Keyboard Entry

[bwhi...@gmail.com]

Hi Jeroen
Any chance of move entry by keyboard in a future update?
The reason being is that I have built a wooden chess board using reed switches and a Teensy USB Development Board.
The board basically emulates a keyboard so when you the rook off the "A1" square and place it on the "A3" square it sends the instruction "A" "1" "A" "3" just like a keyboard.
I know that it wouldn't probably be used by the majority of your users but it would be handy for other chess players who have built a board similar to mine.
Thanks Bryan

[Jeroen]

Hi Bryan,

That is a nice project.

Let my try to understand what I would have to do to make this work.

Suppose you have it set up and on your Android phone you have an e-mail editor open - if you then make a move, it writes "A 1 A 3" when you make that move? So the Chess app would have to listen to key-board events and when it detects a valid input sequence, it makes the move. 

Are you also planning to have it work the other way - e.g. light up some leds for the coordinates of the next move?

Best regards,

Jeroen

[Bryan Whitby]

Hi Jeroen
Sorry if I wasn't very clear.
All I would require is for your chess program to have the option of entering the human moves via the tablet/phone keyboard.
It already works with Aart's chess program (The application accepts moves through the touch screen, trackball, or keyboard (e2e4 pushes the king pawn, e1g1 castles king side, etc.).
You can find out more here at my web site.
http://usbchessboard.yolasite.com/
Regards
Bryan

[Jeroen Carolus]

No problem, I did not have my coffee yet, so that did not help.

So I have made an implementation, it is in the download section under the latest development version http://www.jwtc.nl/downloads.

Does it send the key events separately? In that case you would be able to take a piece and then put it back - say e2e2. And also for promotion. Let me know if it works.

Bryan

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[Bryan Whitby]

Hi Jeroen
Many thanks, I wasn't expecting that!
Unfortunately, I'm now away from home for a few days but when I get back I'll certainly give it a try.
Many thanks
Bryan

[shog...@gmail.com]

Hi,

going one step further, "move entry by keyboard" could also be used by spech recognition.
Voice output of the moves done by the engine would be the simplier part.

Than you would be able to play blind chess, for example while jogging.  ;-)

Unfortunately my playing strength isn't high enough to be able playing blind.

Bernhard

[Jeroen]

Hi Bernhard,

Will have a look on how easy this is to implement using the text-to-speech API - that could work next to the keyboard entry. 

But I am pessimistic about the text recognition part. Android has possibilities, but getting letters and numbers back - I don't see that happen.

But you will have to keep your eyes open during jogging anyway ;)

Jeroen

[Bryan Whitby]

Jeroen

What can I say but a big THANK YOU, my chess board works great!!
I only wish I knew how to post a photo here to show you.
The option of voice announcements that Bernhard mentions would also be great as it would save looking at the tablet when the computer makes it's moves.

Bernhard

I don't know if you have looked at my website but a Spannish friend of mine has developed a similar system to what you've described but for Windows.
If you haven't looked then here's my web address. http://usbchessboard.yolasite.com/
It might be worth speaking to Javier as he might be able to help.

Regards
Bryan

[Jeroen Carolus]

Hi Bryan,

Good to hear that it works :)

I checked your website, so I have idea of how it looks like.

I have added a text-to-speech test in the latest development version - it should say "Start playing" when you select play from the start menu. Let me know if that works (it does here), then I will build upon that (that will be a little bit more tricky, since it actually has to wait until you move the pieces on the board, so not sure if that can be build fast).

Best regards,

Jeroen

Bryan

[Jeroen]

The text-to-speech library from Android is fun to play around with (not sure on how much devices this will actually work).

This has now resulted in another update of the development version.

There is now a new setting called "Speech" which can be found under Global preferences. If you enable that, it will tell the move that was made by the engine. 

Let me know how this works with your board...

[Bryan Whitby]

Hi Jeroen
Will probably be the week end before I have time to test but really appreciate your hard work.
Bryan

[Bernhard März]

Hi,

yesterday I've tried speech recognition a little bit.
It's absolutely not useable.  :-(
I don't know if there are teaching-options to teach new "words" (letters) or doing anything other. Still I wasn't able to give any chess-notation.
Furthermore I believe that speech-recognition needs internet access, which isn't also well done during jogging (at least not by WLAN).

Bernhard

[Jeroen]

Hi Bernhard,

Speech-to-text does not look promising - exactly because of the things you mention. So this will not be investigated.

The application only contains text-to-speech.

Regards,

Jeroen

[Bryan Whitby]

Jeroen

Installed latest update and although moves are announced with each move which is great, the actual female voice isn't that clear (to my ears).

Whenever the female voice announces moves on the 'a' file, she sounds like she's saying 'a' as in cat or fat not pronouncing it as a capital 'A'

Also the 'e' announcement sound a bit similar to 'd'

Is there a male voice announcer you could try?

Regards
Bryan

[Jeroen Carolus]

Hi Bryan,

That was one of the first things that I tried, but it's the voice that comes with the device. It might be possible to install other voice data - but that can not be done from within the application.

I've lowered the pitch and rate, so it is now somewhere between ET's voice and what is was.

Regards,

Jeroen

Regards
Bryan

[Bryan Whitby]

Hi Jeroen

Yes now a mature ET voice but now d8-d7 sounds like t8-t7 and the a now sounds like arr.
Never mind, it was good of you to implement it for me.
BTW..I've updated my website and included a link to your excellent app.

Regards
Bryan

[Jeroen]

Hi Bryan,

Let's do one more iteration on the sounds... pitch a little higher. Maybe the whole text-to-speech is just not it - but still a nice gimmick.

Thanks for putting a link to the application. This development version is not yet available on Google Play, but I will put an intermediate update on the market soon.

Actually this was a nice deviation from all the work that is waiting on the Chess application. 

Regards,

Jeroen

[gmate...@gmail.com]

On Saturday, August 10, 2013 10:22:24 AM UTC+2, Bryan Whitby wrote:

Hi Jeroen

Yes now a mature ET voice but now d8-d7 sounds like t8-t7 and the a now sounds like arr.
Never mind, it was good of you to implement it for me.
BTW..I've updated my website and included a link to your excellent app.

Regards
Bryan

Hello,

The odd thing is that 8.3.5 development version worked fine, but I began to have problems upgrading to 8.3.5 stable.

BTW... THANK YOU VERY MUCH Jeroen!  :-D

Now I can play with my Solus Chess board connected to an Android device, avoidiging to look the screen continually (thanks to the sound), etc.

My project: Solus Chess

Best regards,
Berger

[Jeroen]

I have an idea what could cause this. Will post an update here if there is a new development version.

Regards,

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

There is a new development version available. This one tries to select US-locale, as did the first development version. Let me know if it works for you.

On Wednesday, August 14, 2013 5:23:17 PM UTC+2, Berger wrote:

[Berger]

Hi,

Now it works ok.  :-)

But it speaks in english. Indeed seems to be the "locale", because I have ES-locale selected.

If you need more testing, in order to make it work with other languages, please feel free to ask.  :-)

Regards,
Berger

[Berger]

Hello,

In recent versions, Keyboard Entry feature has stopped working, which is a pity. Any chance that this function can be implemented again? ;-)

You have created a superb chess program for Android, and it would be a pity not to have ability to use it with my project SolusChess (or a similar DIY chess board which emulates a USB/Bluetooth keyboard)

In any case, thank you very much for your work.

Best regards,
Gerardo M. (aka Berger)
SolusChess DIY Project

[Jeroen]

Hello Berger,

That is unintentional!

Will have a look what may have broken this.

Cheers,

Jeroen

[Berger]

Hello Jeroen,

Great news! Thank you very much  :-)

I will be alert to a new update.

Regards,
Berger

[Jeroen]

Hi Berger,

The keyboard input should work in the latest version. Can you let me know if it works for you (I have no test device)?

Cheers,

Jeroen

[Gerardo M.]

Hi Jeroen,

Now it works but not like before. Typically, DIY sensory chess boards (as "Shish" by Matt Shannon, or "SolusChees" by me) send a carriage return after each move. This works well with programs like Arena Chess GUI, Fritz, Aart's Chess for Android, etc.

But with your Chess program, the carriage return causes the program to return to the main menu, ie, the move is performed, but an instant later we are in the home menu! My SolusChess project allows to disable the carriage return as an option, and this way everything works fine... but I think your program might be more comptatible if it accepted (or pass over) a carriage return after each move?

In any case, thank you very much for taking the time to implement this functionality. I'm at your disposal for any test. ☺

Best regards,

Berger

[Jeroen Carolus]

Hi Berger,

Thanks for you input, this makes sense. Let me see what can be done.

And I should make the app downloadable from web again too.

Cheers,

Jeroen

On Sun, Jan 3, 2016 at 1:11 PM, Gerardo M. <gmate...@gmail.com> wrote:

BTW, right now I can only perform tests via Bluetooth. Using this system, SolusChess sends '\r' as carriage return. My smartphone does not have USB Host, and I cannot connect a USB keyboard to it ...in order to make more extensive testing.

I've an old Tablet with USB Host (OTG) at which I could connect a USB Keyboard, but it can not run Google Play Store! And since your program is not for download in your web anymore... 😁

Best regards,

Berger

[Gerardo M.]

BTW, right now I can only perform tests via Bluetooth. Using this system, SolusChess sends '\r' as carriage return. My smartphone does not have USB Host, and I cannot connect a USB keyboard to it ...in order to make more extensive testing.

I've an old Tablet with USB Host (OTG) at which I could connect a USB Keyboard, but it can not run Google Play Store! And since your program is not for download in your web anymore... 😁

Best regards,

Berger

2016-01-03 12:58 GMT+01:00 Gerardo M. <gmate...@gmail.com>:

[Jeroen]

A download that hopefully contains the fix (a carriage return skip setting has been added), can be found here:

http://jwtc.nl/files/apk/dev/Chess.apk

[Bryan Whitby]

Hi Jeroen and Berger
I have tested both my Solus boards today after the new download and everything is OK.
Regards
Bryan

[Gerardo M.]

Hi Bryan,

Have you had the need to enable the option "Skip carriage return" in Chess Settings? Or has it worked immediately after installing the patch?

Regards,

Berger

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[Jeroen]

Thanks for testing. Sounds like an Android version problem, as the USB entry used to work.

[timmy...@gmail.com]

Hello Bryan,

It's been years since I used my USB Chess Board (made with pushbuttons and dream cheeky interface).  I tried to use it recently with my phone.

I thought I was able to do it years ago, but I was probably just listening to speech and using a regular board.

I bought a few OTG cables and am realizing the dream cheeky interface needed a driver program for the PC (made by Matt Shannon) and the cheeky didn't work with a phone.

I also bought a teensy chip over a year ago and never used it.  I believe I can just remove the dream cheeky interface and use a teensy chip that has been programmed.

This way the USB chessboard can communicate with the phone like a regular external keyboard without an additional driver program for the phone.

Is this what you also suggest?  If so I will look for that teensy chip.  I would like to play my USB chessboard on the phone.