the system to your voice by reading the phrases displayed by the training wizard. Remember to raise the Voice Remote up to your mouth and ensure that the red light is on before speaking each phrase. A single training session is usually sufficient to overcome any initial difficulties. You can carry out a second training session if desired.

The Speech Training wizard also provides access to the Configure Microphone wizard which automatically adjusts the microphone’s input level to best suit your voice. If you checked with the Sound Recorder earlier and your voice sounded very quiet, you may wish to rerun this wizard. Select the “Other microphone” option when prompted for the microphone type.

It can help to speak quietly during the microphone setup, which causes the wizard to boost the input level. Speaking more loudly than normal causes the wizard to reduce the input level, which may help if you hear unwanted background noise in Sound Recorder.

If you wish, you can also use the Audio Input option to view the current audio input and audio level for the Voice Remote microphone. After selecting this option, choose the Recording tab, then click on the Amulet Devices Voice Remote entry and choose Properties. The Levels tab shows you the volume level automatically configured by the Configure Microphone Wizard.

WARNING: Although you can adjust the microphone volume level using the Audio Input / Recording tab, any changes you make will not be used by the speech recognizer. The only supported way to adjust the volume level is to use the Configure Microphone Wizard.

If you have completed all of the steps above and are still having problems, please contact your reseller for support or visit http://www.amuletdevices.com/ for additional trouble‐shooting tips.

 
Amulet recognizes commands, but accuracy is poor PDF Print E-mail
Troubleshooting

Here are some tips to improve overall accuracy:

Make sure you speak clearly and precisely; imagine you are a newsreader reading the evening news, or a radio announcer.

Leave a slight pause before and after commands.

Remember to lower the remote when you are not talking; this blocks any ambient background noise that can interfere with the speech recognition.

Amulet's speech recognizer trains itself to match your voice over time, so the more you use the system, the more accurate it will become. If you regularly use Amulet in a very noisy environment, you can turn off learning mode to prevent Amulet "learning" background noise as valid commands, over time. See the Amulet Settings section for more information.

If Amulet often misinterprets what you say, you may be operating in a particularly noisy environment. You can configure a command prefix word, such as COMPUTER or AMULET on the Amulet Settings page. All valid commands must then begin with this prefix word, which makes it easier for Amulet to ignore nonsense input and improves overall accuracy. (This is usually only required in rare circumstances.)

If several people in your household share an Amulet remote, and have very different voices, you may wish to give each user their own speech profile. See the Working with Speech Profiles section of the User Guide for more information about this.

 
Amulet not responding to commands PDF Print E-mail
Troubleshooting

Make sure that the red light on the remote lights solidly while you speak your command. The logo at the top of the remote should be 6-8 inches away from your mouth when you speak. Lower the remote after speaking your command, to turn off the microphone.

Open the Amulet Music screen from the Amulet menu strip on the Media Center start page. Use the microphone meter in the lower left corner to confirm that Amulet is listening to you. As you speak into the remote, you should see the microphone level meter increasing and decreasing.

When Amulet recognizes a command, it displays a confidence level from 30%-100% above the microphone meter. If the confidence level is too low, it is displayed in red and your command will be ignored. Successfully recognized commands appear in the center of the display.

If you continue to have problems, restart Media Center and repeat the checks above.

 
Logo flashing red while tilted PDF Print E-mail
Troubleshooting

Move the remote close to the USB dongle. Check that a solid or flashing blue LED can be seen on the dongle. If not, plug the dongle into a different USB port. If the dongle light remains flashing blue when the remote's logo is flashing red, try recharging your remote. If the problem persists, check out the PAIRING section of the User Guide.

 
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