Amulet Voice Kinect

Amulet Voice Kinect lets you use Microsoft Kinect to control your music on a Windows 7 PC. It has these features:

• Access your Windows Media Center music directly using simple voice commands
• Use gestures to turn on and off speech recognition from the comfort of your couch

Amulet Voice Kinect is a free download with no restrictions on use.

This video shows the Amulet Voice Kinect in action:

(For more info & videos, check out our Amulet Voice Kinect blog.)

Amulet Voice Kinect also lets you:

• See visual feedback for both audio and gesture commands within Media Center
• Use voice to navigate around other sections of Media Center
• Add additional custom commands to perform other actions (advanced users only)

What you need

• A Windows 7 PC with at least 4 GB of RAM and a dual core 2.66 Ghz processor
• A Microsoft Kinect

Installation Instructions for Kinect for Windows

If you have Kinect for Windows, download and install these three components, in this order:

1. Microsoft for Kinect runtime - download here (110 MB)
2. Microsoft Speech ZiraPro US voice - download here (20 MB)
3. Amulet Voice Kinect - download here (27 MB)

Installation Instructions for Kinect for X-Box

Amulet Voice Kinect is designed for use with the Kinect for Windows product. However, if you have an X-Box Kinect attached to your PC, you can still try out the software to see how well it works. You need to install the Kinect SDK instead of the Kinect Runtime. If you intend using the software on an ongoing basis, you should upgrade to a full Kinect for Windows device for the best user experience.

If you have an X-Box Kinect, download and install these three components, in this order:

1. Microsoft for Kinect SDK - download here (227 MB)
2. Microsoft Speech ZiraPro US voice - download here (20 MB)
3. Amulet Voice Kinect - download here (27 MB)

How do I start it?

Once you have the software installed, simply start Windows Media Center and wait until Amulet says "Welcome". Amulet is now ready to recognize your speech commands.

What's the display in the corner?

The window in the lower left corner of the screen will show the Kinect's view of your living room. You should be able to see yourself in this preview. You can also see a Kinect icon, which lights green when voice recognition is active or red when inactive. A moving arrow at the bottom of the icon indicates where Kinect is currently focussing its audio beam.

Where is it in Media Center?

There are two new entries on the Media Center start menu - Amulet Music and Amulet Settings.

What is Amulet Music?

Amulet Music shows a visual display of your music collection and provides a preview window to show the Kinect posture recognition, used to enable and disable speech recognition, and feedback for recognized commands.

What is Amulet Settings?

Amulet Settings lets you fine tune how Amulet works on your system.

Will it work on the couch?

Yes, Amulet uses its own video posture recognition system, so it can recognize gestures and postures whether you're sitting on the couch or standing up.

How do I make it listen?

You can turn speech recognition on permanently. Raise and cross your arms in front of your face to form an X shape, and the preview window will show a large X super-imposed over your arms. Lower your arms, and Amulet will recognize voice commands until you make the same posture again.

Watch yourself on screen to practice the movement.

(If you like, you can configure Amulet to listen automatically at startup; see the Amulet Settings Listener page.)

What if there is loud music playing?

Raise your left hand to briefly enable speech recognition. A large L will be super-imposed over your hand, and the Kinect icon lights green. The system volume is also lowered, to reduce audio interference from any music or video currently playing. As long as your hand remains in the air, you can issue speech commands; lowering your hand disables speech recognition again.

This will work at any time, whether or not Amulet was already listening.

Do I have to use a gesture?

No, you can also turn on and off speech recognition using voice commands - say "Start Listening" at any time to turn on recognition, and "Stop Listening" to turn it off.

Must I be on the Amulet Music page?

While it is useful to view the Amulet Music page while you become familiar with the voice commands and posture recognition, Amulet will respond to commands at any time.

What's with the blue fog?

The image is from the Kinect depth sensor. It doesn't have real colors. White is further away, dark is nearer to the Kinect.

Can I change Amulet's talking voice?

While we recommend the use of Microsoft's ZiraPro voice, you can use any of Microsoft's Text-to-Speech (TTS) voices with Amulet. Download alternative voices from Microsoft's Speech Platform 11 Runtime Languages page. After installation, select the new voice on the Amulet Settings Talker page.

What commands can I say?

Here are some of the most useful ones to get you started.

For a full list of commands, see the Amulet Voice Commands document on the Amulet program menu after you install the software.