We have two conversation modes Hands-free and Hands-on.

By default interactions are initiated in Hands-free mode, In this mode users just talk to the AI and we automatically process the response, timing and manage the conversation responsiveness in the background.

While Hands-on mode, allows users to manually determine when to send their full response to the AI.

You can try out the Hands-on mode in the Playground by changing the Interaction Mode control to hands-on in the Advanced Controls section.

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Why Hands-on Mode?

Hands-on Mode is useful in cases where you want the user to control when they send their response to the AI for processing. This allows the user more control over the responsiveness of the conversation.

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Enabling Hands-on Mode

In Hands-on mode, we wait for user to manually send their response before the set hands-on timeout after which we will automatically send the response. If you never want the response to be automatically sent, you will need to set the time-out to a relative high value.

To enable Hands-on mode,

    import { connect } from 'diarupt'
    ...
        await connect(
          sid,
          {
            stream,
            player: video, // output video to the video element
            mode: 'hands-on', // enables hands on mode
            handsOnTimeout: 5000, // automatically sends user response after 5 seconds
          }, (event: string, data: unknown) => {
            // handle hands-on specific events
            switch (event) {
              case 'user-started-talking':
                console.log('user started talking')
                break;
              case 'user-stopped-talking':
                console.log('user stopped talking')
                break;
              default:
                console.log(event, data)
                break;
            }
          }
        )
    ...

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Hands-on Mode Events

In Hands-on mode, we emit the following events

EventDescription
user-started-talkingEmitted when the user starts talking
user-stopped-talkingEmitted after user stop talking plus the when handsOnTimeout elapses.

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Sending User Response

User response need to be manually sent, or will be automatically sent after handsOnTimeout has elapsed.

To send user’s response.

    import { connect, sendUserResponse } from 'diarupt'
    let userTalking = false
    sendResponseBtn = document.getElementById('send-response-btn')

    ...
        await connect(
          sid,
          {
            stream,
            player: video, // output video to the video element
            mode: 'hands-on', // enables hands on mode
            handsOnTimeout: 5000, // automatically sends user response after 5 seconds
          }, (event: string, data: unknown) => {
            // handle hands-on specific events
            switch (event) {
              case 'user-started-talking':
                userTalking = true
                // enable send response button when user starts talking
                sendResponseBtn.disabled = false
                break;
              case 'user-stopped-talking':
                userTalking = false
                // disable send response button when user stops talking
                // this is to prevent sending empty response
                sendResponseBtn.disabled = false
                break;
              default:
                console.log(event, data)
                break;
            }
          }
        )
    ...

    // send user response
    sendResponseBtn.addEventListener('click', () => {
      if (userTalking) {
        sendResponseBtn.disabled = true
        sendUserResponse()
      }
    })

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Conclusion

You’re all set to use Hands-on mode. Now you control your user’s conversational experience as you wish while still enjoying the benefit of our realtime video conversation AI.