Android Articles » Speech to Text

Introduction

Usually, one can speak more than 100 words per minute but cannot type more than 50 words per minute. Android brings in the power of the speech to text feature, built into our smart phones. There are numerous possibilities with the speech recognition function built into our devices and a number of apps are utilizing this, now a days.

In this tutorial, let us see, how to implement the speech to text function in our project.

Start a new Android Project.

Next, open the (default layout) activity_main.xml and place an ImageView and a TextView.

   <LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
       xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
       android:id="@+id/activity_main"
       android:layout_width="match_parent"
       android:layout_height="match_parent"
       android:background="#ffffff"
       android:orientation="vertical"
       android:paddingBottom="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
       android:paddingLeft="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
       android:paddingRight="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
       android:paddingTop="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
       android:weightSum="8">
   
       <LinearLayout
           android:layout_width="match_parent"
           android:layout_height="wrap_content"
           android:layout_weight="1"></LinearLayout>
   
       <LinearLayout
           android:layout_width="match_parent"
           android:layout_height="wrap_content"
           android:layout_below="@+id/textView"
           android:gravity="center"
           android:weightSum="1">
   
           <TextView
               android:id="@+id/txt_voice"
               android:layout_width="wrap_content"
               android:layout_height="wrap_content"
               android:inputType="textCapSentences"
               android:textColor="#000000"
               android:textSize="32dp"
               android:textStyle="normal" />
       </LinearLayout>
   
       <LinearLayout
           android:layout_width="match_parent"
           android:layout_height="wrap_content"
           android:layout_weight="5"></LinearLayout>
   
       <LinearLayout
           android:layout_width="match_parent"
           android:layout_height="wrap_content"
           android:layout_weight="2.5"
           android:gravity="center">
   
           <ImageView
               android:id="@+id/img_mic"
               android:layout_width="wrap_content"
               android:layout_height="71dp"
               android:layout_weight="0.05"
               android:background="#ffffff"
               android:src="@drawable/mic" />
       </LinearLayout>
   </LinearLayout>

When we touch the mic icon, the Google voice input window will be activated and we can speak into the device. The output will be shown in the TextView. In the MainActivity java class, we will write the code to convert the speech to text and display it in the TextView. The speech is recognized by the RecognizerIntent.ACTION_RECOGNIZE_SPEECH function.


   import android.content.ActivityNotFoundException;
   import android.content.Intent;
   import android.speech.RecognizerIntent;
   import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity;
   import android.os.Bundle;
   import android.util.Log;
   import android.view.View;
   import android.widget.ImageView;
   import android.widget.TextView;
   
   import java.util.ArrayList;
   import java.util.Locale;
   
   public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
   
   
       TextView textVoice;
       ImageView textSpeak;
       private final int SPEECH_INPUT = 1;
   
       @Override
       protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
           super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
           setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
   
           //initialize textview and imageview
           textVoice = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.txt_voice);
           textSpeak = (ImageView) findViewById(R.id.img_mic);
           textSpeak.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
   
               @Override
               public void onClick(View v) {
                   askSpeechInput();
               }
           });
       }
   
       // Showing google speech input dialog
       private void askSpeechInput() {
           Intent i = new Intent(RecognizerIntent.ACTION_RECOGNIZE_SPEECH);
           i.putExtra(RecognizerIntent.EXTRA_LANGUAGE_MODEL, RecognizerIntent.LANGUAGE_MODEL_FREE_FORM);
           i.putExtra(RecognizerIntent.EXTRA_LANGUAGE, Locale.getDefault());
           i.putExtra(RecognizerIntent.EXTRA_PROMPT, "Listening..!");
           try {
               startActivityForResult(i, SPEECH_INPUT);
           } catch (ActivityNotFoundException a) {
   
           }
       }
   
       // Receiving speech input
       @Override
       protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
           super.onActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode, data);
   
           switch (requestCode) {
               case SPEECH_INPUT: {
                   if (resultCode == RESULT_OK && null != data) {
                       ArrayList result = data
                               .getStringArrayListExtra(RecognizerIntent.EXTRA_RESULTS);
                       //arraylist result contains text that are similar to what you said
                       //the first one would be more accurate,so set it to textView
                       textVoice.setText(result.get(0));
                   }
                   break;
               }
   
           }
       }
   }

Primary links

Android Articles » Speech to Text