react-speak

Simple, extensible React HOC for interop with the Web SpeechRecognition API.

Dependencies:

• React 16
• PropTypes

Install

Do:

$ npm install react-speak

or:

$ yarn add react-speak

Simple Usage

Using react-speak is pretty simple because it's designed to do one thing well: allow your React/Redux components to work with your browser's native Web SpeechRecognition API and give you access to a user's microphone.

Under the hood, withSpeech is a function that takes a component and returns a wrapped component with the following PropTypes:

WithSpeech.propTypes = {
  startListening: PropTypes.func.isRequired,
  stopListening: PropTypes.func.isRequired,
  addToRegister: PropTypes.func,
}

The package was written to be used with Redux, so all three props were designed to be action creators that return action objects (see the Redux section below).

Example Setup

Here's a simple setup using Redux:

import withSpeech from 'react-speak'
import React from 'react'
import { compose } from 'redux'
import { connect } from 'react-redux'
import { startListening, stopListening, addToRegister, clearRegister } from '../actions/speech'
 
// Whatever state you care about:
const mapStateToProps = state => ({ 
  isListening: state.isListening,
  register: state.register
})
 
const mapDispatchToProps = {
  startListening,
  stopListening,
  addToRegister,
  clearRegister
}
 
const YourComponentWithSpeech = props => (
  <div className="ComponentWithSpeech">
    {props.isListening
      ? null 
      : (
        <button onClick={() => onSave(props.register)}>
          Start speaking
        </button>
      )
    }
    <div className="transcript">
      {props.register.map(transcript => <div>{transcript}</div>)}
    </div>
  </div>
)
 
export default compose(
  connect(mapStateToProps, mapDispatchToProps),
  withSpeech,
)(YourComponentWithSpeech)

Redux:

withSpeech returns a component with the following props:

• startListening (function, required)
• stopListening (function, required)
• addToRegister (function)

All three are action creators that return action objects.

startListening and stopListening are similar in that they don't receive any particular payload from the withSpeech component; your action creator could be as simple as:

const startListening = () => ({ type: INIT_LISTEN })

addToRegister on the other hand receives a transcript or "register", which is just an array of strings from your user's microphone. You can pass this as a payload to your reducers and do whatever you want with next.

An example action creator:

const sendToAlexa = transcript => ({
  type: TRANSCRIPT_SENT,
  payload: transcript
})

FAQ:

• Q: Do I have to use Redux?

• A: Currently this only officially supports a Redux or Flux-type model where you have reducers that listen for the actions that withSpeech returns, and manages the logic for how this component actually mutates state.

• Q: How can I contribute?

• A: Contributions are totally welcome! See the section on contributing below.

Contributing

PRs that abstract this component's functionality to React in general are absolutely welcome! Also, drop me a line if you're interested in helping me work with the SpeechSynthesis interface, as currently withSpeech only implements the SpeechRecognition protocol.