The Preferences Dialogue
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The preferences dialogue allows you to control the entire RAD application. The tabs at the top
of the menu group similar functions together. Several of these tabbed menus are also available at
a state-by-state level. If a setting is explicitly configured in a state, that configuration will
over-ride the global preferences for that state. To access the preferences dialogue, select "Preferences..." from the "File" menu. |
| General | Several run-time modes and commonly used features |
| Audio | Audio input devices, audio-recording settings and calibrate mic |
| Recog/DTMF | Speech recognition and telephony settings |
| TTS | Voices and TTS devices |
| Dictionaries | Speech synthesis and recognition pronunciation lookup |
| Editing | Turn on/off warnings and reminders |
| About | Edit the "About this application" menu entry |
| Tucker-Maxon | Optional Tucker-Maxon package settings |
| Set Default | Saves current menu settings in the user's home directory |
| Get Default | Recover and apply the default preference menu settings |
Preference settings are saved in the users home directory. Several global preference settings are saved
with the RAD application (voices, recognizers, captioning mode etc). To ensure better portability, settings
that require a fixed directory path or are device specific are not saved with the application.
(Data capture directory, audio device etc.)
Set Default
Saves current menu settings in the user's home directory and closes dialogue.
Get Default
Recover and apply the default preference menu settings and close dialogue.
Set Default
Saves current menu settings in the user's home directory and closes dialogue.
Get Default
Recover and apply the default preference menu settings and close dialogue.
Display
Animated Face
Turns the animated character on/off.
Highlight Active
Highlights the active object in orange during run time. Highlights in the active object in red if an error is encountered. Highlighting is useful for testing an application because it helps you visualize the flow of your program.
Recognition Results
Turns the speech recognition-scoring window on/off during run time. The recognition-scoring window displays the best 4 recognition results and provides a tool for reviewing the dialogue.
Captioning
Turns the captioning window on/off during run time. The captioning window displays closed captioning of the text to speech in a small top level window during run time.
Console
Turns the Tcl console on/off. The console is the standard command line Tcl console window for the Rapid Application Developer's "tcl" interpreter. Primarily helpful to users who are programming a RAD application using the scripting language Tcl and Tk. Trace
With Trace selected, the active subdialog canvases are displayed during run time.
Canvas
With Canvas selected, the main canvas window remains displayed during run time. Otherwise the main canvas window is minimized during run time.
Turns the animated character on/off.
Highlight Active
Highlights the active object in orange during run time. Highlights in the active object in red if an error is encountered. Highlighting is useful for testing an application because it helps you visualize the flow of your program.
Recognition Results
Turns the speech recognition-scoring window on/off during run time. The recognition-scoring window displays the best 4 recognition results and provides a tool for reviewing the dialogue.
Captioning
Turns the captioning window on/off during run time. The captioning window displays closed captioning of the text to speech in a small top level window during run time.
Console
Turns the Tcl console on/off. The console is the standard command line Tcl console window for the Rapid Application Developer's "tcl" interpreter. Primarily helpful to users who are programming a RAD application using the scripting language Tcl and Tk. Trace
With Trace selected, the active subdialog canvases are displayed during run time.
Canvas
With Canvas selected, the main canvas window remains displayed during run time. Otherwise the main canvas window is minimized during run time.
Misc
Repair
The Speech recognizer can only choose between words available in the recognition vocabulary. The dialogue will branch to the recognition port that contains the closest matching word or phrase. With Repair turned off, the recognizer is forced to decide between the available vocabulary regardless of confidence score.
However, with Repair Mode engaged, the recognizer is allowed to reject all available vocabulary when it is not confident about matching a word or phrase. This is called "out of vocabulary rejection." Selecting Repair provides an automatic connection to a pre-determined subdialogue when the user says something that is "out of vocabulary." This is similar to adding *any to a recognition port except that branching to the repair subdialog is accomplished automatically.
Barge-in
Turns Barge-in mode on / off. Barge in mode allows the user to interrupt the computer's speech. With Barge-in mode off, speech recognition is activated only after the beep.
Back-up
Saves a backup copy of the application every time it is built.
Run-loop
Restarts the dialog after the applications normal termination. Resets the "user" environment.
The Speech recognizer can only choose between words available in the recognition vocabulary. The dialogue will branch to the recognition port that contains the closest matching word or phrase. With Repair turned off, the recognizer is forced to decide between the available vocabulary regardless of confidence score.
However, with Repair Mode engaged, the recognizer is allowed to reject all available vocabulary when it is not confident about matching a word or phrase. This is called "out of vocabulary rejection." Selecting Repair provides an automatic connection to a pre-determined subdialogue when the user says something that is "out of vocabulary." This is similar to adding *any to a recognition port except that branching to the repair subdialog is accomplished automatically.
Barge-in
Turns Barge-in mode on / off. Barge in mode allows the user to interrupt the computer's speech. With Barge-in mode off, speech recognition is activated only after the beep.
Back-up
Saves a backup copy of the application every time it is built.
Run-loop
Restarts the dialog after the applications normal termination. Resets the "user" environment.
Paths
Beep file
Specifies the wav file to be played at the start of speech recognition. Default is a pleasant beep sound.
Repair Default
Specifies the default subdialog file to activate when Repair mode is on.
Specifies the wav file to be played at the start of speech recognition. Default is a pleasant beep sound.
Repair Default
Specifies the default subdialog file to activate when Repair mode is on.
Data Capture & Playback
Data Capture & Playback
Activates the controls for data capture. Note: this does not turn on data capture mode. It simply activates the controls.
Capture Directory
Toggles the data capture on/off. The text field specifies the location for the data capture files. Data capture will save various parameters from the dialog including the user's responses. The dialog can be replayed later by selecting playback from file.
Playback from file
Replays a dialog using previously captured dialog as speech input.
Activates the controls for data capture. Note: this does not turn on data capture mode. It simply activates the controls.
Capture Directory
Toggles the data capture on/off. The text field specifies the location for the data capture files. Data capture will save various parameters from the dialog including the user's responses. The dialog can be replayed later by selecting playback from file.
Playback from file
Replays a dialog using previously captured dialog as speech input.
Audio Device
Allows the user to select the audio output device.
Audio Parameters
Maximum Record Duration
Specifies the maximum length of time the speech recognizer will record the user's utterance.
Leading Silence Duration
Specifies the maximum length of time the speech recognizer will continue to record if it is detecting only silence.
Trailing Silence Duration
Specifies the maximum length of time the recognizer will continue to record after the user stops speaking. If sound is detected then silence is detected, the recognizer will continue to record for the duration of this setting. The default value of this setting may need to be adjusted when the user is expected to say something that contains natural pauses, such as a telephone number. (1 503 pause 246 pause 1342). The trailing silence setting must be increased to prevent cutting off the speaker prematurely.
Record Backoff
Specifies the length of time between the beep and start of recording.
Voice Detection Threshold
Set this value using the microphone calibration option. The VDT specifies the minimum sound threshold above which speech will be detected.
Calibrate
Use this feature to calibrate your microphone. You should calibrate any time one of the following conditions are met or when the acoustic signal delivered to the speech recognizer is altered.
1. Different background noise levels
2. Changing your microphone position
3. After resetting operating system audio properties
Specifies the maximum length of time the speech recognizer will record the user's utterance.
Leading Silence Duration
Specifies the maximum length of time the speech recognizer will continue to record if it is detecting only silence.
Trailing Silence Duration
Specifies the maximum length of time the recognizer will continue to record after the user stops speaking. If sound is detected then silence is detected, the recognizer will continue to record for the duration of this setting. The default value of this setting may need to be adjusted when the user is expected to say something that contains natural pauses, such as a telephone number. (1 503 pause 246 pause 1342). The trailing silence setting must be increased to prevent cutting off the speaker prematurely.
Record Backoff
Specifies the length of time between the beep and start of recording.
Voice Detection Threshold
Set this value using the microphone calibration option. The VDT specifies the minimum sound threshold above which speech will be detected.
Calibrate
Use this feature to calibrate your microphone. You should calibrate any time one of the following conditions are met or when the acoustic signal delivered to the speech recognizer is altered.
1. Different background noise levels
2. Changing your microphone position
3. After resetting operating system audio properties
Recognizer
Name/Language/Dialect/Sample Rate/Description
Allows the user to select among available speech recognizers based on the above criteria. Use the * option indicate no preference. Note: All recognizer names will be displayed in the NAMES window if the * options are used. The Recognizer setting below are NOT calibrated between different recognizers. You might need to adjust the settings when changing between recognizers to achieve the desired performance.
Enable Remote Review
Allows a RAD user within the Domain to review the dialog in real time, including audio output. The reviewer can override the recognition using the recognition results window.
Out of Vocabulary Rejection Median
Determines the recognition confidence required to reject an utterance as being "out of the recognition vocabulary." A lower number rejects more and a higher number rejects less. This makes a high number more forgiving of incorrect pronunciations.
Recommend 9 for 16 kHz adult recognizer
Recommend 22 for 8 kHz adult recognizer
Word Spotting Median
Determines the recognizer's sensitivity to spot recognition vocabulary within an utterance. A low number spot less and a high number spots more.
Recommend 9 for 16 kHz adult recognizer
Recommend 22 for 8 kHz adult recognizer
Grammar Garbage Threshold
Rejection setting for grammar type recognizers
Allows the user to select among available speech recognizers based on the above criteria. Use the * option indicate no preference. Note: All recognizer names will be displayed in the NAMES window if the * options are used. The Recognizer setting below are NOT calibrated between different recognizers. You might need to adjust the settings when changing between recognizers to achieve the desired performance.
Enable Remote Review
Allows a RAD user within the Domain to review the dialog in real time, including audio output. The reviewer can override the recognition using the recognition results window.
Out of Vocabulary Rejection Median
Determines the recognition confidence required to reject an utterance as being "out of the recognition vocabulary." A lower number rejects more and a higher number rejects less. This makes a high number more forgiving of incorrect pronunciations.
Recommend 9 for 16 kHz adult recognizer
Recommend 22 for 8 kHz adult recognizer
Word Spotting Median
Determines the recognizer's sensitivity to spot recognition vocabulary within an utterance. A low number spot less and a high number spots more.
Recommend 9 for 16 kHz adult recognizer
Recommend 22 for 8 kHz adult recognizer
Grammar Garbage Threshold
Rejection setting for grammar type recognizers
DTMF
Specifies the global DTMF parameters for DTMF states within the dialog.
DTMF (Dual Tone Multi Frequency) are the tones generated by a touch tone telephone.
Mode
Currently undocumented.
Output Variable
Specifies the name of the variable within the "User" environment that will contain the DTMF response.
Terminating Conditions
Specifies a DTMF selection that will end the DTMF recognition for that state.
Maximum Number of Tones
Specifies a number of DTMF selections that will end DTMF recognition for a state.
Timeout (msec)
Specifies the number of milliseconds before ending the DTMF recognition for that state.
Mode
Currently undocumented.
Output Variable
Specifies the name of the variable within the "User" environment that will contain the DTMF response.
Terminating Conditions
Specifies a DTMF selection that will end the DTMF recognition for that state.
Maximum Number of Tones
Specifies a number of DTMF selections that will end DTMF recognition for a state.
Timeout (msec)
Specifies the number of milliseconds before ending the DTMF recognition for that state.
TTS Device
Type
Select the Text to Speech device. Default TTS device is Festival.
Hostname
Select the host machine that contains the Text to Speech engine. The speech toolkit uses TCP/IP to communicate with TTS. A TTS server can reside on a different machine than the one running the RAD application.
Select the Text to Speech device. Default TTS device is Festival.
Hostname
Select the host machine that contains the Text to Speech engine. The speech toolkit uses TCP/IP to communicate with TTS. A TTS server can reside on a different machine than the one running the RAD application.
Precalculation
Convert AllPre-Processes text to speech. Converts TTS to .sob files for the current dialog. A sob file is an object that contains a wav file and the word and phonetic alignment parameters for animation. Since the alignment and waveform are computed before run time, this option improves the speed of your application.
Clear Cache
Currently an unused.
TTS Voice
Name/Language/Dialect/Gender
Allows the user to select among available speech synthesizers based on the above criteria. Use the * option indicate no preference. Note: All available speech synthesizer names will be displayed in the NAMES window if the * options are used. To change a language, simply select a new language from the menu. If available, you may also specify the dialect and gender for that language.
Allows the user to select among available speech synthesizers based on the above criteria. Use the * option indicate no preference. Note: All available speech synthesizer names will be displayed in the NAMES window if the * options are used. To change a language, simply select a new language from the menu. If available, you may also specify the dialect and gender for that language.
Pronunciation Lookup
CMU dictionary
In addition to a rule based pronunciation scheme, the Toolkit can find special pronunciations using this default phonetic pronunciation dictionary.
Custom Dictionary
Uses words from the local dictionary.
Use Cache
The TTS lookups are cached, this option checks cached definitions before querying TTS (if selected).
Use TTS
Uses the current TTS speech engine for word pronunciations.
In addition to a rule based pronunciation scheme, the Toolkit can find special pronunciations using this default phonetic pronunciation dictionary.
Custom Dictionary
Uses words from the local dictionary.
Use Cache
The TTS lookups are cached, this option checks cached definitions before querying TTS (if selected).
Use TTS
Uses the current TTS speech engine for word pronunciations.
Edit Local Dictionary
RAD can use a custom dictionary. In the vocabulary dialogues of recognition states, it is possible to
add pronunciations to this dictionary. The dictionary is stored in the user's .rad directory. This tab
allows editing of the custom dictionary.
When speech recognition is performed on a word matching a word in the local dictionary, the custom pronunciation in the local dictionary takes precedence over the default pronunciation
When speech recognition is performed on a word matching a word in the local dictionary, the custom pronunciation in the local dictionary takes precedence over the default pronunciation
Confirmations
Selecting these options will disable the pop-up confirmation requests associated with the following events.
Exit RAD
Confirm exiting the Rapid Application Developer. WILL NOT automatically save your work if you inadvertently exit from RAD. Be careful.
Delete
Confirm message for deleting objects from the canvas.
Clear Screen
Confirm message for clearing all objects from the canvas.
New
Confirm message for clearing all objects from the canvas and clearing subdialogs from memory.
Exit RAD
Confirm exiting the Rapid Application Developer. WILL NOT automatically save your work if you inadvertently exit from RAD. Be careful.
Delete
Confirm message for deleting objects from the canvas.
Clear Screen
Confirm message for clearing all objects from the canvas.
New
Confirm message for clearing all objects from the canvas and clearing subdialogs from memory.
Warnings
Object discarding during load.
Displays a warning if RAD automatically discarded an object during the loading of a new application. RAD will discard objects for the following reasons:
1. One start object is allowed, all others will be discarded.
Displays a warning if RAD automatically discarded an object during the loading of a new application. RAD will discard objects for the following reasons:
1. One start object is allowed, all others will be discarded.
General
Snap to Grid
Free floating objects on canvas will are moved to their nearest fixed with column and row. This improves the visual appearance of your application and helps straighten lines.
Release Services
Free any services which are in use by RAD. Currently this will detach any Face and TTS which are in use by RAD. When they are needed, RAD will re-connect. This feature is useful if RAD is running but you wish to use one of the services in another program without starting another copy of the service.
Free floating objects on canvas will are moved to their nearest fixed with column and row. This improves the visual appearance of your application and helps straighten lines.
Release Services
Free any services which are in use by RAD. Currently this will detach any Face and TTS which are in use by RAD. When they are needed, RAD will re-connect. This feature is useful if RAD is running but you wish to use one of the services in another program without starting another copy of the service.
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The "About" tab allows the application developer to enclose information about the application. When an application is loaded in RAD, it is possible to access the information configured in this tab via the "About this application" entry in the "Help" menu. |
Author
Enter your name as the RAD application creator.
URL
Creates a hyperlink in the Help About window. The user's default web browser will display the URL.
Comments
Enter Comments, directions, or any text message for the application users to view.
The Tucker-Maxon package includes various media and education related objects, and data
capture facility.
Dynamic Recognition Adjustment
Changes the "out of vocabulary rejection median" setting during a dialog based on recognition performance.
This is used primarily for applications that teach speech production. Selecting Dynamic Rejection engages
this feature so that mis-recognitions make the recognizer more forgiving and successful recognitions make
the recognizer more discriminating.
Movement
Indicates the increment the "out of vocabulary rejection median" will changed after the trigger level is reached.
Trigger
Indicates the number of mis-recognitions or recognitions required to change the "out of vocabulary rejection median" (OVRM) setting by the amount set in the "movement" slider. For example, if the "trigger" is set to 5, and the "movement" is set to 3, the OVRM is will decrease 3 points (more discriminating) when 5 recognitions are made. Conversely the OVRM will increase 3 points (more forgiving) when 5 mis-recognitions are made in a row.
A mis-recognition is an instance where the recognizer rejects all available vocabulary in favor of "garbage". This occurs when the recognizer is not confident about that what the user said matches the available words.
Movement
Indicates the increment the "out of vocabulary rejection median" will changed after the trigger level is reached.
Trigger
Indicates the number of mis-recognitions or recognitions required to change the "out of vocabulary rejection median" (OVRM) setting by the amount set in the "movement" slider. For example, if the "trigger" is set to 5, and the "movement" is set to 3, the OVRM is will decrease 3 points (more discriminating) when 5 recognitions are made. Conversely the OVRM will increase 3 points (more forgiving) when 5 mis-recognitions are made in a row.
A mis-recognition is an instance where the recognizer rejects all available vocabulary in favor of "garbage". This occurs when the recognizer is not confident about that what the user said matches the available words.