These are both great ideas David, and exactly why I wanted to ask for design help here!
I'm asking anyone with code examples of how to record speech to please post a snippet here. As for the printout David, I think I'll let you create a text file of the instructions; then you can save it, open it in notepad and print it, or whatever (does that seem ok?). If you have a book player which reads text files, even if I can't record speech you could still use the text file. Thanks again, Chip > -----Original Message----- > From: David [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Sunday, November 11, 2012 2:35 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: tentative app under development: "Remind Me Where" > > Sounds like a great app. Let me suggest one further feature. Not all of us, > have the chance of dragging along a computer, whenever we are out > walking. > still, we want to be able to more easily plan our shopping tour. > > How about a feature, that lets you pick the points of interest for your trip, > and then let the app make a recording (MP3 or Wav), of the instructions for > going there. True enough, these instructions - when put on your portable > MP3 player - will not be realtime instructions. But as you are out walking, > you forgot how many streets you had to cross, to get to the grocery store. > When finished there, you wanted to simply refresh your memory on how to > get to the McDonald restaurant, and after that, how to exactly find your bus > home. Having a quick way of dropping such instructions on a portable > mediaplayer, dropping it into your pocket and picking up your cane, would > have been a great thing. > > Making MP3 or Wav recordings of speech synths on your computer, at least > is available on the SAPI voices, specially so, I have been informed on the > SAPI > 5 versions. Each route, could be recorded in its own file. So you would have > one file going from home to the grocery, another from the grocery to the > restaurant, and a third one from the restaurant to the bus. > > Even if you are going to visit your friend, and you call on someone to drive > you there - I see the benefit of an MP3 version of the instructions. You then > could bring the notes along, and easily keep instructing the driver. To carry a > whole laptop with you, to go for your shopping tour, seems a bit out of > reality to me. Specially so, since you also need to carry your buyings, keep > one hand freed up for your cane or dog, and still be able to get in and out of > stores and transportation units. The MP3 player, will sit in your pocket, and > not be of much hazzle. And for many of us, the lack of realtime instructions, > might not really make up for the extra hazzle of dragging along three > pounds of computer. Smile. By the way, as the app stands today, is it > possible for you as a user, to plan a route, and then make a print-out of it? > That would have been another beneficial feature. I then could have printed > the travelling instructions, and handed them to the cab-driver, and I would > save a load on the bill, as he did not have to mess around for half an hour in > search for the house of my grandmother. Smile again. > > ne > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Chip Orange" <[email protected]> > To: <[email protected]> > Sent: Sunday, November 11, 2012 12:00 AM > Subject: tentative app under development: "Remind Me Where" > > > > Hi Rod, > > > > The app I wanted to develop was to have GPS and mapping as its > beginning > > basic features. Later you'll see I began interfacing it with Google Maps > > and Google+ Places because it gave blind users a much easier interface, > > and > > because all of these Google features have GPS locations as part of their > > functions or supplied data. > > > > The app creates 2 databases: one for your points of interest (a GPS > > location > > with a name and a category to describe what type of place it is), an > > address, set of comments, and an indication if its sharable with others. > > The other database is for your "reminders". The reminders are > > location-based, and linked to the POI table: that is, they can do various > > things for you if you have a laptop or ultrabook or netbook with a GPS > > receiver. The app constantly compares your current position against any > > reminders you've created which are linked to POI locations. If you come > > within a specified distance, travel time, etc. from a POI location tied to > > a > > reminder, the app will do something. > > > > If the reminder is your bus stop for instance, whenever you come within 1 > > minute of travel (at your current speed) it could speak something, sound a > > tone, and do this just once or until you press something to quiet it. You > > can also create reminders which occur only once: such as if you get near > > Radio Shack, a reminder could tell you to pick up new headphones. > > > > Cool enough, but I wanted to do more, so I looked at Google. I found for > > instance, instead of having a user go to a place to get its GPS location > > in > > order to create a POI for that place, Google provides a service where you > > can enter an address and it will give you the approximate GPS location for > > that address (called reverse geocoding). I added this to the dialog for > > creating a POI, and now you no longer need to be at a place in order to > > add > > it as a point. > > > > Google goes much further though: I can give it the address you entered, > > and > > get from it a list of places (in increasing distance) of all businesses > > and > > other types of locations that Google knows about. Not only can you start > > with an address, but you can specify part of the name; keywords for the > > types of locations you want to see, and other search criteria. And so, if > > you wanted to add an ATM as one of your points, which you know was > > somewhere > > near the grocery store, you could enter the address of the grocery store > > in > > the dialog to add a point, click on the command button to get near-by > > locations from Google, and enter ATM as a keyword. The returned list of > > locations from Google will be ATMs, in increasing distance from the > > address > > you started with. Not only will the list show you the name and address of > > each ATM, but since it gives me its GPS location, and I have the GPS > > location of the address we started with, I can tell you for each list > > entry > > its relative location to you (such as 500 feet north, or 2 miles > > southwest), > > thus helping you find the one you wanted to add. You select it and it's > > added as a point in your database. One last nice feature: we don't have > > to > > start by you knowing an address; you can pick any point in your database > > to > > start with, and Google can use its GPS location as the starting point for > > your search; so you can find almost anything by just knowing something > > about > > what it's near to. > > > > Even though I keep saying Google; all of this is done over the internet > > (using XML) and with the user in an app's XML dialog, so no need to > > negotiate a difficult web interface. > > > > I looked further at what Google can do, and one of the pieces of info it > > gives back to me for any place is an http address for a "Google Place" web > > page, so I add this to the point database, and give you a command button > > to > > click on to go to this page. This page will tell you what kind of place > > this is, what type of business, show you any reviews or comments from > > others, and even show you the hours of operation. It also will show you > > any > > "events" which have been entered into Google for this location (such as a > > sale or a party? This isn't clear). > > Google also gives me the official web page of this location, and so I > > store > > it in the database, and provide a button for going to its "official" web > > site. > > > > I now added an app menu which allows you to bring up a list of all the > > points in your database, sort and filter them as you like, and then go > > into > > any of them to use them to see what's near-by, go to its Google Places > > page, > > etc. It will also tell you where a given point (or one associated with a > > reminder which was just triggered for you) is, relative to your current > > location (such as the bus stop being 500 feet to your north). > > > > The next feature I found from Google is that it will give you directions > > from one place to another; and you can specify whether you want driving > > directions, walking directions, or directions which make use of public > > transit. I added this as an app menu choice, and I allow you for both the > > "from" and the "to" location, to use a point from your database, an > > address, > > or your current GPS location. When you have specified your "from" and > > "to" > > locations, you can click on the type of directions that you want, and they > > will appear in an editbox on this dialog; no need again for a difficult > > web > > page interface. I expect the directions to be popular (even though not > > all > > cities have the public transit option available). > > > > Right now I'm adding the ability to import a GPX file of points (a kind of > > universal format for exchanging points), and the ability to export one > > from > > your points as well. > > > > You can see (I hope) though that I've got a lot of features, but not > > necessarily a cohesive structure designed to hang them all on. I'd like > > to > > be able for all blind users to easily share points among themselves (the > > way > > users of the barcode scanning application from the A.T. Guys share > barcode > > data), but I'm not sure what else it should do. Is this too much already? > > > > It looks like Google has further features (such as the ability for a user > > to > > add a Google Place if it doesn't have one, or for users to add "events" to > > a > > Google Place), and to search for places when you don't know anything > about > > where it is (and so you can just type in "indian food in Tallahassee > > Florida"). > > > > It needs another app I wrote named GPS, which is a shared object library, > > and so it looks to see if you've installed this app, and if you haven't it > > offers to automatically download and install it for you. > > > > Also, it makes use of a feature from Windows 7 and Windows 8 called the > > "Location Sensor API". This reports your position to programs, even if > > you > > don't have a GPS receiver connected. It can often get this from your ISP > > or > > the wifi hotspot you're connected to. Newer GPS receivers also come with > > drivers which report your position to the Windows Location Sensor. This > > app > > however will work on any version of Windows, and you can buy a GPS > > receiver > > for around $50 or $75 (I've got a rechargeable Bluetooth one) which can > > figure out your position in 30 seconds or so. The app keeps you informed > > of > > how your GPS receiver is doing (whether it has a position, etc.) with > > various sound effects. > > > > Here is where I am at the moment, and hopefully opinions of others will > > help > > shape the app. I'd like for it to be useful enough to be a selling point > > for WE owners (to help users consider switching screen readers). Maybe it > > can be an example to other scripters of how to interface with web sites > > via > > XML, or maybe it should be encrypted to keep others from copying it for > > other screen readers (I'm not sure about this)? I really want it to be > > available to other scripters. > > Even the name is up for discussion. > > > > Obviously anyone who wants to try it should realize it's not even beta > > software yet. > > Chip > > [email protected] > > > >
