development: alarm tones overlaid on music? combine streams?

[peterw]

At home I've been working on that kitchen timer plugin that everyone's new hero, Caleb, asked about (in short: since the Boom is physically well-suited for kitchens, why not use it as a kitchen timer?). I'm still wrestling with how to audibly get the user's attention when an alarm goes off (visually is easy: make the onscreen text flash). My favorite idea for the audible alarm that I know I can pull off is an audible equivalent of the flashing screen -- make sure something is playing, and make the volume jump up and down enough steps to get & keep the user's attention. (I don't want to simply play an alarm playlist, esp. if the user happens to be listening to a "live" Internet Radio stream, which is often the case in my kitchen.)

What I'd like to do is something like
1) ask the Squeezebox to overlay some tones atop the music. This might be Boom-specific since it has a newer, more capable DSP. My plugin could drop the main music volume if needed and ask the SB/Boom to overlay tones at some reasonable volume until the user acknowledged the alarm.
or
2) ask the Squeezebox to merge two sources -- the current music source and an "alarm" source.

The second is probably too much trouble: server & player resources, DRM, direct vs. proxied HTTP streams, etc.

But how about the first? Is this possible now, or should I file an enhancement request?

[dwilliams01]

The first option sounds like the attention alert signal that will show up on the TV from time to time when there is severe weather. It is very noticeable. It would be best, in my opinion, if it could sound a few tones then auto "snooze" for a couple of minutes and then sound again. Our oven does it this way and it is very nice if you don't want to go deal with it right away but don't want to forget about it.

[peterw]

The first option sounds like the attention alert signal that will show up on the TV from time to time when there is severe weather. It is very noticeable. It would be best, in my opinion, if it could sound a few tones then auto "snooze" for a couple of minutes and then sound again. Our oven does it this way and it is very nice if you don't want to go deal with it right away but don't want to forget about it.

Basically, but imagine that tone playing with the regular TV soundtrack still running. Caleb, Felix, Max, is this possible now?

[dwilliams01]

I guess that I'm not sure that combining them is much of a benefit - just my opinion here. Makes it pretty noticable when the "normal" sound is dropped in place of the weather alert. Since it is only for a few seconds I don't mind missing a bit of the main soundtrack and I feel that I'd miss it anyway if the alarm tone was loud enough to make sure it was noticed...

[peterw]

I guess that I'm not sure that combining them is much of a benefit - just my opinion here. Makes it pretty noticable when the "normal" sound is dropped in place of the weather alert. Since it is only for a few seconds I don't mind missing a bit of the main soundtrack and I feel that I'd miss it anyway if the alarm tone was loud enough to make sure it was noticed...

It's not that combining is better, it's that pausing the music/stream playback is not acceptable. Perhaps dropping the music/stream volume *very* low (maybe even 0) would be good.

I guess this brings up a different part of my request -- the "tone" volume should be separate from the "stream" volume, as I'd definitely want the tone to seem significantly louder than the music. Might even want the tone to get louder & music to get quieter as more time elapsed.

[Goodsounds]

I can buy a kitchen timer for under $10....which is what I want to do, because I don't want to worry about using it when my hands are grungy, and I want to not worry about throwing it away and buying a new one.

Just my opinion, I don't think a feature like this is going to sell too many $299 Booms.

[peterw]

I can buy a kitchen timer for under $10....which is what I want to do, because I don't want to worry about using it when my hands are grungy, and I want to not worry about throwing it away and buying a new one.

Just my opinion, I don't think a feature like this is going to sell too many $299 Booms.

I keep my Boom remote in a "snack" sized Ziploc-style bag, stuck to the side of the refrigerator (you've read that it's magnetic, right?). The bag gets a little dirty, but the remote is fine.

As for selling units, I don't care. This meets a need that I and others have -- especially when I add the ability to save & name timers ("Lasagna: 2:31 To go") and display countdowns and/or alarms on multiple players (set the alarm in the kitchen, then go upstairs knowing I can check the timer there, and I'll be notified when the time's up.

[ccrome2]

The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of a simple
beep beep .... beep beep .... beep beep

alarm, overlaid on any playing music. There could be different patterns for
different alarams.

alarm 1: Beep ... beep ... beep ... beep
alarm 2: beep beep ... beep beep ... beep beep
alarm 3: beep beep beep ... beep beep beep ... beep beep beep

The idea here is to really get your attention, and give you the useful
information quickly. This isn't like waking to an alarm where you may enjoy
dozing for some time to music.

On boom, we can do it easily in the DSP. There wouldn't even be any DSP or
firmware changes needed (for 1kHz tone beep anyway).

On the other products, we might be able to do it, but I don't know. That
would take more work, and firmware changes.

When I get back, I can whip up some server code that you can put into your
plugin.

-Caleb

On 8/30/08, peterw <peterw.3exunn1220070302 (AT) no-mx (DOT) forums.slimdevices.com>
wrote:
>
>
> Goodsounds;334093 Wrote:
> > I can buy a kitchen timer for under $10....which is what I want to do,
> > because I don't want to worry about using it when my hands are grungy,
> > and I want to not worry about throwing it away and buying a new one.
> >
> > Just my opinion, I don't think a feature like this is going to sell too
> > many $299 Booms.
>
> I keep my Boom remote in a "snack" sized Ziploc-style bag, stuck to the
> side of the refrigerator (you've read that it's magnetic, right?). The
> bag gets a little dirty, but the remote is fine.
>
> As for selling units, I don't care. This meets a need that I and others
> have -- especially when I add the ability to save & name timers
> ("Lasagna: 2:31 To go") and display countdowns and/or alarms on
> multiple players (set the alarm in the kitchen, then go upstairs
> knowing I can check the timer there, and I'll be notified when the
> time's up.
>
>
> --
> peterw
>
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[erland]

alarm, overlaid on any playing music. There could be different patterns for
different alarams.

alarm 1: Beep ... beep ... beep ... beep
alarm 2: beep beep ... beep beep ... beep beep
alarm 3: beep beep beep ... beep beep beep ... beep beep beep

The idea here is to really get your attention, and give you the useful
information quickly.

Do we really need different beeps ?
To me it seems like a single beep type overlaid on the music in combination with showing "Lasagna: Ready" on the display would be good enough.

However, different beep types could be useful for other kind of notifications, like an e-mail notifier.

Would the sound be limited to simple beeps or can we accomplish other kind of sounds too ?

[ccrome2]

As of today, it's 1 khz beeps only. I can add other tone generation
capability to the DSP though as time allows.

For my use, I don't want to type in what the timer is for -- it takes too
long. I just want to hit alarm 1, turn the knob to the right time, then go
back to alarm 2, and turn the knob to set alarm 2.

If I had beeps for my email notifier, I think I would have a nervous
breakdown. I'm pretty tolerant of noise, but I get too many emails :-)

So, yes, I'll add more sophistocated tone generation in a future DSP load,
but I'm not sure when. There is a problem with the TI DSP software that I
want them to fix before I move to the newest rev that has the better tone
generators. So it may be a little while before we get multi-tone or
other-than-1khz-tone.


-C


On 8/30/08, erland <erland.3ey5zz1220085004 (AT) no-mx (DOT) forums.slimdevices.com>
wrote:
>
>
> ccrome2;334128 Wrote:
> >
> > alarm, overlaid on any playing music. There could be different
> > patterns for
> > different alarams.
> >
> > alarm 1: Beep ... beep ... beep ... beep
> > alarm 2: beep beep ... beep beep ... beep beep
> > alarm 3: beep beep beep ... beep beep beep ... beep beep beep
> >
> > The idea here is to really get your attention, and give you the useful
> > information quickly.
> Do we really need different beeps ?
> To me it seems like a single beep type overlaid on the music in
> combination with showing "Lasagna: Ready" on the display would be good
> enough.
>
> However, different beep types could be useful for other kind of
> notifications, like an e-mail notifier.
>
> Would the sound be limited to simple beeps or can we accomplish other
> kind of sounds too ?
>
>
> --
> erland
>
> Erland Isaksson
> 'My homepage' (http://erland.isaksson.info) 'My download page'
> (http://erland.isaksson.info/download)
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> (http://wiki.erland.isaksson.info/ind...ory:SlimServer))
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