Overlay

[Foggy]

Hi,

I continue to play with VoxCommando (XBMC). Did I tell you I think this is so cool

I have lots of questions - but will keep playing to see if I can figure them out

I find that once I have started playing music / movie I tend to put VC in standby mode so that it does not action things from what I am playing or in normal discourse.

How ever on the next command I have a bad habit of forgetting and end up shouting at the mic because I think it can't hear me 
Of course it is in standby.

Would it be possible to have VC overlay a small graphic in one of the corners of the screen? So that it would be unobtrusive that showed Yellow for standby and green for active

Best wishes.

[jitterjames]

There would be two ways to accomplish this (or more of course).  I would very much like to be able to have an addon in xbmc to accomplish this but I would need help from either an xbmc coder or possibly an xbmc skin developper, possibly both.  For me to do it myself would probably take a very long time.  I'm sure it would be worth it in the end because I would learn lots of cool stuff and come up with other ideas along the way.

The other way is to have a stand alone overlay dedicated to VoxCommando.  This would have its pros and cons vs the xbmc addon.

Pros:
- I could do it without help pretty quickly.  I've already done something similar as shown in the Kinect demo I posted.
- It would work with multiple programs (any that allowed it to be on top)
- I discussed doing something like this for Kinect and VoxCommando to show commands and to show where your hand was in the Kinect grid.  It seemed like a good idea at the time but I'm not sure if it is going to happen or not.  If I'm going to do something with the devs of KinEmote it should be in cooperation with them, not a separate fork of KinEmote, otherwise you won't be able to upgrade when they come out with new versions, and I would be forced to keep readapting their code to use my features.

Cons:
- Possible performance hit, and increased resource usage.  More memory used since it is it's own process (maybe 20 to 40 megs) but  I'd be more concerned about the cost of the video overlay on cpu.
- It would not be possible to integrate it into xbmc skins allowing it to move to make sure it fits with the layout.  think of the way the video window moves depending on which menu you are on.
- We would need to hide it when playing video, no?  Who wants that on there all the time when you are watching something?  This would be easier to do if integrated into xbmc.
- This one I'm not sure about but an application that is always on top could possibly create problems with focus, which can really screw things up.  I'm not saying this would be an issue, but it might.  I know it is when you try to pop something new up and put it in front.

Perhaps a better solution for your particular memory problem ( ) (and mine to be honest) would be if VC offered the option to pop up an osd when you are in standby with a warning, or yellow background or something.  So you could see that it recognized the command, but that it was ignoring you on purpose.  The downside of this would be if it was recognizing a lot of crap when playing a movie since the popups would get annoying fast.

As usual it's hard to know what is the best solution, since nothing is perfect, and different users will have difference needs and preferences.  I always try to think what will benefit the most users, without creating too much complexity, while keeping my work to a minimum if possible.

[Foggy]

Thank you.

I agree with your comments.

However, I have noticed recently that most of the USA based television shows I have watched appear to have a channel graphic overlaid on the screen - When I first saw them I thought "That's going annoy me". However I can't say I notice them any more. I think a tasteful / small graphic would be viewed in the same way.

I think your comments about an overlay / add on within XBMC is a good one.

Once I have finished understanding and getting VC & EventGhost working the way I want it I will ask on the XBMC forums if some one can give a pointer.

Best wishes.

[painy]

I had that problem a couple of times at first. But now i know that when the music or a movie is playing, that i'm in prefix mode.

Just thought of the following:
If you decide to code something in XBMC for this James, why not just (if it's possible anyway) make it so that VC is automatically in standby or prefix mode when XBMC/MM is playing something?
Or anyone who would want that could just add an extra command to the xbox play/pause voice command to put VC in standby mode. I personally rarely use the normal (green) listen mode in VC, as it gives me way to many unwanted actions.
Just thinking out loud here.

[jitterjames]

Foggy: Good point.  I am experimenting with a small icon overlay built into VC.  I think it will work well, and I have some ideas on how to make it even better.

Painy: If you want to make a command to play and put VC into standby at the same time it is pretty easy to do.  Let me know if you need help with it.  It may also be possible to get an alert from xbmc whenever it goes into play mode (I'm not 100% sure about this).  Of course, if you use something like the Amulet remote then none of this is really an issue.  I would love to have a Star Trek style badge that I could tap to speak.  Waving your hand at the Kinect when you want to speak might also work, but I think the response time of the Kinect is probably too slow to be really useful.

[Foggy]

Thank you.

I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

Best wishes.

[jitterjames]

http://voxcommando.com/forum/index.php?topic=366.msg1970#msg1970

the overlay is available via the options menu

[Foggy]

Hi James,

Perfect - Thank you very much.

However, the option does not stick when you close and re-open.


Best wishes.

[jitterjames]

I know, not yet.  It's still a test of sorts.  It may change still.  I have to ruminate on it.  It should remember the position that you drag it to though.

[Foggy]

It does indeed.

Best wishes.

[Foggy]

I Just noticed it also changes colour in the task bar - Cool 

Best wishes.

[Auri]

I just started to use the build in XBMC overlay.

Is there a way to control it (config it) ?
For my taste it :
a) goes away to fast
b) has limited width and scrolling is way to fast

Is this a XBMC thing or a Vox thing ?

Regards
Auri

[jitterjames]

It's mostly an XBMC thing.  You can modify the window (It's not really an overlay IMO), by editing DialogKaiToast.xml in the skin addons folder.  It will depend on what skin you are using in XBMC.

I don't personally like using this type of notification (needs work anyway) and I only really find it useful if you are running VC on a different computer from XBMC.  The fact that the size of the window is fixed and cannot grow depending on the amount of information to display really sucks.

The only thing that I might be able to adjust in VC is the duration that it stays on screen.

[Auri]

Is the "old" overlay from VOX still in place ? there was an overlay in the first version I used (overlay in windows)

[jitterjames]

OSD ("on screen display") options are available on the options page - general tab, under other options.  You can turn them on and off for Commands and Alternates individually.

I will probably create a separate options tab for OSD containing all settings for the various OSDs and overlays.  Eventually

What I currently call the "overlay" is just an icon that shows whether VC is ON, OFF, or in STANDBY.  It doesn't show commands etc. and is turned on and off in the options menu only (for now) and can be moved by clicking and dragging the icon.  I plan to add actions to show/hide this overlay and to be able to change its location.  So, for example, you could have it disappear when XBMC is playing a movie, and automatically appear when you pause.