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    PushbackZoomer - Pushbacks controlled by voice only - Image 2

    Description

    << --- This app is my christmas present to the community but please consider it as in beta stage still! --- >>

    PushbackZoomer is a tiny little utility, that allows to perform pushbacks just by speaking voice commands!

    As you don't need to configure anything it as the most simplistic GUI ever: the GUI is just a blank window with literally zero UI elements on it. Start it, put it in the background an forget it!
    How do you use it? Talk with it! Using the standard audio input, you need to speak a realistic and comprehensive set of voice commands, which trigger step by step an improved pushback procedure. For each command you hear a response via the standard audio output.

    Here is a list of supported features:

    • Freeware Windows 10 app
    • Distributed via the Microsoft Store, was well as a *.msix file (packaged Windows app) from freeware portals
    • Zero-controls GUI
    • The only feedback, that the GUI provides, is the connection state to the sim via SimConnect (GUI in grey = idle / GUI colored = connected)
    • Minimal resources footprint. By intelligent context sensing, the app only activates voice recognition during phases, when a pushback could occur. For the rest of the flight, the app will be running idle.
    • Speech commands in english only
    • Speech commands follow the real world protocol as much as possible.
    • Freely spoken commands are not understood, but the phrases need to match a set of predefined commands (see list of minimal commands below).
    • A healthy number of variations is supported both for spoken phrases as well as for the responses.
    • Depending on the mood of the virtualpushback driver, the conversation will have a different character. For every pushback any of the moods TightLipped, Formal or Expressive will randomly be applied to our virtual pushback driver.
    • Literally hundreds of millions of different conversations with the pushback driver are possible.
    • Robust speech recognition, even as non-native English speaker I easily get confidence values of 0.95 or more
    • Any action can be canceled by saying “no, no, no”, if something was not understood correctly by the speech recognizer.

    This is the minimal set of commands:

    • Ground from flightdeck -> Start the converstion
    • Brakes released -> Confirmation that the parking brakes have been released
    • Turn  -> Requests a 90° turn to the right or left
    • Turn by degrees -> Requests a turn by the specified angle to the right or left
    • Turn facing  -> Requests a 90° turn, the direction is derived from the cordinal direction
    • Stop turning -> Stop turning and continue with current heading
    • No, no, no -> Cancel started action
    • Stop the pushback -> Terminate the pushback
    • Brakes set -> Confirmation that the parking brakes have been set


    User manual
    For more details please refer to the user manual PDF.

    Also watch this video, to see the tool in operation:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8qo4O00slA


    System Requirements
    The language packs for english need to be installed.


    How to install?

    Extract all file from the zip into a folder.


    How to use?
     
    Start
    PushbackZoomer.exe and place the window in the background. Start talking to the pushback drive once you brought the aircraft in the correct state for pushback.


    How do you get support?
    Please ask questions or bring up support issues in this thread.

    Comments(30)

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    about 3 years ago

    Seems abandoned

    about 3 years ago

    There are no new features, that's correct, but it should work!

    I have not heard about unresovable issues, so no news are good news.

    Is the tool not working for you?

    over 4 years ago



    over 4 years ago

    Can you elaborate? What does not work?

    over 4 years ago

    si blocca al push

    over 4 years ago

    I can't find where to install the english voice thing so it doesn't work for me.

    Edit: It's not very clear where you install the English/US language but it's in settings. If you could make it more clear in the description that would help people.

    over 4 years ago

    Great job. The App is working great! I love it!

    almost 5 years ago

    Does not work. Waste of time. Had it coloured but no reply and still was moving my aircraft back without stopping the pushback. Maybe not updated for new update ? voice recognition works perfectly with pilot2atc so

    about 5 years ago

    Unfortunately, I can't make it work. It's saying that pushback not possible.

    about 5 years ago

    It's not responding. I downloaded english(US) and the GUI is colored ( connected). I said "ground to flight deck", no responding but my aircraft is pushing back by it self. If I command to turn, it won't work. It just keep pushing back. But if I ask to stop pushback it just stops. And if i want to taxi out of the gate, I can't increase the speed even tho I release the parking brake. Can anybody help me??

    about 5 years ago

    Very good job, thanks for it. Would it be possible to change the voices in the future? Take care

    over 5 years ago

    If this works, perfect for VR.
    But unfortunately it doesn't work. The app is enabled and the Tug connects but it doesn't respond to any voice commands. I also tried the MS Store version.
    My headset works, I tested this, it is the default audio recording device and Speech recognition works for Windows Mixed Reality.

    Did an update brake it?
    Also, The Forum thread on the official MSFS forums got closed.

    over 5 years ago

    Hi flightzoomer,
    This looks like a great app, as well as an avid flight simmer, I am a professional voiceover artist. I'd love to offer my services to bring a realness to the tug operator/ground crew rather than the robic system generated sound. I'm not sure how you have built the app, but it it works on mp3 files this would be an easy and beneficial development. If you're interested or what to hear more of my work details and voice reels are on danielcarlin.co.uk/voice would love to help!

    over 5 years ago

    Hi Daniel
    Thanks for the feedback and the suggestions. I fear, the app architecture does not allow easy intregration of nicer mp3 sound pieces. The app is using the integrated Windows text-to-speech capabilities, which unfortunately sound as they sound.
    Changing the sound engine to speak own mp3 sounds is tricky, because I vary the statements randomly to make it more lively. E.g. the greeting by the driver looks like this in code:

    BasicFeatures.GetWeightedOneOf(new[] {
    new WeightedText("Good " + strDayTime + " captain! ", mood == Moods.Expressive ? 50 : 10),
    new WeightedText("Good " + strDayTime + "! ", mood == Moods.TightLipped ? 50 : 30),
    new WeightedText("Ground here, ", Mood == Moods.Formalistic ? 50 : 20)
    })

    This means, that if the mood (which is randomly set itself) is expressive, the sentence starts with probability weight = 50 with the sentence "Good morning captain" (-> "morning" adjusted for the given time of the day). In all other moods, this sentence has a weight of only 10. The simple variant "Good morning" is spoken with weight 50 if the mood is tightlipped or 30 in all other moods. The variant "Ground here" is spoken predominatly (weight 50) if the mood is formalistic. That said, it might be a bit hard to generate the spoken voices using mp3 pieces. The sound engine would have to play multiple mp3 sound snippets one after another.

    over 5 years ago

    Ah I see! Not a problem, do let me know if I can be of any help in your future developments :)

    over 5 years ago

    Are you still working on this? The English script needs to be tweaked a bit. Overall the app is outstanding!

    over 5 years ago

    Sure, new versions will come, I only need to find some time slots for dev work. But any suggestion for improvement is welcome. I might even allow the user to load own SRGS grammars (see the implemented one in the pdf document for reference).

    over 5 years ago

    I think this is a really great mod! Thank you.

    I also had issues with "stop pushback", but it looks like you addressed it below.

    My only other comment is that if you start the app before loading into VR, the app does not seem to recognize your voice (my guess is that it's probably not recognizing the switch in audio input). My workaround has been to load the app only after I have launched VR from the main menu.

    All in all, this app is basically a requirement for me for VR airliner flying and it works excellent for that.

    over 5 years ago

    Yes, thats correct, the app does not recognize when the audio input source changes. Your workaround is the only way I can think of right now to deal with that (workaround => start the app only once the audio hardware is connected, that you want to use). Maybe I find a solution in a future update to handle that automatically.
    MSFS 2020MSFS 2024

    PushbackZoomer - Pushbacks controlled by voice only

    PushbackZoomer is a Windows 10 app that allows voice-controlled pushbacks with minimal user interface. It supports realistic voice commands triggered step by step for an improved pushback procedure, providing feedback via audio output. The app features a zero-controls GUI, activates voice recognition only when needed, and recognizes a predefined set of English commands. Operating in beta, it offers a unique experience with virtual pushback drivers in various moods.

    Downloads2K
    Version1.0
    File Size1.81 MB
    Published5 years ago
    Updated5 years ago

    User Reviews

    3.8

    11 reviews

    5
    55%
    4
    0%
    3
    9%
    2
    9%
    1
    18%

    More Information

    Simulator
    MSFS2020
    CategoryUtilities
    Sub-CategoryApplications

    Version History

    No version history available.

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