Voice Application Development for Android

193 Pages·2013·1.47 MB·English

by  Michael F. McTear

Voice Application Development for
Android
Table of Contents
Voice Application Development for Android
Credits
Foreword
About the Authors
Acknowledgement
About the Reviewers
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Preface
What this book covers
What you need for this book
Who this book is for
Conventions
Reader feedback
Customer support
Downloading the example code
Web page for the book
Errata
Piracy
Questions
1. Speech on Android Devices
Using speech on an Android device
Speech-to-text
Text-to-speech
Voice Search
Android Voice Actions
Virtual Personal Assistants
Designing and developing a speech app
Why Google speech?
What is needed to create a Virtual Personal Assistant?
Summary
2. Text-to-Speech Synthesis
Introducing text-to-speech synthesis
The technology of text-to-speech synthesis
Using pre-recorded speech instead of TTS
Using Google text-to-speech synthesis
Starting the TTS engine
Developing applications with Google TTS
TTSWithLib app – Reading user input
TTSReadFile app – Reading a file out loud
Summary
3. Speech Recognition
The technology of speech recognition
Using Google speech recognition
Developing applications with the Google speech recognition API
ASRWithIntent app
ASRWithLib app
Summary
4. Simple Voice Interactions
Voice interactions
VoiceSearch app
VoiceLaunch app
VoiceSearchConfirmation app
Summary
5. Form-filling Dialogs
Form-filling dialogs
Implementing form-filling dialogs
Threading
XMLLib
FormFillLib
VXMLParser
DialogInterpreter
MusicBrain app
Summary
6. Grammars for Dialog
Grammars for speech recognition and natural language understanding
NLU with hand-crafted grammars
Statistical NLU
NLULib
Processing XML grammars
Processing statistical grammars
The GrammarTest app
Summary
7. Multilingual and Multimodal Dialogs
Multilinguality
Multimodality
Summary
8. Dialogs with Virtual Personal Assistants
The technology of VPA
Determining the user's intention
Making an appropriate response
Pandorabots
AIML
Using oob tag to add additional functions
The VPALib library
Creating a Pandorabot
Sample VPAs – Jack, Derek, and Stacy
Alternative approaches
Summary
9. Taking it Further
Developing a more advanced Virtual Personal Assistant
Summary
A. Afterword
Index
Voice Application Development for
Android
Voice Application Development for
Android
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First published: November 2013
Production Reference: 2041213
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.
Livery Place
35 Livery Street
Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.
ISBN 978-1-78328-529-7
www.packtpub.com
Cover Image by Aniket Sawant (<[email protected]>)
Credits
Authors
Michael F. McTear
Zoraida Callejas
Reviewers
Deborah A. Dahl
Greg Milette
Acquisition Editor
Rebecca Youe
Commissioning Editor
Amit Ghodake
Technical Editors
Aparna Chand
Nadeem N. Bagban
Project Coordinator
Michelle Quadros
Proofreader
Hardip Sidhu
Indexer
Mehreen Deshmukh
Graphics
Ronak Dhruv
Production Coordinator
Aparna Bhagat
Cover Work
Aparna Bhagat
Foreword
There are many reasons why users need to speak and listen to mobile devices.
We spend the first couple of years of our lives learning how to speak and listen
to other people, so it is natural that we should be able to speak and listen to our
mobile devices. As mobiles become smaller, the space available for physical
keypads shrinks, making more difficult to use. Wearable devices such as Google
Glass and smart watches don't have physical keypads. Speaking and listening is
becoming a major means of interaction with mobile devices.
Eventually computers with microphones and speakers will be embedded into our
home environment, eliminating the need for remote controls and handheld
device. Speaking and listening will become the major form of communication
with home appliances such as TVs, environmental controls, home security,
coffee makers, ovens, and refrigerators.
When we perform tasks that require the use of our eyes and hands, we need
speech technologies. Speech is the only practical way for interacting with an
Android computer while driving a car or operating complex machinery. Holding
and using a mobile device while driving is illegal in some places.
Siri and other intelligent agents enable mobile users to speak a search query.
While these systems require sophisticated artificial intelligence and natural
language techniques which are complex and time consuming to implement, they
demonstrate the use of speech technologies that enable users to search for
information.
Guides for "self-help" tasks requiring both hands and eyes present big
opportunities for Android applications. Soon we will have electronic guides that
speak and listen to help us assemble, troubleshoot, repair, fine-tune, and use
equipment of all kinds. What's causing the strange sound in my car's engine?
Why won't my television turn on? How do I adjust the air conditioner to cool the
house? How do I fix a paper jam in my printer? Printed instructions, user guides,
and manuals may be difficult to locate and difficult to read while your eyes are
examining and your hands are manipulating the equipment.
Let a speech-enabled application talk you through the process, step-by-step.
These self-help applications replace user documentation for almost any product.
Rather than hunting for the appropriate paperwork, just download the latest