Using Speech Engine in Android

This post is focusing on speech engine in Android SDK. The TTS engine is very important component of the Android SDK and the Android 4.0 version has great APIs to write the custom TTS engines.

Here i am explaining a sample code to use the TTS engine in your android application.

Create the following layout in your android application.

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:layout_height="match_parent" >

<TextView android:id="@+id/msglabel"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="Enter some text in english:"
/>
<EditText android:id="@+id/inputtext"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
/>
<Button android:id="@+id/speakenglish"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="speak in english"
/>

</LinearLayout>

Here is the code of the sample speak activity you can just copy and paste this in your application project.

package com.example.speaksample;

import android.os.Bundle;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.view.Menu;
import android.view.MenuItem;
import android.support.v4.app.NavUtils;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.View.OnClickListener;
import android.widget.Button;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.EditText;
import android.speech.tts.TextToSpeech;
import android.speech.tts.TextToSpeech.OnInitListener;
import android.content.Intent;
import java.util.Locale;
import android.widget.Toast;

public class speaksample extends Activity implements OnClickListener, OnInitListener {
    //Create the TTS object
    private TextToSpeech TTSObject;
    //status check code
    private int DATA_CHECK_CODE = 0;
        //create the Activity
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_speaking_android);
                //get a reference to the button element listed in the XML layout
            Button speakButton = (Button)findViewById(R.id.speakenglish);
                //set the click listener
            speakButton.setOnClickListener(this);
            //check for TTS data
            Intent checkTTSIntent = new Intent();
            checkTTSIntent.setAction(TextToSpeech.Engine.ACTION_CHECK_TTS_DATA);
            startActivityForResult(checkTTSIntent, DATA_CHECK_CODE);
    }
        //respond to button clicks
    public void onClick(View v) {
            //get the text entered
            EditText inputtext = (EditText)findViewById(R.id.inputtext);
            String data = inputtext.getText().toString();
            speakInEnglish(data);
    }
        //speak the user text
    private void speakInEnglish(String speech) {
            //speak straight away
            TTSObject.speak(speech, TextToSpeech.QUEUE_FLUSH, null);
    }
        //act on result of TTS data check
    protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
        if (requestCode == DATA_CHECK_CODE) {
            if (resultCode == TextToSpeech.Engine.CHECK_VOICE_DATA_PASS) {
                //the user has the necessary data - create the TTS
            TTSObject = new TextToSpeech(this, this);
            }
            else {
                    //no data - install it now
                Intent installTTSIntent = new Intent();
                installTTSIntent.setAction(TextToSpeech.Engine.ACTION_INSTALL_TTS_DATA);
                startActivity(installTTSIntent);
            }
        }
    }
        //setup TTS
    public void onInit(int initStatus) {
            //check for successful instantiation
        if (initStatus == TextToSpeech.SUCCESS) {
            if(TTSObject.isLanguageAvailable(Locale.US)==TextToSpeech.LANG_AVAILABLE)
                TTSObject.setLanguage(Locale.US);
        }
        else if (initStatus == TextToSpeech.ERROR) {
            Toast.makeText(this, "TTS engine fails", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
        }
    }
}

If you like the code please share your feedback.

Thanks