If you’ve got a car built in the last 5 years or so, it’s quite likely it’s started by the push of a button when in the presence of a keyfob. Older vehicles make do with the twist of a key. Of course, starting a car by voice command would be cool, and that’s what [John Forsyth] set out to do.
The build uses a Macbook to handle voice recognition, using its Dictation feature. With a hefty download, it’s capable of doing the task offline, making things easier. The dictated words are passed to a Python script, which searches for words like “start” and “go” as a trigger. When an appropriate command is received, the Python script sends a signal over a USB-serial connection to an attached Arduino. The Arduino then toggles a relay connected to the Jeep’s external starter solenoid, starting the vehicle.
As a fan of recent popular films, [John] programmed the system to respond to the command “Jarvis, let’s get things going!”, causing the vehicle to spring into life. There’s room for future improvement, too – the system could benefit from being a little more compact, and there’s a long delay between finishing the sentence and the vehicle starting. A Raspberry Pi and faster dictation software could likely help in this regard.
We’ve seen voice commands used for everything from chess to finding electronic components. Video after the break.
Oh hell, I’ve used voice commands to start my car for decades. Occasionally it even (seemed) to work!
´ovner´:
Oh bloody hell , come on baby start up , come on ,,,, START you piece of Shiiiiiii……..
´Car´:
Wroooohmmmm brrrrrrr crank ….pfsssssssssss…….
´ovner´:
´START or I send you to scrapyard´
´Car´:
´Damn … WROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM ……… starts up perfect….
Ha ha ha
Yes it kind of works…. :)
wait, he made a voice activated car, and he didn’t use “Traguna Mecoidies Tricorum Satis Dee” to start it? missed opportunity. (maybe it’s just me?)
I would rather “Klaatu barada nikto” or “Klaatu barda ni-cough cough… I’ve said It”
Pretty neat! Anyone wishing to do the same might want to look into the “geeetech voice recognition module”. It’s less than $20, and there are some videos on youtube showing what the module can do. Perfect for starting a car or other simple tasks.
He also can use an vintage Apple Macintosh 660AV with the plaintalk microphone setup, mid 90’s. I would ask it what time it is and it would respond with speech. pretty neat for its time. but of course this would need a 12v psu and a way to have it running at all times, or a switch to boot the comput… Oh……
Please build this and let me know ASAP. :)
Unfortunately, the 660av has left the building long ago. :( would have matched my current 1994 car perfectly. Just where to cut out the dashboard to fit in the 14″ trinitron…
https://hackaday.com/2015/08/21/okay-google-start-the-jeep/
😉
What powers the mac, the car battery? Hey car start! Sorry, you should have asked me to do that a couple hours ag…….
Typical “key off” sleeping draw on a car battery is under 50 ma.