speech recognition python code not working

Question

I am running the following code in Python 2.7 with pyAudio installed.

import speech_recognition as sr
r = sr.Recognizer()
with sr.Microphone() as source:                # use the default microphone as the audio source
    audio = r.listen(source)                   # listen for the first phrase and extract it into audio data

try:
    print("You said " + r.recognize(audio))    # recognize speech using Google Speech Recognition
except LookupError:                           # speech is unintelligible
    print("Could not understand audio")

The output gives a blinking pointer. That's it. Please help, as I am new to this.

Answer 1

I have solved the same problem for me with the following (noise suppression), The "listen" function has problems with environment noise. So the running code is only blinking waiting.

Use this ambient noise suppression/adjustment; r.adjust_for_ambient_noise(source, duration=5)

Referance Tuesday, March 28, 2017 Easy Speech Recognition in Python with PyAudio and Pocketsphinx

Answer 2

You may have to install these things first:

1. pip install pyaudio
2. pip install --upgrade pyaudio
3. pip install wheel
4. pip install google-api-python-client
5. sudo apt-get install flac
6. pip install monotonic
7. pip install SpeechRecognition

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After that, refer the site (https://realpython.com/python-speech-recognition/) it will clearly explain what you wanted.

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Here I am attaching the code I've edited from that site. Since I am new it will not be perfect, but I've tried. This is to check weather the voice input is similar to the text I've given and also it will print what you said.

---

#!/usr/bin/ python
import time

import speech_recognition as sr


def recognize_speech_from_mic(recognizer, microphone):
    """Transcribe speech from recorded from `microphone`.

    Returns a dictionary with three keys:
    "success": a boolean indicating whether or not the API request was
           successful
    "error":   `None` if no error occured, otherwise a string containing
           an error message if the API could not be reached or
           speech was unrecognizable
    "transcription": `None` if speech could not be transcribed,
           otherwise a string containing the transcribed text
    """
    # check that recognizer and microphone arguments are appropriate type
    if not isinstance(recognizer, sr.Recognizer):
        raise TypeError("`recognizer` must be `Recognizer` instance")

    if not isinstance(microphone, sr.Microphone):
        raise TypeError("`microphone` must be `Microphone` instance")

    # adjust the recognizer sensitivity to ambient noise and record audio
    # from the microphone
    with microphone as source:
        recognizer.adjust_for_ambient_noise(source)
        audio = recognizer.listen(source)

    # set up the response object
    response = {
        "success": True,
        "error": None,
        "transcription": None
    }

    try:
        response["transcription"] =    recognizer.recognize_google(audio)
    except sr.RequestError:
        # API was unreachable or unresponsive
        response["success"] = False
        response["error"] = "API unavailable"
    except sr.UnknownValueError:
        # speech was unintelligible
        response["error"] = "Unable to recognize speech"

    return response


if __name__ == "__main__":

    NUM_GUESSES = 1
    PROMPT_LIMIT = 2
    # create recognizer and mic instances
    recognizer = sr.Recognizer()
    microphone = sr.Microphone()

    word = "hello world"

    time.sleep(3)

    for i in range(NUM_GUESSES):
        for j in range(PROMPT_LIMIT):
            print('Guess {}. Speak!'.format(i+1))
            guess = recognize_speech_from_mic(recognizer, microphone)
            if guess["transcription"]:
                break
            if not guess["success"]:
                break
            print("I didn't catch that")

        # if there was an error, stop the game
        if guess["error"]:
            print("ERROR: {}".format(guess["error"]))
            break

        # show the user the transcription
        print("You said: {}".format(guess["transcription"]))

        # determine if guess is correct and if any attempts remain
        guess_is_correct = guess["transcription"].lower() == word.lower()
        user_has_more_attempts = i < NUM_GUESSES - 1

        if guess_is_correct:
            print("Correct!".format(word))
            break
        elif user_has_more_attempts:
            print("Incorrect. Try again.\n")
        else:
            print("Sorry, output is not similar to '{}'.".format(word))
            break

Answer 3

In addition to Tushar's answer, I suggest trying a nicer external USB microphone. PyAudio can have issues with a simple built-in laptop microphone.

Answer 4

The possible reason could be that the recognizer_instance.energy_threshold property is probably set to a value that is too high to start off with. You should decrease this threshold, or call recognizer_instance.adjust_for_ambient_noise(source, duration = 1). You can learn more about it at Speech Recognition

Answer 5

Put the Try and Except inside the indentation.

Here is my Working code:-

`while True:
    r=sr.Recognizer()
    with sr.Microphone() as source:
        print("Say Something")
        audio=r.listen(source)
    try:    
        print(r.recognize_google(audio),"\n")
    except:
        pass`

Answer 6

check the input volume of your microphone. It is by default set to 0 in ubuntu (in my case). Since your program got stuck on the line audio = r.listen(source), which simply means that the microphone is not able to listen to any voice input. Hope this helps.