VR Newbee

[sjz26]

Hello I am starting my research for how to add to my system voice commands and looking to benefit from the wealth of knowledge here and NOT to over-engineer a solution as I tend to do. Here is what I am solving for:
1. speak and communicate to my system to trigger events, speak status and information, and build new one time events.
2. would like to have multiple zones for communication. example if I speak something in the family room the response is only played back in that zone.
3. I currently have sonos in every room and would like to have mics in each zone as well that link responses and limit them to the room that the commands come from.
4. I have read everything on the echo and dont think that will work for me, still seems very limited....

I would appreciate any and all suggestions for possible pluggins or hardware.

thanks

[csullivan2005]

echo can do quite a lot especially when creating and using virtual devices in homeseer. For example if you create a device named Good Morning Scene...alexa will recognize it and all you have to say is Alexa turn on Good Morning Scene.


I have created virtual devices for each sonos room player and can ask sonos to turn on family room speakers or turn off.

Alexa will raise my thermostat temperature if I say Alexa increase first Floor temperature.

You can ask for homeseer device status but for this you have to say Alexa ask homeseer what is the status of "device"

[sjz26]

Thank you so much for your recommendation. you have given me some things to think about. I am still wanting to see if there are any additional options that I should consider unless you feel that echo could work for these cases:
1. I want to be able to customize the wake up name and voice
2. I would like to have the responses play through my sonos system, either single or multi zones
3. how will the "speak something" play? through the echo or my sonos?
3. everything else seems to align with what I am hoping to accomplish....

[csullivan2005]

As of now I think the only options are Alexa,computer, or Amazon. I'm not sure if this would work but im thinking if you connect echo dot into a sonos line in for sonos connect or play 5 that may allow to play Alexa responses over sonos.

I do also believe using Jon00 plugin for Homeseer/Alexa is another way to play Alexa responses over sonos and to customize Alexa responses. Maybe someone else can verify this. I believe you can also customize how Alexa recognizes what you say. For example if you say something you can change if Alexa has to hear what you say in a precise exact order or can program it that Alexa just needs to recognize key words in your phrase in any way. But I think for all this you have to say Alexa ask Homeseer first

Lastly sonos and Amazon Alexa are partnering up and sometime this year you will be able to control sonos seamlessly with Alexa. Play specific songs, ask Alexa to play in different zones. Full functionality of sonos via Alexa. There are demo videos online by sonos. I can not wait for this!

[waynehead99]

Honestly for the cost of the units, you will not find a better solution outside of the Amazon Echos. The mics they use are really good and very rarely do I have a miss in commands.

Couple this with Jon00's scripts, and you have a very robust solution. It does take a little setup in the beginning, but the reward is worth the effort.

Take a look at Jon00's thread (at work right now so don't have the link available) to see some of the things you can do.

People have also had a lot of success using virtual devices and room grouping in the amazon application, but my personal preference is the script.

[spud]

If you want a solution that is all local and may be more flexible than Alexa, have a look at the Kinect and the Kinect plugin: https://forums.homeseer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1153
The main drawback of this solution being that each Kinect needs to be connected to a Windows machine.