As of the January 21, 2007 release date, the there are no Release Notes for CoolInfo™ Voice Recognition, Version 1.10. Future release notes will be posted under the release notes section on the CoolSoftLLC.com support page. For additional information, please see the following section on Known Issues.
As of the January 21, 2007 release date, the following known issues apply to CoolInfo™ Voice Recognition Version 1.10. Many of these items are related to functionality that is normal behavior for CoolInfo, and the discussion gives recommendations for dealing with them. Other issues may be addressed in future releases, so we recommend that you check for updates periodically using the “Check for Updates” button in the ”About” dialog or the “Check for Updates” selection from the Help menu.
The CoolInfo Install Takes a Long Time
This is normal on many systems. First of all, the SAPI 5.1 speech engine is a large file that takes time to unpack and setup. Second, if you are running anti-virus software, it may be scanning some of the files being installed - this can slow down the process. Third, installs are particularly slow on older systems (with slower processors or less than 256 megs of memory). Combine these three factors together on one system, and the install can take a long time (over five minutes).
If the install is taking a long time, please be patient and wait for the install to complete. Chances are that nothing is wrong and the install will finish normally. If you stop and start over again, it will just end up taking longer, so do not cancel and restart the install unless you are cretins the system has stopped responding.
Install Failures
CoolInfo is installed with the Wise Installer. There are two known issues with the installer which are described below. If you encounter one of these problems and the recommended solution does not work for you, then submit a technical support request in the support section of the www.coolosftllc.com website.
If the install hangs, it is likely that another program has installed a copy of UNWISE.EXE in the root of the C:\ drive. The recommended workaround is to look in C:\ for the file “UNWISE.EXE. If you find it rename the file to UNWISE.OLD (so you can rename it back to .EXE if another program ever needs it), then try the install again.
If you are installing the full version of CoolInfo after a previous install of the trial version, or if you are reinstalling CoolInfo without having uninstalled it first, you may get an error message that says: “The file 'C:\Program Files\CoolInfo\UNWISE.EXE' could not be opened…” If this happens the recommended workaround is to exit the install, and start the install over. This second time you start the install, it should run through to completion.
Startup and Shutdown Related
Crash After Default Speech Properties Warning Dialog
If you are using the default speech recognition profile, CoolInfo prompts you with a dialog reminding you to create and train a speech recognition profile, and offers you the option to go to Speech Properties to do this training. If you enter Speech Properties, the startup of CoolInfo is suspended, and resumes when you exit Speech Properties. This delay in the startup of CoolInfo may cause the program to crash. If this happens, it does not affect the training you did in Speech Properties. Restart CoolInfo and it will function normally.
Shutdown
If you close CoolInfo while it is reading, CoolInfo may remain active in the background. If this happens, go to the task manager (press “CTRL + ALT + DEL) and click on the task manager button. If CoolInfo appears in either the Applications or Processes tab, highlight CoolInfo and click on the End Task/Process button in the respective tab
User Command Issues
Focus Command Step Does Not Always Work
If you create a multi-step user command, the command you speak must be the same for each step, and only the tool tip for the first command in the sequence will be displayed. You can use the move buttons in the User Commands Dialog to adjust the sequence of multi-step user commands. If one of the steps in a multi-step user command is Focus (the equivalent of the speech command “Click Focus”), this may cause a race condition where the Focus command wins the race and is executed before the other steps in the command. This gives the appearance that the focus command failed to execute, when in reality it was processed before the other commands in the sequence and CoolInfo was then covered by the other program(s) in the command sequence. To avoid this problem, the Focus step in a multi-step user command should be the last command in the sequence, and should be preceded by a “Sleep” command with a value that allows enough time for the other commands in the sequence to be processed before the Focus command is executed. For example, the command of “start my favorite programs” can execute the following commands:
Browse = www.cnn.com
Start = notepad.exe
Sleep = 10
Focus
This results in ww.cnn.com opening in the default browser, and Notepad starting, both of which will open on top of CoolInfo. The sleep command pauses for 10 seconds (allowing these programs to open), and then executes the Focus command which brings CoolInfo to the foreground, achieving the desired result.
The Command Step Following a Browse Command Step Does Not Always Work
If you are creating multiple step user commands, a sleep command needs to follow a browse command, or the command(s) that follow the browse command may not be executed. The time of sleep command following a browse command depends on speed of internet connection, and you need to experiment to find a sleep interval that works best for your system and connection speed. Note that a single step browse command, or a browse command that is the last command in a multiple step user command do not require a sleep command.
Background Noise and the Create User Commands Dialog
On some systems and in some environments, the Create User Commands dialog can be highly sensitive to background noise, causing it to close or change tabs after creating a User Command. If this happens on your system, simply turn the microphone off and user your mouse to navigate to the Create User Commands dialog (Settings button, User Commands Tab, New).
What Can I Say? Dialog Issues
What Can I Say? Dialog Opens Randomly
There is a known issue where background noise may cause the What Can I Say? dialog to open randomly. Likewise, background noise may cause some user commands, such as commands to browse webpages to be executed. To avoid this, turn the microphone off when you are not actively using CoolInfo.
Opening the “What Can I Say?” Dialog In Both CoolInfo and CoolInfo at the Same Time
If you open the “What Can I Say” dialog in both CoolInfo and CoolInfo, they are likely to open in the same place, so that one superimposes on the other. This makes it possible to confuse the “What Can I Say?” dialog of the two programs. If you are running both CoolInfo and CoolInfo together, it is best to close the What Can I Say dialog in one program before opening it in the other.
Tool Tips Missing from the “What Can I Say?” Dialog
When you place the cursor over a command in the “What Can I Say?” dialog, a tool tip should appear indicating the speech command for that command. After some period of use, the tool tips in the “What Can I Say?” dialog may stop appearing. To solve this problem, simply turn the microphone off and back on again.
Turning the Microphone Off While Speaking
If you turn the microphone off while you are speaking, the speech engine will stop recognition but the microphone button will not respond until you stop speaking. This occurs because the speech engine does not release the microphone while it is receiving input. To avoid this problem, stop speaking when you turn the microphone off.
Language Settings and CoolInfo
When using CoolInfo with the system language set to other than US ENGLISH, some unwanted character translation may occur. Using CoolInfo with other than US ENGLISH is not recommended.
The Microphone and Text to Speech
When you use any of the “Read” commands, CoolInfo turns the microphone off while it is reading your selection. This prevents the speech recognition engine from trying to recognize the words that are being read. When CoolInfo is finished reading, or when you use the “stop reading” button, the microphone is turned on again. If you use the Settings button while CoolInfo is reading, the microphone does not come back on when reading is finished, and you need to click on the Microphone button to turn it back on.
Running Two Copies of CoolInfo
When starting, CoolInfo checks to see if another copy is running, and if so it does not allow the second copy to start. This check does not work if a second copy of CoolInfo is launched while the first copy is still starting, because it is not fully initialized.
Also, in configurations where the default speech recognition profile is selected in Speech Properties, CoolInfo displays a dialog to prompt you to train your own speech recognition profile, and suspends the startup process until the user cancels out of the dialog, or enters and exits Speech Properties. Under these conditions, while startup is suspended it is possible to start a second copy of CoolInfo, although we do not recommend or support this. Running more than one copy of CoolInfo at one time may cause unusual behavior or a crash in one or both copies. This is not recommended and not supported.