Develop Reference

How to make sure TextToSpeech is initialized before using speak?

I'd like to ask you for some help with Android TextToSpeech feature.
Basically, I'd like to develop a simple AI which speaks, asking a question then waits for an answer, and at last, based on answer asks another question and so on, until user pronounces a keyword which stops everything.
Now I know TextToSpeech has to be initialized before using speak method, and I'm trying to take this into account by using onActivityResult method.
Below some code:
Activity class:
public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity implements OnInitListener, Button.OnClickListener{
Button sayHello;
TextView textView;
private static final int CHECK_DATA = 0;
private static final Locale defaultLocale = Locale.UK; // British English
private static final String TAG = "TTS";
private TextToSpeech tts;
private boolean isInit = false;
sayIt Method: used to speak:
public void sayIt(String text, boolean flushQ){
if(isInit){
if(flushQ){
tts.speak(text, TextToSpeech.QUEUE_FLUSH, null, null);
} else {
tts.speak(text, TextToSpeech.QUEUE_ADD, null, null);
}
} else {
Log.i(TAG, "Failure: TTS instance not properly initialized");
}
}
TextToSpeech Listener:
#Override
public void onInit(int status){
if(status == TextToSpeech.SUCCESS){
isInit = true;
// Enable input text field and speak button now that we are initialized
sayHello.setEnabled(true);
// Set to a language locale after checking availability
Log.i(TAG, "available="+tts.isLanguageAvailable(Locale.UK));
tts.setLanguage(defaultLocale);
// Examples of voice controls. Set to defaults of 1.0.
tts.setPitch(1.0F);
tts.setSpeechRate(1.0F);
// Issue a greeting and instructions in the default language
tts.speak("Initialized!", TextToSpeech.QUEUE_FLUSH, null, Integer.toString(12));
} else {
isInit = false;
Log.i(TAG, "Failure: TTS instance not properly initialized");
}
}
Button Listener:
#Override
public void onClick(View v){
if(isInit)
sayIt("You clicked!", true);
}
onActivityResult Method:
// Create the TTS instance if TextToSpeech language data are installed on device. If not
// installed, attempt to install it on the device.
protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
if (requestCode == CHECK_DATA) {
if (resultCode == TextToSpeech.Engine.CHECK_VOICE_DATA_PASS) {
// Success, so create the TTS instance. But can't use it to speak until
// the onInit(status) callback defined below runs, indicating initialization.
Log.i(TAG, "Success, let's talk");
tts = new TextToSpeech(this, this);
// Use static Locales method to list available locales on device
Locale[] locales = Locale.getAvailableLocales();
Log.i(TAG,"Locales Available on Device:");
for(int i=0; i<locales.length; i++){
String temp = "Locale "+i+": "+locales[i]+" Language="
+locales[i].getDisplayLanguage();
if(locales[i].getDisplayCountry() != "") {
temp += " Country="+locales[i].getDisplayCountry();
}
Log.i(TAG, temp);
}
} else {
// missing data, so install it on the device
Log.i(TAG, "Missing Data; Install it");
Intent installIntent = new Intent();
installIntent.setAction(TextToSpeech.Engine.ACTION_INSTALL_TTS_DATA);
startActivity(installIntent);
}
}
}
And, at last, onCreate Method:
#Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstance){
super.onCreate(savedInstance);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
sayHello = findViewById(R.id.sayBtn);
textView = findViewById(R.id.textView);
sayHello.setEnabled(false);
sayHello.setOnClickListener(this);
Intent checkIntent = new Intent();
checkIntent.setAction(TextToSpeech.Engine.ACTION_CHECK_TTS_DATA);
startActivityForResult(checkIntent, CHECK_DATA);
/* THIS SPEAK DOES NOT WORK! */
sayIt("Speech from method!", true);
}
Issue is: Button successfully gets enabled when onInit method initialises TextToSpeech and successfully pronounces text.
My goal is to make the Activity speak from onCreate method, since at the moment it only works from onInit and onClick listeners, bot not in onCreate, even if I check for tts initialization using onActivityResult.
Basically I want the TextToSpeech to speak with no Buttons involved.
I know very similar questions were already posted, but none solved my problem. Have some idea?
Hope I've been clear, Thank you!
UPDATE: Log shows ERROR detected occurs in else branch of onInit method, where Log.i(TAG, "Failure: TTS instance not properly initialized"); line is.

SOLUTION:
The only thing to do here is to wait a little time in order to let TextToSpeech initialize for good.
A good way seems to be by using a delayed Handler as follows:
final Handler handler = new Handler();
handler.postDelayed(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
//Waiting for RobotTextToSpeech initialization for 1500ms
rtts.speak("This speak will work!");
rtts.speak("This other speak will work too!");
}
}, 1500);
}
By doing this, looks like TextToSpeech works well even in onCreate method, we just have to wait little time.
Hope this can help.

Message Dialog "No connectivity" etc. in Glass Activity

I have found a similar question, but I want something different.
I noticed that, when you don't have any connectivity, and you try to start Speech Recognition in an app, say through the RecognizerIntent class, you get a "no network connectivity - tap to view connectivity status" (see attached image), and if you click, a new Card with connectivity status appears.
How can I copy this behaviour in my own Activity, using the GDK?
EDIT: here is my code to call the Speech Recognition:
Intent speechIntent = new Intent(RecognizerIntent.ACTION_RECOGNIZE_SPEECH);
if (speechIntent.resolveActivity(getPackageManager()) != null) {
speechIntent.putExtra(RecognizerIntent.EXTRA_PROMPT, "Talk to set your title:");
speechIntent.putExtra(RecognizerIntent.EXTRA_LANGUAGE_MODEL, RecognizerIntent.LANGUAGE_MODEL_FREE_FORM);
Log.d(TAG, "Starting to record speech title");
startActivityForResult(speechIntent, Constants.SPEECH_TITLE_REQUEST_CODE);
}

Ok, I later found an answer to my problem. I'm using the MessageDialog class provided by pif
Here is how I am calling the card:
MessageDialog localDialog = new MessageDialog.Builder(context)
.setMessage("No network connectivity")
.setSecondaryMessage("Tap to view connection settings")
.setIcon(R.drawable.ic_cloud_sad_medium)
.setIsError(true)
.setDismissable(true)
.setAutoHide(false)
.setExpanded(true)
.setShowProgress(false)
.setIsManual(false)
.setListener(new MessageDialog.SimpleListener() {
public boolean onConfirmed() {
Log.d(TAG+"_noConnDialog", "onConfirm");
return true;
}
public void onDismissed() {
Log.d(TAG+"_noConnDialog", "onDismissed");
((Activity)context).finish();
}
public void onDone() {
Log.d(TAG+"_noConnDialog", "onDone");
Intent localIntent = new Intent(Settings.ACTION_WIFI_SETTINGS);
localIntent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
localIntent.putExtra("settings_id", 0);
context.startActivity(localIntent);
((Activity)context).finish();
}
}).build();
localDialog.show();
Notice that, as indicated in pif's disclaimer,
This is just for educational purposes and should not be used in any production apps until Google releases something similar officially.
I hope, Google will publish a set of Google Glass Views in the future releases of GDK. We really need them! Especially that awesome progress bar!
AFAIK the Glass Developer Team has not released these functionalities in the GDK yet.

android, text to speech

I'm playing with text to speech to make my testapp a little more fun. It works in the emulator but not on my phone since my default locale isn't english.
However, the texts are english so the tts should of course use english. As far as I know I can implement an autoninstall, something like
public void onInit(int status) {
if (status == TextToSpeech.SUCCESS) {
// Set preferred language to US english.
int result = mtts.setLanguage(Locale.US);
if (result == TextToSpeech.LANG_MISSING_DATA ||
result == TextToSpeech.LANG_NOT_SUPPORTED) {
// Lanuage data is missing or the language is not supported.
Log.e(TAG, "Language is not available.");
} else {
// The TTS engine has been successfully initialized.
speak();
}
} else {
// missing data, install it
Intent installIntent = new Intent();
installIntent.setAction(
TextToSpeech.Engine.ACTION_INSTALL_TTS_DATA);
startActivity(installIntent);
}
}
But, do I want to? Does installing locales take a lot of space? Does it mess up something else?
regards

You should execute this:
// missing data, install it
Intent installIntent = new Intent();
installIntent.setAction(
TextToSpeech.Engine.ACTION_INSTALL_TTS_DATA);
startActivity(installIntent);
when you get LANG_MISSING_DATA

I would only try the install in the case where "LANG_MISSING_DATA" not for "LANG_NOT_SUPPORTED". Since it starts another activity and the user can choose whether they download it or not, I wouldn't worry too much about it taking space. No, it shouldn't mess anything up.

Android allows you convert your text into voice. Not only you can convert it but it also allows you to speak text in variety of different languages.
Android provides TextToSpeech class for this purpose.
For more detail please follow this tutorial :-
http://a-droidtech.blogspot.in/2015/06/android-text-to-speech-tutorial-android.html

SpeechToText and running the ACTION_CHECK_TTS_DATA intent

I've implemented the TextToSpeech integration exactly as mentioned in this blog post. After I've added it to my program it's now interfering with my other intents.
For example:
List item
User starts app
User invokes load activity
User picks a file to load, and activity returns fileanme to load in the intent
Main activity starts, and realizes it needs to load a filename so it starts doing so
The check for TTS needs to be done so I launch the ACTION_CHECK_TTS_DATA intent
This pauses the main activity again and the loading process gets interrupted
When the TTS check returns, the loading never happened.
When do I need this TTS check? Can I just do it once on application start up? It's causing my application to load slowly. I would like this load to be performed in a separate thread if possible.

Do the check once. Once the data is installed, it's very unlikely that the user will need to ever do it again. Once the data is installed, there's no way for the user to delete it, even if they wanted to.
Also, don't use the ACTION_CHECK_TTS_DATA Intent, that's awkward to use.
Instead, do the following:
Create TextToSpeech
OnInit, check isLanguageAvailable()
if it is, your app is all set.
if not, send the ACTION_INSTALL_TTS_DATA
Here's some code that initializes a TextToSpeech in the way I suggest. As a bonus, it sets the language as well.
public class DemoCreateTTS
{
private static final String TAG = "DemoCreateTTS";
private TextToSpeech tts;
public void createTextToSpeech(final Context context,
final Locale locale)
{
tts = new TextToSpeech(context, new OnInitListener()
{
#Override
public void onInit(int status)
{
if (status == TextToSpeech.SUCCESS)
{
Locale defaultOrPassedIn = locale;
if (locale == null)
{
defaultOrPassedIn = Locale.getDefault();
}
// check if language is available
switch (tts.isLanguageAvailable(defaultOrPassedIn))
{
case TextToSpeech.LANG_AVAILABLE:
case TextToSpeech.LANG_COUNTRY_AVAILABLE:
case TextToSpeech.LANG_COUNTRY_VAR_AVAILABLE:
Log.d(TAG, "SUPPORTED");
tts.setLanguage(locale);
//pass the tts back to the main
//activity for use
break;
case TextToSpeech.LANG_MISSING_DATA:
Log.d(TAG, "MISSING_DATA");
Log.d(TAG, "require data...");
Intent installIntent = new Intent();
installIntent.setAction(TextToSpeech.Engine.ACTION_INSTALL_TTS_DATA);
context.startActivity(installIntent);
break;
case TextToSpeech.LANG_NOT_SUPPORTED:
Log.d(TAG, "NOT SUPPORTED");
break;
}
}
}
});
}
}

a basic Text to speech app not working

i tried the following on the emulator but the as the app starts it gives a runtime error . could someone please help me on this . Heres' the code i tried
package com.example.TextSpeaker;
import java.util.Locale;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.speech.tts.TextToSpeech;
import android.speech.tts.TextToSpeech.OnInitListener;
public class TextSpeaker extends Activity {
/** Called when the activity is first created. */
int MY_DATA_CHECK_CODE = 0;
private TextToSpeech mtts;
String test1="hello world";
String test2="hi i am working fine";
#Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.main);
Intent myintent = new Intent();
myintent.setAction(TextToSpeech.Engine.ACTION_CHECK_TTS_DATA);
startActivityForResult(myintent, MY_DATA_CHECK_CODE);
}
protected void onActivityResult(int requestcode,int resultcode,Intent data)
{
if(requestcode == MY_DATA_CHECK_CODE)
{
if(resultcode==TextToSpeech.Engine.CHECK_VOICE_DATA_PASS)
{
// success so create the TTS engine
mtts = new TextToSpeech(this,(OnInitListener) this);
mtts.setLanguage(Locale.ENGLISH);
mtts.speak(test1, TextToSpeech.QUEUE_FLUSH, null);
mtts.speak(test2, TextToSpeech.QUEUE_FLUSH, null);
}
else
{
//install the Engine
Intent install = new Intent();
install.setAction(TextToSpeech.Engine.ACTION_INSTALL_TTS_DATA);
startActivity(install);
}
}
}
}

I've stumbled upon this question well over a year after it was posted, but I'm going to go ahead and answer anyway, in the sheer hope it'll help anyone else who ends up here in the future.
I'm writing this against 2.1, so apologies if you were working with <2.1 (no tags on question)
There are a few things I can spot immediately that may give you a little grief.
Firstly, the following :
mtts.speak(test1, TextToSpeech.QUEUE_FLUSH, null);
mtts.speak(test2, TextToSpeech.QUEUE_FLUSH, null);
If I understand the TextToSpeech API correctly, using QUEUE_FLUSH will flush out anything thats currently being spoken, so its possible that the second line is executing before the first has actually spoken, and you'd experience what you've stated above, that only the last one is being spoken.
Ideally, you only want one of those lines there, if the user puts in a different String, then just pass that through and let it flush out.
Next, you should invest in an onDestroy override, in here you can shutdown the mtts object, this prevents your app from hogging usage to the TTS engine, its always nice to free up resources when you're done with them, you wouldn't leave a ResultSet open now would you?!
#Override
public void onDestroy
() {
// Don't forget to shutdown!
if (mTts != null) {
mTts.stop();
mTts.shutdown();
}
super.onDestroy();
}
Also, as you state, it'll only speak English, because of the line you're using :
mtts.setLanguage(Locale.ENGLISH);
That's easy to correct, just set a different locale. Perhaps have some buttons and set the locale accordingly. I believe that the Google TTS engine currently only supports English, French, German, Italian and Spanish, but 3rd party TTS engines may offer more.
If all else fails, I wrote a tutorial here that might be of use.
Good luck!