CastleOS - new home automation software with Kinect voice control

[iostream212]

 If someone has physical access to your house, you have bigger problems anyways

Ha that would be great to have a robber break in and disable security and turn on all lights. Actually what I fear more than a robber is people messing with the ac. ^_^

 

[Dean Roddey]

They wouldn't even have to break in, just talk through an open window.

 

[ChrisCicc]

all voice control videos look good in controlled conditions 

 
As stated in the video and elsewhere, this wasn't controlled in any way, it's my living room, and the normal installation and placement of the Kinect. No customizations were made for shooting the video. In fact, my living room is a very poor acoustic environment (no carpet or fabric, many echoes), and it still works incredibly well.

 

[ChrisCicc]

They wouldn't even have to break in, just talk through an open window.

 
Why would they talk though it, presumably to unlock the doors, rather than just go in through the open window?

 

[ChrisCicc]

Looks interesting. I registered to play around with the beta and the file that I downloaded was not an installer package. It was just a file with a file type of file. Added .exe and .msi extensions but that didn't work. Help. In the video I like being able to set a timer alert via voice. Can you change the trigger word from computer? What about security? Can anyone who knows the trigger words control your system?

 
It's a zip file, the setup.exe and .msi files are inside the zip. The next release is moving to a different installer package that will do away with the zip. 

 

[ChrisCicc]

Personally Chris; I think that the Kinect has a lot of potential relating to the HA world. 
 
A fine tuned VR set up is fine in general terms and I am guessing that it will attract those that have never done any HA stuff before in their house.
 
I would prefer seeing an HA product using all of the features that Kinect has; IE: using VR and facial recognition and gesture recognition and so forth and so on.
 
It is nice to have TTS and VR but I cannot have an interactive conversation today with my home automation computer.
 
Using VR is nice but we are now at a point in time (relating to technology) where its already old technology and somewhat almost antiquated unless we have a little bit of AI mixed with that whole VR/TTS thing. 
 
I already utilize different voice fonts in different rooms for different things; IE: the garage touch screens talks in portuguese - more to bug my wife and for me just a learning thing....

 
There is a lot more to come with the Kinect! The voice interface is only the beginning Gesture recognition I wouldn't expect in any commercial product any time soon due to the level of training/programming required by the end user, but we have several other uses for the internal camera and 3D sensor in the works, including facial recognition. 
 
Our voice control uses natural language processing, you don't have to learn commands. I'm not sure how that is different from the AI you mention, as for these uses an AI would recognize the exact same speech and take the exact same actions. The Kinect and the MS speech platform are far more powerful than I think many people give them credit for. Siri gets all the attention, but it can't shine MS' shoes.
 

It better support the 'My voice is my password. Verify me' authentication mechanism  If someone has physical access to your house, you have bigger problems anyways.
 
I agree with pete_c, it needs to exploit more of the Kinect features in order to stand out, lots of potential there.

 
I want this badly, if only to satisfy the geek in me. Recognizing speakers through their voices is difficult, but this is possible.

 

[damage]

As stated in the video and elsewhere, this wasn't controlled in any way, it's my living room, and the normal installation and placement of the Kinect. No customizations were made for shooting the video. In fact, my living room is a very poor acoustic environment (no carpet or fabric, many echoes), and it still works incredibly well.

 
to me, it's controlled since there's no background noise when the person is talking

 

[ChrisCicc]

to me, it's controlled since there's no background noise when the person is talking

 
Well, I don't have kids, so that's how my home usually is I've been very open on this board about the limits of the voice control with background noise. In short, it works so long as the speaker is 20 db louder than the background noise. The next Kinect version is being designed for use in high background noise scenarios (i.e. stores), and I think this limitation will go away. I've seem some demos out of MS Research that are pretty amazing.

 

[damage]

Well, I don't have kids, so that's how my home usually is I've been very open on this board about the limits of the voice control with background noise. In short, it works so long as the speaker is 20 db louder than the background noise. The next Kinect version is being designed for use in high background noise scenarios (i.e. stores), and I think this limitation will go away. I've seem some demos out of MS Research that are pretty amazing.

 
you should make a video with background noise (people talking, music on, etc).  your competition is a kinect sdk plugin away from having the same VR capability.  i don't see this as a sustainable competitive advantage

 

[ChrisCicc]

you should make a video with background noise (people talking, music on, etc).  your competition is a kinect sdk plugin away from having the same VR capability.  i don't see this as a sustainable competitive advantage

 
Could someone create another Kinect voice interface? Of course. Just like we will create a Siri voice interface when the API is out, making things like SiriProxy outdated. That said, it's not as easy as you think There are still thousands of lines of code to write, and a system to fully integrate it with.

 

[Dean Roddey]

Why would they talk though it, presumably to unlock the doors, rather than just go in through the open window?

 
Because they wouldn't even have to worry about setting off a motion sensor.

 

[ChrisCicc]

Because they wouldn't even have to worry about setting off a motion sensor.

 
If we ever decide to allow the deactivation of an alarm system with your voice, we won't be replacing the pin code with a simple "computer, deactivate the alarm system"  

 

[jhdale]

It's a zip file, the setup.exe and .msi files are inside the zip. The next release is moving to a different installer package that will do away with the zip.

The file did download with no extension, which was weird. I forgot to mention that in my email to you. Easily solvable but it should be even easier to fix on your site.

 

[ChrisCicc]

The file did download with no extension, which was weird. I forgot to mention that in my email to you. Easily solvable but it should be even easier to fix on your site.

 
Ah yes, that is a different issue. Something must be wrong or not fully browser compatible on our end, I'll look into that, thanks for bringing it to my attention!!! 

 

[iostream212]

Picked up a used kinect sensor off eBay for $68. Looking forward to messing around with it when it gets here. Is there going to be a REST service or the like?