Development Updates

April 17, 2024 BT Speak® System Upgrade | Posted By: BT Development Team

Blazie Technologies is pleased to offer our newest update for the BT Speak and BT Speak Pro. It features an appointment calendar, a media player, the ability to record voice notes using the built-in microphone along with many other exciting new features and enhancements. Keep reading to learn more.

As always, this update is free of cost to all BT Speak owners.

How to Install the Update

Ensure that you are connected to Wi-Fi and that your battery charge is higher than 50%. To be safe we recommend that you have your unit plugged into either a wall outlet or a USB device capable of charging the battery during the upgrade process.
Press O-chord to open the Options menu.
Press S for the System menu.
Press S for the System Administration menu.
Press U for “Upgrade the System.”
You will be asked if you want to perform the upgrade. To proceed press the letter Y (for yes) followed by the enter key (dot 8.)

During the update process your device will issue short vibrations. It will also provide you with status updates as to what components are being downloaded. During this process you don’t need to do anything; just sit back and let your BT Speak install what it needs for the update. When the update is complete your BT Speak will restart. Once you hear the familiar “BT Speak Ready” message you’ll be able to enjoy the new improvements we’ve added.

Adgenda-style Calendar

We have added an appointment calendar to the BT Speak. With this calendar you can add or remove events as well as browse or search for events by day, week and by month.

The Calendar Menu

The Calendar menu is available from the Options menu, with the letter L being its shortcut. Therefore, to open the Calendar menu you would press O-chord, press dot 4-chord until you get to the Calendar option and press dot 8 or enter to open it. Alternatively, since L is the shortcut you could just press O-chord followed by the letter L.

Adding an Appointment to the Calendar

To add a new appointment to your calendar, go to the Calendar menu and navigate to the “Add an Entry” choice. As a shortcut you can press O-chord, L, A.

Your BT Speak will announce “date.” The date can be entered in several different ways. We’ll show you examples of different ways of entering a date into the calendar in the next section. Enter the date in Computer Braille; this can be changed in a setting we’ll describe later.

After entering the date press dot 8 or enter.

After pressing dot 8 your BT Speak announces “time.” Enter the time for the event, followed by dot 8. See the next section for different ways of entering the time of an event. Note: if you don’t enter a time for the event the calendar assumes that this is an all-day event that doesn’t start at a particular time. Also, if the time is written incorrectly the calendar may treat the event as an all-day event that doesn’t begin at a specific time.

Next, your BT Speak will say, “event.” Enter a description of the event, followed by dot 8. The event will then be entered in your calendar.

How to Enter the Date and Time in Your Calendar

There are many different ways the date can be entered. As an example, here are different ways of entering January 1, 2024.

January 01, 2024
(defaults to the current year when year is not specified),
1-1
01-01-24
1/1
1/1/24
1/01/24
Jan 01
Jan 1
Jan 1, 2024
January 01
January 1, 2024

There are also different ways for entering the time. Here are some examples.

1pm
1:30pm
1 am
1:30am
0200 pm

Browse Appointments for Today

From the Calendar menu you’ll find a “Today” option with T being the shortcut. Pressing dot 8 on this option shows you any appointments for today. If there are no appointments for today you will be told this.

Browse Appointments By Week

From the Calendar menu you’ll find a “Week” option with W being the shortcut. Pressing dot 8 on this option shows you any appointments for the current week. If there are no appointments you will be told this. In addition, you will also find options labeled “Next” and “Previous” for showing you appointments that you have entered for the previous or next week.

Browse Appointments by Month

From the Calendar menu you’ll find a “Month” option with M being the shortcut. Pressing dot 8 on this option shows you any appointments for the current month. If there are no appointments you will be told this. In addition, you will also find options labeled “Next” and “Previous” for showing you appointments that you have entered for the previous or next month.

Editing or Deleting an Appointment

Pressing dot 8 while pointing to an appointment provides the following options:

Edit Event: allows you to edit the event text describing the appointment.

Edit Time: allows you to edit the time for the selected appointment.

Edit Date: allows you to edit the date for the selected appointment.

Delete Event: allows you to delete the selected appointment

Search by Date

From the Calendar menu you will find the “Search by Date” option with D being the shortcut. Pressing dot 8 on this option allows you to search for appointments by entering a specific date. Enter the date followed by dot 8. You will be in a list of any appointments for that date.

Search by Event

From the Calendar menu you will find “Search by Event”, with S being the shortcut. Press dot 8 while pointing to this option and you will hear “event to search.” Type in some text that appears in the event text of an appointment, followed by dot 8. If there are appointments containing this text you will find them in a list.

The Calendar Options Menu

From the Calendar menu you will find an item called “Calendar Options”, with O being the shortcut. Pressing dot 8 on these items provides a menu with the following options.

Braille Input: Enabling this option allows you to type your entries in contracted Braille.

Save Calendar as Text: allows you to save your calendar entries as a text file.

Gregorian Date Calculator

The Gregorian date calculator has been moved to the Calendar menu. Its shortcut is still G.

Playing Wav or Mp3 Files From the File Browser

When in the File Browser, if you open a file that has an audio extension, such as .mp3 or .wav, that file will begin to play in the background. This means that you can not only listen to an audio track but you can continue to work on other tasks with your BT Speak while

that track is playing. You can control the player via the (new) Media Player submenu of the Applications menu which we’ll describe in the next section.

The New Media Player

The media player can be found from within the Options menu, with P being the shortcut. It provides commands for controlling a media file that you opened from the file browser. This submenu contains the following options, along with their shortcut keys.

Pause/Resume: P

Stop: S

Previous Track. < (dots 1-2-6)

Next Track: > (dots 3-4-5)

Restart the Current Track: R

About the Current Track: A

Move Back 10 Seconds: B

Move Forward 10 Seconds: F

Decrease Media Volume: ( (dots 1-2-3-5-6)

Increase Media Volume: ) (Dots 2-3-4-5-6)

Decrease Media Rate: - (dots 3-6)

Increase Media Rate: + (dots 3-4-6)

Reset Media Rate: = (dots 1-2-3-4-5-6)

The New Voice Notes App

A Voice Notes app has been added to the Applications menu. It allows you to record new notes and to listen to existing ones. For now, other actions like renaming or removing a note need to be performed using the file browser or the file manager.

The Voice Notes app can be accessed by opening the Options menu and then going to the Applications submenu. Its shortcut key is N. Therefore, if you like using shortcut keys you can open the Voice Notes app by pressing O-chord, A, N.

The Voice Notes menu contains the following items.

Record a Note: R

Play Note: P

Set Recording Format: F

Recording a Note

When you activate the option to record a voice note you will hear two short ascending tones and the BT Speak will then say, “Recording.” When you’re ready to stop recording press Z-chord. You will hear a series of two descending tones and you will be told that your recording has been saved in your Voice Notes directory. This directory can be found in the BTSpeak directory from within the file browser. The name of the file containing the recording consists of the date and time the recording was saved. As an example, the title of a recording might be 2024-04-17_10-29-43.mp3. In this example, this means that the voice note was saved on April 17 at 10:29.

Playing a Voice Note

To play a voice note select “Play Note” from the Voice Notes menu. You will be in a list of all of the voice notes that you have recorded. You can navigate the list just as you navigate other menus. When you find the voice note that you want to play press dot 8 to play the voice note.

Setting the Format of Recordings

To set the recording format, select “Set Recording Format” from the Voice Notes menu. You will find two choices, MP3 and WAV.

Quickly Find Specific Files by Typing the First Letter or Number From the File Browser

From the File Browser you can now quickly locate a file by typing the first character of the file's name. This capability only supports letters (A through Z) and numbers (zero through nine). A Letter needs to be entered in uppercase by either adding dot 7 to it or by first typing U-Chord before entering the letter. This is because lowercase letters are already being used as shortcuts for file browser commands, such as the letter c for creating a file.

Each time you enter a character you'll be moved to the next file that starts with that character. The search wraps from the end back to the start of the file list. If the BT Speak fails to find a name that starts with the character you entered you will hear a beep.

Opening Word and LibreOffice Documents From the File Browser

When in the File Browser, if you open a file with a .docx (Microsoft Word) or .odt (LibreOffice) extension, the file will now be automatically converted to text and presented for viewing as a read-only document. This not only lets you read those documents without going into desktop mode but it also allows you to copy text from those files to be pasted into other files.

Printing a File

You can now print the currently open file. To do this, open the Options menu and select “Print Current File” with P being the shortcut. The BT Speak will give you a list of the printers that it can see on your local network. It will then ask you which printer you want to send the file to for printing.

Adding a User-Customizable Menu

The Options menu has a new submenu called the User menu, with U being its shortcut. This new menu allows you to make a collection of your favorite items. To copy an item from another menu into the User menu, navigate to it and type Control C (either dots 1-4-7-8 or X-Chord followed by the letter C). As an example, from the Applications menu you could add Voice Notes or the Bible to the User menu for quick access.

You can also use the User menu to define your own shortcuts, although you will need to have a working knowledge of a menu file's syntax (see the Menu Files help topic). The file containing the information from your customized User menu can be accessed from the file browser. This file is named "user.menu". It is located in the "BTSpeak/" subdirectory of the home directory.

Finding Text Has Been Improved With More Spoken Prompts

The BT Speak’s editor has always had the ability to allow you to find text in a file. The problem was that some of the prompts or messages while executing these commands were not always being announced. This should now be corrected, making locating text much easier. If text is found the BT Speak now reads the line containing the located text.

New Audio Enhancements

The master and microphone volume levels can now be adjusted from the Audio submenu. To open this submenu, press O-chord for the Options menu and open the System submenu. The Audio submenu is located in the System submenu. It contains the following options.

Master Volume Down: < (dots 1-2-6)

Master Volume Up: > (dots 3-4-5)

Microphone Volume Down: ( (dots 1-2-3-5-6)

Microphone Volume Up: ) (dots 2-3-4-5-6)

Change Output Device: C

Reset Volume Controls: V

Reset Output Device: O

With each key press the level is changed by 5%, and the new level is announced after each adjustment.

In addition to these settings, there are four new chord commands for adjusting the master volume level. These chords work in both Traditional and in Desktop mode. You don’t have to be in a specific menu to use these commands, which makes adjusting the master volume level quick and convenient. The base chord for all four is dots 2-3-5-6-Chordwhich is a chorded low G. When typed as is, i.e. without adding dot 7 and/or dot 8, the current level is announced. Here are the new commands.
Dots 2-3-5-6-chord: announce the current master volume level
Dots 2-3-5-6-7-chord: Decrease master volume level by 5%.
Dots 2-3-5-6-8-chord: increase master volume level by 5%
Dots 2-3-5-6-7-8-chord: Reset master volume level to 90% and reset audio output to the internal speakers
Your current audio settings are now retained after a device reboot as well as after performing a deep escape (Z-7-Chord).

Improvements to BT Radio login

The BT Radio app now stores the user name and password for your Pandora account. This means that you will no longer need to reenter them each time you upgrade the system. After applying this upgrade, you will only need to enter them one more time. Also, you can now request Change Login which allows you to sign in to a different Pandora account.

Changes With Bluetooth Commands

The Bluetooth device list now only speaks the name of the device and omits the hexadecimal address. This should make pairing or managing a Bluetooth device much easier and more efficient.
When pairing a Bluetooth device, in addition to asking you if that device can be trusted, you will also be asked if the BT Speak should connect to that device.
Pairing a Bluetooth device has been removed from the Options menu. You will now need to go to the Bluetooth Administration submenu of the System Administration menu to do it.

Entering Function Keys

Function keys can now be typed from the braille keyboard. This is done by typing dots 2-3-5-Chord, (think of a low F for Function), followed by a letter. This command works in both Desktop and Traditional mode and supports function keys F1 through F26. For example, to type the F1 key you would type dots 2-3-5-chord followed by the letter A.

Various Changes and Improvements

Tablet mode has been renamed to Traditional mode. This new name refers to the way that smart Braille devices often present features via a menu-based interface.
The option to paste from the editor's clipboard has been moved from the Delete menu (D-Chord) to the Paste menu (P-Chord).

March 20, 2024 BT Speak® System Upgrade | Posted By: BT Development Team

Blazie Technologies is pleased to offer our newest update for the BT Speak and BT Speak Pro. But first..

How to Install the Update

To install the newest update, first ensure that you are connected to Wi-Fi.
Press O-chord to open the Options menu.
Press S for the System menu.
Press S for the System Administration menu.
Press U for “Upgrade the System.”
You will be asked if you want to perform the upgrade. To proceed press the letter Y (for yes) followed by the enter key (dot 8.)

What follows is a list of what’s new in this update.

New: Speak Information About a File

The A (About This File) command has been added. When used within the File Browser it provides information about the file you are pointing to in the file list. When used within the File Management menu it prompts for the name of the file to describe. The description or file properties includes:

File name
Directory location
File type
File size
Link count
The date the file was last modified
The date the file was last accessed
User permissions (such as is the file write-protected)

We've added features for copying and moving files

Files can now be copied or moved from one directory to another, including to and from removable storage devices. Use the new file management action X to select (or deselect) a file (or directory). You can select as many files as you want with the constraint that they all need to be in the same directory.
Next, browse to the directory where you would like to copy or move them and type a plus sign (dots 3-4-6) to paste them. You'll be asked if the original files should be deleted. Answering "no" means that they'll be copied whereas answering "yes" means that they'll be moved. If there are any name conflicts, i.e. a file being copied or moved has the same name as one that's already in the target directory you'll be asked about this and be given these five choices:
- Replace: The new file will replace the old file.
- Rename Old: The old file will be renamed (by appending -original to its name).
- Rename New: The new file will be renamed (by appending -pasted to its name).
- Skip: Files with conflicting names won't be copied or moved.
- Cancel: The entire operation will be cancelled - no files will be copied or moved.
You will know if the file has been selected because you will hear the word “selected” when you are pointing to a file in the file browser. Additionally, a new directory listing filter - S (for Selected) - has been added so that you can easily review which files have been selected.

Changes to Folder Navigation now permits enhanced viewing of a file name's spelling

In the File Browser, 3-Chord (which browsed up to the parent directory) and 6-Chord (which browsed into the selected directory) have been changed, respectively, to 7-Chord and 8-Chord. This was done in order to allow dot 3-Chord and dot 6-Chord to perform their usual functions of moving to the previous and next character so that you can now inspect the exact spelling of a file's name.

Improvements to File Management Commands

You can now delete a directory that isn't empty. You'll be warned that the directory isn't empty, and then asked if it should be deleted anyway.
The file translator now supports the .md (Markdown) and .rst (reStructured Text) formats for both input and output. It also now supports the .rtf (RichText) format for input - this format was already supported for output.

Miscellaneous Fixes and Improvements

The Read All command (ER sign or dots 1-2-4-5-6-chord) sometimes stopped unexpectedly when attempting to continuously speak some files when using DECtalk. This has now been fixed. For the curious, the main reason for this seems to have been caused by italicized words within braille files.
The echoing of completed words when using the editor has now been implemented.
When navigating by character when using the editor, uppercase letters are now prefixed with the (abbreviated) word "cap".
Pressing Dots 7 and 8 together now interrupts speech.
Requesting a system upgrade now first checks to see if there actually are new updates. If there aren't then you'll be told that "no new system updates are available" and nothing will be done. If there are then you'll be told that "new system updates are available" and then be asked if you'd like to proceed with the upgrade.
The System Services menu now announces whether or not each service is currently enabled or disabled.
The RSync - Remote File Synchronization - service has been added to the System Services menu. Like the others, it's disabled by default. When enabled, it provides an easy way to do things such as backing up the home directory to your computer.
When pairing a Bluetooth device, only the names of the devices are listed. In other words, those annoying, ugly-looking, hexadecimal device addresses are no longer shown. This makes it much easier and faster to find the device that you're looking for.
The voice command 'Time' now formats the time according to your current locale rather than conforming strictly to the 24-hour format.
The Computer Braille help file now documents several additional characters that the BT Speak supports which aren't part of the formal computer braille standard.
Sticky modifiers now work in Desktop mode. These include X-Chord (control) and U-Chord (uppercase), as well as all of the modifiers which can be added by pressing any of dots 1 through 6 along with dot 8 and Space. See the Keyboard Emulation help file for the list.
Adding dot 8 to a character when in Desktop mode is a quick way to emulate holding the Left Alt key while typing that character. This only works for characters which have six-dot representations.

March 5, 2024 BT Speak® System Upgrade | Posted By: BT Development Team

It's time for another upgrade!

A new System Upgrade Notification monitor has been added

It will manifest itself to you in two ways. First, you'll hear a background announcement that "a new system upgrade is available" each time it detects that more changes have been posted. Since it runs on an intentionally somewhat randomized schedule from roughly once to twice per day, this announcement may occur when you aren't there to hear it. You'll also hear an announcement that "a system upgrade is available", in between the "BTSpeak ready" and the "file is open" messages, each time you boot your BTSpeak if there are any changes that you haven't yet applied.

The File Name’s Position in the File Browser is now announced

When using the File Browser, each file's position in the listing of the current directory is now announced. For example, if you're currently on the third file of a listing that contains a hundred files then you'll hear the phrase "3 of 100" after it's name.

Files can be filtered by File Type

A set of file listing filters has been added to the File Browser. The default filter is, of course, no filter. You can change the filter that's currently being applied by typing the letter F when using the File Browser. The filters that are currently provided are:

A: list audio files
B: list braille files
D: list directories
F: list all files
I: list image files
N: no filter (the default)
T: list text files
V: list video files

Files may now be Translated From One Format to Another

Files can now be translated from one format to another. This can be done by typing the letter T from within either the File Browser or the File Management menu. If you do so from the latter then you'll be prompted for the file's name. A file with any of these extensions can be translated:

.brf: Formatted Braille
.brl: Braille
.csv: Comma Separated Values
.docx: Word Document
.epub: Electronic Publication
.html: Hypertext Markup
.odt: Open Document
.txt: Plain Text

A file can be translated to any of the following formats:

B: Braille (.brl)
E: Electronic Publication (.epub)
H: Hypertext Markup (.html)
O: Open Document (.odt)
P: Portable Document (.pdf)
R: Rich Text (.rtf)
T: Plain Text (.txt)
W: Word Document (.docx)

Pasting the Current Date is now improved

When the date is pasted, the name of the month, rather than its number, is now used. This has already been the case for a date when it's spoken.

When a date is spoken or pasted, the order of its components (year, month, day) is now the one preferred by the current locale. For example, a user in the United States will hear the month before the day whereas a user located in the United Kingdom will hear the day before the month.

Improvements When Reading .BRF Files

BRF files, such as documents which have been downloaded from book providers, are now spoken properly by the editor. Rendering them used to sound more or less like gibberish. For the curious, this was because BRF files use the range of ASCII braille characters that add Dot7 to the base characters, and seeing Dot7 made no sense to the six-dot braille back-translator that we're using.

Removing the File Name From the Delete File Dialog

Quoting of the file's name within the deletion confirmation prompt has been removed because DECtalk was speaking those quotes, thus making the actual file name rather difficult to understand.

Pronunciation Errors have been improved

As DECtalk users will know all too well, the name of this very product - BTSpeak - wasn't being pronounced properly. As a general fix for this kind of problem, we've implemented a scheme that most modern text-to-speech engines are using, i.e. to consider an uppercase letter, even when it's in the middle of a word, to be the start of a new word. This is also referred to as “camel case.”

A set of word pronunciation dictionaries has also been added so that we can deal with words that text-to-speech engines get wrong. While the eventual goal is to make this user-configurable, for the time being we've hard-coded the use of the basic dictionary.

Improvements to DECtalk Voices at Higher Speech Rates

DECtalk speech, when not set to the default rate, now sounds much more natural. This is because we're now using its new Samples per Frame feature rather then just setting the raw rate.

Password Hints are now available

The View Password Hint action has been added to the Device Customization menu. You are now asked for a hint regarding what your new password is when you change your password. When shipped, the hint is initially set to tell you what the default password is.

Error Logs are Now Readable in the File Viewer

When an important underlying host command failed, you were asked if you wanted to have a look at a log of that failure. The File Viewer is now used to present that log to you so that you can much more easily navigate your way through it. You'll now also be offered the opportunity to send a copy of that log to BT Speak Support.

Improvements to Desktop Mode (BT Speak Pro only)

The desktop's screen saver has been disabled so that you won't be unexpectedly prompted for your login password if Desktop mode has been idle for a few minutes.
Starting Desktop mode no longer restarts the booting indicator (those regular vibrations that you feel while the BTSpeak is booting).
Starting Desktop mode no longer makes it impossible to disable the keyboard while the BTSpeak is asleep.