Delay in the Voice Recognition and Playing Back What You Record is Still a Problem

I haven't been actively using the program regularly for  several months but I've noticed there seems to be an additional delay now grading your pronunciation and there still is the annoying issue of the program not playing back what you record.

Anyone else having these same issues?

Tim

Hi Timmay! 

We apologize for any inconvenience or confusion caused with the playback options as well as for the delay in getting back to you. I had forwarded your message to our tech support team and they inform me that a fix should be put live today on the site that should fix the issue; please allow us 24 hours and let us know if you continue to have the same problem. 

We appreciate your patience and understanding. 

I reported a similar problem but have since figured out what I think is the issue.

The completion sensor gets confuse by other background noise. For example I always study with the TV on in the background. So the sensor is detecting continuous noise it calculates it me still recording when in reality I'm impatience waiting for what seems like forever for the reocording to stop.

An improvement would be to add a button or click detector we could press to override the auto detect funciton to indicate we are done recording.

Man, this program is leaving a lot to be desired.  It was working much better months ago.  The delay after you repeat words, phrases and sentences from the audio lessen is horrible.  It's taking an extended amount of time to grade what you've said and then reset so you can play it back and listen to how you sound.  It increases the time it takes to get through a lessen dramatically.  On top of it, the beginning of the play back or what you recorded is often garbled.  

Something has definitely changed with the performance of the program and it's not for the better.  Are others experiencing the same thing?  

I gave up on voice recognition months ago.  The inconsistentcy was making me crazy.  The latest release was a bust in my opinion.

The biggest frustration that I have is when I pause at a natural place in the sentence such as a sentence, or to take a breath during a long sentence, and the system thinks I am done speaking and stops recording before I am speaking. So to compensate I speak faster, which negatively affects my pronunciation.  If it doesn't record properly after 2 tries, I just move on to the next sentence.

It always has been an imperfect system. Just now it asked me to repeat "harán." I pronounced it correctly with the silent "h," and it returned "arran," not even a Spanish word as far as I know.

Thanks for the responses guys.  I'll just try to use the program the best I can.  It is too bad the software writers can't figure out a way to improve the program to where it's more useable.  

I've had a couple of problems with the voice recognition as well (mostly with words that start with R), but for the most part it does what it needs to do.  For some words, I realize that it isn't me and its the software, so I just skip it and move on.  However, I will definitely say that my pronounciation has improved bounds because of Rocket.

Hi all - Thanks for the feedback on the voice recognition. It is a little complex how it works, but the short version is that we use speech to text technology that relies on a separate database for each language.

Dan - The database doesn't necessarily have every target language word/phrase, hence sometimes the results can be off. However, certainly for the main languages, it's pretty good.

If you are having problems recording then please let customer support know as that's the best way for us to see if there is a systemic problem, or whether it's an individual hardware or pronunciation issue!

One thing that will definitely improve performance is using a headset with a mic. Background noise can really slow down the processing time as it has to work harder to figure out what was said.

Timmay-I have also recently noticed the same problems that you mentioned in your post 4 days ago.  The system was working better for me a few months ago as well.  I have not used it much recently (for a variety of unrelated issues) but when I do it is frustrating and significantly slower than it used to be.  

 

Note: I have my recording set on easy.
I think the delay has improved as well as the recording not cutting off from pausing. 

I have noticed that in the test area 5. doesn't always give you an option to play back your own recording. Which is now how I check to see if my pronunciation is correct. 

Some times the system will add words I haven't said. Though I don't think it is a big deal. 

Hi all - I would be interested to know if people are having problems with the voice recognition when using a headset microphone or a new laptop with built-in mic. I know from my own experience that older laptops have poor in-built microphones, and in that case a mic headset is definitely required for optimal function of the voice recognition.

Hi Errant - I will look into Play it! We haven't any other feedback about that, but then perhaps not many people use that particular playback feature.

The only real issue I still have with the voice recognition is when I'll repeat a phrase and get it 100% correct, but the recognition will still say that its wrong (or only 25%).

I suppose one thing I can do is try to test out the voice recognition on my laptop (I study rocket with a headset microphone) and see what results I get.

Jason: I use a new computer and a headset, so I don't think that is the issue.

The most annoying issue to me is that sometimes when I pause for a comma, the system will think I am done and start processing my answer, which it thinks is incomplete. I sometimes speed up my answer to try to overcome this, which I think results in less than my best pronunciation.

I only use the simple voice recorder and playback.  I've tried unsuccessfully to load up the Chrome Browser  to try out the voice recognition, but gave up after reading about all the problems you all are having. 

The simple voice recorder issues are a delay in the start of the record function causing the intitial  sounds to be cut off, which can be solved by  counting to three before starting to speak after clicking on the record button. 

The second is that the "auto-end" detector is so sensitive to background noise,  that it continues recording long past the time I stop speaking.  So I rarely use it, as when I do my daily first hour of listening to past, present, and future sentences  I like to move super fast, and this delay slows me down by a factor of 3 ot 4.    It its  handy when the study goal is to learn or refine correct pronunciation, at a slower pace.

About a month ago I suggested adding a "Finished Recording" button which would override  or even replace the auto finish detector.

BTW there has apparently been a change in the selection order of Flashcards and test rating so the program focuses on the non-easy cards first which is good.

My original suggestion about this was to add a button to allow us to do them either way, not give up the ability to review all cards as a complete set.

I like to start my morning by quickly going through all the flashcards for the Modules I am in and sometime previous and upcoming modules - not just the hards ones which slow me down.  

"Blitzing" through several hundred in a few minutes is the way I like to warm up.
So I am hoping on the wish list the Rocket Team will add a toggle switch that empowers us to do them all in a set or focus just on the "non-easy" ones, or  even just one column of "hardest."  

When I used  paper flashcards 1000 box sets  I  used to play all sorts of games with order, like sorting them by gender,  or having the twelve hardest ones that I would do over and over 20 times to get them to sink in. 

One principle for software learning systems I espoused in my companies is that they should always be at least as functional as the paper based systems they intend to replace or surpass.  This goal is not always possible but should always be an aspiration for the  programming and design teams.
 

Hey All, I'm new to the forum but not new to the rocket languages software. I purchased French and Italian back in 07 and used them a bit then. Now I'm on the linux side of my pc and cannot access the executible for those programs so I decided to login in here. Anyway, I'm experiencing the same problem. I go to record my voice and the system will tell me it doesn't understand what I said even though I know I pronounced everything properly. Please tell me that there is a fix in the works for this? 

Hi David - Sorry about the delay in responding.

Most of the VR issues are from a long time ago. While there are still some people having problems, on the whole it works well for the majority of people.

In saying that we are putting together a team to have a look into the VR and recording issues that you have mentioned.

With regards the FlashCard toggle idea, currently you can test yourself on the non-easy phrases. Just go to the FlashCards link and you will see the 2 columns of buttons on the right hand side. Clicking the furthest right button will start the FlashCard test for all phrases, whereas the button to the left of that displays the non-easy rated phrases.

Hi There

I'm having so many issues with the voice recognition feature and microphone, too many to go into and so much inconsistency that it is affecting my motivation. I installed Chrome a while ago and a pop up window keeps appearing asking me to install the latest version. Also the percentage indicators don't appear as well as it keeps asking me if I will allow the website to use my microphone. It's becoming a major interruption to my learning. I use my bluetooth AirPods which haven't been much of a problem recently but also some of the words take forever to recognise. I had purchased Rocket Languages mostly for the voice recognition feature for fluency as well as some of the other features and it's a bit of a disappointment.
 

Hi Louisa - Could you please let me know your system set up?  Are you using the app or desktop? Are you on a Mac/Windows? 

Note that if there is an "always allow" check box on that pop-up that asks you if you want to allow the website to use your microphone, then you should check it.