Here's the story. About a month ago i started work on an Application desktop toolbar, and never even came close to finishing it. I recently picked up on it again, and am making it so much better. The main feature of it: it used Microsoft Speech Recognition to do things like run apps, open folders, play songs, ect. all by speech. It actually works too. Here is a screenshot

The main thing i focused on while developing this was to make it small, very small. It only takes up the size of a taskbar. Believe me, it is barely noticeable on your screen, and yet it provides a wide range of information and functionality. I would love ideas for useful things you would want added to it; things you would want to see at a seconds notice. I already have the following:

• Moon Information
• Clock
• Date
• A "Today Analyzer"
• CPU/MEM usage panel
• Process count/thread count label
• Computer Uptime
• Mini Media player

Those are displayed directly on the bar. By voice command, it can do the following:

• Run applications by saying anything, like "Open Photoshop"
• Open directories like "Open My Documents"
• Send key-presses by voice command
• Play mp3 (or any other audio format) sound files like "Play Soulja Boy" (Still in development)

It also has a host of every-day commands you can edit the voice command for, like minimizing the active window, speaking the time, put the computer in standby, ect. I would also love ideas about other things i can make it do by voice command. I also have a feature where it will only respond to voice if the shift, ctrl, or alt key is held down to prevent misrecognitions.

You system must have the following to run this:

• .NET Framework 3.0
• Microsoft Speech recognition (not required to run, but the speech functions will be useless)
• Windows (no, really)

I copied the System.Speech dll into the output directory, so i do not believe it will require the speech SDK to run. However i am not sure of this, and that is one reason i am putting it up here.

Here are the critical to-do's on the bar:

• Update Interface (Made so many changes to a whole bunch of things, and i'm not quite sure if i got all the text and stuff in the interface quite right yet)
• Get the ability to play songs by voice command up and running
• Add some sort of overflow ability to the bar
• Get the ability to switch themes working

Notice the last one. I am building this bar on an XP system with a Vista basic theme, so for now the bar is stuck in the vista theme mode. I have theme directories for XP and 2000 somewhat together, but it will take some work.

I will upload the latest build and the source when i get it all-together, probably in the next hour or two. I'd love some feedback on this idea in general.

EDIT: almost forgot. To customize the limited properties i already have in place for the bar, click on the little gear looking thing on the far left of the bar.

EDIT 2: Instead of shuffling through all the posts in this thread you can now Click Here to download the latest version

This post has been edited by jacobjordan: 14 Sep, 2008 - 02:38 PM

That think is awesome!

Especially considering you're only 13, you should be really proud of yourself~ I wish I coulda done that kinda stuff when I was your age

Seriously, that looks great. I'd love to test it out


Not sure about the moon stuff though~ to me, that comes across like you ran out of ideas, and just threw them in so it fit the screen properly.

Will it be customisable? Like, widgets and stuff?

Ok, well here's the latest version:
<program updated, look for next post with an upload attached>

@gabehabe: depends what you mean by customizable. I already have a system in place that can add and remove panels based on what you want. And about the moon thing, that was actually one of the first things i added. I get into astronomy, and a lot of other people do too. If you have ideas of better things to add, i would love to hear about them.

This post has been edited by jacobjordan: 9 Sep, 2008 - 05:29 PM

Nice jacob, one thing though, the CPU and MEM meter doesn't seem to be working on my computer. It reads 0 memory usage and 1% CPU at all times, which isnt correct. Other than that, pretty nice

What are you system specs? There may be something i overlooked.

AMD Athlon Phenom 9850 (Quad Core)
6GB DDR2

Hmm, i haven't a clue. I am using a System.Diagnostics.PerformanceCounter object to obtain these values. The only explanation i can think of is maybe the instancename properties must be different on your system for this to work.

Anyway, i got the ability to play songs working in this release:
<Program updated again, look for next post with an upload attached>

And i thought of another critical update i need to make to it:

• Replace the Microsoft.VisualBasic.FileSystem.FileOpen() methods with a System.IO.StreamReader/StreamWriter. I started this months ago, long before i learned how to use file streams.

@psychocoder: i have a simple test app: <removed>
i would like you to run. It's something i threw together in 5 minutes that does nothing but display the CPU and MEM using the same method i used in my bar. If it doesn't work on your system, it will tell me it's having to do with the performance counter, and not something else in my code.

This post has been edited by jacobjordan: 10 Sep, 2008 - 06:53 PM

@jacobjordan: Here is what is displayed when I ran that small app you provided:



I don't think I'm using -199% of my memory

Ok, well the CPU and Memory thing has me frustrated. I'm looking into alternatives into how to obtain these values without the performance counter things.

Anyway, another update has been made:
<updated, look at the next post>

Things in this one that weren't in the previous:

• Got the alarm system in place and it's working fine
• Make some enhancements and updates to the speech config dialog
• Made some enhancements to the Mini Media player
• Made some enhancements to the voice-activated songs system.

I would still love ideas about anything else you think it would need. I expect to get out the next major update in the next 2 or so days.

This post has been edited by jacobjordan: 12 Sep, 2008 - 07:40 PM

Well, another release it out.
<removed, look for the next one>

The updates in this one

• Ability to switch themes is working
• Bar now saves its theme from last run
• Bar now saves its displayed items from last run
• Some interface changes
• Simple about box added

Oh, and here's another screenshot. This is in the "XP Royale" theme:


This post has been edited by jacobjordan: 14 Sep, 2008 - 01:40 PM

Whoa this thing is SWEET!

I dunno if your app is off, or one that I have on my Vista sidebar...they read different RAM usages. Yours says 64%, my sidebar one says 57%.

How'd you make it play mp3s? I've been trying to find stuff for Java with it...but I'd like to know how to do it in VB (assuming you're using it) too.



MY GOD! My computer is a piece of sh*t compared to that! That's like comparing my computer to my dad's old one...

Mine -- 160GB Hard Drive, 2 GB RAM, AMD Athlon 64 2Core.
His -- 40GB Hard Drive, 512 MB RAM, Intel something or other (old)

This post has been edited by Locke37: 14 Sep, 2008 - 01:29 PM

Thanks.

One thing i noticed is that all these system meters read differently. The Yahoo! memory meter widget reads like 48 when mine reads like 45, and others read different too.

I got another major version here:
<Again, updated. Go to near the bottom of the next page>

Notice i named it. It's officially called OneBar. Kinda catchy, sounds cool enough. I consider this version to be a major step in the development of this bar.

Here are the features i added:

• An overflow system is working, and a damn good one. If there are items to the left of the bar that are off the screen and you move the cursor to within 50 pixels of the left, it will scroll until all the items on that side are visible (or you move your cursor out of the way). It does the same for the right side too, of course.
• I added a Recycle Bin Monitor panel. It shows the number of items in the recycle bin, and will empty it if clicked.
• I added a drive monitor panel. It shows the GB of free space on the C: drive, and a graph of free vs. used space.
• I made some updates to the alarm system. Still has a lot of bugs that need to be worked out, though.
• Changed the engine that plays media files. I downloaded some damn program that caused media player to stop working, and in effect, the media capabilities of my bar. This new method has a bit more options, and it works.
  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Edit: forgot. I also got it so you don't have to restart the bar anymore the bar after you make changes to the speech commands. It will reload them automatically after you make a change.

This post has been edited by jacobjordan: 14 Sep, 2008 - 02:32 PM