@ztiknl/sara
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<input> Hi Sara, how are you?
(prompt / response) All systems operational!
<input> How is the weather in (where are we)?
(prompt / response) The current weather in Amsterdam, Netherlands is:
(weatherdetails)
<input> _
Attention: this package is currently a work in progress
Do not install via npm install @ztik.nl/sara
Clone or download from Sara @ Github
Github documentation will be the Current/Latest testing build
NPM will be pushed occasionally when there shouldn't be any app-breaking bugs
Many changes are to be expected, do not expect backwards compatibility
Current version: 0.2.2
When the core program is more complete I will start semantic version 1.0.0
Sara is a command prompt, that listens for keyboard input or voice commands
Sara has a voice, and is able to respond to commands through text as well as audio
Sara is my (poor) attempt at making my own Jarvis/Alexa/Hey Google/Hi Bixby/Voice Response System
It runs in Node.js on a Raspberry Pi 3B, but should be able to run on earlier versions as well as other linux distro
It has some internal commands, but can be extended through a self-made plugin system
Hearing works
Voice commands can be sent to the command line for editing, or immediately be processed without user intervention
This option selection is currently hidden away in hearing.js, but will be in the commandline arguments and config.json soon
Voice works
Voice output works, but further testing is required
On very long output, the speed appears to slow down, and different voices would be nice...
Different voices (male and female) are now possible, soon there will be an option to select, as well as a way to display a list of voices for each language!
Vision works
All it does is take a picture every 30 minutes using a USB webcam
Pi camera not supported yet, will be supported later
There are object/face detection functions, as well as some other functions (age/expression/gender labeling) but NONE of these functions are connected to the webcam source image yet!
There are NO object/face recognition functions at this moment, but this will be added soon
Sara ignores the following words at sentence start:
sara
can you
will you
would you
could you
tell me
let me know
please
Sara also ignores the word please and the ? character at the end of commands
After stripping these words, the command is compared to internal commands, and if it doesnt match, it will be compared to a regex string contained in every plugin .json file
Sara listens to the keyword 'Sara'
Hardware:
sudo apt-get install alsa-utilsapt-get install fswebcam"@google-cloud/text-to-speech": "^1.1.2",
"chalk": "^2.4.2",
"country-list": "^2.1.1",
"decimal.js": "^10.2.0",
"geoip-lite": "^1.3.7",
"node-webcam": "^0.5.0",
"play-sound": "^1.1.3",
"public-ip": "^3.1.0",
"sonus": "^1.0.3",
"weather-js2": "^2.0.2"
npm installnode bin.jsnode bin.js --helpFor more information on the Google Cloud Speech API, see:
NPMJS.com/sonus/usage & NPMJS.com/sonus/how-do-i-set-up-google-cloud-speech-api
The Google API key file is located at ./resources/apikeys/googlecloud.json
For more information on how to setup your own custom hotword, see:
NPMJS.com/sonus/usage & NPMJS.com/sonus/how-do-i-make-my-own-hotword
The custom hotword file is located at ./resources/speechrecognition/Sarah.pmdl
I have tried to keep everything modular, so if something doesn't work on your system, you can disable that function through commandline arguments, config.json options file, or in the app itself
The vision command will be extended with object/face recognition, if I can when I get that to work properly
start/stop colors turns on/off colored responses/prompt
start/stop verbose turns on/off verbose mode
Verbose mode will turn on display of output with a 'data' or 'warn' type
help displays the main 'help' section
help <topic> displays help on the topic requested (still needs to be populated)
add help fill in the form and a new help topic is born!
edit help <topic> find an error in a certain help topic, you can fix it.
start/stop listening turns on/off speech recognition
start/stop hearing same as above
start/stop voice turns on/off text-to-speech
start/stop talking same as above
silence stop speaking the current sentence/item
start/stop vision turns on/off timer (15sec) for webcam snapshot to ./resources/vision/frame.png
start/stop watching same as above
Nothing is done with this image at this time, but there are tests being done with detection and recognition...
Sara needs to 'understand' commands, and does this by comparing input to a regular expression found inside each plugin function's .json file
Example:
/^(?:what|how\smuch)?\s?(?:is)?\s?(-?[0-9]+\.?(?:[0-9]+)?)\s?(?:\+|plus|\&|and)\s?(-?[0-9]+\.?(?:[0-9]+)?)\s?(?:is)?$/i
This regular expression matches the following sentences:
what is (-)10(.12) plus/and/+/& (-)10(.12)
what (-)10(.12) plus/and/+/& (-)10(.12) is
how much is (-)10(.12) plus/and/+/& (-)10(.12)
how much (-)10(.12) plus/and/+/& (-)10(.12) is
(-)10(.12) plus/and/+/& (-)10(.12) is
(-)10(.12) plus/and/+/& (-)10(.12)
Because Sara strips starting input, this allows to recognize sentences such as:
Sara can you please tell me what 10 + -9 is?
In the above regex line. most groups are not captured (?:xxx)
The capture fields (-?[0-9]+.?(?:[0-9]+)?) grabs these values and push them back to math.js which includes the function for processing these values
In the above example, math.js will receive an array object containing 3(!) items:
[0] the complete input string, in case the plugin still requires this string.
[1] the first captured group
[2] the second captured group
Therefore, the function math.add will receive these 3 array items, and return the calculation of add x[1] + x[2]
x[0] is always the entire matching regex string
Using the input sentence above, then:
x[0] == "what 10 + -9 is"
x[1] == 10
x[2] == -9
(I am not a native English speaker, and I am not certain this is the correct term)
Sara is able to process subcommands through the use of parenthesis encapsulation
Example:
Sara can you tell me how much is 9 + (10 + 16)?
In this example, Sara will calculate 10 + 16 first, then calculate 9 + 26 afterwards
You can layer as many commands as you need, they will be processed starting with the most outer subcommand first:
11 + (7 + (root of 9))
subcmd: root of 9 = 3
subcmd: 7 + 3 = 10
finalcmd: 11 + 10 = 21
These are created using (at least) 2 files:
pluginname_function.json
pluginname.js
The .js file contains all the javascript to deal with request X and push back a result
The .json file contains the name of the plugin, the name of the module (the .js file name), a Regular Expression string, and a small description
One .js file can contain multiple module.exports functions, each function requires its own .json file
Example:
math.js
math_add.json
math_subtract.json
math_root.json
Regular Expressions in these .json files need special characters to be escaped twice:
"regex": "/^(?:what|how\\smuch)?\\s?(?:is)?\\s?(-?[0-9]+\\.?(?:[0-9]+)?)\\s?(?:\\+|plus|\\&|and)\\s?(-?[0-9]+\\.?(?:[0-9]+)?)\\s?(?:is)?$/i",
Since Sara removes certain words from the start of the sentence, all that the regex requires is the intent and if variables need to be passed to the function, one or more working capture groups
what is 7 + 9
10 - 3.3
9 * 4
4 divided by 3
how much is 12 squared
root of 10
what 10³ is
hi
hello
hey
yo
good morning/afternoon/evening/night
how are you
how are you doing
how are you feeling
how are you doing today
how are you feeling at the moment
where am I
where are you
what city are we in
what time zone are we in
in which province are we
what are your actual coordinates
Which country is this
weather
how is the weather
how is the weather in/around/near <place>
what is the weather like in/around/near <place>
weather forecast
what is the weather forecast
what is the weather forecast for <place>
I am still thinking about a good keyword for menu move functions, media(?)
stop video/movie/film/playback/episode
stop the video/movie/film/playback/episode
stop this video/movie/film/playback/episode
pause/pause video/movie/film/playback/episode
resume the video/movie/film/playback/episode
continue this video/movie/film/playback/episode
menu select
menu back
menu move up/down/left/right
menu move up/down/left/right 5x
menu move up/down/left/right 5*
menu move up/down/left/right 5 times
menu move up/down/left/right 5 entries
menu move up/down/left/right 1 entry
menu home
menu info/information
menu context
menu submenu
More coming...
(all these plugins are incomplete, and will be finished soon)
The only advise I can give is to make sure that alsa has the correct in/output device registered
My Raspberry Pi config:
ztik@sara:~/ $ arecord -l
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
>>> card 0: haobosou [haobosou], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio] <<<
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: HD4110 [HP Webcam HD-4110], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
I use card 0, device 0 for my audio in (haobosou microphone, cheap and great quality audio)
ztik@sara:~/ $ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 2: ALSA [bcm2835 ALSA], device 0: bcm2835 ALSA [bcm2835 ALSA]
Subdevices: 7/7
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
Subdevice #2: subdevice #2
Subdevice #3: subdevice #3
Subdevice #4: subdevice #4
Subdevice #5: subdevice #5
Subdevice #6: subdevice #6
>>> card 2: ALSA [bcm2835 ALSA], device 1: bcm2835 IEC958/HDMI [bcm2835 IEC958/HDMI] <<<
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
I use the HDMI output on my raspi for audio out, so I am using card 2, device 1 here
My config file:
ztik@sara:~/ $ cat ~/.asoundrc
pcm.!default {
type asym
playback.pcm {
type plug
slave.pcm "hw:2,1"
}
capture.pcm {
type plug
slave.pcm "hw:0,0"
}
}
This solved every issue I had with aplay and arecord
Using these settings I am able to record from the proper input device with the following command:
arecord -d 10 test.wav
and play that recording using:
aplay test.wav
Anything on support beyond this should be requested at alsa/linux forums I guess, feel free to ask, but don't expect an answer...
I understand people can have problems getting through this, so here is a small guide (thanks to smart-mirror.io)
Setting up Speech Recognition
Sara uses Sonus with Google Cloud Speech for keyword spotting and recognition.
To set that up, you'll need to create a new project in the Cloud Platform Console:
In the Cloud Platform Console, go to the Projects page and select or create a new project
GO TO THE PROJECTS PAGE
Enable billing for your project.
ENABLE BILLING
Enable the Cloud Speech API.
ENABLE THE API - For more info see Cloud Speech API Pricing (for simple use it should be free)
Create a new JSON service account key, edit it with a text editor and copy the contents to ./resources/apikeys/googlespeech.json
When prompted to create a new service account select 'Owner' or 'Project Owner'
As I understand, 90% of problems with Sonus are related to billing issues in Google Cloud
The vision module works, but all it does is take a picture every 30 min, no further processing connected at this moment
help list command, and/or display all topics using help--speak-all, --speak-response-only)I would like to point out that I simply put this hardware and these programs and modules together, but without the people who created those, I would have had nothing at all!
Thank you to those involved making:
Hope I didn't miss anyone here, if so, please let me know and I will update!
I am a complete moron when it comes to asynchronous programming, and I am positive that many functions could have been written better/cleaner/more efficient.
I made this project to enhance my understanding of Node.js/Javascript, so please remain calm if/when I don't understand your comment/code/bugfix/pull request/advice/issue at first glance.
FAQs
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The npm package @ztiknl/sara receives a total of 1 weekly downloads. As such, @ztiknl/sara popularity was classified as not popular.
We found that @ztiknl/sara demonstrated a not healthy version release cadence and project activity because the last version was released a year ago. It has 1 open source maintainer collaborating on the project.
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