Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

My Journey to a reliable and enjoyable locally hosted voice assistant (2025)

community.home-assistant.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 153 posts

Re: My Journey to a reliable and enjoyable locally hosted voice assistant (2025)

#41

Post by ethagnawl »

hamdingers wrote: post #10

If you're less concerned about privacy, I use Gemini 2.5 Flash for this and it's exceptionally good and fast as a HA assistant while being much cheaper than the electricity that would be needed to keep a 3090 awake. The thing that kills this for me (and they even mentioned it) is wake word detection. I have both the HA voice preview and FPH Satellite1 devices, plus have experimented with a few other options like a Ra…

What's been surprising in my experience regarding the wake word is that it recognizes me (adult male) saying the wake word ~95% of the time. However, it only registers the rest of my family (women and children) ~30% of the time.

Re: My Journey to a reliable and enjoyable locally hosted voice assistant (2025)

#42

Post by ethagnawl »

jcims wrote: post #11
hamdingers wrote: post #10

If you're less concerned about privacy, I use Gemini 2.5 Flash for this and it's exceptionally good and fast as a HA assistant while being much cheaper than the electricity that would be needed to keep a 3090 awake. The thing that kills this for me (and they even mentioned it) is wake word detection. I have both the HA voice preview and FPH Satellite1 devices, plus have experimented with a few other options like a Ra…

I have a feeling beamforming microphone arrays might help here, something like this could improve the audio being processed substantially - https://www.minidsp.com/products/usb-audio-interface/uma-8-m... .

That's a good call. I have a PS3(?) mic/camera that I was using when I was running the original Mycroft project on a Pi. I wonder if that would help with the inbuilt HA mic not waking for most of my family, most of the time. I will have to look at my VA Preview device and its specs later because I'm not sure if you can connect an external mic to it out-of-the-box.

Re: My Journey to a reliable and enjoyable locally hosted voice assistant (2025)

#43

Post by airstrike »

hamdingers wrote: post #27
senkora wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not use an easier to detect wake “word”, like two claps in quick succession? Or a couple of notes of a melody?

Can't clap if your hands are full and I would not subject my family to my attempts at delivering a melody. I haven't tried training my own wake word though, I'm tempted to see if it improves things.

Personally I'd pick "Cthulhu"

Re: My Journey to a reliable and enjoyable locally hosted voice assistant (2025)

#44

Post by tomComb »

_spduchamp wrote: post #18
hamdingers wrote: post #10

If you're less concerned about privacy, I use Gemini 2.5 Flash for this and it's exceptionally good and fast as a HA assistant while being much cheaper than the electricity that would be needed to keep a 3090 awake. The thing that kills this for me (and they even mentioned it) is wake word detection. I have both the HA voice preview and FPH Satellite1 devices, plus have experimented with a few other options like a Ra…

How about a button? I'd prefer to physically press a button on an intercom box than having something churning away constantly processing sound.

The pebble index seems like the optimal form for this.

https://repebble.com/index

Could be pressed even if your hands were busy.

Re: My Journey to a reliable and enjoyable locally hosted voice assistant (2025)

#45

Post by nickthegreek »

pwillia7 wrote: post #23
_spduchamp wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about a button? I'd prefer to physically press a button on an intercom box than having something churning away constantly processing sound.

I'm in if I can embed it into my forearm

apple watch gets you close.

Re: My Journey to a reliable and enjoyable locally hosted voice assistant (2025)

#46

Post by nickthegreek »

voidUpdate wrote: post #4

Do people like talking to voice assistants? I've used one occasionally (mostly for timers when I'm cooking), but most of the time it would be faster for me to just do it myself, and feels much less awkward than talking to empty air, asking it to do things for me. It might be because I just really don't like making more noise than I have to (Yes, I appreciate that some people may be disabled in such a way that it make…

I prefer voice strongly. I don't want to stop what i am doing, find a device, open the app, wait for it refresh, navigate and click to get Milk on a list. Sure you can bring this down a few steps, but all of which still require me to move, have a hand and eye free.

Re: My Journey to a reliable and enjoyable locally hosted voice assistant (2025)

#47

Post by nickthegreek »

voidUpdate wrote: post #17
hamdingers wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I consider each time I need to pull out my phone and "do it myself" to be a failure of my smart home system. If a light cannot be automatically on when I need it (like a motion sensor) or controlled with a dedicated button within arms reach (like a remote on my desk) then the third best option is one that lets me control it without interrupting what I'm doing, moving from where I am, using my hands, or possessing any…

Do you not just turn the light on when you go in a room, and turn it off again when you go out? All the rooms in my flat have switches next to the door

My lights adjust their brightness and color spectrum automatically throughout the day while also understanding the time of year and sun position. This alone is next level. All are voice/tablet controlled. When I start a movie at night, lights will adjust automatically in my open floor plan first level. All of this operates without me ever having to give any mental energy beyond the initial setup.

This is not just flip a switch territory.

Re: My Journey to a reliable and enjoyable locally hosted voice assistant (2025)

#49

Post by vineyardmike »

ethagnawl wrote: post #41
hamdingers wrote: post #10

If you're less concerned about privacy, I use Gemini 2.5 Flash for this and it's exceptionally good and fast as a HA assistant while being much cheaper than the electricity that would be needed to keep a 3090 awake. The thing that kills this for me (and they even mentioned it) is wake word detection. I have both the HA voice preview and FPH Satellite1 devices, plus have experimented with a few other options like a Ra…

What's been surprising in my experience regarding the wake word is that it recognizes me (adult male) saying the wake word ~95% of the time. However, it only registers the rest of my family (women and children) ~30% of the time.

I have no firsthand knowledge, but I’d strongly bet that the home-assistant effort to donate training data is mostly get adult males, and nearly zero children.
Post reply on HN