SpeechRecognizer causes ANR... I need help with Android speech API

Question

EDIT: I should have mentioned this already, but I'm running this code in a service. The entire app is turned on/off by a widget button and has no activity.

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Update: I tried attaching the SDK sources to the project so I could get a more precise idea of where the failure was occurring, but from the looks of it, only public APIs are included, which seems to make them a lot less useful... can anyone suggest at least a debugging approach for solving this issue? I'm kind of stuck.

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I'm trying to use Android's speech recognition package to record user speech and translate it to text. Unfortunately, when I attempt initiate listening, I get an ANR error that doesn't point to anything specific.

As the SpeechRecognizer API indicates, a RuntimeException is thrown if you attempt to call it from the main thread. This would make me wonder if the processing was just too demanding... but I know that other applications use the Android API for this purpose and it is typically pretty snappy.

java.lang.RuntimeException: SpeechRecognizer should be used only from the application's main thread

Here is a (trimmed) sample of the code I'm trying to call from my service. Is this the proper approach?

Thanks for taking the time to help. This has been a hurdle I haven't been able to get over yet.

Intent intent = new Intent(RecognizerIntent.ACTION_RECOGNIZE_SPEECH);
intent.putExtra(RecognizerIntent.EXTRA_LANGUAGE_MODEL,
        RecognizerIntent.LANGUAGE_MODEL_FREE_FORM);
intent.putExtra(RecognizerIntent.EXTRA_CALLING_PACKAGE,
        "com.domain.app");

SpeechRecognizer recognizer = SpeechRecognizer
        .createSpeechRecognizer(this.getApplicationContext());
RecognitionListener listener = new RecognitionListener() {
    @Override
    public void onResults(Bundle results) {
        ArrayList<String> voiceResults = results
                .getStringArrayList(RecognizerIntent.EXTRA_RESULTS);
        if (voiceResults == null) {
            Log.e(getString(R.string.log_label), "No voice results");
        } else {
            Log.d(getString(R.string.log_label), "Printing matches: ");
            for (String match : voiceResults) {
                Log.d(getString(R.string.log_label), match);
            }
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void onReadyForSpeech(Bundle params) {
        Log.d(getString(R.string.log_label), "Ready for speech");
    }

    @Override
    public void onError(int error) {
        Log.d(getString(R.string.log_label),
                "Error listening for speech: " + error);
    }

    @Override
    public void onBeginningOfSpeech() {
        Log.d(getString(R.string.log_label), "Speech starting");
    }
};
recognizer.setRecognitionListener(listener);
recognizer.startListening(intent);

Answer 1

From a service, you have to create the recognizer from looper running on the main thread. Also RecognizerIntent.EXTRA_RESULTS should be SpeechRecognizer.RESULTS_RECOGNITION.

psuedo code:

public class VoiceRecognition implements RecognitionListener, Runnable 
{
    @Override
    public void run()
    {
        recognizer = SpeechRecognizer.createSpeechRecognizer(yourContext);
        recognizer.setRecognitionListener((RecognitionListener) this);

         intent = new Intent(RecognizerIntent.ACTION_RECOGNIZE_SPEECH);
         //... all the intent stuff ...
         intent.putExtra(RecognizerIntent.EXTRA_MAX_RESULTS, 5);
         recognizer.startListening(intent);
    }
    @Override
    public void onResults(Bundle results)
    {
       ArrayList<String> matches;
       matches=results.getStringArrayList(SpeechRecognizer.RESULTS_RECOGNITION);
    }
 }

....
VoiceRecognition voiceRecognizer = new VoiceRecognition();
Handler loopHandler = new Handler(Looper.getMainLooper());
loopHandler.post(voiceRecognizer);

Answer 2

Make Sure to use the RECORD_AUDIO permission.