v1.4.0

• whisper_cpp_vendor: whisper.cpp 1.6.2 to 1.7.2 release, build changes
• Added live audio transcription streaming
• whisper_server:
  • Holding incoming Audio data in a Ring Buffer (removed BatchBuffer, drop oldest audio).
  • Transcribing the entire buffer of audio data with whisper.cpp on a timer interrupt
  • Publishing the resulting tokens + probabilities on topic /whisper/tokens
  • Removing the Action Server
  • New Node Parameters:
    • active -- Boolean to control if whisper.cpp should be run or not.
    • callback_ms -- Integer controlling how often whisper.cpp is called.
    • buffer_capacity -- Integer number of seconds previous where audio is transcribed.
• transcript_manager package added:
  • Store record of what was previously transcribed.
  • Track what is currently being transcribed. Align and update the text from subscribed topic /whisper/tokens.
    • Updates done on timer interrupt
  • Host the Action Server which was previously part of whisper_server
  • Publish the entire transcript (previous and current) under /whisper/transcript_stream
    • Published transcript contains text and estimated segment markings, segment timestamps
• whisper_demos: Add stream node
• whisper_idl:
  • Added msg/WhisperTokens.msg, msg/AudioTranscript.msg
  • Added launch/replay.launch.py which does not bring up audio_listener
• whisper_util: Changes to directly inference and then serialize whisper.cpp model output, also containing probability data.

Also refer to https://github.com/ros-ai/ros2_whisper/blob/main/CHANGELOG.rst. Work done by @NathanCorral