TTS on Copilot Live 6

barking_mad_mark · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 12, 2005 Posts: 8

I have just changed from Live 5 on Smartphone to Live 6 on Pocket PC. Unlike a lot of people I have always found Copilot great and reliable and had very few gripes even after miles of travel.

As I have now changed my smartphone to a Pocket PC I now have the benefit of text to speech TTS announcements however I have noticed the following:

I have installed Co-pilot Live 6 on my Orange SPV M5000 running Windows Mobile 5. When a POI of interest approaches I get a screen similar to:

############
Safety Camera
1 of 1 in 0.2 miles

Approaching
Gatso:09871@30
############

The TTS announces 'Safety Camera 1 of 1 in 0.2 miles' which is fine and works well. However when you get to the next announcement/direction (after the camera) it then tags on at the beginning 'approaching Gatso : 09871' to the next message.

Is there anyway around this, it may have been a problem on live 5 but I have had no experience of this.

Thanks,

Mark

Bazzer · Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2005 11:37 am Post subject:

Yes, same old problem as in CP5. Seems that this is one thing they haven't bothered to fix.

Baz
_________________
Garmin DriveSmart 61 LMT-D
TomTom Go 50 - Going in the BIN
TomTom Go 730 (RIP)
Garmin Montana 650
Garmin Oregon 45oT
Garmin Edge 1000
Tracklogs Digital Mapping

iankb · Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2005 12:53 pm Post subject:

I never had that problem with CP5, it always added that to the camera message, and never waited until the next message.

However, if you want it to stop pronouncing the colon, and to attach the speed to the spoken message, you should use the speed camera updates that have been edited especially for CoPilot. They replace the colon by a space, and change the '@' character to ' AT '. Or does CP6 stop that version from being used?
_________________
Ian

iPaq 2210
Globalsat BT-338
Seidio G2500 Amplified Vent Mount
CoPilot 6, GPS Tuner 4.2, Navio 3.01
BMW 330ci Sport

HellFire · Regular Visitor Joined: Jul 25, 2004 Posts: 126

Bazzer · Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2005 6:41 pm Post subject:

I used to experience the same problem as Mark whereby CP5 would just make a 'beep' noise with the screen displaying the camera details. But at the next actual turn command, it would announce the camera & the turn.

If, as happened on several occasions, I had passed several cameras before the next turn instruction, it would be announced as a jumble of camera warnings and turn instructions. Very confusing.

Again, I am interested whether any of the problems that I experienced with CP5 have been resolved in CP6, and this appears to be one that hasn't.

As I have mentioned previously, too much information is as bad as too little when all you want are clear and concise commands.

I know that the .xls database of speed cameras can be edited to take out the '@', 'Colon' and the Gatso number, but I always found the announcement of 'Gatso one of one in three tenths of a mile approaching', even taking out the colons etc was irritating, when a simple, 'Warning, Gatso in three tenths of a mile' would suffice.

As a comparison, TomTom announces (very clearly),"Warning, Gatso ahead, speed limit 30 miles per hour" or whatever speed it is. The speed information can be taken out if need be.

I know some will feel that as an ex-CP5 user, I'm just here to stick the boot in again, but like others in my position, I am genuinely interested to see if ALK have taken on board many of the issues raised about CP5and actually done something positive about them. I am also eagerly awaiting Ponderous' review as I know that he WANTS CP6 to work, and will give a completely unbiased appraisal.

Baz
_________________
Garmin DriveSmart 61 LMT-D
TomTom Go 50 - Going in the BIN
TomTom Go 730 (RIP)
Garmin Montana 650
Garmin Oregon 45oT
Garmin Edge 1000
Tracklogs Digital Mapping

Dave · Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2005 12:31 pm Post subject:

The @ issue was fixed when we started compiling the Speed Camera files ourselves, but obviously since the inclusion of OV2 format, the issue is back.

I've raised this as an urgent bug and we'll get it fixed!

iankb · Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2005 2:38 pm Post subject:

Dave · Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2005 3:34 pm Post subject:

We may be able to silent that, I'll see what can be done, but really this should be removed from the OV2 files. Really the Colon isn't doing anything and Richard (Oldie) - Moderator could probably do this on his normal run. I don't see any significance here for the Colon between GATSO and Number.

Just making it a space should suffice.

Privateer · Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2005 4:51 pm Post subject:

Hi Dave,

Dave · Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2005 5:10 pm Post subject:

If there was a requirement for the colon then like I said we can see if we can do this, but if there's no requirement for a colon, why have it there ? It won't make any difference to other applications and any applications that want to use TTS will then not have any issue, that's not just CoPilot but any other apps that want to use TTS either now or in the future :D

iankb · Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2005 7:19 pm Post subject:

The guy at PocketGPSWorld who prepares the camera files was very helpful in providing edited versions of the CSV files for CoPilot, with the @-sign replaced and the colon removed. If he is able and happy to provide edited versions of the OV2 files, then I can't see why alternate versions for TomTom and CoPilot should be a problem. Of course, I don't know how easy that would be for him to do, but he was quite happy to provide the CSV version.
_________________
Ian

iPaq 2210
Globalsat BT-338
Seidio G2500 Amplified Vent Mount
CoPilot 6, GPS Tuner 4.2, Navio 3.01
BMW 330ci Sport

neil01 · Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2005 10:20 pm Post subject:

iankb · Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2005 2:41 am Post subject:

Installed CP6 and dropped in the latest OV2 and BMP camera files. You have to rename them to 'Speed Cameras.xxx', since it uses the name of the files as the POI type to read out, and 'pocketgps_uk_sc' sounds a bit odd as a POI type.

So far, I have only played back old GPS tracks through the new software, but that showed up a couple of problems with the camera alerts. Firstly, as reported before, it seems to hold back the 'approaching' part of the message and play it back in front of the next message. Secondly, it doesn't seem to cancel the camera display automatically. I'll try with live GPS and see if the problems go away. I'll also try editing the colon and @-sign out of the OV2 file, and see if that makes a difference.

I think that the routes look as logical as I could expect. Only local knowledge of traffic lights, jams, etc, could improve them.

I do find the menu system in the PDA software to be a bit confusing, and I've yet to find out how to type uppercase characters with the new fat-fingered keyboard.
_________________
Ian

iPaq 2210
Globalsat BT-338
Seidio G2500 Amplified Vent Mount
CoPilot 6, GPS Tuner 4.2, Navio 3.01
BMW 330ci Sport

iankb · Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2005 3:42 pm Post subject:

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