App Update: Bluetooth Macro and Voice Input v2.1

A new version of the Bluetooth Macro app is available on Google Play

As much as I like gaming, one thing that irritates me is "Quick Time Event" button mashing game mechanism which requires the player to repeatedly bash a button usually in response to a cinematic event, for example:

Interrogation Scene - Metal Gear Solid

As protagonist Snake is interrogated, the player is required to mash a button to resist the electrocution.

Pooping - South Park: The Stick of Truth


A more immature example is mashing a button to poop.. it is South Park, after all.


So I've updated the Bluetooth Macro app to include a 'button mash' function.


Usage
The new functionality can be found by swiping left past the voice recognition section screen.

Enter the keys to send in the text-to-send box, and use the slider to set the frequency (The minimum is 1/sec, max 100/sec).

Note that while the app strives to keep these times as accurate as possible, there will be some limitations based on the hardware that you use.

Click start to begin 'mashing' the button - it will continue until you click stop.

Randomising time
A lot of third party game controllers can include a rapid-fire button that the player can simply hold down. Some games (such as MGS) could detect these (presumably because such a solution would send button presses at a predictable set interval, whereas a human player would have marginal inconsistencies in the spacing of the button presses.)

The randomise checkbox aims to overcome this by introducing a small variation between the keypress delays.


Support/Feedback
Unfortunately I'm not in a position to offer any kind of official support for this, so use entirely at your own risk. If you have any trouble with it, then feel free to get in touch, and I'll try to help as and when I can, but I make no guarantees!

App Update: Bluetooth Macro and Voice Input v2.0

The Macro Input System app has undergone a significant overhaul.

Macros are now stored in an internal database, and can have categories assigned.

Download

To create a macro

Select the menu, then Create Macro. Give the macro a name, short description, category and the actual macro content (in the same format as previous versions of the app), hit create.

If you have multiple macros in the same category, they will be nested in the macro list. Useful for keeping similarly themed snippets together – terminal commands, code snippets, etc.

To send a macro

Tap on the macro in the list. Alternatively, long press on the macro in the list, and from the pop-up, select Send. If you want to preview the text that will be sent before sending, tick the Preview checkbox. If you select this, then when you tap on the macro, a pop-up will appear displaying the text and ask for confirmation before sending.

To edit a macro

Long press on the macro in the list, and from the popup, select Edit, where you’ll be taken to the same screen as in the screenshot above and be able to edit the description, category and content.

To delete a macro

Long press on the macro in the list, and from the popup, select Delete.

To import macros from previous versions

There’s two way you can do this:

1) From the menu, select Create Macro, then from the options menu again, select Load from File. You’ll be presented with a file list as you would have in previous versions of the app. Navigate to the macro you want to import. The Create Macro dialog will populate with the name and content of the macro. From here you can edit the category and description, and save it to the database.

2) From the menu, select Quick Import. You’ll be presented with a file list as you would have in previous versions of the app. Navigate to the macro you want to import. The macro will be immediately imported, with the file name as it’s title, and “Quick Import” as it’s category. You can edit this later if need be.

Note that once imported, editing the macro will need to be done via the edit function outlined above. Changing the file on your phone will not update the macro.

 

Using Speech Recognition

Either hit the speech recognition button or swipe to access the Speech Recognition screen. On that screen, hit Start Voice Recognition to begin. When the prompt appears, start speaking. When you’re done, stop speaking, and the results will be processed, and a list will appear of options that the system thought it heard, starting with the highest probability.

If the recognised speech matches the name of one of your saved macros, it will be added to this list.

As with the other macros, tap to send the text.

You can also save speech recognition macros for later use – just longpress on the macro and select Save from the menu. They will be saved under the category “From Speech Recognition”



Support
As with all my apps, it is free, and as such, I am not in a position to offer any kind of official support, so use entirely at your own risk.
If you have any trouble with it, then feel free leave a comment or tweet and I'll try to help as and when I can, but I make no guarantees.

New App/Update: Bluetooth Macro and Voice Input

This new app is an update to my previous Bluetooth Macro Input app. Unfortunately, for technical reasons, I could not issue this as an update to the existing app.

The new version focuses more on the voice recognition and transcription features of the app,

Now any macros you store in the Macros subfolder can be selected by voice. For example, if you store your macros in
<DEVICE STORAGE>/BluetoothMacroFiles/
and have a macro called
<DEVICE STORAGE>/BluetoothMacroFiles/Macros/Hello world.txt

Then the voice command "Hello World" can be used to load and play back that macro.

Usage
Usage guide for the original file-based macro system can be found here.
Previous update notes are available here.

Requirements Changes
Companion hardware is still required, see the original post for details.

The minimum required version of android is Honeycomb (Android 3.0)

App Update: Bluetooth Macro Input

The Bluetooth Macro Input app has been updated and is now available on Google Play.

New Features

As well as it's existing ability to send text files stored on phone, it is now possible to use voice recognition to transcribe voice to text and send that text via bluetooth in the same way, effectively allowing your phone to act as a dictation machine for your computer, without needing to install additional software on your computer.

Please note the voice recognition uses Google's voice recognition API. As a result, I do not have any control of the quality or accuracy of the voice recognition. It does also mean that Internet access is required to use the voice recognition feature.

Usage guide for the original file-based macro system can be found here.

Requirements Changes

Companion hardware is still required, see the original post for details.

The minimum required version of android is now Honeycomb (Android 3.0)