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Create your own smart baby monitor with a RaspberryPi and TensorFlow

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Re: Create your own smart baby monitor with a RaspberryPi and TensorFlow

#11

Post by philsnow »

hellepardo wrote: post #2

So, don't get me wrong. This is a fun project and a neat little device. I don't mean to take away from it in any way. However it is really important to consider why baby monitors are so primitive: because the cost of a false negative is huge. I didn't see any mention of this in the author's experiments (only a '>98% accuracy' note). So let's talk about this a little bit: is "accuracy" what we want? Probably not---I d…

> (only a '>98% accuracy' note). So let's talk about this a little bit: is "accuracy" what we want? Probably not---I don't care if I get accidentally notified, but I care very much if I don't get notified when the baby is crying

Presumably this is 98% accuracy per sample or something, not per session of crying. I wouldn't want to leave my kid completely unanswered 1/50th of the time if he actually needed me, but I think with the model as trained, regular crying would eventually get noticed and that's fine with me.

Somewhere else on the thread though somebody else called out the real downside of this model: it overfits on regular crying. Kids make all kinds of noises. Mine made a completely different, eldritch noise one time when he noticed a spider, for instance.

Re: Create your own smart baby monitor with a RaspberryPi and TensorFlow

#12

Post by pdovy »

the-dude wrote: post #9
lqet wrote: post #6

"Lavish attention on me and entertain me." ― Maggie Simpson via the baby translator https://simpsonswiki.com/wiki/Baby_translator That being said, every parent knows the "he/she has never cried like this" moment where your blood freezes and you rush to the child's bed. Seems hard to add this to the model in a reliable manner.

Please fill me in as a non-parent : what was actually up when the baby cried like that?

Not the OP but you get tuned into this pretty quick going through the normal gamut of kid issues. The _worst_ cry I've heard our son do was when he had a double ear infection, it was immediately obvious from the shrill tone that he was in pain and needed to go the doctor. There is also a slightly less desperate one where he's stuck in something (usually leg/arm in the crib, not really stuck but can't yet reason out how to fix the problem).

Re: Create your own smart baby monitor with a RaspberryPi and TensorFlow

#13

Post by zrail »

the-dude wrote: post #9
lqet wrote: post #6

"Lavish attention on me and entertain me." ― Maggie Simpson via the baby translator https://simpsonswiki.com/wiki/Baby_translator That being said, every parent knows the "he/she has never cried like this" moment where your blood freezes and you rush to the child's bed. Seems hard to add this to the model in a reliable manner.

Please fill me in as a non-parent : what was actually up when the baby cried like that?

Very early on we switched from an audio monitor to a video monitor specifically so we could answer this question without panicked running across the house.

It’s really hard to generalize what an alarm cry could mean. In my experience they were never anything outwardly physical. Both of our kids had alarm cries that we associated with waking up from dreams, for example.

Re: Create your own smart baby monitor with a RaspberryPi and TensorFlow

#14

Post by zrail »

pdovy wrote: post #12
the-dude wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please fill me in as a non-parent : what was actually up when the baby cried like that?

Not the OP but you get tuned into this pretty quick going through the normal gamut of kid issues. The _worst_ cry I've heard our son do was when he had a double ear infection, it was immediately obvious from the shrill tone that he was in pain and needed to go the doctor. There is also a slightly less desperate one where he's stuck in something (usually leg/arm in the crib, not really stuck but can't yet reason out h…

Double. Oof. That’s no fun.

Re: Create your own smart baby monitor with a RaspberryPi and TensorFlow

#15

Post by GordonS »

mytailorisrich wrote: post #7
hellepardo wrote: post #2

So, don't get me wrong. This is a fun project and a neat little device. I don't mean to take away from it in any way. However it is really important to consider why baby monitors are so primitive: because the cost of a false negative is huge. I didn't see any mention of this in the author's experiments (only a '>98% accuracy' note). So let's talk about this a little bit: is "accuracy" what we want? Probably not---I d…

> So you want to weight your classifier's predictions heavily against false negatives (at the price of false positives). Which makes me think that a simple trigger based on ambient sound level probably does the job... I suspect that many baby monitors work that way. This also actually makes sense because I likely want to be alerted in case of noise in general rather than just cries, just in case.

I have to agree - I like tinkering and hacking as much as the next dev, and I don't like to be negative, but... what is the point of AI/ML here, where a simple sounds trigger works just fine? What problem is it actually solving - I only see this approach causing problems.

Re: Create your own smart baby monitor with a RaspberryPi and TensorFlow

#17

Post by Grakel »

nicolashahn wrote: post #10
hellepardo wrote: post #2

So, don't get me wrong. This is a fun project and a neat little device. I don't mean to take away from it in any way. However it is really important to consider why baby monitors are so primitive: because the cost of a false negative is huge. I didn't see any mention of this in the author's experiments (only a '>98% accuracy' note). So let's talk about this a little bit: is "accuracy" what we want? Probably not---I d…

Forgive me for bringing it up, but this is also the reason why smart gun technology is a complete dead end.

I wonder if there are huge advances to be made in suppressor technology? Other than the noise, guns are basically perfect in their intended function. I guess you could try to further reduce recoil.

Re: Create your own smart baby monitor with a RaspberryPi and TensorFlow

#19

Post by alexchamberlain »

the-dude wrote: post #9
lqet wrote: post #6

"Lavish attention on me and entertain me." ― Maggie Simpson via the baby translator https://simpsonswiki.com/wiki/Baby_translator That being said, every parent knows the "he/she has never cried like this" moment where your blood freezes and you rush to the child's bed. Seems hard to add this to the model in a reliable manner.

Please fill me in as a non-parent : what was actually up when the baby cried like that?

I have a 6 month old going to sleep in my arms... worst cry was probably yesterday with his biggest ever, smelliest poo. The joys of weining.

Re: Create your own smart baby monitor with a RaspberryPi and TensorFlow

#20

Post by harperlee »

devenblake wrote: post #8
siminm wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fearing the worst outcome ought to inspire you to make the tech better, not avoid it altogether.

But the tech exists . It's not like we're using tin cans and string and trying to replace that with a gizmo; we have the gizmo, and now we're trying to make an open-source version of it. While the goal is admirable there's no real benefit from using a less-tested Raspberry Pi project. There are less risky ways to learn the same lessons - a video walky-talky maybe.

As a father, I generally agree with what you both are saying regarding being conservative with tech choices on delicate areas such as babies, but I‘d also add that 99% of situations of my baby making random noises (that also trigger a baby monitor) are not something that are going yo have an impact on the baby long term. Most times my baby has lost the pacifier in the dark, and finds it before I reach upstairs (or annoyingly, between me waking up, and me reaching my bedroom door).

Also there’s the scary converse: some important things do not make a noise, such as a baby suffocating in her sleep.

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