Android not acknowledging TTS Engine

Question

I am developing a very simple app in here. It's for my Cerebral Palsy daughter. It's just a big YES and NO buttons, so she can press them when requested.

Well... I am using SVOX Classic TTS Engine.

Everything was running smoothly until my tablet upgraded to ICS. Now, everytime I run the app, it opens the Market asking for me to install TTS. I hit "back" and then, my app speaks. This is VERY annoying.

Here is what Google API says:

*A successful check will be marked by a CHECK_VOICE_DATA_PASS result code, indicating this device is ready to speak, after the creation of our TextToSpeech object. If not, we need to let the user know to install the data that's required for the device to become a multi-lingual talking machine! Downloading and installing the data is accomplished by firing off the ACTION_INSTALL_TTS_DATA intent, which will take the user to Android Market, and will let her/him initiate the download. Installation of the data will happen automatically once the download completes. Here is an example of what your implementation of onActivityResult() would look like:*

Here is my code:

public class yesOunoActivity extends Activity implements OnInitListener{
ImageView yes;
ImageView no;
public TextToSpeech tts;
private int MY_DATA_CHECK_CODE = 0;

@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {

    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    Intent checkIntent = new Intent();
    checkIntent.setAction(TextToSpeech.Engine.ACTION_CHECK_TTS_DATA);
    startActivityForResult(checkIntent, MY_DATA_CHECK_CODE);

    tts = new TextToSpeech(this, this);

    setContentView(R.layout.yesorno);

    yes = (ImageView) findViewById(R.id.yes);
    no = (ImageView) findViewById(R.id.no);


    yes.setClickable(true); 
    yes.setOnTouchListener(new OnTouchListener() {
        @Override
        public boolean onTouch(View v, MotionEvent arg1) {

             if (arg1.getAction() == android.view.MotionEvent.ACTION_DOWN) {                             
                 tts.speak("yes!", TextToSpeech.QUEUE_ADD, null);
             }
             return true;
        }
    });


    no.setClickable(true); 
    no.setOnTouchListener(new OnTouchListener() {
        @Override
        public boolean onTouch(View v, MotionEvent arg1) {

             if (arg1.getAction() == android.view.MotionEvent.ACTION_DOWN) {                             

                //Intent myIntent = new Intent(v.getContext(), ParametrosActivity.class);
                tts.speak("no!", TextToSpeech.QUEUE_ADD, null);
             }
            return true;
    }

    });


}


@Override
protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
    if (requestCode == MY_DATA_CHECK_CODE) {
        if (resultCode == TextToSpeech.Engine.CHECK_VOICE_DATA_PASS) {
            // success, create the TTS instance
            tts = new TextToSpeech(this, this);
        } else {
            // missing data, install it
            //ATTENTION: BELOW THIS GIVES ME PROBLEMS SINCE IT OPENS MARKET
            //AND I HAVE TO HIT THE BACK BUTTON, THEN, IT SPEAKS!
            //BTW TTS ENGINE "IS" INSTALLED!!
            Intent installIntent = new Intent();
            installIntent
                    .setAction(TextToSpeech.Engine.ACTION_INSTALL_TTS_DATA);
            startActivity(installIntent);
        }
    }

}

@Override
public void onInit(int status) {
    if (status == TextToSpeech.SUCCESS) {
    } else if (status == TextToSpeech.ERROR) {
    }
}

@Override
public void onDestroy() {
    if (tts != null) {
        tts.stop();
        tts.shutdown();
    }
    super.onDestroy();
    System.gc();
}

    }

If I remove the area with "ATTENTION" above (since I am SURE I have TTS installed), it works the first time I run the app, if I leave the app and I open it again, it says "speak failed: not bound to tts engine"

It's like it doesn't create the TTS object since the app is still in memory.

So, guys... what do you guys think that I should do??

This is driving me crazy and I really need to communicate to my daughter through the tablet!

Any help is appreciated!!

Answer 1

I had this trouble on my application as well: TTS works in 2.3, but when I tried 4.0, it had the same symptoms as your problem (which I just found now while searching for a solution). The engine would work if you force-closed the application through Settings and started it again but just "backing out" and going back made the TTS engine in ICS not bind.

I tried setting the TTS object (mTts) to null after running mTts.shutdown(). When I started the application again after backing out, I got a null error on my mTts.speak() line.

At least for ICS, something is not letting go of the TTS engine. My solution (for now) is that I have made my TTS object static:

// in Activity
private static TextToSpeech mTts;
.
.
.
// in onCreate()
mTts = new TextToSpeech(this, this);
.
.
.
// in onDestroy()
if (mTts != null) {
   mTts.stop();
   mTts.shutdown();
   mTts = null;
}

I was already only using one TTS object for the application so I don't think there are too many downsides to this approach.