Voice control

[hssm]

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 815

Hello,

I’m not planning to do something like this, but wouldn’t this be nice?

If I am driving a car and pair my phone with the hands-free equipment, it would be
nice if there were a voice-controlled Ankidroid. For the cards, it is no problem (just
make voice files for every vocabulary), but the selection would be difficult: One cannot
press “easy” without touching the screen.

So it would be nice if one could speak “easy“ “again” “difficult” etc., and Ankidroid
would understand it and press the appropriate button. This would also be nice for other
situations, where one cannot use the hands (while making food for example, or when
lying in the warm bed and not wanting to put the hands outside etc).

Reported by gerritsangel on 2011-10-09 20:53:38

[euu2021]

A comment about the decision-making: this decision was taken without previous warning of the users. I don't know if the discussion happened openly somewhere (anki forum/reddit/discord), but there was no warning here to the people that follow the issue.

I understand that, in this kind of project, usually the only viable decision-making process is top-down from the developers. But, opening the discussion to allow any user to present arguments before the final decision would undoubtedly help in the decision-making, and leave users more satisfied with the final decision, whatever it is, because they would have the feeling that they could influence in the reasoning.

For example, I'm leaving with the feeling of unsatisfaction, because it's not clear to me if, when the decision was taken, you were aware of the argument brought above: use the GPS coordinates to block voice control if the phone is moving; this will exclude the feature for some inoffensive people (passengers, etc), but at least some people (most?) will be able to use it; i.e., don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.

[mikehardy]

I'm not aware of any successful gps based apps using it for app locking. Fir instance there is the I'm a passenger problem and now we've locked out everyone on the bus. I actually code other apps that do use gps, you can make anything sound trivial, but in reality it's not.

The decision was discussed on discord. Remember i mentioned coding hard beats commenting hard? All the people coding, doing the work, communicate and decide these things on discord. Everyone is welcome there.

[euu2021]

I'm not aware of any successful gps based apps using it for app locking. Fir instance there is the I'm a passenger problem and now we've locked out everyone on the bus. I actually code other apps that do use gps, you can make anything sound trivial, but in reality it's not.

The decision was discussed on discord. Remember i mentioned coding hard beats commenting hard? All the people coding, doing the work, communicate and decide these things on discord. Everyone is welcome there.

Thanks for the clarification about the GPS issues. That wasn't clear in the official statement linked by Arthur-Milchior. Computer noobs like me don't have a clear notion of the technical limitations.

[timrae]

@eginhard

Voice control is an accessibility feature for people with motor impairments who can't use touchscreens. For this, Google provides the Voice Access app mentioned https://github.com/ankidroid/Anki-Android/issues/1717#issuecomment-247618895.

I'm not strictly against providing a voice control convenience feature, but [...] it's misleading to argue that it would solve any accessibility issues

Feedback seems to be pretty poor on the Google Voice Access app, I feel it's worth considering what we can do better. It's also worth mentioning that regular Anki users suffering from Carpal Tunnel Syndrome could also potentially get a substantial quality of life improvement, not just users with full motor impairment.

[antgel]

you can deliberately misinterpret the reasoning all you like

As a vulnerable road user, that is, a cyclist

I can tell you that there is a shocking amount of stupidity amongst drivers

we're talking about multi-ton metal-block pilots deciding they know better than the law how their brain works

Interpret that how you like

Sure, here's my interpretation:

1. You assume bad faith.
2. You speak as if you are the only cyclist in the world (let alone in this Issue), and speak for all.
3. You are condescending towards drivers.
4. Your intolerance towards drivers is projecting onto this issue and curtailing freedom for all users.

Edit:

Agree to disagree

Interpretation: Who cares about evidence? Drivers are baboons!

Coding hard beats commenting hard, and the folks coding have decided

Interpretation: Who cares what the users think? Drivers are baboons!

[mikehardy]

Tim's answer here is great:

Well I can't argue with that... I do feel though, that the conversation could potentially be reopened if all of the following conditions were met:

1. A sizeable number of users were ~commenting~ identified who were personally experiencing hardship due to legitimate accessibility issues
2. There were solid reasons why using the API would lead to an inferior solution
3. Someone was willing to submit and champion a high quality PR (and follow through with the code review and maintenance)

However AFAICT as it currently stands, none of these conditions have been met.

Meet the conditions, we'll move forward. Past that I don't spend much of my time engaging with people that aren't producing, a personal choice to manage my time. To that end I'll hide comments that are not productive.

[antgel]

Interpret that how you like

Translation: Don't interpret that how you like. Drivers are baboons.

Past that I don't spend much of my time engaging with people that aren't producing, a personal choice to manage my time. To that end I'll hide comments that are not productive.

You're literally cancelling users who are challenging design decisions that they don't agree with, and the way that discussions around such decisions are handled. Do you really think that's cool? Are you not concerned about being in an echo chamber? I'll expect that from now on you hide comments from every user in GitHub Issues who doesn't "produce".

[mikehardy]

I'm not cancelling, I'm focusing on productive discussion. People that holler about canceling are the most irritating. Your comment's still there, so everyone can see how you behave, for eternity, to developers that make decisions you disagree with. Cheers.