MouseCam Pups (V6 released 20th June 2013)

For talk and support relating specifically to Puppy derivatives
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mikeslr
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I'm not going to try to customize xbmc's keyboard

#21 Post by mikeslr »

Hi All,

Googling reveals that an xml file is used to define the layout of the the xbmc keyboard. It was suggested that that file can be customized using a text editor. I'll leave doing so to someone who knows what he or she is doing for two reasons. The first is that a quick examination of the xml file failed to reveal a section where the alphanumeric keys are easily apparent and modifiable. But more importantly, xbmc associates its keys with various actions of the applications it controls. http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Keyboard
I have great confidence in my ability to create total chaos when fiddling with things whose ramifications I don't fully understand.
It makes more sense to use the xbmc keyboard, as it is, for the applications xbmc is specifically designed for, and to use an onscreen xvkbd keyboard for word-processing, text editing, spread-sheets, etc.: those activities for which xbmc wasn't designed.
So, if I was mistaken, and xvkbd hasn't been included in mousepup, perhaps including it in the ISO for easy installation --ala Slacko's initial handling of Frisbee-- might be considered.

mikesLr

musher0
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Re: MouseCam Pup v5 – Add Voice Mail.

#22 Post by musher0 »

ETP wrote:After a long and frustrating search, I finally seem to have struck gold in the form of Vocaroo. You will of course, require a working microphone plus headset or speakers. The webcam mike could possibly be used. To post the email link to the recording you do need to be logged into Gmail.

Easy Setup:

1: Visit the site and add it to your bookmarks bar.

http://www.vocaroo.com

That’s it finish !!!!!!

It is worth watching the following video (With audio) that describes its use:

http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/vocaroo1/

In actual fact it can be simplified even further.

Rather than clicking on the Email icon to the right of the Embed icon, click instead on the Gmail icon that I have circled in blue in the screenshot.
A Gmail compose window will then open with an attached hyperlink to the recording.
Select who you want to send it to and then send it. It gets better. You will note the download options but if you Cc the email to your own Gmail account or another of your mail accounts you can kill two birds with one stone.

It sure beats typing and is ideal for all the accessibility pups or indeed any pup.

Hello, ETP.

NIce find, this vocaroo! Thanks for sharing it!

Indeed, in many cases, for everyone, it's easier to dictate a message than to type it,
but we don't think of dictating, because we're pre-conditioned to type, so to speak.

Have a great day!

musher0
musher0
~~~~~~~~~~
"You want it darker? We kill the flame." (L. Cohen)

musher0
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#23 Post by musher0 »

Hi, ETP.

Hoping to get more people interested in this good and original Puppy, I just gave your MouseCam Pup a little push on the French side! :) http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 245#708245

Continue the good work!

musher0
musher0
~~~~~~~~~~
"You want it darker? We kill the flame." (L. Cohen)

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ETP
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#24 Post by ETP »

Hi mikeslr,
Just to clarify your point XVkbd is included in MouseCam Pup and is launched from the keyboard icon in Eviacam. Please see screen-shot which also shows the options I used.
Another alternative when text input into a field is required is to dictate what is needed and then copy and paste the dictated text into the field using the Eviacam click panel on the left hand side of the screen.

@ musher0,

Thanks for your interest and promotion. It is surprising how often unexpected universal treats such as Vocaroo come out of specialist projects.
Attachments
eviacam_xvkbd.png
(93.05 KiB) Downloaded 588 times
Regards ETP
[url=http://tinyurl.com/pxzq8o9][img]https://s17.postimg.cc/tl19y14y7/You_Tube_signature80px.png[/img][/url]
[url=http://tinyurl.com/kennels2/]Kennels[/url]

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greengeek
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#25 Post by greengeek »

Eviacam tells me my cameras frame rate is too low. It seems to work initially but then gradually seems to become unstable and jittery, then the cursor drifts off towards the bottom of screen. Anyone experiencing something similar?
(I'm using a Toshiba TE2100 2.2GHz, 500MB ram with a cheap usb webcam which works fine for Skype etc)

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ETP
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Eviacam configuration

#26 Post by ETP »

Hi greengeek,

Head tracking is CPU intensive which may be an issue and in addition Eviacam is a bit tricky to get the best out of. It does however respond well to manual tweaking.

It needs to see 25 to 30 fps from the cam and CPU usage in HTOP will probably then be in the range of 25% to 40%. It is best to avoid repeatedly running the wizard and to make manual adjustments instead.

Start by launching HTOP followed by Eviacam. Go straight to configuration and on the advanced tab set CPU to high. On the click panel set dwell to 20. (i.e. 2 seconds)
On the motion tab set smoothness to 8.

Next run the wizard and follow the instructions. Avoid making excessive head movements. Just concentrate on viewing the visible screen edges.
Subsequent tweaking of the X and Y settings is best done manually toggling Eviacam off and on using the scroll lock. Ensure that you use the home key between adjustments to centre the cursor.
Concentrate on getting the X setting right before moving on to the Y setting. Once you have determined the optimum values for your hardware combination make a note of them!
The aim is a smooth range of full edge to edge cursor movement without excessive head movements.
I settled for X=17 and Y=16 using a cheap Logitech C270 but settings will vary wildly depending on your hardware. (10 to 24 possibly)
Good luck. :)
Regards ETP
[url=http://tinyurl.com/pxzq8o9][img]https://s17.postimg.cc/tl19y14y7/You_Tube_signature80px.png[/img][/url]
[url=http://tinyurl.com/kennels2/]Kennels[/url]

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mikeslr
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Alternate radar and xvkbd chooser pet

#27 Post by mikeslr »

Hi All,

Just a note to mention that I've published a pet providing an alternate radar for use with the Square Keyboard, and to make changing keyboard layouts easier.
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 614#708614.

Happy computing,

mikesLr

oui

#28 Post by oui »

Hi

Wonderful ETP! Thank you very much!

Questions:
- how to load the seamonkey bookmarks and history to continue to use them (from pre existent Precise save file)?
- how to load more dictionaries for Chrome (I never did use Chrome as I have a very very old personal file for Seamonkey with emails in it as Mozilla is the Puppy suite since Puppy 1.4) for other languages?
- how to load stuff for dictate in other languages?

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 820#708820

Kind regards

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ETP
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#29 Post by ETP »

oui wrote:Hi
Questions:
1- how to load the seamonkey bookmarks and history to continue to use them (from pre existent Precise save file)?
2- how to load more dictionaries for Chrome (I never did use Chrome as I have a very very old personal file for Seamonkey with emails in it as Mozilla is the Puppy suite since Puppy 1.4) for other languages?
3- how to load stuff for dictate in other languages?
Kind regards
Hi oui,
1. Using Seamonkey’s bookmarks manager export them as html and then import them using Chrome’s bookmarks manager. I am not aware of any way of transferring the history and it is probably unwise anyway. Most people regularly clear their cache, cookies and history to keep their save files small and to avoid targeted advertising.

2. See these links:
http://www.smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advi ... 00708.html

https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95604?hl=en

3.See below:
Edit
Almost forgot about voice mail. Any language you like including Klingon. :lol: :lol:
Attachments
screenshot.1.png
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Regards ETP
[url=http://tinyurl.com/pxzq8o9][img]https://s17.postimg.cc/tl19y14y7/You_Tube_signature80px.png[/img][/url]
[url=http://tinyurl.com/kennels2/]Kennels[/url]

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Ted Dog
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#30 Post by Ted Dog »

speaking Klingon is the dividing line between geek and nerd.... :P

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ETP
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#31 Post by ETP »

Hi Ted Dog,

Mmmm….. That may explain why Microsoft's Bing offers page translations into Klingon.
Then again,
"The nice thing about Windows is, it doesn’t just crash, it displays a dialog box and lets you press “OK
Regards ETP
[url=http://tinyurl.com/pxzq8o9][img]https://s17.postimg.cc/tl19y14y7/You_Tube_signature80px.png[/img][/url]
[url=http://tinyurl.com/kennels2/]Kennels[/url]

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ETP
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MouseCam Pup v6

#32 Post by ETP »

Hi All,
The above is now available for download from my server. Minor cosmetic changes have been made including new default wallpaper.
Experience working on the “single switch
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v6_desktop.JPG
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chrome.jpg
(72.81 KiB) Downloaded 743 times
Regards ETP
[url=http://tinyurl.com/pxzq8o9][img]https://s17.postimg.cc/tl19y14y7/You_Tube_signature80px.png[/img][/url]
[url=http://tinyurl.com/kennels2/]Kennels[/url]

nancy reagan
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Realize the user unfriendliness of puppy

#33 Post by nancy reagan »

However advanced and nice this pup is, do you realize the user unfriendliness of Puppy.

Most important thing -in my opinion - is to make a simple manual for non tweakers.

For example: "mounting a drive", saving or not a session, usb install.

Pets (???) sfs's.

Best way to find out is to ask a Windozer to take place behind the screen ask him/her "what would you like to do ?" and let her/him try to find out.

Big chance they won't get anywhere. So by taking noter of their questions you could write a small tutorial if only for the basic things a Windozers does with his computer on a daily basis.

Would be such a waste if people cannot properly use this awfully nice contribution !

oui

#34 Post by oui »

nancy reagan you are too strong (I don't know if it is possible to say that: I transscribe from German: «Sie sind zu streng» and say it because it is really important: Bad English is better to understand in the world as original poor :lol: British English :roll: and it seems, that in this case British English did be used)

this Puppy is wonderful

I would wish very urgently that Puppy would arrive in the Android tablet world with such a version!

nancy reagan
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JUST BECAUSE THIS IS A WONDERFUL PUPPY

#35 Post by nancy reagan »

oui wrote:nancy reagan you are too strong (I don't know if it is possible to say that: I transscribe from German: «Sie sind zu streng» and say it because it is really important: Bad English is better to understand in the world as original poor :lol: British English :roll: and it seems, that in this case British English did be used)

this Puppy is wonderful
Just because - THIS IS A WONDERFUL PUPPY - I am saying this.

For this pup is especially meant for handicapped people, who cannot move the way valid people can and usually are forced to use Windoze, I thought it would help a lot that there comes a basic tut telling them about "mounting" "Save as" "/" etc. etc

Some expressions are so hard to understand, that it would be a shame that this pup might get lost just because of the strange expressions.

I mentioned it a lot earlier "such a shame that a diamond like puppy gets lost for lots of people just because it is hard to handle for Windozers".

Hope I made myself a bit clearer.

Verstehts'de ?

Ich meine, weil Puppy ist so wunderbar es sollte nicht verloren gehen durch fremde Ausdrueckungen fuer Windozers. Usw.

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greengeek
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#36 Post by greengeek »

I think it can even be difficult for experienced puppians to make the best of the features becoming available - so one of the important issues, as you suggest, is to LISTEN to the needs of the target audience so we can help them.

The major difficulty with that is that it is necessary to "guess" what help they need - because we do not bump into them on a daily basis.

Possibly it would be worthwhile to have volunteers who could use this pup as if they were themselves disabled (ie: spend a day using only this pup...), and give some feedback about what needs further tuition or alteration.

nancy reagan
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#37 Post by nancy reagan »

greengeek wrote:I think it can even be difficult for experienced puppians to make the best of the features becoming available - so one of the important issues, as you suggest, is to LISTEN to the needs of the target audience so we can help them.

The major difficulty with that is that it is necessary to "guess" what help they need - because we do not bump into them on a daily basis.

Possibly it would be worthwhile to have volunteers who could use this pup as if they were themselves disabled (ie: spend a day using only this pup...), and give some feedback about what needs further tuition or alteration.
What I wanted to make clear that even for non-handicapped Windozers Puppy for the first time is difficult.

One can find out by asking even a non-handicapped Windozers "what would you like to do" and place him/her behind the screen and thus find out what needs to be explained, just for daily use.

What applies to the non-handicapped, applies to the handicapped as well and it would be a pity that alle the efforts made here, would not land widely enough !

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ETP
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MouseCam Pup v6

#38 Post by ETP »

Hi All,

Regardless of any documentation available anyone new to computing or migrating from any other OS to Linux, is in my experience, likely to need a mentor. It is really down to the mentor to study any documentation such as “The Puppy Linux Manual
Regards ETP
[url=http://tinyurl.com/pxzq8o9][img]https://s17.postimg.cc/tl19y14y7/You_Tube_signature80px.png[/img][/url]
[url=http://tinyurl.com/kennels2/]Kennels[/url]

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ETP
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Text to Speech add-on for MouseCam Pup v6 (TTS)

#39 Post by ETP »

Testing has revealed that using webcam control needs a lot of continuous concentration. There is the need not only to click on icons and links, but also to avoid accidentally clicking on other links & icons. Thus it is quite demanding and having text read out aloud can provide a welcome break.

There are a number of Chrome extensions that provide TTS but I recommend the “Select And Speak
Attachments
options.jpg
(105.47 KiB) Downloaded 590 times
Regards ETP
[url=http://tinyurl.com/pxzq8o9][img]https://s17.postimg.cc/tl19y14y7/You_Tube_signature80px.png[/img][/url]
[url=http://tinyurl.com/kennels2/]Kennels[/url]

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mikeslr
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Revised Square Keyboard

#40 Post by mikeslr »

Hi All,

Xvkbd provides that "text" --including keyboard commands-- can be assigned to the function keys. While exploring that possibility I ran into an immediate problem. The commands have to start with "!" without the quotes. The Square keyboard I published didn't include an exclamation symbol. Wondering what else I might have left out I discovered it was also missing a comma. Call it the "Xerox" syndrom: I used a previous config file to build it, ran thru the alphabet and counted from 0 thru 9, but forgot to check symbols. So I've deleted the original Square keyboard and jpg showing it and have submitted a revision. You'll note that this version lacks the Meta Key which isn't used in English Keyboards. The revisions can be found here: http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 919#707919

Edit 6/30/13. Figured out how to still have a Meta Key, so revised Square, png & pet. See above link.
My apologies,

mikeslr

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