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HomeSeer Amazon Echo Skill Approved!
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Originally posted by DD1 View PostWill the Amazon Echo work with HomeSeer without an internet connection? If so, I will buy one for the lab bench and give it a spin. It may prove to be another tool to add to the tool bucket. Never can have enough tools.
What the Echo/Alexa has to distinguish it from the other options when it comes to home control is that it is an open mic solution that works really well at recognizing commands even over a bit of background noise. The accuracy is excellent relative to other solutions I've tried (though I haven't played with Kinect so I can't compare it to that). A well configured skill with good sample utterances and custom slots can be near perfect.
The main drawback, outside the basic cloud reliance, is that the rate at which they've made capabilities available to developers has been slow. The skills kit is really limited. They still haven't added things like passing the name of the echo in the request so you can use it's location as context for a command. Skills can only talk to other online services and not the local network (which is why 80% of my skill's setup is to get a proxy going between amazon and the script on your local server). There is a separate API for lighting devices that can do local control (which is what the Alexa HA Bridge software uses), but that is also fairly limited as it only does on, off and dim commands. The rate at which they doing things like certifying third party skills like HomeSeer's is also glacially slow. I have hope this will improve over time.Last edited by Thrag; December 28, 2015, 02:17 PM.
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Originally posted by Thrag View PostAll of the newest voice control options, Siri, Cortana, Alexa, Kinect, all do the voice to text translation in the cloud.
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Originally posted by spud View PostNot true for Kinect. With the Kinect plugin for example all voice recognition is done locally on your own PC, nothing is sent to the cloud.
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I've been using Spud's Kinect plugin almost from the day it was released and also have an Echo. There is simply no comparison in terms of the voice recognition -- the Echo is an order of magnitude better (as is the sensitivity of the Echo's 'far field' microphone array). This fact has nothing to do with the quality of Spud's plug-in -- it works brilliantly -- but it is subject the weaknesses of Microsoft's PC-based voice recognition.
I have a Kinect sitting directly on top of my PC screen and use it for a bunch of in-room controls (lighting, turning the monitors on and off, triggering a couple of events, etc.) -- when it recognizes my phrase (which is only about 75% of the time on the first try) everything works perfectly. The Echo's recognition rate -- even when I'm in a different room! -- is about 99% for both me and my wife.
I'm frankly baffled about all of the concerns about not wanting to use Internet-based services for HA control. If my Internet is down (which is very rare) I'm paralyzed in 16 different ways :-) -- having to walk across the room to turn on a light is the least of my concerns in that situation.
-M.
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Originally posted by Thrag View PostI did not know that. Cool. I guess I assumed it was part of the "Cortana" voice assistant stuff that MS has been putting out to compete with Siri. Does it just act as a mic and use the Windows OS speech to text like homeseer itself does or is does it have its own capability?
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Originally posted by MarkHargrove View PostI've been using Spud's Kinect plugin almost from the day it was released and also have an Echo. There is simply no comparison in terms of the voice recognition -- the Echo is an order of magnitude better (as is the sensitivity of the Echo's 'far field' microphone array). This fact has nothing to do with the quality of Spud's plug-in -- it works brilliantly -- but it is subject the weaknesses of Microsoft's PC-based voice recognition.
I have a Kinect sitting directly on top of my PC screen and use it for a bunch of in-room controls (lighting, turning the monitors on and off, triggering a couple of events, etc.) -- when it recognizes my phrase (which is only about 75% of the time on the first try) everything works perfectly. The Echo's recognition rate -- even when I'm in a different room! -- is about 99% for both me and my wife.
I'm frankly baffled about all of the concerns about not wanting to use Internet-based services for HA control. If my Internet is down (which is very rare) I'm paralyzed in 16 different ways :-) -- having to walk across the room to turn on a light is the least of my concerns in that situation.
-M.
I will need to acknowledge the fact that HomeSeer is doing what the market is dictating that they do in providing integration with other platforms. This is a monumental undertaking for HomeSeer regarding a risk versus reward decision. That being said, I believe Mark is correct in pointing out that this is an Alexa thread and proponents of the technology will get more from it than those just kicking the tires before making a decision on whether they should "buy-in".
I've worked for a Fortune 50 (not 500) company and changes were hampered by the right hand not knowing what the left hand was doing. With HomeSeer, you can get frustrated by all the small problems that never seem to go away like that gopher head popping up in that arcade game, but when you take a look at what a small and nimble company has achieved, you sit back and say "WOW".
That being said, I'll stick with the Kinect but probably will grab an Echo for R&D purposes.
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HomeSeer Amazon Echo Skill Approved!
Originally posted by rjh View Post
There is a HA control SDK where you can just say "tun on the lights", but its very limited with what you can say. We are in direct talks with Amazon and are voicing our concerns, they seem receptive so far, so hopefully we will get some changes.
At least for me, this doesn't seem like a good excuse to not implementing at least preliminary support using the lighting API.
If it only supports on/off/dim, then start with that and we can set up virtual devices to trigger events when turned on until proper event support comes along.
Then, when additional support is added by Amazon, it's an incremental change rather than staying over from scratch on a second or third avenue for integration.
Edit: especially as other competitors and hubs have already gone down this road, I think it's detrimental to HS to not match at least the the limited functionality. I think with virtual devices, as mentioned earlier, this type of support becomes instantly more powerful than a wink or a hue.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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We are going to support the lighting API, should be available soon, depends on how long it takes for Amazon to approve it.
Originally posted by DeLicious View PostAt least for me, this doesn't seem like a good excuse to not implementing at least preliminary support using the lighting API.
If it only supports on/off/dim, then start with that and we can set up virtual devices to trigger events when turned on until proper event support comes along.
Then, when additional support is added by Amazon, it's an incremental change rather than staying over from scratch on a second or third avenue for integration.
Edit: especially as other competitors and hubs have already gone down this road, I think it's detrimental to HS to not match at least the the limited functionality. I think with virtual devices, as mentioned earlier, this type of support becomes instantly more powerful than a wink or a hue.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Originally posted by MarkHargrove View Post
I'm frankly baffled about all of the concerns about not wanting to use Internet-based services for HA control.
-M.
Well if you are young and inexperienced you open your mouth and tell the truth:
http://www.businessinsider.com/well-...roblems-2010-5
If you are a seasoned veteran you know how to avoid the truth... at least for a period of time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiIP_KDQmXs
I'm perplexed... someone told me back in the day when we used slide rules instead of calculators that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. From my Kinect to my light switch, the line never leaves the building... probably as straight a line as the HA stuff will ever achieve. There is a reason "they" want that line connected to "their" building. I could quote a youthful MZ at this point but that wouldn't be polite or in the best interests of business as usual.
We can't escape the web once caught up in it can we? Nasty how those spiders trick their unsuspecting victims .All the above being said by a guy who uses Office 365 for Business... oh the irony.
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Originally posted by DeLicious View PostIf it only supports on/off/dim, then start with that and we can set up virtual devices to trigger events when turned on until proper event support comes along.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMW6aXmsWNE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IUzb21JU4s
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Question IFTTT vs skill
I have played with the approved skill setup and IFTTT. I have both up and running but for now I prefer (and wife/kids prefer) the IFTTT setup because it is easier to remember the language to invoke a command, and it is usually successful. There does seem to be a slight delay at times with IFTTT of maybe a few seconds but mostly it is pretty quick. One day (I think 12/27) it was just borked and the delay was about 15-20 minutes and it was unusable. Because of the potential for unresponsiveness, once the skill becomes more robust I will transition over to that. I don't like having to rename my devices (to simpler less descriptive names that will be recognized by the skill method).
Question: if I rename a device in homeseer to get the echo skill to work, will that break a prexisiting IFTTT recipe (that does not reference an event name but references a device directly, ie turn on a device)?
BTW: has anyone else asked Alexa: what is the mass of the universe????Last edited by tbever; January 2, 2016, 01:30 PM.
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Awesome News
I've had some hit or misses controlling HS using the Skill and Default device/room names. I've looked in the Alex APP and it appears voice recognition is correct. I have clicked to "report to Skill Developer". Hopefully, Amazon is sharing with you. It works great with IFTTT too, but delays do occur.
Since HS is the best, it should be linked just like other home automation controllers listed by Amazon.
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