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Any *definitive* word on Speech Recognition on #6?

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by Wynder, Dec 27, 2005.

  1. Wynder

    Wynder New Member

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    It's alluded to in the manual, but in playing with my '06 at the Dealership, I still could not get the speech recognition to work with the phone system.

    Yes, I had a phone paired. Yes, I was able to manually make a call. However, I'm *really* praying that I'll be able to hands-free dial and place calls -- does anyone have an '06 without navigation who's actually been able to do this?
     
  2. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    Are there buttons on the wheel or picking up/hanging up calls as well as putting calls on hold?

    also for a full list of voice recognition words, go to john1701a.com and d/l the 4th version of the Prius User Guide.
     
  3. Wynder

    Wynder New Member

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    Picking up and hanging up, yes -- don't know about hold. However, my post was in reference to the voice command recognition; when I was testing my car, pressing the 'voice command' button on the steering wheel didn't yield the 'beep' -- the words don't do me any good if I can't get the tone or the car isn't going to support it.
     
  4. ECHOSYS

    ECHOSYS New Member

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  5. Wynder

    Wynder New Member

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    Here's the thing, apparently, when you hit the speech button, you get a 'Ding' followed by a 'Please say a voice command', bla bla bla. I can't even get that. Do you have an '06 #6?
     
  6. ECHOSYS

    ECHOSYS New Member

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    Mine is a 2006 Pkg 7 but that shouldn't make a difference. Sorry, I misunderstood you remark about the "ding". I get the full sequence after pressing the speech button on the steering wheel: "her" question followed by a "ding". In my case maybe she will, or maybe she won't, respond with the correct action, but at least I think she is trying! I don't think there is anything wrong with my car as my kids can make the speech portion work correctly.

    Since this whole sequence is nothing more than booting the program to recognize the spoken phrase, it sounds to me like your MFD needs reprograming. If you hear her voice but no ding, then the computer has not activated the microphone to receive your command, so something has broken down in the programing.

    I wouldn't take delivery of this particular car until the dealer resolves this issue as the Speech portion of the MFD is just a very small part of all the things required of the MFD. Any electrical gremlins in this car could lead to nightmares!

    Ed
     
  7. pfile

    pfile Member

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    i just picked up an 06 #6 yesterday. one of the first things i did was to push the speech button... i got no feedback from the car. i'll go play with it today.
     
  8. Wynder

    Wynder New Member

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    It's actually a huge diffence -- you have the navigation package and CPU. From what I understand, this interprets most all of the commands for climate control, sound system and navigation. It's been alluded to that telephone voice commands are independent of the nav CPU.

    I hear nothing at all.
     
  9. Wynder

    Wynder New Member

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    Thanks Pfile -- lemme know if you get anywhere.
     
  10. beethoven

    beethoven Junior Member

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    Hmm...I thought this was a feature only on the 7 and 8 packages with the voice command DVD nav. Our #5 should be here in the next couple weeks and it would be an added bonus to have the voice commands.
     
  11. Wynder

    Wynder New Member

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    In the owners manual, there are sections refering to the bluetooth phone usage that says (with regards to voice recognition), "vechicles without the navigation package will see only telephone" or something along those lines, alluding that the nav, climate control and sound system voice commands aren't included, but the phone ones are.
     
  12. hdrygas

    hdrygas New Member

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  13. ECHOSYS

    ECHOSYS New Member

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    Wynder

    I know I may be stating the obvious here but: In the Owners Manual there are 3 different diagrams showing Types 1, 2 and 3 MFD's. I have a Type 1 with Nav per the diagrams. According to my manual Phone Voice commands work with Types 1 and 2 MFD's. The proper sequence for telephone (or Climate/Audio) Type 1 and 2 operation is:
    1. Press the Talking Head switch on the steering wheel.
    2. System responds with "After the Beep, please say "xxx"
    3. Say your command and hope something happens.

    If you get no response from the system (the systems "voice") when you press the Speech Button, something is wrong. Types 1 and 2 should respond. The fact that both you and Pfile get no response is worrisome. According to the Manual both types respond in the same manner - no difference in operation.

    As you said my Type 1 has the Nav feature but you also said that this CPU was separate from the Telephone Voice system. From the manual there is no indication of this but there may still be separate components.

    It may be useful to start a New Topic aimed at 2006 Package 6 owners and find out if this is something specific to your cars. If it is, Toyota will need to get involved.

    Ed
     
  14. Wynder

    Wynder New Member

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    There's a page in there dealing with the operation of the voice recognition where a screen comes up that contains a 'Help' button -- in the manual (I don't have it since I don't own the car for another 3 days), around page 234ish? it lists buttons you can push for voice commands and it lists, something to the effect of, Phone, Climate Control, Nav and Phone. Then, there's a note that says something like: Note: If navigation is not installed, this will show only 'Telephone' leading people to believe that it should work.

    Ed, this title of this topic specifically states the package number and my first post explains I'm dealing with an '06. Don't know how much more specific I can get.
     
  15. pfile

    pfile Member

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    good news... it does work, but only for the phone as far as i can tell. i need to go back and try some other modes and see if it responds, but if you are in the phone screen, and then press the speech button, it asks you to speak a number. you speak the number and then supposedly you can hit the 'off hook' button or the speech button to dial, but it never dialed for me unless i hit OK on the MFD.
     
  16. Wynder

    Wynder New Member

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    Excellent news -- I'll have to try this to see if I can get the same results. If you find a way to get it to dial automatically, drop an update.

    Thanks!

    Rob
     
  17. jwe8f

    jwe8f New Member

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  18. Wynder

    Wynder New Member

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    Sweet... Thanks!
     
  19. pfile

    pfile Member

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    okay, i played with it some more.

    here is how it works:

    if you press the phone button on the steering wheel and then press the speech button, it asks you to speak a number.

    if you go to the phone book screen, and then press the speech button, it asks you to speak a name. however, you have to record voice "tags" for each name you want to be able to speak. the voice tags are added on the 2nd page of the "edit phonebook entry" screen. it seems to reject one word tags when recording tags, so for "home" i had to say "home number."

    when dialing by name, after you speak a name, it repeats the recorded voice tag back to you.

    in either case, after you speak a name or number, the voice starts instructing you what to do next (either push the talk button or the off-hook button). if you do either of these things while she is still speaking, it just cancels out what you did. once she stops talking, then pressing the voice button will cause the system to tell you to say "dial", and then it will (finally) dial when you say dial. if you press the off-hook button, it will dial right away.

    i also experimented with saying something else but "dial" and once it gave me the "next" entry in the phone book... it must have been the next one with a voice tag. i tried saying something else again to see if it would go to the next tagged entry, but it just started dialing.

    with all the thrashing around as i was playing with it, the car and the phone got out of sync and no matter what i tried to dial it kept dialing the first number that i had tried. and then when i looked at my phone (treo650) it had dialed the first number twice, and it was on hold with the first call (!).

    this is probably all RTFM, but there you go.
     
  20. Wynder

    Wynder New Member

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    I couldn't find any of this in the manual when looking through it -- this is a bloody great help! Hopefully, it'll be archived or put up on the wiki at some point. Thanks for the testing!