useDexterVoice

React hook for text-to-speech functionality with Spanish voice configuration in PokéDex Fleek

Overview

The useDexterVoice hook provides text-to-speech (TTS) functionality for the PokéDex app, delivering Pokémon information in Spanish with a distinctive robotic voice character. It uses expo-speech to synthesize speech with custom voice parameters optimized for clarity and character.

Import

import { useDexterVoice } from '../../hooks/useDexterVoice';

Usage

const { hablarEntrada, detenerVoz } = useDexterVoice();

// Speak Pokémon information
hablarEntrada(
  "Este Pokémon de tipo fuego puede alcanzar temperaturas de 1200 grados.",
  "Charizard"
);

// Stop speech playback
detenerVoz();

Return Values

The hook returns an object with the following methods:

hablarEntrada(texto, nombrePokemon)

Speaks the provided text with the Pokémon’s name in Spanish using TTS.

Parameters:

• texto (string) - The Pokémon description or information to speak
• nombrePokemon (string) - The name of the Pokémon

Behavior:

• Cleans the text by removing form feed characters (\f)
• Prepends the Pokémon name to the description
• Speaks the combined message with configured Spanish voice settings

Example:

hablarEntrada(
  "Pokémon legendario que controla el tiempo atmosférico.",
  "Rayquaza"
);
// Speaks: "Rayquaza. Pokémon legendario que controla el tiempo atmosférico."

detenerVoz()

Stops any currently playing speech.

Parameters: None

Example:

detenerVoz();

Voice Configuration

The hook uses carefully tuned voice parameters to create a distinctive robotic/analytical character:

const options = {
  language: 'es-MX',                  // Spanish (Latin America)
  pitch: .57,                          // Higher pitch for robotic tone
  rate: 1.2,                           // Slightly faster for clarity
  voice: 'es-es-x-eea-network',       // Spanish voice identifier
};

Voice Parameters

• language - 'es-MX' (Spanish - Mexico/Latin America)
• pitch - 0.57 - Higher pitch for a robotic/juvenile character tone
• rate - 1.2 - Slightly accelerated speed for analytical clarity
• voice - 'es-es-x-eea-network' - Specific Spanish voice engine

Integration with expo-speech

This hook wraps the expo-speech library, which provides:

• Cross-platform TTS support (iOS and Android)
• Multiple language and voice options
• Configurable speech parameters (pitch, rate, language)
• Playback control (speak, stop)

For more details, see the expo-speech documentation.

Source Code

~/workspace/source/src/hooks/useDexterVoice.js

import * as Speech from 'expo-speech';

export const useDexterVoice = () => {
  const hablarEntrada = (texto, nombrePokemon) => {

    const textoLimpio = texto.replace(/\f/g, ' ');
    const mensajeCompleto = `${nombrePokemon}. ${textoLimpio}`;

    const options = {
      language: 'es-MX', // Español Latino
      pitch: .57,      // Un poco más agudo para ese toque robótico/juvenil
      rate: 1.2,       // Un poco más lento para claridad analítica
      voice: 'es-es-x-eea-network',
    };

    Speech.speak(mensajeCompleto, options);
  };

  const detenerVoz = () => {
    Speech.stop();
  };

  return { hablarEntrada, detenerVoz };
};

Best Practices

• Call detenerVoz() before starting new speech to avoid overlapping audio
• Clean text input to remove special characters that may affect pronunciation
• Consider adding speech callbacks for handling completion events
• Test voice parameters on both iOS and Android for consistent experience