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Show HN: I built a sub-500ms latency voice agent from scratch

ntik.me

71–80 of 168 posts

Re: Show HN: I built a sub-500ms latency voice agent from scratch

#71
Depending on the TTS model being used latency can be reduced further yet with an LRU cache, fetching common phrases from cache instead of generating fresh with TTS.

However the naturalness of how it sounds will depend on how the TTS model works and whether two identical chunks of text will sound alike every generation.

Re: Show HN: I built a sub-500ms latency voice agent from scratch

#72
Thats half a second delay. 0.4 to 0.5 seconds. Thats the same as the delay in a GEO orbit satellite mediated phone conversation.

Perhaps I'm in an older cohort, but I remember this delay, and what it felt like sustaining a conversation with this class of delay.

(it's still a remarkable advance, but do bear in mind the UX)

Re: Show HN: I built a sub-500ms latency voice agent from scratch

#74
post #64
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume 0 delay is the minimum here, and a median of 0 means over half of the data are exactly 0.

No, about 1/2 of human speech is interrupting others.

oh, interesting, I assumed the data came from interruptions (that seemed obvious) but I'm surprised you had some specific negative measurements. How do you decide the magnitude of the number? Just counting how long both parties are talking?

Re: Show HN: I built a sub-500ms latency voice agent from scratch

#75
post #74
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, about 1/2 of human speech is interrupting others.

oh, interesting, I assumed the data came from interruptions (that seemed obvious) but I'm surprised you had some specific negative measurements. How do you decide the magnitude of the number? Just counting how long both parties are talking?

To be clear, it wasn't my research, I got it from studying some linguistics papers. But it was pretty straightforward. If I am talking, and then you interrupt, and 300ms later I stop talking, then the delay is -300ms.

Same the other way. If I stop taking and then 300ms later you start talking, then the delay is 300ms.

And if you start talking right when I stop, the delay is 0ms.

You can get the info by just listening to recorded conversations of two people and tagging them.

Re: Show HN: I built a sub-500ms latency voice agent from scratch

#78
post #36

Oh, this is really interesting to me. This is what I worked on at Amazon Alexa (and have patents on). An interesting fact I learned at the time: The median delay between human speakers during a conversation is 0ms (zero). In other words, in many cases, the listener starts speaking before the speaker is done. You've probably experienced this, and you talk about how you "finish each other's sentences". It's because you…

Regarding 2, I believe that talking on mobile phones drives older people crazy. They remember talking on normal land lines when there was almost no latency at all. The thing is -- they don't know why they don't like it.

Re: Show HN: I built a sub-500ms latency voice agent from scratch

#80
post #36

Oh, this is really interesting to me. This is what I worked on at Amazon Alexa (and have patents on). An interesting fact I learned at the time: The median delay between human speakers during a conversation is 0ms (zero). In other words, in many cases, the listener starts speaking before the speaker is done. You've probably experienced this, and you talk about how you "finish each other's sentences". It's because you…

Why dont voice assistants use a finishing word or sound?

People are already trained to say a name to start. Curious why the tech has avoided a cap?

“Alexa, what’s tomorrow’s weather [dada]?”

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