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Google Home

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Re: Google Home

#281

Post by niutech »

mbrock wrote: post #151
cheald wrote: post #19

When I was younger, I dreamed of something like this. Voice control for my home! A Star Trek computer that I can interact with conversationally! I just say what I want and it happens! Now, I just see an internet-connected microphone in a software black box which I can only interpret as a giant frickin' security liability. I want this, but unless it's open source top-to-bottom, I won't ever actually put one in my home…

The Free Software Foundation, in its texts, often uses the phrase "the free world" to mean the realm of computing without proprietary restrictions, surveillance, etc. Approximately since Snowden, I've become more and more convinced about both the fragility and the value of this free world. And today, I basically see the tech giants as colossal enemies. Career-wise, henceforth I will avoid proprietary systems and dedi…

The private data should not be centralized in realms of Google, Apple, Microsoft, instead it should be federated. This is why in 2014 I issued the Private Internet of Things Manifesto (https://github.com/niutech/priot).

Re: Google Home

#282

Post by tamana »

sf_rob wrote: post #187
dandare wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I came here to ask people of examples of use cases because I just can not see how this can be useful in this decade.

I mean, all the turn-key stuff is terrible right now, but I've seen some awesome DIY stuff with Homeseer + IFTTT + bash scripts. My friend's house turns on the front porch light when he gets home, auto-locks the front door if unlocked for more than X minutes, alerts of outside doors that have been open for more than X seconds, dims the lights when he turns on the TV, alerts him when his wife is almost home (she hates…

Why does his wife let him track her movements?

Re: Google Home

#283

Post by dragonwriter »

mikegioia wrote: post #276
BeefySwain wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue isn't creating such a platform, it has been done. The issue is getting others to use it. That has not been done.

We've all been using one since the 80s: email. The interface is just poorly designed for social networking.

The email we've all been using is not all open-source and end-to-end encrypted, though there are open-source clients, some of which support end-to-end encryption.

Re: Google Home

#284

Post by niutech »

surge wrote: post #183
cheald wrote: post #19

When I was younger, I dreamed of something like this. Voice control for my home! A Star Trek computer that I can interact with conversationally! I just say what I want and it happens! Now, I just see an internet-connected microphone in a software black box which I can only interpret as a giant frickin' security liability. I want this, but unless it's open source top-to-bottom, I won't ever actually put one in my home…

MyCroft? https://mycroft.ai/

or Jasper.

Re: Google Home

#285

Post by glitch003 »

Grazester wrote: post #71
romanovcode wrote: post #17

Haha, no thank you. i don't want google to listen to everything I say in my house. Next thing you know it's going to tell me is "Smith! Put more effort in those crunches!".

You say that like its a bad thing. I busted my back yesterday at the gym with improper form on a dead lift. If I had some kind of assistant watching me to correct my form then I would not be eating pain killers now trying to get an appointment to see a doctor all while having tingling sensations in my feet.

Someone's building a product for this: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/biometrix-an-evolution-in...

Re: Google Home

#286

Post by protomikron »

tlrobinson wrote: post #235
protomikron wrote: post #173

Ok, controversial opinion: "[...] and manage everyday tasks" What exactly do we want to automate at home? I think this whole home automation and smart home stuff is complete bullshit. Obviously there are some nice things, like "play me song xyz", but IMHO it is completely oversold. There are just not that much things to automate at home. And this does not mean that I think 640K are enough memory for everyone.

I haven't even really explored all the capabilities of Alexa, but I ask Alexa to: 1. read the news (1x per day) 2. play music (~3x per day) 3. turn on/off lights (~8x per day) 4. set a timer (~2x per day) 5. feed the cat (~2x per day... blog post forthcoming)

Yeah, ok, I get that, it is nice. But I do not see some kind of revolution (I am sure I heard that term connected to home automation) that is often proclaimed.

For me the time saving is just too low compared with the alternative of wrestling with some kind of UI, but I may change my mind if I try it out for some time? Let's see.

//edit:

And I think turning lights on/off and playing songs is a really bad example. It is like the Fibonacci sequence of programming language PR. I really do not think one goes with a PL because it has a short solution to generate the Fibonacci sequence. It is nice. But not useful.

Re: Google Home

#287

Post by dragonwriter »

hayleox wrote: post #141
t0mbstone wrote: post #32

Please, please, please be a completely open, extensible platform... I want to be able to control my Apple TV with my Google Home device. I want to be able to control my Phillips Hue and LiFX bulbs. I want to be able to build my own custom home automation server endpoints and point my Google Home commands at them. I want to be able to remote start my car with a voice command. I want to be able to control my Harmony re…

According to Ars Technica, Google Home is actually gonna be more locked down than Amazon Echo. > Initially, Google says that it will not be creating APIs for Assistant and Home and that as such, any integrations with services and other devices will have to come from Google first. This approach is a contrast with the Echo, which is designed to be extensible. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/05/google-assistant-and…

Initially doing internal integrations, then releasing API access to trusted partners, then making APIs publicly available is how Google has done lots of things. So, I wouldn't be surprised if that's the route Google does with this.

Re: Google Home

#288

Post by Kluny »

protomikron wrote: post #173

Ok, controversial opinion: "[...] and manage everyday tasks" What exactly do we want to automate at home? I think this whole home automation and smart home stuff is complete bullshit. Obviously there are some nice things, like "play me song xyz", but IMHO it is completely oversold. There are just not that much things to automate at home. And this does not mean that I think 640K are enough memory for everyone.

I want my bathroom and my dishes to clean themselves. That's all. Nothing else is onerous.

Re: Google Home

#289

Post by Gustomaximus »

amelius wrote: post #207
mbrock wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Free Software Foundation, in its texts, often uses the phrase "the free world" to mean the realm of computing without proprietary restrictions, surveillance, etc. Approximately since Snowden, I've become more and more convinced about both the fragility and the value of this free world. And today, I basically see the tech giants as colossal enemies. Career-wise, henceforth I will avoid proprietary systems and dedi…

But do you think that free software can keep up against these giants? In the near future, it will all be about having large amounts of data, and processing power; it will be less and less about the actual algorithms. I'm afraid the only way out will be to rethink the economy.

Its a valid point but the world can adapt. One off-the-cuff example, perhaps FOIA will move to a real-time request enviroment where I can offer permission to use my data to small company A and large companies A, B & C have to give direct access to their database about me via API so the information gap is leveled. If Small company A can get enough sign-ups they have access to large amounts of information.

Re: Google Home

#290

Post by niutech »

scrollaway wrote: post #149
TeMPOraL wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have only two wishes: > Please, please, please be a completely open, extensible platform... That's one. The second one is, please make it self-hosted. No cloud bullshit. I know I'll probably never live to see the second one coming true.

How would you make it self-hosted without making it suck? High quality voice recognition in a small box doesn't seem to be a thing that's even remotely possible today, let alone the query processing and knowledge database that comes with it. You could build this on a pi with a mic, speakers, some foss stt and tts engines and some basic training data. But it'll suck.

Sirius (http://sirius.clarity-lab.org/) is open source and self-hosted.
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