IVB said:
Sorry, I wasn't clear.
1) We almost always have our phones, and at least on Android it can be in my pocket to trigger it.
2) I specifically don't want it to hear me from another room, I'd like to just say lights on. If it hears me from another room it won't know.
3) this isn't for true automation rules, rather manually instantiated via voice.
In general after going whole hog trying to define rules by which a middle-aged guy, no-not-middle-aged-wife, 9th grade girl, 6th grade girl, I've realized there are no rules. The best approach for my house is semiautomatic but manually executed rules, so driving that simplicity is as much as I can hope for.
Sounds like the tech isn't there yet.
I absolutely hate carrying my phone around when I'm in the house. I don't like the weight of it nor the generated heat (to say nothing the constant close RF exposure, but that's a whole other thing, let's not wreck this thread with THAT).
I agree with "semi-automatic but manually executed rules". I'm more comfortable with telling a system what I want done, versus having to stop it from doing what I DON'T want done, all the damned time. There's a ton of conditionals that come into play as well. Per-person, time-of-day and duration of over-rides too.
For example, the front porch light is on a motion sensor and for a majority of the time that's a great feature. But as warmer weather arrives it's nice to be out on the porch swing. This, of course, would be a great time for an over-ride. Trouble is, how do you structure this to get what you want, without unintended side-effects. Or handle motion sensors for outside lights when you have a party. A party is easy enough, if your rules are structured to take it into account. As in, I've detected motion, but party mode is set, so nevermind. This works OK for a party, but seems a bit tedious when you just want to sit on the porch for a while and not have the lights keep coming on. What's the right "user interface" for this? Using the wall switch for this runs dangerously close to the very annoying way old-school motion sensors would work; making you turn it on-off-on in some magic-dance-sequence to put them into a mode. But the sensor is close enough to the doors that it triggers when they're opened. Now, should it? Or should it err on the side of restraint and not turn on the lights unless motion outside was detected first? Ok, so instead of automatically getting lights when you go out, you have to press the button first. But how long should it wait before resetting it's motion detection? Once you're out there and the door is closed, how long should it wait before resuming a normal 'outside motion triggers lights' mode?
Now, before you think about using a voice recog system, remember you might not to be raising voices or having speaker responses at certain times. As in, having the Echo responding at it's normal volume level would be annoying (waking children). But if the VR system also ties into a touchscreen system then you've got potential to have one step in for the other, also based on rules.
Anyway, lots of the pieces are starting to fall into place. They're not all 'there yet' but lots of exciting potential is starting to come to fruition. If you're good with the notion of lugging a phone around all the time then the Tasker Beacon might work. Me, I'm holding out a little longer.
