New Rocket Languages voice recognition feature

jason-oxenham-ceo

November 11, 2015
Updated: April 5, 2022

Bonjour tout le monde

Some of you may have noticed a new feature that has been added to the sidebar of your Rocket Languages course! It looks like this;

Rocket Record difficulty settings

What this does is allow you to set the difficulty level of Rocket Record to suit your learning style. As the difficulty levels get harder you have to be more precise with your pronunciation.

You can change this setting from virtually any page in the course and it will remember it until you change it again.

Whether you are a trial member or a full member, this feature is now active for all members accounts.

Important: As you are probably aware, the voice recognition works in Chrome only at this stage. Other browsers are playing catch up and it should be rolled out to other major browsers in the coming months.

Also, we are in the middle of updating the apps, so that they have similar functionality.

And, finally, we are still working on getting all of the numbers sorted. You may have noticed that sometimes a number comes back as, say, "12" instead of the written number "twelve", and it gets marked as incorrect. We are working on these cases!

Please let me know what your thoughts about the new voice recognition settings are!

All the best with your language learning.

Jason Oxenham
CEO
Rocket Languages

Deven--3 देवन--३

November 11, 2015

The new voice recognition settings work great!

jason-oxenham-ceo

November 11, 2015

Hi Deven - Yes, it all seems good so far. We have also optimized a few behind the scenes processes, which should speed things up!

KelllaurBailar

November 11, 2015

I saw that new feature this morning. I'm glad that you're going to expand that function to work in other browsers, because I'm trying not to slow down my laptop by downloading Chrome.
Good job!
Laura

Fred-C14

November 11, 2015

So glad that RG has settled down. I really am enjoying the new and improved features and, more importantly, it's helping to improve my German again.

Diana-S1

November 11, 2015

Chrome might be better with voice recognition than is Internet Explorer, but it has other problems. For one, if I sign on to Chrome, it looks like I've done no work for a long time, and my total number of points earned is only 16, when in reality there are over 84,000. Chrome also shows that my longest streak is 129 days, but Internet Explorer shows 132. I think the 129 was about the time the new RL became available. It seems RL has little, if any, communication between Chrome and Internet Explorer.

Another interesting thing, the new Rocket Record difficulty bar isn't in the Chrome version, but is in the Internet Explorer version.

jason-oxenham-ceo

November 11, 2015

Hi Laura - It sounds like the next major Firefox release will have this functionality enabled. Unfortunately they haven't published a time-frame for that.

Hi Fred - Glad to hear it's working well for you.

Hi Diana - What you describe makes me think something is up with your Chrome browser. Please email either me or customer support and we can look into it.

Fred-C14

November 11, 2015

Hi Jason

I've just noticed that the automatic repeat of the correct phrase when you score 100% with your recording has disappeared with the latest changes to the voice recognition feature.

Given that it can sometimes takes several attempts to get the pronunciation correct it was actually a quite useful way to find out that you'd got it right without having to constantly stare at the screen, as well as automatically reinforcing the correct pronunciation.

Is this feature likely to be restored?

Robert-C7

November 11, 2015

Consider adding one more setting - disable. Many times I am doing things like "Play It" where either I do not have access to a microphone or it is not practical for me to be speaking out loud (laptop with earphones at work). There is no way to keep moving forward in "Play It" without it recognizing what you say. If there is a disable button, then it can go back to doing what it use to do before voice recognition was added.

Steven-W15

November 11, 2015

Agreed.

jason-oxenham-ceo

November 11, 2015

Hi Fred - Nothing has changed with regards the rules around recording playing after getting 100%. Are you talking about the Write it! and Know it! tests? For those tests it does play after hitting reveal or getting 100%.

Hi Robert - Good idea. I will get it on the list to do in the next couple of weeks. You can of course use the "Conversation only" track in the meantime.

ddwkaiser

November 11, 2015

I hate this. It is not recognizing my voice like it previously did. It keeps on saying, " Sorry I didn't catch that." This is happening in lessons I've previously done. Also, it is not giving me a percent of what it understood to give me an idea if I'm on the right track. Currently it seems to not be working at all. My mic. is programmed right and works perfectly. Thinking about quitting and getting my money back. I'm tired of fighting this. I actually do want to learn German. So far this program is terrible.

jason-oxenham-ceo

November 12, 2015

Hi ddwkaiser2 - Sorry to hear about the issues you are experiencing. Please try a hard refresh and/or logging out and back in again. It may be a caching issue.

em21

November 12, 2015

I like the Rocket Record. At first I didn't know what it was or what to do with it. When activated it seems my voice recognition works better, even when set at high. I posted a question about it, but for the life of me I can't find where I put it.

Edie.

Fred-C14

November 12, 2015

Hi Jason

Yes I am talking about the Read it/Write it tests as well as the transcripts.

I just had a quick look and in Premium German Level 1, Unit 2.4 and the automatic playing of a correct (100%) recorded answer in the Hear it/Say it tests and the transcripts are not working.

I also looked in Premium Plus German Level 2, Unit 9.1 and the automatic playing of a correct (100%) recorded answer in the Hear it/Say it tests and the transcripts are not working there either.

In both cases it is working fine in the Write it tests and the Know it ones.

I suspect that it is a general problem in Rocket German as I chose these units at random and they were different ones than I was looking at yesterday.

Regards

Fred

M-L

November 12, 2015

Jason,

You and I had a few emails back and forth with screen shots attachments to figure out why the mic froze intermittently throughout the day and without any specific pattern. Since the new feature, "Rocket Record" I haven't had any problems. It's early in the game but it certainly is promising and encouraging.

Matthew-H68

November 16, 2015

Hi guys! I'm currently getting back into using Rocket Languages on our computers. I had quit for awhile, because I had trouble with the new 2016 edition's RocketRecord. But I am having a blast with the new RocketRecord difficulty bar. It seems to have helped solve my problem with it since the change over from the previous edition.

jason-oxenham-ceo

November 17, 2015

Hi Fred - That is how it's meant to work. It replays in Write it! and Know it! but not Hear it Say it!

Hi M-L - That's great news! We are continuing to tweak the performance of it.

Hi Brittany - Also good to hear!

Andrew-B106

November 20, 2015

Any news on when Rocket Record for other browsers will go live ? Just come back to RL after being away for ages and gutted that the RR is now only on chrome, just my luck !

Fred-C14

November 21, 2015

Cheers Jason. A shame that Hear it/Say it doesn't work like the other sections because I find the automatic repeat a great way of knowing when you get it right.

I just spent a week in Germany (I go there quite often) and it was definitely a lot easier this time. I recognised and used a lot of words and phrases that I would never have been able to do without Rocket German.

Dan-H24

November 22, 2015

After being initially underwhelmed by the voice recognition feature, I have to say it is working better for me. Like others, I was disappointed that it had trouble with short, simple phrases, but knowing that it is "smart" enough to compare what is said in context with the rest of the sentence it makes more sense to me now.

My only real complaint is that when I pause between sentence (as one does in natural speech) the system often thinks I am done and returns an incomplete rating. The system should be "smart" enough to recognize where natural pauses should occur.

jason-oxenham-ceo

November 23, 2015

Hi Andrew - According to Firefox, the technology should be available in their browser in early 2016.
Hi Fred - We have had feedback both ways about that. Where it does repeat, some people don't like it repeating!
Hi Dan - We have made quite a few tweaks to it now that we see how it operates on different set ups. I will get the developers to have a look at the pause situation!

Byron-K21

November 23, 2015

Weird observation. Probably totally coincidental. Overall, the VR works pretty well for me. Sometimes, however, I will have trouble with a phrase even though I think I have it nailed, and after 3 or 4 repetitions will still only score 75%. Then out of frustration, I will curse resulting in a zero score after which I repeat the phrase and score 100%. This has happened to me a number of times.

Interesting that the VR is pretty good at translating English curse words though.

Dan-H24

November 23, 2015

Ha ha...it is used to us cursing at it. Funny!

Marise-R

November 29, 2015

Hi - i love the new voice record feature; it makes me work VERY hard to get my pronunciation correct. However Chrome keeps collapsing. I deleted Chrome and re-installed the latest version.This helped. There is plenty of power in my equipment, though its system is Word 7. I have temporarily suspended one of my most interfering security apps. This helped. For a time. The damn thing still collapses after recording perhaps 10 lines. Is there a possibility for a 'CLEAR' function so that all previous recordings of my session can be deleted while I am in session? Or is the problem that I should acquire a new version of 'Flash' or something?
UNRELATED: - I wonder if there is a way to self-suspend the accrual of my points towards badges? I like the Points Goal function. I reckon whenever you add a new feature that I should be able to use it on the early lessons that I have previously completed without the points accruing towards my badges. Just a thought.

Byron-K21

November 29, 2015

Umm, I'm surprised that you would want to suspend accrual of points. Initially, as I recall, once you completed a phrase, you wouldn't be awarded points for repeating it. However, I think getting points for reworking lessons you have already taken for purposes of review, deserves points as well. Obviously, one could game the points system by repeating the same simple phrase over and over again, but being rewarded for review points is fair, I think.

KelllaurBailar

November 30, 2015

Hi Jason,
I went ahead and downloaded Chrome. It was worth it. My pronunciation is surprisingly good on both easy and medium levels. I even scored a few 100s on hard. Great feature!

Fred-C14

November 30, 2015

Marise-R

This sounds like the same problem that I have although I am on Windows 8 and Chrome. Like you I suspect that it is something to do with the memory not clearing after recording and moving on to the next phrase but I can't be sure. Unfortunately I really don't have the IT knowledge to test it or to do anything about it..

jason-oxenham-ceo

November 30, 2015

Hi Fred/Marise - A few people have reported similar issues. We made some optimization changes to Rocket Record last week that may have effected the audio recording for some people. We are looking into it today. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Hi Laura - Glad you are liking it!

Fred-C14

December 1, 2015

Thanks Jason

RG must be a hellishly complicated process to try and debug. I can see that there is still a lot of work going on in the background by the way that some faults come and go. I assume that everything interacts with everything else so correcting one fault often causes a new one somewhere else.

If it's any consolation most of the glitches are now only varying degrees of annoying rather than being critical to the learning process itself.

Best of luck

KelllaurBailar

December 2, 2015

Hi Jason,
You've probably lots of work to do, but have your people thought of enabling it to work on "Microsoft Edge" as well? They're really pushing Windows 10 on everybody, and that's the browser that comes with it. A lot of people, like myself, don't exactly want to slow down their new computer by downloading Chrome...but if you want the Voice feature, you're forced to get it anyways. I think it would be a good time investment to make it available for Edge users.
Thanks,
Laura

jason-oxenham-ceo

December 2, 2015

Hi Fred - It is a complex system and there are a lot of variations in peoples computers, browsers, OS's, internet connections, and mic/speaker set ups, so it has taken us a while to get to the bottom of some of the more unusual configurations!

Hi Laura - We will roll voice recognition out to the likes of Firefox and Edge when it becomes available on those browsers. It sounds like both should be available early next year. We are also updating the app to handle voice recognition, which should be released in the New Year.

KelllaurBailar

December 2, 2015

Thanks for the update....Can't wait:)!

Tony-S10

March 8, 2016

It works great now. I feel a lot better using the hear it say it module now you have voice recognition because now there is instant feedback.