New ActionScript Native Extension – Speech Recognition

Here is a Speech Native Extension that takes advantage of the Android’s speech recognition APIs.

Here is what the ANE does,

• Provide an API to check if the feature is supported.
• Provide an API to launch the default speech recognition UI and capture voice input.
• Trigger events based on the success or failure of the above call.
• In case of success, the appropriate event has information of the best match !
• In case of failure, the appropriate event is fired.

Here are the steps required to include the ANE in your Android Project,

• Download the ANE from here
• In Flash Builder 4.6, open the Properties dialogue of the Project you want to include speech support in.
• Select Build Path > Native Extensions
• Add ANE – Select the location of the downloaded Speech.ane file
• Navigate to Flex Build Packaging > Google Android > Native Extensions
• Check the Package checkbox next to Speech.ane (This ANE supports only the Android Platform at the moment)
• Apply and Close
• Open the <ProjectName>-app.xml file
• Scroll down until you find the Android manifest statements
• Add the  below code just before </manifest>
  (i.e., inside the <manifest></manifest>tags)

  <application>
       <activity android:name="com.inoel.ane.speech.extensions.SpeechHandler">
       </activity>
  </application>
  

You will now be able to access the below APIs,

Initializing and specifying prompt text

//Creating and initializing a Speech Object
//Parameter - Prompt displayed on the Native Speech Recognition UI
var speech:Speech = new Speech("Please speak something !");

Check if speech input is supported

// Returns a Boolean value
trace("Speech Supported: " + speech.isSupported);

Accept Speech Input

//Calls the method which in turn fire's the Native Speech UI for accepting speech input
speech.listen();

Listen for the following events

• speechToTextEvent.VOICE_RECOGNIZED – Fired on successful voice recognition. Recognized String resides in the event.data attribute.
• speechToTextEvent.VOICE_NOT_RECOGNIZED – Fired on unsuccessful attempt. A common cause for failure could be network (data) unavailability. I believe this is overcome in new Ice Cream Sandwich which does not require a network connection to recognize speech ! Includes the error string in the event.data attribute.

Download the sample project from here. Please ensure you manually add the ANE with the steps above, or you get a ‘Class not found Exception’.

If you are interested in understanding how ANEs are used in Flash Builder 4.6, have a look at the recording in my previous post, http://blog.immanuelnoel.com/2011/10/20/native-extensions-flash-builder-webinar/

I also plan to post the entire source for the ANE itself. Watch out for that !

—– UPDATE 19/02/2012 —-
Source for the ANE is posted below,
http://blog.immanuelnoel.com/2012/02/19/speech-recognition-ane-source/