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+--- Thread: Xbmc not working for blind users. (/showthread.php?tid=117199)
RE: Xbmc not working for blind users. - ruuk - 2014-05-15
(2014-05-15, 01:32)byron27 Wrote: Do you know if Confluence is still working properly?Not for those dialogs.
It's easily fixed by replacing the dialog xml files with the old ones.
v0.0.54 - ruuk - 2014-05-15
Added a new version to my repository: 0.0.54.
Get it or the repository from the Downloads Page.
Changes:
- Fix to allow addon changlogs to auto-read
- Added mpg321 to available players
- Fix for addon crashing on non-ascii characters for most backends on some platforms
- Made enabling/disabling addon safer and more reliable
- Added enable and disable sound effects
- Workaround Google tts limit of 100 characters by speaking separate portions
The sound effects when enabling and disabling are not set in stone. I just grabbed them from a free sound site. If anyone wants to suggest something else, please do.
I updated the speech server with the backend fixes on the downloads page.
RE: Xbmc not working for blind users. - Traker1001 - 2014-05-15
Ammended tutorial for Raspbmc.
Installation Guide for Raspbmc XBMC TTS
First you need to SSH into the RaspbMC and install espeak.
Then install espeak. "sudo apt-get espeak"
Now you can follow the OpenElec installation intructions above to install Ruuk's Repo and XBMCTTS addon and it will speak.
However, Espeak has issues with the default sound engine and tends to work better with ALSA.
To install ALSA on the RaspBMC, SSH into your pi again.
Type "sudo apt-get install alsa-utils"
Type" sudo modprobe snd_bcm2835"
Now we need to update the module for ALSA,
Type "sudo nano /etc/modules"
Add "snd_bcm2835" to a blank line.
Press CTRL-O to output the file.
Press CTRL-X to exit nano.
Now Restart the Pi from the main menu.
Once the PI comes back up goto System-Settings-System-Audio output
Select Audio output device and change it to "ALSA: Default (bcm2835 ...)
I had to restart the Pi again from the main menu to get speech to come up.
All this will be added to wiki here soon.
(2014-05-15, 04:05)ruuk Wrote: The sound effects when enabling and disabling are not set in stone. I just grabbed them from a free sound site. If anyone wants to suggest something else, please do.Cool I can't wait to try it. I didn't realize the server needed backend fixes, I just assumed it was something I was messing up. LOL
I updated the speech server with the backend fixes on the downloads page.
Re: RE: Xbmc not working for blind users. - ruuk - 2014-05-15
(2014-05-15, 10:21)Traker1001 Wrote: Cool I can't wait to try it. I didn't realize the server needed backend fixes, I just assumed it was something I was messing up. LOL
Well, since the server and the addon share the same backends code, when I fix the backends in the addon, I need to update the server as well.
Thanks for posting the tutorial.
RE: Xbmc not working for blind users. - Traker1001 - 2014-05-15
(2014-05-15, 01:32)byron27 Wrote: Do you know if Confluence is still working properly?
I have tried them Gotham and Frodo. in windows 7 x64. I have xbmc freeze with certain plugins, however, it is not related to TTS addon. However when you do have a problem, goto "C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Roaming\XBMC" without qoutes, and look at the log see what you can find,
As far as skin, Some of the selections on the updated confluence are don't register with the speech. I use Quartz almost exclusively myself. And if a standard skin were recommended for this addon it would most likely be Quartz. And Gotham works great, Don't be afraid to use it. It has several updates that make it much better than frodo.
Re: Xbmc not working for blind users. - ruuk - 2014-05-15
There is certainly a wide range in the quality of addons for XBMC. The average stability will be lower if you are getting addons that are not in the official repository. That's not to say there aren't well coded addons outside the official repo or that you won't have problems with addons from the official repo. And right now some addons may have issues with Gotham no matter where you get them from. I've had to fix a few small things in my other addons because of some small Gotham changes.
RE: Xbmc not working for blind users. - Traker1001 - 2014-05-15
So ruuk, you have it playing with mp3's, How do I plugin in the google tts server?
Re: RE: Xbmc not working for blind users. - ruuk - 2014-05-15
(2014-05-15, 11:10)Traker1001 Wrote: So ruuk, you have it playing with mp3's, How do I plugin in the google tts server?
Well, currently it only works on unixes because it needs either mpg123, mpg321, sox (with mp3 support installed) or mplayer to play the mp3. If there is a Windows version of one of these installed that the addon can see then that might work. I'll have to look for a good Windows option and add support for that.
I think I found some python code for windows that can get Windows to play an mp3 itself. I'll see if I can make that work.
RE: Xbmc not working for blind users. - Traker1001 - 2014-05-15
I haven't gotten to windows yet, No real point in having it on windows. LOL.
I'm working on the Pi A.T.M. But im not seeing it as an option.
I have Espeak and HTTP TTS server as my option. But with http server I only have option to enter IP.
Or do I need to install mpg123 to see it?
RE: Xbmc not working for blind users. - ruuk - 2014-05-15
You need alsa and one of the players I listed, so with openelec this would be difficult, but I think you could do this on raspbmc.
RE: Xbmc not working for blind users. - Traker1001 - 2014-05-15
Don't Its all good. Just wasn't sure. No reason to make the add on bigger than it needs to be. I got it working, And I have to say, i am impressed. it sounds good. Thank you Although, she sounds way to cheerful, lol.
I am impressed at how responsive it is.I really didn't expect it to be that quick considering all the steps its going through to get the speech, lol. and this is on my currently foobar'd pi running through a relatively slow internet connection.
Re: RE: Xbmc not working for blind users. - ruuk - 2014-05-15
(2014-05-15, 11:30)Traker1001 Wrote: I have Espeak and HTTP TTS server as my option. But with http server I only have option to enter IP.The google backend is separate from the http server backend. You need one of the listed players installed on the XBMC machine.
Since the http server has the same backends as the addon, you can have Google play speech on the server machine if that machine has one of the players installed. I still need to add the code to convert mp3 to wav so that it can play on the client machine when using the server.
RE: Xbmc not working for blind users. - Traker1001 - 2014-05-15
Something I have noticed though, In Quartz on the main menu, It's not reading the main menu items, I.E. Add-Ons, Pictures, Music, and such. It reads the menu items under them, but not the main menu item like it used to.
Also, The on-off toggle f12, While working, the notification wav's aren't playing.
But that may be some of the few things I broke, While I was messing around with the XML files again. I was messing with the menu system.
Could also be me not-hallucinating from staying up the entire night, LOL. Darn toys.
RE: Xbmc not working for blind users. - ruuk - 2014-05-15
(2014-05-15, 12:04)Traker1001 Wrote: Something I have noticed though, In Quartz on the main menu, It's not reading the main menu items, I.E. Add-Ons, Pictures, Music, and such. It reads the menu items under them, but not the main menu item like it used to.I just got the same behavior. It happened when I switched skins. Reading the categories is something that is specific to quartz. The addon only detects the skin when it first starts up, so when I changed to Quartz, it still thought I was on Confluence. Could that be what happened to you?
In any case, I need to see about detecting skin changes if I can.
(2014-05-15, 12:04)Traker1001 Wrote: Also, The on-off toggle f12, While working, the notification wav's aren't playing.I just updated my OpenElec on Pi to the 0.0.54 and they played for me there. Could you double check to make sure yours got updated. The only other thing I can think of is having nav sounds turned off or that something was playing and nav sounds are disabled during playback. If none of that is the problem then maybe a log would help.
(2014-05-15, 12:04)Traker1001 Wrote: But that may be some of the few things I broke, While I was messing around with the XML files again. I was messing with the menu system.Been there
Could also be me not-hallucinating from staying up the entire night, LOL. Darn toys.
RE: Xbmc not working for blind users. - RockerC - 2014-05-15
@ruuk and other python developers here,
Any thoughts on also adding basic voice control command support to your addon or as separate addons to add further accessibility functions into XBMC?
I was thinking that it would be great for both blind and non visually impaired persons alike even just to have some basic commands during playback like; play, pause, stop, next, previous, and search.
Speech recognition and voice control commands have previously been discussed here http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=9280
As a concept and for ideas checkout the very cool "Jasper" project which is user-friendly 'always-on' accessibility platform and open source Python-based implementation that uses CMU Sphinx ( http://cmusphinx.sourceforge.net ) , and even though the current Jasper client is not designed for XBMC it is nice as a proof-of-concept, and since Jasper is now quickly becoming a popular community driven framework for other to develop always-on, voice-controlled applications project, you too could create a "Jasper Client" for XBMC using that upstream Jasper cleint code
http://jasperproject.github.io/
https://github.com/jasperproject/jasper-client
There is also an non-Python voice control open source software for controlling XBMC on Linux that is called called "xbmcvc" (short for XBMC Voice Commands) which also uses CMU Sphinx for voice recognition, same as the Jasper project
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=123621
https://github.com/kempniu/xbmcvc
xbmcvc send the commands via XBMC's JSON-RPC API so perhaps could get some ideas from it as it already supports XBMC navigation and playback commands
xbmcvc supported navigation commands; UPWARDS, DOWNWARDS, LEFT, RIGHT, SELECT, BACK, HOME, CONTEXT, WEATHER, PICTURES, TV, VIDEOS, MUSIC, PROGRAMS, SETTINGS, FAVORITES
xbmcvc supported player commands; PLAY, PAUSE, STOP, MENU, PREVIOUS, NEXT, SHUFFLE, UNSHUFFLE, REPEAT ALL, REPEAT ONE, REPEAT OFF
(2014-02-04, 19:26)RockerC Wrote: <alt> tags could possibly also open up additional opportunities for voice command API for voice control of XBMC too.
That could be a very cool accessible feature even for non-disabled people too in order to voice control XBMC, which could as such act to motivate more developers to join this cause.
There are several already several software and products our there for speech recognition and voice control for multimedia, however personally I'm here specifically imagining using the Ubi ( http://theubi.com ) always-on voice-activated computer to control XBMC as it seem more user-friendly that most other devices.
Checkout quick introduction video for the Ubi here on Kickstarter:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/607691307/ubi-the-ubiquitous-computer-voice-activated-and-al-0
You can just imagine the Ubi as a cheap and simple way to get natural voice control commands similar to that of Tony Stark's JARVIS (J.A.R.V.I.S.) artificially intelligent butler computer in the Iron Man movies
http://ironman.wikia.com/wiki/J.A.R.V.I.S.
http://marvel-movies.wikia.com/wiki/J.A.R.V.I.S.
Sorry if I want too off-topic here with the voice command API idea as an additional accessible feature for XBMC