AI Listener
The AI Listener is Spectra's headline feature — it detects Bible verse references from live speech and makes them instantly available for presentation. Detected verses go straight to the live screen, bypassing the slide deck and the schedule queue — the AI listener is its own presentation pipeline.
How It Works
Spectra uses Moonshine ASR, a high-performance speech recognition model that runs entirely on your local machine. Here's the pipeline:
Audio Capture
Your microphone captures audio in real-time. Audio is processed in small chunks for low latency.
Local Transcription
The Moonshine ASR model transcribes speech to text on your device. No audio ever leaves your machine.
Reference Detection
Spectra scans the transcription for Bible references using pattern matching that handles many spoken formats.
Verse Lookup
Detected references are matched to actual verses from the Bible database and displayed in the AI Listener panel.
Direct-Live Presentation
Click a detected verse (or let Autopilot do it) and the verse goes straight to the live screen — no slide creation, no schedule entry, no preview panel.
Privacy
Supported Reference Formats
Spectra recognizes a wide variety of Bible reference patterns from natural speech:
| Spoken Format | Detected As | Notes |
|---|---|---|
John 3:16 | John 3:16 | Standard format |
First Corinthians chapter 13 | 1 Corinthians 13:1 | Spoken ordinals + “chapter” keyword |
Genesis 1 | Genesis 1:1 | Chapter-only defaults to verse 1 |
Psalm 23 verses 1 through 6 | Psalm 23:1-6 | Verse ranges |
Romans chapter 8 verse 28 | Romans 8:28 | Verbose spoken format |
Chapter keyword locking
Autopilot Mode
Autopilot turns the AI Listener into a fully hands-free operator. Flip the toggle in the Detected Verses header and every verse Spectra detects from your speech goes straight to the live screen — no clicks, no schedule, no manual intervention.
Spectra AI can make mistakes
Correction window
Autopilot holds each detection for a short quiet window (~800 ms) before pushing it live. If a second detection comes in during that window — for example, Spectra first hears “John 3” and ~200 ms later corrects to “John 3:16” — only the most recent one is presented. Wrong early guesses are overwritten by the correction.
Voice commands
While Autopilot is on, you can step through verses in the current chapter just by saying a command. No remote, no shortcut, no interruption to preaching flow.
| Command | Action | Notes |
|---|---|---|
“next verse” / “next” | Advance to the next verse in the same chapter | Bare “next” must be at the end of an utterance |
“previous verse” / “previous” | Step back one verse | Bare “previous” must be at the end of an utterance |
“back” / “go back” | Step back one verse | Synonyms for “previous” |
You don’t have to remember the exact words. Beyond the phrases above, Spectra understands the meaningof a short command, so natural variations like “advance”, “move forward”, “go to the next one”, or “take it back” step the verse too. This runs entirely on-device and only kicks in for short, command-like phrases — never on a sentence of preaching.
No false triggers
Re-presenting a previous verse
If you've stepped through several verses with “next” and then quote an earlier one explicitly (e.g., back to John 1:10), Autopilot recognizes the re-detection and sends it back to the live screen immediately — even though it was already shown.
Out-of-range verse warnings
If you or the speaker quotes a verse that doesn't exist — for example, “John 2:28” when John 2 only has 25 verses — Spectra surfaces a toast like “John chapter 2 verse 28 does not exist. Has 25 verses.” so you know immediately without having to go hunt for why nothing appeared.
Full transcript side panel
The floating AI Listener widget has a transcript toggle (file icon) in the title bar. Click it to open a companion panel docked next to the main widget at the same height, showing the entire accumulated transcript for the session.
- The panel auto-docks to the left of the main widget (or to the right if there's no room on the left).
- Content wraps naturally and scrolls independently of the main widget.
- A word counter in the header tracks the transcript length.
- Future releases will add copy, export, and AI-refine actions directly from this panel.
Tips for Best Accuracy
Microphone Placement
- Position the mic within 2-3 feet of the speaker for optimal clarity
- A lapel/lavalier mic gives the most consistent results
- If using a podium mic, ensure it's pointed toward the speaker's mouth
- An external USB microphone significantly outperforms built-in laptop mics
Environment
- Minimize background noise during detection — instruments, HVAC, and crowd noise reduce accuracy
- If possible, use the mic before the room's speaker system to avoid echo
- Smaller, quieter rooms naturally produce better results
Speaking Style
- Clear enunciation of book names significantly improves detection
- A brief pause before and after quoting a reference helps
- Standard reference phrasing (e.g., “John chapter 3 verse 16”) is detected most reliably
Troubleshooting
“AI not ready”
This appears when the AI models are still loading. On first launch, Spectra downloads its models (~480 MB total — Moonshine ASR plus embeddings). After that, they take a few seconds to load into memory on each app start. Wait up to 2 minutes on first launch.
Warning
No verses being detected
- Check that the correct microphone is selected in your system settings
- Verify that audio levels are visible in the AI Listener panel (the waveform should move when there's speech)
- On macOS, ensure Spectra has microphone permission in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone
- Try speaking a clear, common reference like “John 3:16” as a test
False or incorrect detections
Occasionally, the AI may misidentify spoken words as Bible references. If this happens frequently:
- Ensure the microphone isn't picking up music or other non-speech audio
- Background conversations can sometimes trigger false detections
- Detected verses can be dismissed from the panel if they're incorrect