Voice to Text for faster play

[dickey38]

Voice to text is ubiquitous these days in cell phones, tablets, PCs, etc. If it is available in BBO I have yet to find it. If not, it should be.

 

Clicking on a little microphone icon at the beginning of a text box could trigger voice to text action. This would obviate need for cryptic abbreviations, and make textual input quick and easy. Chat messages (“Hello and welcome”) , alert explanations (… “Smolen- 4 spades, 5 hearts, game force”), announcements (… “transfer”), questions (“what RKC are you playing?”) are obvious examples.

 

As the message is generated text could be displayed, and a “send” button used to confirm and proceed. Prior to “send”, text errors could be corrected via keyboard, or the entire message could be canceled by clicking again on the microphone. All very much like it works on cell phones.

 

Such a feature would not only be much more convenient, but also much faster, resulting in fewer timeouts in timed events, and more effective bandwidth to handle the growing traffic overload.

[Vampyr]

If your device supports voice-to-text you can chat. It doesn’t need to be a feature on BBO.

[y66]

If your device supports voice-to-text you can chat. It doesn’t need to be a feature on BBO.

It's a good idea but perhaps still too costly relative to the benefit and other priorities at the moment.

 

People who say stuff like "it doesn't need to be a feature" should probably be barred from posting here.

[pescetom]

Am I a visionary to expect voice without text?

It was already a staple of long distance human communication before bridge was even invented, and has been rather easy to implement in internet for the last 15 years :)

 

BBO currently uses it (AFAIK) for vugraph commentary only.

It would be considerably more useful in other areas, Director calls for instance.

[mycroft]

48K sampling (pretty decent for voice-only recordings) = 10KB/s.

 

10KB of text is approximately 5 pages.

 

BBO is currently bandwidth-limited [Edit: Per people who actually know what's going on, this is not true.].

 

You are right, it would be a good idea. But right now, even I can tell it's not happening any time soon.

[barmar]

BBO is currently bandwidth-limited (primarily; bandwidth of developers-limited secondarily).

What makes you say that?

 

We're running into limits, but they're not network bandwidth.

[dickey38]

Voice to text should consume cycles on the client device, not the host. Quicker and more efficient dialogues should translate to fewer timeouts in timed events, shorter elapsed time per deal, higher customer satisfaction. Just sayin’.

[mycroft]

My apologies - it was a guess from what you have raised as issues.

 

Will correct. I still think that voice integrated with BBO is highly unlikely to help whatever issues BBO is having at the moment, and also is likely to be very low on priority list.

 

But I was wrong about current issues.

[pescetom]

I still think that voice integrated with BBO is highly unlikely to help whatever issues BBO is having at the moment, and also is likely to be very low on priority list.

As a user I wouldn't put it that high on priority list, certainly not in this moment. But if I was in BBO it would be firmly on my horizon, especially as it could compensate for shortcomings of the existing interface: currently a Director must chat in text and cannot see the screen of a player who has problems or even receive a sound to say he is called: voice (with the possibility to select audience, as with chat) would make it all easier.

[dickey38]

I assume, perhaps incorrectly, that the category “Suggestions for the Software” is intended as a place where users can suggest features they would find useful. I, for one, do not presume to suggest what priority should be afforded to any suggestions I may make. I certainly understand that adding features to BBO is subject to “developer bandwidth” limitations as well as judgements re overall cost-benefit.

 

I would think that input from BBO users would be a good way to determine what the priorities for possible software enhancements should be. If a summary list of suggested enhancements were generally available, it would be easy enough to get user input, and thus better inform decisions.

 

Take my “Voice to Text” suggestion for example. Would it be a welcome addition to the BBO feature set? I think so, but, per replies to my suggestion, there are others who clearly do not. Maybe input from a broader group of BBO customers would be useful - especially if provided in the context of a priority list of other enhancements.

 

Then there is the question of cost, and “developer bandwidth”. How costly would it be to add such an enhancement? I just added “Voice In Voice Typing” as a Chrome extension on a Windows 10 PC. It works fine for apps like Gmail, where text box input is not “massaged” by the app. It can be made to work for BBO chat, but clearly the feature would be much easier to use if the app were aware of the extension’s existence. How hard would that be to do? Not that hard, I expect.

 

One final point. I have played bridge with modest success for many years, but am quite new to BBO. I find that some features of BBO have to be “discovered”, since the user guide/help provided is somewhat deficient, to put it mildly. So experienced “gurus” might find some of my questions and suggestions to be naïve. But that is no excuse for arrogance.

[Xgasman]

Am I a visionary to expect voice without text?

It was already a staple of long distance human communication before bridge was even invented, and has been rather easy to implement in internet for the last 15 years :)

 

BBO currently uses it (AFAIK) for vugraph commentary only.

It would be considerably more useful in other areas, Director calls for instance.

 

A voice option is available on teaching and bidding tables as well as Vugraph.

 

I suspect it would non-trivial to add it to ordinary tables: automatically enabled after bidding and play, and disabled when the he host clicks on "Next Deal". And enabled when a new player arrives.

 

But if it was possible, would BBO members feel it was a priority?