The latest Synthiam ARC update introduces significant enhancements to control commands, cheat sheets, and robot skills. These improvements bring better usability and functionality, offering more return-value support and intuitive tooltips. Updated features for Bing Speech Recognition, Camera Device, and Script Robot Skills further streamline robot development and control. Read on for the details!

New Features and Updates

Control Command Update

• Return Values for Control Commands: The ControlCommand() now support return values. When viewing the cheatsheet or right-click context menu, an icon will display next to control commands that return values.

Enhanced Cheat Sheet and Context Menu

• Cheat Sheet Images and Tooltips: Added tooltip images to the Cheat Sheet and the right-click context menu in the editors. Tooltips are displayed to provide helpful descriptions. The images display whether or not the ControlCommand has a return value.
• Control Command Tooltips: In the Cheat Sheet tab of the editor, hovering over control commands now displays tooltips. These tooltips describe what the commands do and what values they return. This feature is available for ARC robot skills that use the new ControlCommand() framework. Legacy control commands will still be displayed but will not have tooltips.

Bing Speech Recognition Updates

• New "GetText" Control Command: The Bing Speech Recognition robot skill now supports a new 'GetText' ControlCommand() using the new script engine that returns values. This command listens and returns the translated speech-to-text. For example:

  var txt = ControlCommand("Bing Speech Recognition", "GetText");
  print("You said " + txt);
  

• Improved "When Speaking" Event Handling: The "pause" event in speech recognition robot skills now properly disables and enables as expected. This allows speech recognition robot skills to pause and resume listening while the robot is speaking using similar commands Audio.say() and Audio.sayEZB().

• VAD Option Removed: The VAD (Voice Activity Detection) option has been removed from Bing Speech Recognition. This change allows VAD to function independently within its own robot skill, reducing dependencies and ensuring updates to VAD do not impact ARC. Use the VAD robot skill to trigger the recording of the Bing Speech Recognition robot skill.

Speech Recognition Robot Skill

• New "PauseGet" Control Command: A new control command, PauseGet, has been added. This command allows you to retrieve the pause state of the speech recognition robot skill. The PauseGet command is listed in the Cheat Sheet and provides an easy way to check whether the robot skill is paused.

Camera Device Robot Skill

• New "IsCameraActive" Control Command: The Camera Device robot skill now includes a new control command, IsCameraActive. This command checks whether the camera is active and returns true or false. It is also listed in the cheat sheet.

Script Robot Skill

• New "GetStatus" Control Command: Query a script robot skill for its current run state using a new control command.

This update focuses on improving usability, functionality, and modularity. The enhancements to the cheat sheet, control commands, and speech recognition ensure a smoother and more intuitive user experience. Thank you for using Synthiam ARC, and we look forward to your feedback!