As you can
tell from the headline, I've been
actively seeking a voice control application that works with Microsoft Flight
Simulator for a long time. After all, flying an airplane requires talking.
Lots of it. The pilot in command is frequently talking to ATC, especially when
flying IFR flight plans. On flight decks of commercial airliners and big
executive jets; the pilot flying and pilot not flying (aka, your co-pilot) are
in constant communication with each other, ATC, the passengers and crew. Even when flying solo in general aviation
aircraft or warbirds, you're talking to yourself as you go through SOP and
also communicating with ATC.
Flying an airplane also uses a lot of lists. There's a
checklist for everything. Sometimes, I think the FAA would want a Standard
Operating Procedure (SOP) for blowing your nose on the flight deck! And, as
magnificent as Microsoft Flight Simulator is, the weak areas are the
checklists (pretty lame, at best) and the fact that there has never been a
decent voice control add-on that actually worked well.
I've tried every voice control application I could get my
hands on for the last six years
including Voice Pilot, Game Commander, Flight Assistant, Dragon Systems and a
few more. It was a very disappointing quest. Either these programs flat-out did not work, or they were very cumbersome to
set up and train the voice recognition. Even worse, after spending hours to
train the beasts, only then did I discover that they would not work with
Microsoft Flight Simulator. Talk about frustrating!
With FS2004 I thought, "Wow! This is so realistic.
Wouldn't it be cool if I could talk through real SOP checklists and have the
airplane react to my voice commands instead of fooling around with clunky keyboard
commands and mouse-clicks."
If you're like me, you want to keep your
hands on the yoke or flightstick and throttle, your feet on the rudder pedals;
and fly the airplane as realistically as possible. OK, I'll confess to
occasionally using engine auto-start and even time compression on some really
long flights. But, for the most part, I fly with FS2004 because I want as
realistic an experience as possible. Well, flightsimmers, for
the last six years, as far as SOP checklists and voice control are concerned, that has been a fool's errand. Until now.
Meet my new best friend on the flight deck: Voice
Buddy.
Those incredible design wizards at eDimensional have done it
again. With Voice Buddy, they've created an amazing add-on that works
flawlessly with both FS2004 and FS2002 to give you true, interactive voice control
over the hundreds of keyboard commands we use to fly the
sims. I got an exclusive opportunity to preview the final release
version.
Hold onto your yokes, flightsimmers because Voice Buddy will blow you
away! It's the first truly interactive, voice control system for FS2004 and
FS2002 that actually works.
The headset that comes with it is
amazing and flying with this interactive voice controlled virtual co-pilot is
very cool. Best of all, it's a snap to install and run
Now that I've tried it, I'll never leave the ground without my
Voice Buddy flying the right-hand seat.
Here's what Voice Buddy does.
Its simplicity belies the powerful software and hardware
technology at work with Voice Buddy. You simply speak voice commands. Voice
Buddy gives you a verbal response that acknowledges the command and
Flight Simulator performs the action. I came to think of Voice Buddy as my imaginary
friend and co-pilot sitting in the right-hand seat. Voice Buddy gives you a
choice of many different male and female computer voices. My personal favorite
was "Mary". These are not just recorded messages that are played
back but the computer is actually talking to you and responding to your
orders.
As I go through Voice
Buddy's enhanced SOP checklists and issue the challenges, I hear
"Mary" talking back to me with the correct responses and then I see the switches
toggle, levers move, flight control surfaces trim out and display panels
come and go as if by magic. Wait, it's Mary in the right-hand seat, not magic.
Flightsimming with voice control let me on flying the plane and not
fiddling with mouse and keyboard. What a welcome relief it was to just forget about all
those annoying keyboard commands. I just said it, and Voice Buddy did it. Now,
this was really exciting.
The headset is one of its best
features and makes Voice Buddy a sensational value.
Voice Buddy comes in two versions: software and computer
pilot headset or software only. When I got my evaluation copy,
eDimensional executive, Michael Epstein, told me to make sure I used the headset that
comes with it. Voice Buddy includes a top-quality Plantronics .Audio 90 headset.
"Good voice control requires a very good
microphone," Epstein explained.." That's why Voice Buddy comes with the very best computer headset on the market today."
So, I ditched my cheesy lightweight headset and put on the .Audio 90.
Epstein was right! The headset turns out to be a fantastic value. Including it
in combination with Voice Buddy software at this low price was a stroke of
genius. It also saves a lot of time and aggravation because you don't need to
hunt around for a decent headset with a microphone that's good enough for
voice recognition. eDimensional gives you the perfect solution right in the
box.
The sleek lines and very comfortable ergonomic design are just the beginning of
the Voice Buddy headset's advanced performance features. The .Audio 90 has an advanced
technology noise-canceling microphone. Plantronics was the company that
invented noise-canceling microphones and they have a reputation for producing
top quality headset gear. This one was no exception.
For good voice recognition, you need a perfect mic that not too hot (sensitive) plus good noise cancellation in order for
the computer to accurately hear and recognize your voice. The noise canceling feature prevents ambient sound
from affecting your voice commands. So, for those long flights,
where I might listen to music or watch TV in the background; the ambient sound
did not cause voice command recognition interference.
I found this especially useful when I watch cockpit DVDs while
flightsimming. What I do is use the Mustek portable DVD player on my desktop
to play a cockpit video while I duplicate that flight.
(See
my review of the DVD player here.) My favorite trip is flying a United
Triple-7 from O'Hare to Heathrow. I'll watch the DVD and duplicate the cockpit
SOP. The table-top portable player lets me watch and fly interactively, as
opposed to starting and stopping the DVD playback on my PC. The noise-canceling
mic was able to suppress the DVD audio and ambient noise in the office while I
flew the FS2004 Triple-7 under voice control. It was quite an experience. The
sim very accurately duplicated the real world depiction on the DVD.
But, a good microphone is just the beginning. The Plantronics
.Audio 90 computer headset also gave me sensational stereo sound. FS2004 sound
effects came through crystal clear and so did the Voice Buddy verbal
acknowledgement of my voice commands. You all know what a big movie fan I am,
and I really enjoyed the surround sound effects from DVD movies that came
through the .Audio 90 earphones. It has gold-plated connectors for top quality
signal transmission and a handy control console on the cord. The console has a
microphone mute button and a sound volume wheel that are easy to use and work
great. I tested the mic with voice and sound effects recording. It's
sensitive, well-balanced and doesn't add noise or lip popping to voice
recording so you don't need to use an auxiliary wind sock over it.
Those of you who've been around aviation and flightsimming as
long as I have, may remember that Plantronics has a long history as a pioneer and world leader in aviation communication technology. Plantronics
introduced the first lightweight aviation headset back in 1962. The following
year, United Airlines became the first commercial carrier to use them. The
year after that, the FAA started using Plantronics headsets in Air Traffic Control Centers.
In '68, Plantronics flew on the Apollo missions and the following year, Neil
Armstrong's, "...one giant leap for mankind..." came through loud and
clear on a Plantronics headset. Plantronics headsets are still used on the
Space Shuttle flight
deck and aboard most commercial airliners. Lightweight and comfortable even after hours of wearing it,
this is the first computer headset I've used that I could wear all day long. I
got a kick out of using a piece of audio gear that actually had an illustrious
aviation history standing behind it. I'm quirky that way.
Ready-to-fly
Having a good headset is one thing, but I wanted to see if
Voice Buddy lived up to its advanced billing. During my misadventures in voice
control with other products, the biggest pain in the neck was training the
software to recognize my voice and accurately perform the keyboard actions.
This is no small task, flightsimmers. It takes hours of patient talking to your
computer to train most other voice recognition programs. Then, you have to spend
even more time adjusting commands, writing voice scripts, correcting
recognition mistakes, ad nauseum. Life is way too short for that. The thing I
most wanted to know is, "Was Voice Buddy ready-to-fly right out of the
box?" The simple answer is, "YES!"
Everything you need is already programmed into it. Voice Buddy
replicates all the FS2004/FS2002 commands plus adds some exciting and useful new
features to your FS2004 interactive kneeboard.
New checklists for every stock
aircraft in FS2004 and FS2002
Frankly, flightsimmers, I was quite impressed with all the
work that went into creating the SOP checklists that come with Voice Buddy.
The developers created new checklists for full flight operations from
pre-start through shutdown for every stock aircraft in both FS2004 and FS2002.
This is an amazing bit of work. The checklists include the accurate
challenge-response dialog between pilot and co-pilot plus both voice and
keyboard commands. These checklists have been significantly expanded from what
Microsoft put into Flight Simulator and they are accurate to the limitations
of the sim. After all, no one has yet to activate every single cockpit
control.
When used with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004, Voice Buddy's checklists
replace the existing kneeboard checklists. Instead of inaccurate,
inconsistent, downright boring checklists that come with FS2004, after
installing Voice Buddy I saw vibrant, full-color, easy-to-read interactive standard operating procedure tables that
gave me the ability to play back the Challenge-Response SOP anytime,
section-by-section.
I used the checklists two ways. First, I would trigger the
Challenge-Response callouts by using the voice commands. If I said, "Lear
45 pre-start," I would hear callouts of the pre-start checklist for the
Learjet 45. If I'm making my approach in the DC-3 and need prompts as to
proper SOP, I just say, "DC-3 approach check." Voice Buddy then goes
through the callouts for the approach checklist. There is a 1.5 second delay
between the Challenge and the Response. That was just enough time for me to
manually flip switches when I chose to interactively follow along with
the checklist.
When I first started, however, I was fascinated by the dialog
feature. So, I listened to each section of the SOP and then used the voice
commands to perform the actions. As I grew more accustomed to voice control, I
preferred flying the plane and letting my Voice Buddy co-pilot do all the
grunt work on the flight deck. Just like any self-respecting commercial
captain would do. 
Each SOP breaks the flight operations into fourteen separate
checklists which include:
-
Pre Start
-
Engine Start
-
Before Taxi
-
Taxi
-
Before Takeoff
-
Takeoff
-
Climb Out
-
Cruise
-
Descent
-
Approach
-
Before Landing
-
Landing
-
Taxi to Ramp
-
Shutdown
Flying under voice control.
The Pre Start is very handy to shut down your aircraft since
Flight Simulator insists on auto-starting everything. I prefer to cold start
the aircraft at the gate, push back, then taxi to the assigned runway. Sure,
sometimes I like to just kick it and go. But, now that I'm hooked on voice
control, starting from scratch isn't the pain in the neck that it used to be.
If I forget the SOP, I just ask Voice Buddy.
eDimensional consulted with pilots from around the world who
fly both the commercial heavies, turboprops, general aviation aircraft plus
military aviators to get the best blend of real world accuracy that is
conveniently modified to what you can actually do in Flight Simulator. The
developers even remembered to open the cabin door or canopy when you get in,
secure it before engine start, and then open and lock it when you exit after
shutdown. Each aircraft's checklist is specific to what that airplane's actual
SOP is in the real world. It's those little details that add to the realism.
Even with 300-plus commands, Flight Simulator does not have a
keyboard function for every switch on the instrument panels. Since Voice Buddy
controls the keyboard, and not the mouse, there are some switches that you'll
just have to throw yourself. The checklists clearly identify which functions
still require manual control. There aren't many, and you can fly the aircraft
completely by voice control if you want to. I disconnected all my flight
controllers and performed a flight under total voice control. Crashed a few
times until I got the hang of it. Takeoffs are a little tricky. So, I would
slew to altitude and then fly the rest using just my voice. Not as satisfying
as laying hands on yoke and throttle, feet on the rudders, but impressive,
nevertheless.
I
walked Voice Buddy through the United Triple-7 cockpit video and was satisfied
to see that the Voice Buddy SOP for the Triple-7 paid respect to actual real
world SOP. Certainly close enough to have fun with Flight Simulator and not
feel as though you were flying an arcade game.
Of course, when you fly using GPS in a DeHavilland DH-88 Comet
or Amelia's Lockheed Vega, realism sort of takes a back seat. But,
that's where all the fun begins.
Cabin announcements and callouts.
In addition to the SOP Challenge-Response, Voice Buddy also
includes prompts for various cabin announcements and other SOP that don't
necessarily involve flightsim command actions. These added tremendous realism
and situational awareness to the flightsim action. For example, when I blew
the approach at Vancouver International and had to go around, I called for,
"Go around power." Voice Buddy told me to, "Set throttles to maintain two hundred feet per minute climb rate"
I said, "Advise air traffic control we are going around." Voice
Buddy responded. accordingly. This was a very satisfying experience and much
better than my usual, "Oh (expletive deleted) gotta go around..."
when I formerly blew an approach.
Voice Buddy comes with a long list of other announcements from
the flight deck. It does not simulate any announcements that the cabin crew
would make, which makes perfect sense. After all, "This is your Captain
speaking..."
The technology behind the magic.
This is the "good news, bad news" part of my review.
The bad news is that Voice Buddy will not work with Windows 98, Windows ME or
Windows 2000. I tried it on those systems and it just does not work. The
problem is with the limitations of speech recognition in those versions of Windows. The good news is that Voice Buddy runs magnificently with all
flavors of Windows XP, both Home and Professional. The even better news is that you
don't need a monster PC to run it. If FS2004 runs well on your system with
Windows XP, so will Voice Buddy.
With more than 300, pre-programmed voice commands, Voice Buddy
enables you to "extend flaps, raise gear, set heading, arm autothrottle, manage the flight director, talk to air traffics control, deploy spoilers" plus every other FS2004 and FS2002 command --
just by speaking the words. This proved to be particularly useful when flying
through heavily congested airways while trying to manage a busy flight
deck such as the FS2004 Douglas DC-3, while acknowledging a cranky
air traffic controller.
According to what I was able to pry out of the tight-lipped
developers at eDimensional, Voice Buddy was designed from the first line of
code up to take advantage of the latest breakthroughs in Microsoft speech
recognition technology. These features are tightly integrated into Windows XP.
As a result, Voice Buddy is extremely accurate at recognizing spoken commands
and deciphering actions that result from those commands. It also is spot-on
accurate at implementing FS2004 and FS2002 keyboard commands. So, if you
needed one more reason to upgrade to Windows XP, this could be it.
Voice Buddy actually consists of two modules that work
seamlessly together. Voice Buddy recognizes your voice commands and takes the
right actions, issuing an appropriate verbal response. The real magic is the
proprietary SpeechX engine that connects the voice commands, microphone and your
computer.
"SpeechX will be the engine for additional versions of
Voice Buddy that are customized to other sims," said Voice Buddy's chief
software designer, Parmod Gandhi. "When we release Voice Buddy for Combat
Flight Simulator 3, Train Simulator 2, IL-2 Sturmovik, Lock-On, and other
titles -- you will have just one SpeechX engine controlling an entire suite of
customized versions of Voice Buddy. This is a very efficient use of system
resources," he explained.
The
power to customize.
Voice Buddy's commands are all ready-to-fly upon installation.
Nevertheless, eDimensional included a full set of tools so you can customize
every aspect of Voice Buddy's commands, responses, dialogs, even choose
different voices for your virtual co-pilot. Today, you fly with Mary. Tomorrow
it could be Michael, Sam, Michelle, or Mike.
Using the Command Administration console, I was able to
customize any command, delete existing commands or add new ones. I could also
train Voice Buddy to recognize my peculiar way of saying certain words such as
"pee-tow" and not "pit tot" for "Pitot Heat
On/Off".
Customizing the response codes is a snap. But, you have to be
very careful to follow proper syntax and not leave out the codes necessary to
make the response function properly. You can lengthen or shorten the
delay for the checklists to give you a more convenient timeline to
interactively follow them.
SpeechX enables you to fine tune Voice Buddy's response to
your exact microphone and system. You can also choose from six different
computer voices and adjust the pitch and speed of the co-pilot's speech, plus
a whole lot more. If you speak English with an accent, SpeechX allows you to
adjust the threshold of speech recognition to make it easier for Voice Buddy
to understand what you are saying. Since American English is the common
language of aviation, Voice Buddy is optimized for that. But, since
flightsimmers come form all countries and speak English with a wide range of
accents, this SpeechX feature makes it easy for anyone's voice to be
accurately recognized.
Installation is a snap.
Installing Voice Buddy was a breeze. I didn't have to make any
system tweaks. All the audio controls are built into the Voice Buddy console.
It installs with the microphone turned on and the recognition window open. You
can see your voice commands translated instantly to text in this window. It's
useful as a diagnostic tool on the rare occasion that Voice Buddy doesn't
recognize what you're saying.
You can set Voice Buddy to run as a tray icon and have
full-time access to all its functions. Once I got the hang of it, I was
speaking and flying very comfortably and found very little need to ever go to
the console.
After Voice Buddy self-installs and you register your copy,
you have to set-up and train your microphone. Here is where Voice Buddy really
pays off. The microphone is instantly recognized and all I needed to do was
read two short sentences to have SpeechX automatically adjust proper input
levels. Way cool.
You can start using Voice Buddy right away. But, voice
recognition accuracy will be significantly better if you go through a short
training session. Each training session lasts about 8 minutes. You simply read
a few paragraphs of copy and Voice Buddy learns to recognize your personal
speech patterns as you read. This is right out of Star Trek Federation
Science, that's how cool it is.
The more training sessions you run, the higher the degree of
speech recognition accuracy. Voice Buddy also learns on-the-fly as you use it.
The more you use it, the better it gets. As a test, I wanted to see what the
minimum amount of training would yield. I set up the mic, then ran a single
training session and the voice recognition accuracy was fabulous. After a
second training session, it was perfect for me. Since every person has
different speech inflections, accent and pronunciation; your results may
require more or less training. In any event, we are talking minutes, not hours
here. Woohoo!
The differences between FS2004 and FS2002 installations.
Since the key commands are the same for both FS2004 and
FS2002, Voice Buddy works perfectly in both sims. It contains checklists for
all the aircraft that are both common and unique to each sim. The differences
lie in the advanced features of FS2004. FS2002's kneeboard is not an
HTML-enabled browser. So, Voice Buddy's gorgeous checklists do not replaces
the FS2002 checklists. They install in the same aircraft folders but in
FS2002, you won't see the Voice Buddy checklists when you call for the
kneeboard. You'll have to print them which is easy since you just open each
checklist HTML file with your Internet browser and print the pages from
Internet Explorer.
In FS2004, the new checklists replace the old ones. Voice
Buddy backs up the old checklists for you. It also replaces the kneeboard key
commands reference, backing up that file, too. Without a doubt, if you have
not yet upgraded to FS2004, Voice Buddy gives you yet another reason to do
that right now.
What's in the Box.
Voice Buddy comes in two versions: software only and
software plus headset. The software comes on a single CD with a Quick Start
guide booklet. The documentation, complete manual, and full set of all
checklists are included and you can print any or all of it out in full color.
Frankly, the checklists and kneeboard key commands reference were so well
designed that I never needed to refer to the printed documentation. On the
other hand, I'm one of those computer users who never reads the manual first.
Speaking is believing.
After six frustrating years of searching for the perfect
flightsim voice control, I think I have finally found it. And to celebrate,
I'm giving away a free, limited time, First Class Membership upgrade to any
FlightSim.Com member who buys Voice Buddy between now and January 1,
2004.
Cap Mason
CapMason@FlightSim.Com
Learn more here
|
My
System Specs for this Review
-
Dell Dimension
XPS, Dell a02 system BIOS
-
3.06GHZ Intel
Pentium 4 processor with HTT, 800MHz front side bus using the Intel®
875P chipset.
-
8X AGP port
-
SAMSUNG
DVD-ROM
SD
-616T
-
NEC DVD+RW
ND-1100A
-
Western Digital
120GB Ultra ATA, 7200 RPM hard drive
-
Dual channel DDR
400MHz SDRAM, 1024MB
-
Built-in 10/100
Ethernet port, DSL Internet connection
-
2, IEEE 1394
Firewire ports
-
8, Intel 82801EB
USB Universal Host Controllers
-
Audigy 2 audio
card
-
128MB ATI Radeon
9800 Pro video card with ATI Catalyst 3.9 driver
-
460 watt power
supply
-
Dell UltraSharp
18" flat panel display
-
CH Products USB
flight gear all connected simultaneously: Yoke, Fighterstick, Pro Pedals,
Pro Throttle
-
Plantronics
.Audio 90 stereo headset with noise-canceling microphone
-
Windows XP
Professional, DirectX 9b
|
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