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Speaking is Believing

Flight Journal, Feb 2005 by Marks, Bob

VOICE BUDDY 2.0 * AUDIOFX HEADSET

MAINTAINING IMPARTIALITY IS ONE OF THE toughest things about writing this column. I have subjected myself quite a few times over the years to gadgets and software that either don't quite live up to the hype on their packaging or sometimes just plain don't work. Many items promised "the ultimate" in this or that, but very few even proved useful, let alone indispensable. After several disappointments, it's tough not to become skeptical about everything that comes in. But every now and then, out of the clear blue sky, a product comes along that makes even the jaded flight-sim guy in me say, "Whoa"-a gadget that not only delivers what it promises, but by virtue of its clever design makes me say, "Whoa, cool."

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I have the good people at eDimensional to thank for saving me from my cynicism this time around. This accomplishment is all the more amazing because the software that I'm so impressed with is something that has been tried, usually with infuriatingly horrid results, many times in the past. With the Voice Buddy 2.0 software, eDimensional has succeeded where even Microsoft failed miserably: it has made voice-recognition-control software for flight simulations and other games a useful, immersive tool rather than a reason to fling innocent hardware across the room.

The Game Buddy 2.0 software requires two installations: first as a core voicerecognition software component and an application-specific "Game Edition" that installs the recognized voice commands for a given game. The $49.95 asking price buys the core software and your choice of one game edition from a list of eight. The Voice Buddy Starter Edition I tested had the core and all the voice commands needed for Microsoft's Flight Sim 2004. You can purchase other game editions for an additional $9.95 each. I was also supplied with the game editions for Ubi Soft's IL-2 Sturmovik /Forgotten Battles/Ace Expansion Pack, as well as Ubi's Lock On. These are excellent flight simseach one the benchmark in its genre. They are also very complex simulations, and here is where Voice Buddy 2.0 flexes its considerable muscle.

Flying an airplane is a complicated affair. To qualify as a simulation, these complexities must be reflected in the virtual world to varying degrees. Although many functions can be programmed to various joysticks and controllers and button-carrying paraphernalia, some still must be hammered out on Ye Ol' QWERTY keyboard. Let's face it, stabbing the "G" key to bring the wheels down on final squashes the suspension of disbelief like an unlucky Piper Cub under the wheels of a landing 747-400. With Voice Buddy, the spoken command of "Gear down" is met with the gear handle's being lowered and a pleasant voice confirming, "Gear down and locked, three green." Neat! This is especially realistic in a civilian-airliner flight-sim setting when you have a trusty sycophant over in the right seat to take care of such niceties as undercarriage extension. Unlike a real lesser-barred lackey, however, Voice Buddy will not fetch coffee or patronize your bruised ego after a botched landing. I'm sure that eDimensional is working on that.

In the case of FS 2004, however, the capabilities of Voice Buddy 2.0 go much deeper than simple voice command. Voice Buddy also stores the checklists for every "stock" aircraft in FS 2002 and FS 2004, along with a large selection of popular freeware and shareware add-ons. This feature is made especially useful with Voice Buddy 2.0's multitasking technology: Asynchronous Command, Control and Response (ACCR). Translated from geekspeak, this means the system can act on a voiced command even while it is reading a checklist. For example: Voice Buddy will act on the command but will delay confirming the command until after it has finished whatever it was saying previously. If the responses begin to get on your nerves, a command of "Voice Buddy, shut up!" will stop the read-back. And unlike a real copilot, it won't report you for verbal abuse. Voice Buddy can also serve as an instructor pilot through a clever bit of code called Voice Buddy Interactive Trainer (VBIT). By prompting it with a request to teach you certain maneuvers, VBIT will literally talk you through the action. This is very handy when learning various basic fighter maneuvers or acrobatic routines.

Voice Buddy 2.0 also works seamlessly with various voice-over Internet protocol (VOIP) or voice-communication programs. I flew some online missions with my Blitzpig squadronmates in Forgotten Battles using Ventrilio for my VOIP client. After a few simple adjustments to the system, I eliminated conflicts between calling out bogeys to my buddies over comms and commanded Voice Buddy to open my cowl flaps or change my field of view. As a shining testament to my piloting abilities, I found the command "Eject, eject, eject" also worked quite well.

It's amazing how few commands were ignored or misunderstood by Voice Buddy. This is probably more than one could expect from a human copilot, especially if you've repeatedly told him or her to shut up. For Voice Buddy to respond so accurately with essentially no repetitive voice training, the commands must be phrased properly. Unfortunately, there is no clear way to print this required phraseology out as a reference. Although it can be exported as a text file, the formatting is less than clear. It would be nice if the commands were available as printed Adobe Acrobat documents; that is my only nitpick about this excellent program.

Speaking is Believing

Flight Journal, Feb 2005 by Marks, Bob

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