Overview
The Toolkit is a distributed system of many components which work in sync with each other. These components are categorized into modules, tools, libraries and 3rd party software.
- Modules are run-time components essential to the functioning of the Toolkit; including perception, speech recognition, natural language processing, nonverbal behavior, animation, rendering.
- Tools assist in configuring, running and modifying the Toolkit.
- Libraries are the API's and frameworks used by the modules and tools (e.g., messaging API, threading, etc.)
- 3rd party software are components developed outside of ICT which are essential for providing a proper framework for the Toolkit to run.
Modules
This page gives an overview of all the components that make up the toolkit, with links to their individual documentation if available.
Modules
Tools
Libraries
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3rd Party Software Requirements
This section lists all the 3rd party software needed to run the toolkitToolkit. This software is bundled with the toolkitToolkit.
Users
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- Java Runtime 6u10 (http://java.sun.com/products/archive/j2se/6u10/index.html)
- Visual Studio 2008 Redistributable (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=A5C84275-3B97-4AB7-A40D-3802B2AF5FC2&displaylang=en)
- .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 Redistributable (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=AB99342F-5D1A-413D-8319-81DA479AB0D7&displaylang=enincluded with the Toolkit installers, external link if needed)
- DirectX Redistributable (March 2009) (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=2DA43D38-DB71-4C1B-BC6A-9B6652CD92A3&displaylang=enAugust 2009) (included with the Toolkit installers, external link if needed)
- ActiveMQ Server 5.28.0.2 (http://activemq.apache.org) (no windows installer is available directly through Apache0 (included with the Toolkit installers)
Developers
- All user requirements (above)
- Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 (optional, but preferred)
- Java JDK 6u10 Unity (http://java.sununity3d.com/products/archive/j2se/6u10/index.html)
- Ant 1.7 (http://ant.apache.org)
- JAVA_HOME environment variable set
- ANT_HOME environment variable set
- Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 (optional, but preferred)
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3rd Party Alternatives
Some of the toolkit Toolkit components are mere proof-of-concepts rather than state-of-the-art solutions. This section lists alternatives to some of these components.
Speech Recognition
Conversational speech recognizers often need to be trained for use with specific domains. Untrained recognizers may perform poorly. Some recognizer options are:
- Sonic, to which the AcquireSpeech client can connect, link
- Sphinx, link. The toolkit Toolkit has been integrated with PocketSphinx, but as of yet not optimized for performance.
- Dragon, not integrated, link
If you are interested in the USC Signal Analysis and Interpretation Laboratory providing you with custom speech models for Sonic, please contact us.
Text To Speech
The toolkit Toolkit uses MS SAPI as a TTS interface , so that and any SAPI compatible voice can be used with the toolkitToolkit. Using To use a new voice only requires downloading and installing it and changing download, install it, and change the character's voice ID. See the FAQ for details.
Some free SAPI voices can be are found here:
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Software interfacing from the toolkit to these engines is available in the SmartBody SourceForge repository.
The toolkit is also integrated with the Festival text to speech engine. Currently the toolkit comes packaged with free diphone voices.
Festival offers other voices with better quality but might require licensing.
Renderer
SmartBody has been integrated with the following renderers:
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