Amazon Echo to HA Controllers

[IVB]

Call me curmudgeonly but I'd trade away 3, no, 4 dozen "clever" quips for the simple intelligence to ask if I really wanted to place yet another order for the same item.  Strange development priorities, Team Amazon; having Alexa respond to "Who you gonna call?" is amusing once but robotically ordering duplicates is irksome always.

 
Indeed. I'm all about the easter eggs and I know developers need to let off steam, but seriously, get the damn product working first. I'm not talking about Alexa/echo per se as I don't have it, its just a general statement. Its like all those stupid Siri responses, but at least apple got the product stable.

 

[NeverDie]

I must have blinked, because only now do I notice that echo has a "new" standard feature, which is turning off the lights:
 

 
What is Echo's standard way to accomplish that?
 
[Edit: Sorry, I guess it was old news.  Answering my own question: Echo uses either Belkin WeMo light switches to do it, or else Philips Hue bulbs (cf. http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2015/04/08/amazon-hints-at-smart-home-future-through-echo-device/).]

 

[pete_c]

Yeah; this morning I asked it wiki death and got silence (well a beep) until the fourth try. 
 
I had to add the word protocol to C-Bus to get it to understand the question.
 
Asked it to wiki OSI model a few times.  After the forth time it went to describing what SOS means.

 

[wkearney99]

Yeah; this morning I asked it wiki death and got silence (well a beep) until the fourth try. 
 
I had to add the word protocol to C-Bus to get it to understand the question.
 
Asked it to wiki OSI model a few times.  After the forth time it went to describing what SOS means.

 
Right, because everyone's going to want to do word searches on wretchedly ancient failed technologies.  Heh.  
 
It's definitely a trade-off between using at least some small amount of command structures versus free-referencing just for amusement.
 
Here's an interesting bit, go to the Echo app and find that search card.  Notice there's a Play button.  It's capable of playing back what it heard.  There's also a link there to tell support about it.  Mine had a devil of a time hearing me when I tell it to add "hungarian paprika" to the shopping list.  

 

[wkearney99]

Meanwhile, the dev session yesterday was pretty informative.  Most interesting was being able to use a new AWS feature called Lambda for putting code snippets into their cloud for Alexa apps.  A developer can set up an app based entirely on them and not have to use their own server or their own 'whole' VM.  

 

[pete_c]

Right, because everyone's going to want to do word searches on wretchedly ancient failed technologies.  Heh.  
 
It's definitely a trade-off between using at least some small amount of command structures versus free-referencing just for amusement.
 
Here's an interesting bit, go to the Echo app and find that search card.  Notice there's a Play button.  It's capable of playing back what it heard.  There's also a link there to tell support about it.  Mine had a devil of a time hearing me when I tell it to add "hungarian paprika" to the shopping list.

 
Thanks Bill and will do.
 
This morning asked it more death questions for fun. 
 
 
I don't understand wretchedly ancient failed technologies.
I mean death is death no matter how you look at it. 
 
It is both absolute and relative.  That part hasn't ever changed.
 
IE: this morning there was a thunderstorm with much rain.  This for whatever reasons illicited the death questions mentioned above when I looked out my front window.  
 
Amazon playing started by wikiing:thunderstorm.
 
IE: my uncle (> 80 these days) has been struck by lightning three times in his life.  He did get burned shoes once.
 
Objects struck by lightning experience heat and magnetic forces of great magnitude. The heat created by lightning currents traveling through a tree may vaporize its sap, causing a steam explosion that bursts the trunk. As lightning travels through sandy soil, the soil surrounding the plasma channel may melt, forming tubular structures called fulgurites. Even though roughly 90 percent of people struck by lightning survive, humans or animals struck by lightning may suffer severe injury due to internal organ and nervous system damage. Buildings or tall structures hit by lightning may be damaged as the lightning seeks unintended paths to ground. By safely conducting a lightning strike to ground, a lightning protection system can greatly reduce the probability of severe property damage. Lightning also oxidizes nitrogen in the air into nitrates which are deposited by rain and can fertilize plant growth.
 
Yet later in the morning I ate dead eggs (think?) and meat (dead too) for breakfast which didn't illicit any thoughts relating to death.

 

[pete_c]

Fun video to watch.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L21zONaigaw

 

[jkmonroe]

So now that IFTTT has released the Maker channel, has anyone with an Echo tried to hook them together?
 
CQC (and I assume others) can accept the incoming HTTP trigger from IFTTT, so I am really curious to learn if we can interact in any meaningful way.  

 

[tadr]

I haven't read through this whole thread, but "arm" over on the Vera Forums already wrote a piece of very useful software to genericize the Echo's now-native Hue integration.  Basically, his software emulates the Hue bridge, and allows you to specify any URL to be called for the on and off commands for each device you define.
 
For example, you can create a device called "Kitchen Lights" that calls URL1 for "On" and URL2 for "Off."  There's no reason you're limited to lighting though -- if you can control it with an HTTP command, then you can control it with your Echo.  For example, I have an audio system that I control using the device "Kitchen Music" and custom URLs to turn on and off the music in my kitchen.
 
I've been using it for a few weeks now (running on a raspberry pi) and it works very very well.  The biggest downside is that you have to say "turn on [device]" or "turn off the [device]".  So, for example, you could say "turn on the security system" but not "arm the security system to away mode".
 
Link: http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,31920.0.html 

 

[pete_c]

Thank you Tadr.
 
This morning said to Amazon Echo "turn off wikipedia".   I do not have any Hue things (doo whats)  here yet.
 
On the 4th try it spoke some 20 second legalize jargon of which I didn't pay attention to.
 
I did just notice this a few minutes ago frome developer dot amazon dot com.
 
Introducing the Alexa Skills Kit, Enabling Developers to Create Entirely New Voice Driven Capabilities

June 25, 2015
David Isbitski

Today, we are announcing the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK), a collection of self-service APIs and tools that make it fast and easy for you to create new voice-driven capabilities for Alexa. Alexa is the cloud-based voice service that powers Amazon Echo, a new category of device designed around your voice. With a few lines of code, you can easily integrate existing web services with Alexa or, in just a few hours, you can build entirely new experiences designed around voice. No experience with speech recognition or natural language understanding is required—Amazon does all the work to hear, understand, and process the customer’s spoken request so you don’t have to.

Quickly Build New Skills with the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK)

Now you have the opportunity to easily extend your existing service or create something completely new. Without the need for customers to use their hands or eyes, they only have to “ask” and it’s at their command. Now is the time for you to get started.

    Get in Early. Natural user interfaces, such as those based on speech, represent the next major disruption in computing. Alexa provides you with an opportunity to take advantage of this new form of interaction.
    
    Delight Your Customers. Give your audience a completely new way to interact with your service. Without the need for customers to use their hands or eyes, they only have to “ask” and it’s at their command.
    
    Get Up and Running in Just a Few Hours. If you have an existing cloud-based service, you can easily use that to start. If not, AWS Lambda is a compute service that makes it really easy to build a cloud-based service that responds quickly to a voice request.
    
   Build for Free. ASK is free to use. AWS Lambda is also free for the first 1MM calls per month.

 Examples of skills you can create with the Alexa Skills Kit include:

    A hobbyist developer can enable Alexa to access his or her child’s school lunch menu—then, each morning simply ask, “Alexa, ask Ballard Elementary School what’s for lunch today” and decide whether to pack a lunch for the child.

    A device maker with an Internet-connected sprinkler system can integrate its sprinklers with Alexa, so a customer can say, “Alexa, ask my sprinkler to water my lawn for 15 minutes.”

    A surf report provider can create a new skill for Alexa that lets customers ask for the latest conditions at their favorite break by saying “Alexa, ask Surf Status for my local forecast.”

    The maker of a smart vacuum cleaner can create a skill for Alexa that lets customers control their vacuum by saying “Alexa, tell the vacuum to start cleaning the living room.”

    A fitness service can enable Alexa to access a user’s workout history, so a customer can say “Alexa, ask My Fitness how many miles I have run this week.”

    A baseball fantasy league can make a new skill for Alexa, so managers can simply say, “Alexa, ask Fantasy Baseball to change my lineup and start Felix Hernandez today.”
 
Lookie here for the article.

 

[wkearney99]

I've been using it for a few weeks now (running on a raspberry pi) and it works very very well.  The biggest downside is that you have to say "turn on [device]" or "turn off the [device]".  So, for example, you could say "turn on the security system" but not "arm the security system to away mode".

 
Which may, perhaps not be such a good idea since the Echo readily recognizes and accepts just about any voice it hears.  I've tested it and it correctly recognized me shouting a command from outside a closed double-pane window 12' away from it.  
 
I don't see a readily practical way for it to deal with authentication by audio alone, unless they integrate a card for the purpose in the app.  As in, the Echo wants you to do something and it presents a card for it in the Echo app on a tablet or phone.  That'd work.  I'd certainly trade that for getting into specific voice-training set up.

 

[wkearney99]

I've been doing some development with it and it's pretty easy.  Especially if you have something lightweight and can use the AWS Lambda functions.  That makes it a no-resource solution on your end.  But it's not required, you can just as easily have it interact with your own servers or any of the AWS systems.  But, at this point, it requires they be accessible by Amazon web services via the Internet.  Which makes sense as the Echo itself requires access to them as well.   Still, it is a cloud-based solution with all that brings along.

 

[wuench]

Yeah got my email today too.  Looks pretty simple, at least for the Echo/Voice side.  Not a fan of them trying to force the use of a cloud service connector, but I understand the resource utilization and business reasons for them going that route.  I am wondering does the "use your own server" option have to be a single centralized endpoint or could it be a individual users web service endpoint.  I guess it depends on if that configuration is static or can be made configurable by the end user....

 

[jkmonroe]

well this is going to be fun.

 

[IVB]

well this is going to be fun.

did you ever buy a kinect? If not, are you going to get an echo given that its now publicly available?
 
Just wondering if i should unbox mine that'll be here on July 8th, if you'll get yours on July 16th i'll just wait for you to set it up and skool me ;-)