Speech Recognition in Scratch 3 - turning Hello into Bonjour!

The Raspberry Pi Foundation recently released a programming activity Alien Language, with support Dale from Machine Learning for Kids, that is a brilliant use of Scratch 3 - Speech Recognition to control a sprite in an alien language. Do the activity, and it is very much worth doing, and it will make sense! I  would also recommend going to the machinelearningforkids.co.uk site anyway it is full of exciting things to do (for example loads of activities https://machinelearningforkids.co.uk/#!/worksheets ). Scratch 3 has lots of extensions that are accessible through the Extension button in the Scratch 3 editor (see below) which add new fun new blocks to play with.

The critical thing for this post is Machine Learning for Kids have created a Scratch 3 template with their own extensions for Scratch 3 within it https://machinelearningforkids.co.uk/scratch3/. One of which is a Speech to Text extension (see below). You must use this one not the standard Scratch 3.

My idea is to can I set it to react one way when I say "hello"; then say "french" and then say "hello" it says "Bonjour". Two other extensions are needed along with the Speech to Text one - one for speech to text and the translate shown below.

Ok, so to the fun bit. The listen and wait, and when I hear blocks are the key new blocks, and they do what they say. The three sets of the code are ones I used for this activity.

Thank you to Machine Learning for Kids for creating such a brilliant Scratch extension - this is well worth a play with.

All opinions in this blog are the Author's and should not in any way be seen as reflecting the views of any organisation the Author has any association with. Twitter @scottturneruon

Cozmo, Ohbot go to Code Club

I have recently taken two robots to a Code Club, here are a couple of reflections/observations.


Cozmo
This robot produced by Anki is incredibly cute - a cross between Wall-E and a pet in some respects.

The code below was produced by the 'Code-Clubbers' and gets Cozmo to speak move around and operate its forks at the front. Anecdotally, someone was trying to work on something but couldn't resist coming and having another look at what it was doing.

Ohbot

Ohbot provided a different opportunity to play with a robot, getting to move the mouth, speak and track faces. My first impression was some of the children were a bit wary, until they found out they could control what it says and that seemed to break the ice.





All opinions in this blog are the Author's and should not in any way be seen as reflecting the views of any organisation the Author has any association with. Twitter @scottturneruon

CodeBug at code club

These little devices provide something different to a code. To see the coding interface go to http://www.codebug.org.uk/ (or see figures 1 and 2) and click on create.

Last two weeks

Week 1 

The code clubbers initially shared machines, playing with the CodeBug environment, practice downloading to the bug, writing a routine to scroll their short message. The challenge was then to develop a routine to have a smiley face and a grumpy face scroll across the screen.

Week 2

All have access to the simulation and code generation on codebug.org.uk but this time they don’t have the CodeBug each, they have complete a challenge and run it on the simulation before get a CodeBug to try it. This week's challenge was to get the smiley and grumpy face from week 1 to be selected via the buttons (A and B) - so it involved a loop and conditional statements. Most of them picked it up very quickly.

Two version were built - I reconstructed the ideas in figures 1 and 2 (the code clubbers often did a better version than mine shown here!).

Figure 1: Simple Scroll

The one shown in Figure 1 works by pressing A -scrolls :-) and B - scrolls :-( . Some spotted that the the 'nose' wasn't quite in the place. Some went and found the build sprite block and used that instead.

Figure 2 - Using the build sprite.

Lessons learnt

• Give them all access individually to the CodeBug website but not to the physical CodeBug straight away
• They are often a limited resources
• There is a great temptation from the code clubbers to focus on download to the actual device when the seem to get more done if the spend more time with website and its simulator first;
• When they have something interesting to put on the ‘bug’; then they can borrow a bug and try it out.
• They should do a bit of show and tell.

Related posts
Basic Motor Control using CodeBug
messing around with Codebug

All opinions in this blog are the Author's and should not in any way be seen as reflecting the views of any organisation the Author has any association with.

Drone at Code Club

We are putting our coding to the test at Code Club after school. pic.twitter.com/CcFi5Mg4PK

— St Luke's Primary (@DustonStLukes) May 24, 2016

Recently i have been taking a Parrot minedrone and the Tickle App (https://tickleapp.com/en-us/) to Code Club session, as an extra activity.

For those there actually programmed something that flies and it is quite engaging - having something you are controlling being able to move in all directions.


I wish the mini-drone had a little bit more battery time (I would suggest getting an extra battery). Combining with the drone and the Tickle App does add something to the experience, rather than just control it directly (though that is fun). The noise is also not to everyone's taste so it has to be used carefully in that context, but also from a safety point of view.

All opinions in this blog are the Author's and should not in any way be seen as reflecting the views of any organisation the Author has any association with.

Ozobot in Code Club

Earlier this week (21st March 2016) the Ozobot Bit were used as an extra activity at a Code Code - they went down very well with the children. 

Using Ozoblocky (http://ozoblockly.com/editor) they just played with making a short routine on a PC and download it to the ozobot.

Some very anecdotal observations:
- It would probably be better running this on tablet rather than a PC. There is nothing wrong with the software, but holding a bot against a screen, even one as light as ozobots, gets a bit tiring. If it was on a screen flat on the desk there wouldn't be a need to hold it. It is obvious with hindsight.
- Though movement was a big attraction for the children, the flashing light patterns seem to be, for the groups who work on it, a bigger attraction.
- The transition in moving from Scratch to Blockly was relatively smooth.

They all asked can they have the next session being solely about using robots.

As the author of this blog, I am clearly positively biased to physical computing - but the engagement, even from the more reticent children, was quite high with these.




All opinions in this blog are the Author's and should not in any way be seen as reflecting the views of any organisation the Author has any association with.