yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Android Apps and Games] brandall:
Accessibility & Eyes Free

@pvdeejay - Thanks a lot for your post and suggestions, it's appreciated.

I've had many emails and messages from the partially sighted and from users with movement restricting disabilities and I assure them all that enabling them to use the device more freely by voice is a core part of the development plan. As I've replied to most, my intention is to post in the Eyes Free group sometime in February, so I can get an understanding of what are the essentials you rely on, what are your most common frustrations and what would make the wishlist. I can use the group's experience and help to decide in what order related features should appear.

I imagine the majority of these features will also enhance the driving mode and make it safer.

Fortunately, the Android Accessibility options are well documented and the Talk Back application is Open Source, so I'll get a running start on this when I begin to integrate it, which is always a relief!

Forgive me for not answering directly specifics you mention in your post, as if it's ok, I'll address and understand them when the time comes? Working alone on this project (with the help of some great XDA members of course!) I have to stay focussed on my to-do list and get it done - Flitting only slows me down!

If there's anything in particular you liked me to answer now, please do let me know, otherwise I'll make an appearance in the group in February and understand with your assistance what needs to be achieved.

Cheers

Ben
[Android Apps and Games] brandall:
Good work! :good:

Website is coming soon where it would be great if you could share how you've done it! :cool: I'm sure there will be plenty of interest in such things.
[Android Apps and Games] pvdeejay:
Thank you verry much as I have tried to explain in my message according to how I currently see it the most important issue to solve is to add an ability to disable toast notifications and cover uncovered prompts by the tts usage where appropriate so we can avoid talkback reading UI changes while voice recognition is in progress. This is the only fixable issue from my list.

Others are just feature requests and should be treated as the todo list size and your time allow.

I am not sure this is relevant here but I have to say I am also quite advanced computer user, I am using arch linux, I have got android sdk and android ndk installed, can use adb, know how to get a logcat and am able to follow instructions while debugging etc. This is something many xda members can / are willing to do however I feel it may not be as common within the eyes free community as it is in general. So in case I might be able to help to check / test / do something then I am able to.

Greetings

Peter
[Android Apps and Games] dmbymdt:
I noticed a solution to the music playback problem and it seems like it could work. I havent used headset interceptor before but i figured out a different way to allow the media buttons to respond. The only time i do this is in the car so i created a tasker task that will turn on a car variable. When this is turned on i allow my 3 favorite players (google music, pandora, beyondcast) to be opened and DISABLE the other two players using secure settings --> package state disabled. The media button will respond to the "highest priority" which is the one I have playing. (I disabled the stock altogether). If anyone has any reason to believe that this could cause problems please let me know as i havent had any yet.
[Android Apps and Games] pvdeejay:
Hello,

Regarding accessibility there is also an issue where it is difficult or inpossible to navigate lists in the UI such as command list on Android 2.3 devices. This might include more versions below Android 4.0. I am unable to reproduce this my-self as I am running Android 4.1 however some people have reported this at the eyes-free list.

They are guessing that might be because webviews are not allowed to run javascript. This is somewhat complicated because webviews are made accessible in android that a javascript code is injected which is then proxying some calls to the screen reader. I dont know more technical details but this happened to be source of freezing the UI in some other apps.

Greetings

Peter
[Android Apps and Games] Cossack101:
I love Utter and find it very useful but it seems to slow my phone terribly.

I reported previously that it uses a lot of memory but ive tried to dig a bit deeper.

I must admit I'm not up to speed on the technicalities of Android phones so please go easy on me.

I installed watchdog to see what was happening with me CPU and found that utter is always using 33% of my CPU. Other apps don't seem to do this.

When I ran linpack with utter installed the speeds were half that of when utter was uninstalled.

Do I have something wrong with me installation?

My phone has 512mb of ram and without utter installed typically has just over 100mb free. With utter installed this drops to 40mb an lower and my phone can sometimes so bad it is unusable.

Any advice greatly received because I really want to stick with utter.
[Android Apps and Games] GLDavis:
Cossack,

It seems that some, not all of us have the issue that you speak about. Not exactly sure where the leak is, but the developer is aware of the problem and hopefully soon that problem will be taken care of.
[Android Apps and Games] Cossack101:
Many thanks for the quick reply. I must admit I didn't read the whole thread as its huge. Kind of good to know I'm not the only one with the problem. Hope it can be fixed. If I can provide any other useful info I will.
[Android Apps and Games] GLDavis:
Not a problem.
[Android Apps and Games] Cossack101:
I have made a new observation with regards to my problem.

When entering the setup part of utter, there is a spinning red circle at the top next to a on off switch. My circle never stops spinning. When the on button is selected and the settings exited utter uses 30 to 45% CPU all the time.

If I select off, exit settings and then kill utter and restart using the widget, utter still works fine but CPU will go back to 0% when not in use.

I have confirmed this using watchdog and running linpack tests to show cpu is free

Also, memory allocation to Utter is dramatically reduced. Overall usage is now only 24mb. This consists of utter 6.6mb, sox tts 12mb and voice search 5.5mb. Previously memory could be as high as 60mb with utter accounting for upto 30mb.

I have setup custom commands, linking to applications, tasker tasks and setup nicknames and everything is working as before but without lagging my phone.

I hope this can be of some help.
[Android Apps and Games] tilleyrw:
Wake-up Phrase Fails and Sleep Turns Off Listening

The phone here a Samsung Galaxy S3 running Utter! 2.2.9.1.

When "Wake Phrase" is enabled and permanent listening enabled, the phrase fails to wake Utter. It has never responded to the wake-up phrase.

When my phone sleeps, the permanent listening mode is canceled. I assume this is a battery saving idea. My suggestion is that a permanent listening mode exist where it can be woken from sleep.

P.S. I'm a complete noob here and this is my first post. Be gentle.
[Android Apps and Games] GLDavis:
The wake up phrase was a test function and only seemed to work on only a few handsets. Don't feel alone as many of us had the same issue. Future releases will address the problems you see in this thread.
[Android Apps and Games] Drifternz:
Hi,

The "Wake Phrase" command is still in its very early stage of development (first included in this latest version as a test command). It failed to work on most phones with jelly bean and a few with ics and is being looked at by the developer.

Even those that were fortunate to have it work could only use it for one command and then have to manually restart it.(Not an error but designed that way for the test release)

It also is only useful when the phone is plugged in to a power source otherwise the phones own battery saving features will kill it.

At the moment having Utter permanently listening for the wake up command has the potential to drain the battery very quickly and also use a large amount of data as it would be constantly checking with the google servers to see if it has heard the wake phrase.

It is the developers hope (And a lot of users) That these problems are not insurmountable and in the future we will see it implemented and running full time.

So please be patient with that feature.. It will get better in future releases. :fingers-crossed:
[Android Apps and Games] Cossack101:
For me just turning off speak to wake isn't enough. I have to totally avoid the settings part of utter. If I open utter to setup a new command, read the command list or link a new app I have to either kill utter in exiting or do a reboot and then start utter again via the widget. If I don't do this then utter becomes a resource hog and makes my phone unusable. I'm not saying this as a moan just trying to provide some pointers for future fixes.

Now I practice what I have found, utter works brilliantly for me.
[Android Apps and Games] GLDavis:
Thanks. That's why were here. Interesting find as it seems we all have different factors that create the resource problem. Keep the reports coming.;):cool:
[Android Apps and Games] Gazpach:
requires internet connection?

Hi Everybody,

I just downloaded "Utter" last week as I was looking for a voice dialing app that would work with a new bluetooth device I got for my car, as my Samsung Galaxy Ace's voice dialing doesn't work at all.

I'm very new to smartphones so please bear with my ignorance...

It seems that Utter requires an internet connection to work. I am on a pay-as-you-go phone and therefore pay for all data usage and it costs quite a bit. All I want Utter for is the voice dialing capability as that seems to work with my bluetooth device. I also like the "shake to wake" feature as many of the voice dialing apps require you to actually tap the app and go into it, which kind of defeats the purpose of trying to go handsfree.

Does Utter require an internet connection all the time or is there a way to disable that need? It doesn't help me much if it requires an internet connection to do a simple voice dial.

thanks for your time..
[Android Apps and Games] Drifternz:
Hi,

Utter does require an Internet connection to work as it sends the voice data to google's servers for recognition.

However, in saying that, it only uses data when you ask it to do a task and then only to get the voice request turned from speech to data that utter can use , therefore it's data use is very small.

Cheers.
[Android Apps and Games] Cossack101:
I've just looked at how Utter is performing on one of my tablets. The tablet is a HP Touch pad running CM10. Utter had been running for 228 hours as I never turn the tablet off and it was using 80mb in total with 60mb being the Utter part alone.

It wasn't causing too much of a problem compared to my phone probably due to it having more available resources.

However, killing Utter and then restarting it with the widget and not using the Utter app that does the settings put the memory back down to 20mb total. Same finding as with my phone.
[Android Apps and Games] GLDavis:
This is getting interesting as I too have noticed that if I stay away from the settings menu my usage stays at a normal level as well. Hopefully, we're onto something here!

Thank you all for taking your time to follow up and thank you Cossack for your findings. Let's see what develops next!:cool:
[Android Apps and Games] brandall:
Sorry for my absence folks, laptop is currently in pieces and I can't do anything until I fix it! Thanks for all of your posts, I'll be back soon!

Sent via xda premium
[Android Apps and Games] djgdroid:
I agree with Jamalsid, I always like help getting use to a program, otherwise you end up not knowing all the features or how to use program. If you include the option to turn off that feature then you please most everyone. I've only had a few minutes to try it and i haven't figured out how to use it yet but I will. I'm glad you decided to post it for testing.this has potential to be one of the best Android apps, thanks Brandall!
[Android Apps and Games] ironlood:
I have been throwing what I can at it random words... Reading passages... And what not

It's had little to no errors picking up the speech

And will be patiently awaiting the updates
[Android Apps and Games] brandall:
Thanks, I'll try and locate where they've been moved to on your device...
[Android Apps and Games] brandall:
You need to click on one of those voices and it will take you to an additional 200meg download. It didn't work on 3g or tethering for me... Sometimes you need to reboot afterwards to get the voices to work..
[Android Apps and Games] brandall:
Thanks for letting me know - I'd got the defaults set up wrong - will be fixed in the next release.

Great, thank you, I'll check them out - I need all the UI help I can get! I'll look to include 'toast' only instructions soon.

I totally agree with you - a lack of updates can be frustrating. It is my intention to release a feature at a time to catch bugs associated with each, so there will be lots and lots of releases and updates! Hence version 0.0.1 ! :)
[Android Apps and Games] CarsnGadgets:
Working well on my Samsung Galaxy S2 (stock, UK, O2, 2.3.4) with Svox Classic Victoria installed.

Also works well with no crashes on Asus Eee Pad Transformer (stock, 4.0.3, Svox Classic Victoria installed).

Has only made 1 mistake with over a dozen RAW feedbacks, very good.

I think you are planning to implement this feature, but I would love to see good location based services, like for example the ability to say " remind me to buy X when I am in town" or "turn off wifi when I leave the house" and have the app do it.

Utter looks to have awesome potential well done, kep up the good work, looking forward to the updates.

Ps. I would definitely be willing to pay several pounds for this app when its out of alpha/beta. :D
[Android Apps and Games] Aerocaptain:
+1.....minus the patiently part. ;)

Sent from GNexus w/CM-9 & franco.kernel
[Android Apps and Games] s.rahus:
Force Close!

The application is pretty stable in normal use and runs without any issues.

Its recognizes whatever word I spit at it without any trouble what so ever :D .

However, when I try to open the application, and immediately (while it is saying "your voice engine has been initialized successfully") if I click the back button...it force closes. I am using Samsung galaxy S2 (GT-I9100), on GB 2.3.6, everything stock.

Other galaxy S2 users, could you please try this and check if you are also getting the same issue?

Cheers,

Rahul
[Android Apps and Games] brandall:
Good spot on the force close, can't believe I hadn't noticed that before! Will investigate. Cheers.

Sent from XDA premium app
[Android Apps and Games] mahootzki:
Was in middle of playing with it and listening to the Linguendo sample and got an incoming call and it didn't pause, it just kept on playing. So I tried it with the configuring "Tap here to try again" and the same thing happened, I think it should pause automatically when receiving a call.

Keep up the amazing work.
[Android Apps and Games] brandall:
Thanks for letting me know, I hope it didn't ruin your call! I'll add it to the fix list...

Sent from XDA premium app
[Android Apps and Games] mahootzki:
Nah, it didn't ruin the call, in fact my wife asked me who Susan is and why she's telling me how she sounds when she masturbates.... :p

Also, at least once or twice when I used it, it didn't stop speaking when leaving the app even after opening another app. It kept on blabbing.
[Android Apps and Games] germanhoss:
Tested 2 devices:

HTC Desire, Android 2.3.7:

works fine, recognizes English and German fairly good

Acer Iconia A501, Android 3.2.1:

(n)utter as app works good but only in vertical view, recognition worse than on the Desire. But that´s no mystery because the microphone of the Iconia is - umm, suboptimal :-)

When I speak directly to the back of the tablet, the recognition is better :-P
[Android Apps and Games] Futur Innovations:
I downloaded the svox British voice Oliver (attempting to achieve the "Jarvis" voice, plus I enjoy the British accent). It picked up the voice right away just as it did with the Pico tts engine. So I am pretty sure that the IVONA engine isn't 4.0 compatible or something like that. Either way, I found an alternate voice that works :)
[Android Apps and Games] sknight13602:
HTC rezound can't get it to recognize commands I long press and it doesnt do anything just keeps telling me to long press to blah blah weird
[Android Apps and Games] djgdroid:
Brandall hasn't added that feature yet. He is testing things and adding one feature at a time.
[Android Apps and Games] Paparasee:
Can someone please tell me what works and how to go about using the part that works?

Like sknight mentioned, long pressing does nothing and I understand Brandall has not implemented it yet, but can someone tell me which part of it works?

One other thing ... @Brandall how come the youtube videos have a lot more than we see in the alpha? have you taken out portions while working on the interface?

Thanks :)
[Android Apps and Games] brandall:
LOL! :) I hope the Alpha testing won't cost you your marriage! You are right again, the playback doesn't stop when you quit the app either - I'll put it on the fix list... Thanks for letting me know.
[Android Apps and Games] brandall:
It's good thing that you have multiple devices so utter doesn't get the blame! It's just portrait at the moment, as including landscape just meant more UI considerations that really aren't my strong point...

Glad you got one sorted - IVONA can be temperamental - I should probably steer away from using it for my personal testing as it's wasted a good few hours of my time already. It just sounds better than others when testing the voice instructions, so it's balancing one against the other...
[Android Apps and Games] brandall:
Hi Paparasee, I've taken everything out for the first couple of versions so I can make certain that any reported bugs have absolutely nothing to do with association functions.

Once I have the basic framework completely bug-free, I can start to introduce the functionality shown on YouTube, knowing that any issues that consequently arise are solely down to the introduced logic. [I've only had to consider my device and OS version and settings etc up until now]

I'm quite pleased with the limited amount of bugs reported so far - some are a little problematic, but the next few version releases will only concentrate on making sure they are fixed.

Keep an eye on the release notes for when functionality is introduced - until then the only point to installing is to help me confirm that button presses and the like don't cause crashes...

As I said, limited amount of bugs reported so far, so hopefully not too long until an utter! release becomes useful. I'm looking forward to concentrating on that, as this framework stuff is a little tedious! :mad:
[Android Apps and Games] tilleyrw:
Permanent Listening Phase -- When to Enable

In my earlier posting regarding Utter! and permanent listening, I neglected to mention when it is appropriate. The best times for listening are when it is charging. Utter could automatically enter such a mode when plugged to power.

Driving should be a hands-free experience. There should also be the option for long-term listening; five minutes, fifteen minutes, thirty minutes, etc. Perhaps a three-part dialog; ( ) 5 ( ) 15 ( ) 30.

P.S. Wave-to-wake has never worked for me. What might I not be doing correctly? The assistant "Robyn" has this feature.
[Android Apps and Games] Extreme_One:
I agree. Whilst my tablet wasn't suffering from high memory usage the memory footprint is significantly lower if I avoid the settings menu.

Sent from my ARCHOS 101G9
[Android Apps and Games] forsakenexile:
simple question

it may have been asked already. Is there a directory that one could access the custom user commands/ phrases to pull it off the fone, edit it on the pc (to make it faster) and slide it back over to the fone?

Thanks in advance folks...
[Android Apps and Games] GLDavis:
Follow up on Memory Leak (Check AI LEVEL)

:eek:Following up today...Used Utter but did not go to the settings Menu and my usage was below 10% (Yay)!

1. I checked my AI LEVEL and that was at 1.083 (this is with my customizations, tasker profiles, etc)

2. I went into settings and just selected an arbitrary item, then exited out.

3. My usage jumped immediately up to 29MB, the AI LEVEL jumped to 1.088, and my battery level decreased from 83% to 79% in a matter of minutes! (WITHIN 10 MINUTES)

4. Rebooted device and Utter comes in at 5.4 MB

5. Ran a couple commands and TOTAL usage for Utter went to 23MB...but here's the breakdown: Utter 6.2MB, TTS 11MB and Voice Search 6MB.

6. Still well within acceptable levels....so question?

A. There must be an issue somewhere in the Menu (if I'm not mistaken, the menu was developed by someone other than Ben)

B. Why would the AI LEVEL increase? Unless you're adding a Tasker Task, or modifying using a customization I would not think that the AI would take a significant jump like it did

C. FYI-All I chose was the Custom Timeout in settings and changed that value from 0 to 1.

For all of you out there that are following the posts, please check and see if your usage goes up once you enter the menu, and check your AI LEVEL as well please?

P.S. It's now been over 15 minutes since my reboot and using Utter and battery level HAS NOT changed.

Ben...I don't remember in the early stages when we were all excited about the AI and it was not yet active. (CAN YOU DISABLE THE "AI" AND LET'S SEE IF THIS PROBLEM CONTINUES)? Now that I think about it, I don't remember having memory issues before that was made active?????
[Android Apps and Games] Cossack101:
How do I check the AI level? Thanks
[Android Apps and Games] shawn13165:
If you have a Jelly Bean device AI level is displayed in your pulldown notification with utter. Think its the same for ICS Also. Anything prior that I don't know.
[Android Apps and Games] GLDavis:
I have GB and it's also in the pulldown notification.
[Android Apps and Games] Cossack101:
Thanks. My AI is 1.068 and doesn't appear to change if I access the utter settings or not
[Android Apps and Games] GLDavis:
Goofy! Just your mem usage changes once you exit out of the menu?
[Android Apps and Games] Cossack101:
Yes. Before entering settings my usage for utter alone is 6 to 8mb. Using watchdog and realtine CPU monitor utter is using 0% CPU.

If I enter utter settings and exit them, utter usage jumps straight to 22mb and stays there. At the same time CPU goes to 22% and never drops back to zero, always staying around 20%. This impacts on Linpack scores and the smoothness of my phone.

Once being in settings both memory and CPU can rise above the levels quoted above but i've not pinpointed the trigger for that yet.

My AI rating remains constant
[Android Apps and Games] GLDavis:
Thanks for that, guess AI has nothing to do with the leak so that's good. Gotta be the menu or something linked to it. Thanks again!
[Android Apps and Games] brandall:
Memory Posts - Thanks!

Hi Folks, BIG thank you for narrowing it down to the Settings Menu - it's nice to have somewhere to hunt first! :good:

I've got a new beta release coming tomorrow (hopefully) that is going to be JUST for XDA Developers and not the Play Store. It tests a number of features I've been working on to do with the connection to the Server for the Community Knowledge Base, Phrase, Bot plugin, user device management, remote tracking, remote control etc...

I want to get the above finished and posted on here and then I'll stop everything and look again at the memory issue!

Again, I appreciate so much you posting about this (increased your thanks meters!), I'm juggling too many things at the moment and getting the next release out will be a load off!

I'll be back tomorrow with the release! Please keep the posts coming!

Cheers

Ben