Voice activated ....
Answered
... specifically to the clever people at Hammerhead.
At the moment Wahoo, Garmin and Karoo battle it out. I've bought all three and returned the first two (Garmin too cluttered and complex, Wahoo admitted some app functions didn't work so lost confidence). Kept and love Karoo mostly because of its emphasis on navigation, screen size and ability to configure. But the fact is that the three makes struggle to be visibly different.
A true game changer would surely be voice control through a bluetooth microphone. The joy of being able to say, 'zoom out', 'next screen', 'screen off', 'show me gradient', 'average speed', 'ETA', and have the screen flip to that info for ten seconds before returning to default.
Maybe difficult to incorporate into current device since it's not got a microphone. But could be achieved with third party microphone (even airpods) or a proprietary dongle. Or maybe through iphone?
It's got to happen. Why not be the first?
Jeff, London
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DI2 buttons can do the job of changing screens and quickly! Unfortunately I think adding a microphone on a head unit is never going to pick up voice commands when you’re doing more than 10km/h ha ha, at which point it can’t be too difficult to look down and squint at the K2 if you have too many data fields already.
If you’re wearing airpods you might as well go and ask for full Siri or Alexa integration and have the speed, gradient, nearest coffee shop or whatever you want read out to you! As you’re going to need a voice assistant like Siri or Alexa to integrate into a companion app to communicate with your K2! And even then, at speed, your airpods will struggle with wind noise.
“Alexa, how fast am I going?”
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Mark ,
Hmm. You're probably right.
The Di2 buttons are brilliant, I agree. And wind noise when cycling is tiresome though i do take simple calls on the fly.
I'll try the 'full integration' on the next ride and see what happens. If it works (is able to recognise commands) then that shows it's feasible.
With so much else going to voice control it's difficult to believe that navigation devices won't do the same. Ultimate proof against rain, taking hands of handelbars, gloves....
In my list of competitors to stay ahead of i didn't include smartphones. If it wasn't for the dreadful battery life that would be a serious contender (what i used to use). If they are voice activated already...
Jeff
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My iPhone lasts a LOT longer than any head unit that I’m aware of! But I don’t want to strap it to my bars. I also don’t ride listening to music normally, I wore my aftershockz aeropex for the first time this weekend (after receiving them as a gift from a friend who is a runner last summer) but forgot that I was wearing them until the other half rung me.
All personal preference and you can’t please everyone.
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Hey Jeff!
Thanks for the suggestion - you're right - it's only a matter of time before someone does it.
As pointed out, there would be some hurdles to overcome -wind noise being a big one, but noise-cancelling headphones have come a long way.
The Karoo 2 can pair with headphones - with the right Bluetooth stack it could also support the microphone in those headphones.
It also allows for sideloaded Android apps... There are some possibilities there as well.
That said, I know of no current plans to bring voice control to the Karoo 2. I will pass the suggestion along!
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Mark - a speaking GPS is actually quite a useful device.
I ran using an Odeo GPS for a while - a screenless, spoken only GPS. It worked particularly well on the race track as it didn't need any 'eyes on', allowing full concentration on race line - it ran with 'profiles' that read out stats at regular intervals. That could be speed every 5 seconds, or lap time every crossing of the start line.
Worked via a wired earpiece as blutooth wasn't t a thing at the time.
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