Speech Recognition Using the Raspberry Pi 74
aonsquared writes "In a previous Slashdot story, I demonstrated a voice-controlled robotic arm using the open-source speech decoder Julius. This time, I have managed to port the system to a Raspberry Pi to control the same robotic arm, and as usual, posted the tutorial and source code. Some negative reviews of the Raspberry Pi are starting to appear, and they're missing the educational point of this device — I'm hoping this will counter the naysayers, and help inspire a new generation of hackers, as well as also bring open-source speech recognition the same attention as proprietary solutions (i.e Siri) are getting!"
Engadget review negative? (Score:5, Insightful)
I wouldn't consider the Engadget review to be negative. They tried to use the board for things it wasn't designed to do (like play Youtube or Flash videos), and it failed to do so. Big deal. The people who are actually trying to buy these boards would likely know better.
The reviewer didn't seem to have a clue what they were doing... they complained about having to type in the startx command to start the GUI, for pete's sake. If anything, the review did a better job of making Engadget look bad than the product they were reviewing.
That said, it's easy to think of negative things to say about the Pi... like the lack of supply. I've been on the waiting list for one for over a month now, and I haven't even been given an estimated shipping date at this point.
CPU (Score:3, Insightful)
Shouldn't they be able to throw more powerful, dual-core CPUs into the Pi pretty trivially? It would mainly be a matter of whether there is enough demand at a higher price point. I would think a dual core, 1 GHz processor would make a tremendous difference spec-wise.
I think one of the primary hurdles is that there are mobile-optimized apps, and then there are power-hungry desktop apps. The pi is technically a desktop machine from the software standpoint, but it really needs mobile apps due to its slow ARM CPU. For example, I'm sure Opera Mobile would perform fine on that hardware, but how do you get it to run without Android, Windows Mobile or iOS?
Re:Engadget review negative? (Score:5, Insightful)
When I first saw the Engadget review I thought it was a little bit off-kilter since it was trying to use the Pi for desktop & media playback use instead of for simple programming or embedded projects.
Then I remembered that lots of the demonstrations shown off on the Raspberry Pi website show using the Pi for the same purposes, especially with the heavy emphasis placed on XBMC. I think part of the issue with the Raspberry Pi is that the developers need to focus more on realistic usage scenarios for the device so that reviewers have the correct expectations going into the review.
Re:CPU (Score:4, Insightful)
And run a browser properly? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UWwUEPh9EI [youtube.com]
Quite simply, unless you know what you're doing, you're probably better off NOT trying to use/get one right at the moment. It's intended for technical and deep embedded type applications right at the moment. It COULD be a desktop replacement for some categories of things- but it's a bit raw for many of those uses right at the moment.
Hell, unless you get it "right" you're not going to be able to use a Beagleboard, Beaglebone, or Pandaboard for a desktop replacement. It's very possible to do this with the R-Pi or any of those boards- but the reviewers in the large have been idiots or jackasses trying to do things that they honestly knew better or should have.
Pi's great (Score:5, Insightful)
I got mine yesterday (after my co-workers tricked me into thinking I'd not get it)..
It's slow like the Engadget guy said.. not up to HD media playback in a fast manner, though that should change once the software's optimised.
However, it's crazy low power, size and features mean I can make my own mini-nas/access point/controller for my caravan which runs on solar.
So many different ways to apply the Pi, as long as your aren't expecting it to be a fast desktop PC!
Re:Engadget review negative? (Score:4, Insightful)
It needs software tuned/em for it. It CAN do all of those things. Expect Flash to play? Sorry...Flash for Linux isn't even available on ARM from Adobe except as an embedded application you have to bundle if you're an embedded systems vendor.
There's more like that. The biggest problem YOU and others seem to have is what a PC really does and the like. A Pandaboard would've failed many of the review items that the Endgadget reviewer did. But...it's a dual-core A9 and it CAN do all those things...so long as you have applications. Lightspark might bring Flash to the R-Pi and other ARM devices...but you'll need to make it work with OpenGL ES before that'll happen.