Sunday, December 8, 2013

Nexus 4 Camera Voice Command

My wife has a Samsung Galaxy S3, it has a feature where she can say a word and the camera will take a picture. This was a feature advertised as being available on the Nexus 4 before it was released, but it didn't make it into the final release. Even with the upgrade to Kit Kat, it's still not there. Since this isn't supported by stock Android, I looked to Tasker. It's not an obvious thing to do, but this works fairly well.

First, of course, you have to have Tasker. There is a version on PlayStore that you can try for free, but this app is worth paying for.

Second, you'll need AutoVoice, another app that you'll want to pay for. It was $1.57 (odd price, but whatever), and is worth buying. It's a replacement for, and a significant upgrade to, the "get voice" command that is built into Tasker.

Once you have those, follow these steps. The first part sets up AutoVoice via Tasker to listen whenever the display is on. This is a power saving thing, and is nice for when you're actually holding the phone and want to yell at it.

First part, set up AutoVoice to listen when the display is on:
  1. In Tasker, under the Profiles tab, click the + to create a new profile.
  2. Name it "Continuous AutoVoice Listening"
  3. Select "State"
  4. Select "Display"
  5. Select "Display State"
  6. Set "Is" to "On"
  7. Select "Plugin"
  8. Select "AutoVoice Recognize"
  9. Tap the Edit button next to Configuration.
  10. Don't change anything, just tap the Checkmark button
  11. Tap the back arrow at the top left of Tasker to go back to Profiles.

Now AutoVoice is listening whenever the display is on, but it won't do anything yet. Next is to set up the command words and actions.
  1. Under Profiles again, click the + to create a new profile.
  2. Name it "Take Picture"
  3. Select "State"
  4. Select "Plugin"
  5. Select "AutoVoice Recognized"
  6. Tap "Edit" next to Configuration. 
  7. Tap Speak Filter, google listening app comes up, say "cheese" or whatever you want your command word to take a picture to be.
  8. Tap the checkmark. 
  9. Tap the back arrow at the top left. 
  10. Should be prompted for new Task. 
  11. Seems to be a bug in Tasker here, I couldn't give this a name, so just click the checkmark
  12. Click + to add new action 
  13. Select "Media"
  14. Select "Take Photo"
  15. On this configuration page, fill in filename with something like "TaskerPhotos", set "Naming Sequence" to Chronological, and make any other camera adjustments you want.
  16. Tap back arrow at top left twice.
That should be it. Now whenever the screen is on, you can shout "cheese" at your phone and it will take a picture. It's a little slow, but works just fine.


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