Voice NAVIGATION

[Menion]

volume control added to main dialog when you tap on navigation arrow (dialog with recalculate, itinerary ...)

EDIT: you may test it here viewtopic.php?f=25&t=1250#p7349

[sbraunthal]

Greetings,

I just purchased the Locus Pro versions and am very pleased. One question for Navigation and the sources for directions.  I live in Bali, Indonesia and both CloudMade and Map Quest work ok, however the driving directions from Google are much more accurate, including many more street names. Are there any future plans to add Google directions as a source? Thank you so much.

[Menion]

hi,  
  unfortunately this is not possible. Google have very weird policy and allow to use their directions API only on google maps. Problem is there that i cannot use their google maps because they do not allow other access then with their android component which is absolutely useless for me. So sorry, but for now, I have no solution of this ...

[Khaytsus]

Menion,

I just got a chance finally to try TTS today..  Works pretty good, but a few suggestions...  Since it's TTS, can you make it say "feet" to match the units shown?    We're not limited to "yards" when using TTS like when using TomTom voices.

Also, small bug..  if I choose a TomTom voice for example, it gives a small notification of the change worked and the voice menu closes.  For TTS, it just gives the notification and the menu remains open, which made me think it didn't work, although it did.

EDIT:  One more thing I've noticed..  Stuttering, so to speak.  Turn left in.. turn left.. turn left..  turn left in 30 yards.  I dunno why it's doing it, as I'm just approaching a normal left turn at a normal speed, no funny left-left-left type of turn or anything..  I've seen it on several occasions, and I've noticed it happen on the stock PICO TTS as well as SVOX so I think Locus must be sending that data to it repeatedly or something?

BTW, I am trialing SVOX as well.  I had the British voice on (I'm a sucker for the female british accent ) but trying out the American voice today as well.  Haven't tried any other languages, so so far SVOX 3 is working okay.

Menion,

Could you look into this sometimes?  It still seems to announce in yards, although I'm not quite sure it's right..  Maybe a delay or something, but it'll say "in 400 yards" when in reality it's more like 600 feet.  Either way, could you make the TTS measurements and annoucements match the distance units?  

[Menion]

hi,
  problem with distance is weird ... I'll tell you in basic, how my system works.

new location comes from GPS, I then update location on map and start compute of new location on route. Locus compute nearest point projected on route and distance from this point to next cross. Lets say you ride 50km/h and you're now 510 metres to cross. I reduce distance to cross by one second of ride (to remove some GPS delay), so it's 460m and I'm then searching for closest text to say. Closest are 400 and 500m, so I take 500 in this case. Before I start search for text to say, I convert metres to yards if needed, so I just compute 460 * 1.09361 and search text for this.

you say "Either way, could you make the TTS measurements and annoucements match the distance units" but as I wrote, I'm already taking "metres" and "yards" units, so this should work correctly

[Khaytsus]

hi,
  problem with distance is weird ... I'll tell you in basic, how my system works.

new location comes from GPS, I then update location on map and start compute of new location on route. Locus compute nearest point projected on route and distance from this point to next cross. Lets say you ride 50km/h and you're now 510 metres to cross. I reduce distance to cross by one second of ride (to remove some GPS delay), so it's 460m and I'm then searching for closest text to say. Closest are 400 and 500m, so I take 500 in this case. Before I start search for text to say, I convert metres to yards if needed, so I just compute 460 * 1.09361 and search text for this.

you say "Either way, could you make the TTS measurements and annoucements match the distance units" but as I wrote, I'm already taking "metres" and "yards" units, so this should work correctly

Could you possibly change it to say the distance in feet?  Feet is a more common unit of measure vs yards, and most other navigation will say miles and feet as distances, .25 miles, 1000 feet, etc..  I'll have to pay more attention to see exactly where I'm getting voice prompts and figure out if there's a distance "issue".  It could be delays in generating the voice etc, dunno.

[Menion]

fine, I added new settings into settings ... (screenshot) ... possible?

so now, if feet/miles will be enabled and also TTS, distance will be said in feet ...

also please check as you wrote more carefully wrong distances, I'll for sure test it. Maybe you can record during ride NMEA messages. Then I'll be able to play whole track as I sit next to you. So good for testing on some places ...

[Khaytsus]

fine, I added new settings into settings ... (screenshot) ... possible?

so now, if feet/miles will be enabled and also TTS, distance will be said in feet ...

also please check as you wrote more carefully wrong distances, I'll for sure test it. Maybe you can record during ride NMEA messages. Then I'll be able to play whole track as I sit next to you. So good for testing on some places ...

Anyone told you that you're awesome recently?    Can't wait to see the new version, and if I have funny business with it, I'll record NMEA and get with you to figure it out.  

[Menion]

hmm feet complicates me a little bit whole system (because 800 feet (current limit) is just around 250m) so I improved whole system. Now you'll hear distance sounds in 10s, 30s and also 300s before cross so it will also tell you "after 3 miles, turn right", we'll see how this will work ... if you want to test now, version is here viewtopic.php?f=25&t=1404&start=20#p8598, otherwise I'll release version tomorrow

[Khaytsus]

fine, I added new settings into settings ... (screenshot) ... possible?

so now, if feet/miles will be enabled and also TTS, distance will be said in feet ...

also please check as you wrote more carefully wrong distances, I'll for sure test it. Maybe you can record during ride NMEA messages. Then I'll be able to play whole track as I sit next to you. So good for testing on some places ...

Hey Menion, I noticed today that there are a few spots where it shows feet when IMO it should show miles.  The points list and guiding.  I think generally most apps if the distance >528 feet they show .1 miles, etc, but right now Locus is showing thousands of feet, etc...   I can look around to see if there are any more places it does this today.  

[Menion]

and do you have correctly set units in settings? I did some changes there so they're maybe set incorrectly, just to feet

[Khaytsus]

and do you have correctly set units in settings? I did some changes there so they're maybe set incorrectly, just to feet

Duh, you added more since I first tried it, you're right, it's set to ft.  Last I looked it only had maybe 5-6 entries?  Thank you

[gvmsia]

(note: eg refers to a roundabout like this)
i'd like to suggest a rewording of instructions at a roundabout. attached are egs from Locus and one other nav app. there are 2 differences i can hear...
1. when approaching the roundabout, the road bends slightly left to ease entry into the circle. for that bend Locus says "bear left", but the other app doesnt bother with the bend. imo "bear left" is unnecessary.  
2. within the roundabout, Locus mentions the distance to the exit. i think the instruction should just be the exit number.

so something like this, "in X metres, enter the roundabout, and take the 2nd exit" is clear and concise. once in the roundabout just say "take the 2nd exit".
especially in smaller roundabouts, instructions need to be as short as possible.

[tommi]

Thanks gvmsia for this detailed description.
I think this is quite the same problem I reported here: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1411