Control Media Playback with Voice Commands
Published: December 13, 2004
If your Media Center PC is in the family room like mine, it's probably become a large part of your life. My Media Center provides music while I cook and clean; movies when I relax with my family; and a place to edit and share home videos and photos with my family and friends. The Media Center is in use almost all the time, and more often than not, it's acting as my personal DJ.
I usually have my hands full when I'm listening to music, because I have it on when I'm working around the house or entertaining. I don't want to put down my dust cloth to change a song, or mute the sound when the phone rings, or skip to the next playlist if my guests don't like the one that's playing. I don't want to reach for the remote every time I want to fast forward or rewind a video either. That's the Catch-22 of having the Media Center in the family room—it's always accessible, but my hands are either full or I'm too lazy to get up!
I found a way to solve this dilemma with Microsoft Plus! SuperPack for Windows XP. This software has a voice command program, among many other features. You can use the Voice Command program to control the media you play on your Media Center PC using only spoken words. The software integrates with Windows Media Player, an application that's included in all versions of the Windows operating system, including Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005.
The Voice Command program recognizes lots of words, including Play, Pause, Mute, Restart, Rewind, Shuffle, and Volume Up and Volume Down. With this program and your microphone, you can draw on almost 50 voice commands to completely control the player without ever touching the mouse, the remote, or the keyboard. If you're hosting a party, you don't even have to stop dancing or put down the hors d'oeuvres!
In this column, I'll explain where to find Plus! Voice Command for Windows Media Player, how to set it up to control the media player in your Media Center, and how to work with speech recognition to increase the chances of your commands being recognized.
Where to Get the Voice Command Program
Originally part of Plus! for Windows XP, Voice Command is now included in Plus! SuperPack, which combines Plus! for Windows XP and Plus! Digital Media Edition into a single SuperPack. You can purchase Microsoft Plus! SuperPack from Amazon and other leading retailers for around $29.95. For more information about the Plus product, see Galan Bridgman's article, Using Microsoft Plus! for Windows XP. To get started, you launch Plus! Voice Command for Windows Media Player from the Digital Media section of the Microsoft Plus! program, as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1
The first time you use the Plus! Voice Command Program, you'll be prompted to set up the microphone and speakers and perform any other configuration tasks necessary for your system. If you aren't sure how to do this or what to expect, read Jeremy Moskowitz's Expert Zone column, Speech Recognition with Windows XP. As noted in this article, there is no speech recognition software engine built directly into Windows XP, and one is necessary to use voice recognition programs. However, the engine is included in Microsoft Office products and in all Microsoft Plus! products. You won't have to worry about this when using the Plus! pack.
After the Plus! Voice Command is configured and voice recognition is started, Windows Media Player 10 opens automatically. It doesn't need to be started separately. The Voice Command program doesn't offer an interface or menu options in Windows Media Player as in other programs often do. Instead, you'll see the Language bar, either on the desktop or in the notification area with various options for using it.
Windows Media Player is the default program for playing music and video on your Media Center PC. The Voice Command software integrates with the player to let you control Windows Media Player using only spoken commands.
After you've installed the software and configured the microphone and speakers, you can use the Voice Recognition program to command Windows Media Player 10 by following these steps:
1. | Click Start, point to All Programs, and then click Microsoft Plus! |
2. | Click Plus! Digital Media, and then under Plus! Voice Command for Windows Media Player, click Start. |
3. | If the Language bar doesn't open automatically, right-click the taskbar, point to Toolbars, and then click Language. |
4. | Make sure that Voice Command is open, not the alternative Dictation. If Dictation is open, click the Voice Command button once to change to the Voice Command option. (To turn off Dictation, click the down arrow at the right of the menu bar, and clear the check box next to Dictation.) Figure 2 shows a properly configured Language bar.  Figure 2 |
5. | Open Windows Media Player 10. Click Library on the toolbar, and select a playlist using the mouse or keyboard. |
6. | Speak the following command clearly and slowly into the microphone: "Media Player, play." If the command is a successful one, Media Player 10 will play the selected song. Figure 3 shows a successful command. |
Figure 3
If Media Player doesn't play the selected song, the Language bar shows a question, as shown in Figure 4. Repeat the command, making sure you use a consistent tone of voice and that you say the commands clearly.
Figure 4
There are some occasions when you use a voice command to tell Media Player to play a song by an artist and it doesn't respond. This problem can be caused by numbers in the artist's name. See Error Message When You Issue a Voice Command to Play a Particular Artist: Artist Not Recognized for a workaround.
After Voice Command is working, you won't have to touch the keyboard or mouse again, at least until you're ready to turn off voice recognition or close the player. Each time you open Voice Command, click the Microphone button on the Language bar to verify that Voice Command is ready to accept commands.
How to Customize Commands
After playing with Voice Command for a bit, you'll get used to offering up the most common commands such as "Media Player, play" and "Media Player, stop" to start and stop songs. You may even use some of the appearance commands such as "Media Player, view full mode" or "Media Player, show title" to change what you see on the screen. However, if that's all you ever use the program for, you're missing out on some pretty awesome controls. Table 1 summarizes the commands for controlling playback. Each command must be prefaced with a call sign, which names the player and is by default Media Player. As an example, you would say "Media Player, fast forward" to fast forward a currently-playing video.
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Fast forward | Fast forwards the currently playing video. |
Mute | Turns off the sound but does not stop the playback of the music or video. |
Mute off | Turns back on the sound at the same level before muting. |
Next | Skips to the next track. |
Pause | Pauses the currently playing music track or video. |
Play | Plays the currently selected music or video file. |
Play artist artist name | Plays songs by the artist you name. Of course, your Media Library must contain songs by that artist. |
Play genre genre name | Plays songs by the genre you name. Your Media Library must contain songs listed in that genre. |
Play playlist playlist name | Plays the playlist you name. Your Media Library must contain a playlist by that name. |
Previous | Skips to the previous track. |
Repeat | Plays the current song again. |
Restart | Restarts the currently playing song from the beginning. |
Rewind | Moves backward in the currently playing video. |
Shuffle | Plays the tracks in the currently selected playlist in random order. |
Stop | Stops playing the current music or video file. |
Volume down | Decreases the volume. |
Volume up | Increases the volume. |
Although many of these commands seem obvious and necessary for controlling playback, there are other commands that are not so obvious and can be used for controlling the player's appearance. As with the playback commands, these commands are also preceded by the call sign. Table 2 summarizes these options and combines commands that are similar.
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Hide (show) captions | Hides or shows captions and other audio settings. |
Hide (show) equalizer | Hides or shows the graphic equalizer and other audio settings. |
Hide (show) lyrics | Hides or shows song lyrics and other audio settings. |
Hide (show) media information | Hides information about a current track, CD, or DVD, and other audio settings. |
Hide (show) playlist | Hides or shows the currently selected playlist. |
Hide (show) title | Hides or shows the title of the currently selected media. |
Hide (show) visualization | Hides or shows visualizations. |
Show Media Guide | Opens the Media Guide in Windows Media Player. |
Show Media Library | Opens the Media Library in Windows Media Player. |
Show Now Playing | Opens the Now Playing feature of Windows Media Player. |
Show full mode | Switches to full mode if Windows Media Player is in skin mode. |
View skin mode | Switches to skin mode if Windows Media Player is in full mode. |
Zoom double (full, half, normal) | Displays the video at various sizes, double its size, full size, half its size, or normal size. |
You can also access the Windows Media Help files by using the following commands, prefaced once again by the call sign: "Hide Help," "Show Help," "What can I say?" and "Stop listening."
Customize Your Call Sign and Confidence Level
You can configure Voice Command to accept other call signs too, even those you make up yourself, by configuring the advanced options of the application. You can also change how sensitive the program is to your commands, based on the confidence level of your voice.
If you ever get tired of saying "Media Player, do this" or "Media Player, do that," change the call sign used to reference the player. Open Plus! Voice Command for Windows Media Player and follow these steps:
1. | Click the icon for the program in the notification area, and then click Options. |
2. | In the Plus! Voice Command for Windows Media Player Options dialog box, under Call Sign, click Other. |
3. | In the Other window, type the name for the new call sign. (I like the call sign DJ.) |
4. | After a new call sign is selected, use it to gain the attention of the program, for instance, "DJ, volume up." This will make you sound a little more professional when you're using Media Player to provide the music for your party. |
Under Confidence Level in the same dialog box, you can configure how Voice Command responds to your voice. Setting a high confidence level tells Voice Command to respond only to highly confident commands. This is useful if spoken words (or loudly typed words) cause Media Player to start or stop inadvertently. A lower confidence level will surely result in various Media Player actions that you did not intend to perform, because the application will try to make sense of the sounds it obtains through the microphone.
Create a Recognition Profile
You can use the speech tools in Windows XP to create custom profiles for each member of your family. Having custom profiles ensures that every member of the family can communicate with Media Player effectively. You can save these profiles and access them each time you use Voice Command and Windows Media Player by clicking Tools on the Language bar, pointing to Current User, and then selecting the desired user profile. Figure 5 shows a Language bar with this option displayed.
Figure 5
Creating a new user profile for Windows Media Player and customizing how the program performs, is not done through the Voice Command options as you'd expect, but through the speech options in Control Panel. To create a custom profile, follow these steps:
1. | Click Start, click Control Panel, click Sounds, Speech, and Audio Devices, and then click Speech. |
2. | Under Recognition Profiles, click New. |
3. | Name the profile. This may be your first or last name, or perhaps Party Profile or Working Profile. Click Next. |
4. | Click Next to start the Microphone Wizard. Speak into the microphone until the Next button opens. Click Next and then Finish. |
5. | When the Voice Recognition dialog box opens, click Next again to begin training the speech engine to recognize your voice and personal dialect. This will consist of several pages, asking for information about your gender and age, and for you to read specific text. |
6. | Continue through the Voice Training wizard until complete. |
After installing Microsoft Plus! SuperPack for Windows XP, configuring speech recognition, and creating profiles for everyone who uses voice recognition, you can start working with the Media Center PC keyboard- and mouse-free. By controlling Windows Media Player with your voice, you can keep your hands free for other tasks, such as typing, dusting, cooking, dancing, eating, or exercising. Having the ability to yell "DJ, stop!" when the telephone rings is a pretty awesome, and will amaze your family, friends, and guests every time.
 | Joli Ballew is a technology trainer and writer in the Dallas area. She holds several certifications including MCSE, A+, and MCDST. Joli has almost 20 books available, including Degunking Windows (Paraglyph Press), Hardcore Windows XP (McGraw-Hill), and Windows XP: Do Amazing Things (Microsoft Press). Joli is also a regular Microsoft Expert Zone columnist. Joli can be contacted at Joli_Ballew@hotmail.com.
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