Virtual Reality and AI? - next challenge for a retiree

I beleive that is where you are supposed to use ifttt
you can setup what you want done with what voice commands then, or at least that is how I understand it.

 

Well, that'd a double edged sword, really. Imagine 99.9% of the population being good, and teaching Alexa morally sound things, and through AI, improve Alexa's image recognition or speech recognition. Perhaps build useful functionality like <If temperature suddenly greatly increases> then <Call 911>.

And then there's the 0.1% consisting of Stalin, space pirates, Trump, David Ssimmonds, criminals, biker gangs, the government, and whatever other evil bodies you can think of, who would teach her other things that then might find their way into everybody's houses.

I'll leave it up to Amazon to curate things. I realize the EU and other governments probably think they are better suited to deal with stuff like that, but fuck politicians or government employees being put in charge of anything. If those people were competent, they'd have proper jobs in the private sector.

 

Already possible.
https://support.smartthings.com/hc/en-us/articles/203040294-SmartSense-Temperature-Humidity-Sensor

A smart home needs to be a collections of sensors and interaction devices.
Alexa is part of that collection as a voice interaction device, several echoes through the house even better.
But that is only part of the equation.
Without other sensors or things to control it is just a voice to talk to.
Jamiria has the first device for it to interact with, his fire stick. Now he can control what shows on his TV, but there are more.

Light and outlet switches including dimmers.
Environmental sensors (indoor and out) temp, humidity, precipitation, etc....
Doorbells
Cameras
Motion sensors
Locks and lock/proximity sensors (is the door locked? Is a window open?)
Bluetooth devices
Power consumption sensors
Liquid level sensors and flow sensors (measure fuel and water inventory and consumption)
Other human interface devices, phones, tablets, computers, remotes, security screens, etc....
Smart appliances, vacuumed, dishwashers, coffee pots, refrigerators, etc....

Some or all of these are needed for a smart home, but they all need to work together.

I have 3 echo devices, 2 of them paired with Bose speakers for music.
I have Samsung smartthings hub v1 (never found the need to upgrade)
Changed all the light switches except the bathrooms to smart dimmer switches.
I have several smart outlets that can be turned on/off remotely and a couple short corded smart switches. (They also measure power consumption which is important for me to work on efficiency as I pay ~70cents per kw over 500 a month, we average about 400)
I have a video doorbell with motion sensing.
I have a harmony hub for IR and network remote intetaction.

All of these can interact with each other and in turn be controlled through my phone or voice through alexa.

With a command I can say goodnight and all lights in the house turn off, hallway light turns on to 5% and boys bedroom light to 1%.
With a command I can say goodmorning and lights turn on in the kitchen and livingroom and 5% in the masterbedroom.
Alexa what channel is the Lakers game on.
Alexa turn on the tv.
Alexa change channel to TNT
Alexa pause tv.
Alexa turn off kitchen lights.
Alexa what is the temperature outside?
Alexa turn on corner lamp. (Old school plug in lamp with a smart switch between it and the wall)

I have added all the peices over time and they arent as smooth as I'd like. I need to take the time and start over with a plan for everything and so they can interact more smoothly.

The biggest issue is every company wants to be the next big thing. Lots of devices arent made to work with each other but as stand alone units. What we want is a clean standard and everything working together smoothly. Alot of times it's fairly easy to do, but requires a little researxh.

The smartthings hub and the harmony hub both interact with alexa very well.

Smartthings hub interacts very well with zigbee and zwave devices. (Creates a separate smartphone network of devices that interacts with your smarthib which then interacts with your wifi and internet connections)

Harmony hub works well as a universal remote with its IR blaster mounted in front of the IR sensor of whatever devices you want to control.

I have not tried to connect our doorbell to anything smart yet.
I have not tried to connect the rumba and not sure if possible, but maybe... with a kid and dog in the house it's better to have some human thought into vacuming though I think.

I have played with things like if my phone connects with or disconnects from my home network then x or y happens, but it doesnt seem to be a reliable trigger.

I'm not an audiophile, but the Bose speakers seem decent enough to listen to amazon music through.

We do not have a fire stick so our TV is used primarily as a "dumb" tv and dishnetwork for our satalite/cable service. Dishnetwork has an alexa skill and works well with her.

I have not hooked a switch to my coffee pot and do not cook on an electric hotplate, but would be an interesting goodmorning combo.

 

I'm still very reluctant to have any of that stuff in my house. I do own a Point alarm, which essentially is a phone-controlled alarm that monitors noise, temperature, humidity and movement. It's near perfect, I only wish it'd also do a CO2 alarm. Maybe in the future?

I'd love to be able to control lights and what not remotely. However, my house is from the 1970s, and all switches are pretty much embedded in the walls.

But that's probably as advanced as I'd get. I'd hate to have something constantly listening (or viewing fr that matter) my house. I also do not want my appliances connected to the network or internet. I'd much rather use regular wiring instead.

With that said, I did add a phone-controlled receiver that I connected to my old stero set (something I bought in, oh, 1993 or so? An old JVC receiver (not using the radio, but just the amp part), with a cassette deck (not used/hooked up) and an old-fashioned CD player.

I hooked up my mixing panel to the receiver, which in turn is connected to my old turntables and DJ CD-players. And then the device to play music through my phone. So basically I can use modern technology, on my ancient hardware :)

 

its not like switches have changed in the last 50 years.....
You just unscrew the wall switches (obviously with power turned off) and replace them with the new smart switches, you still have the physical face on the smart switches for walking around and visitors, but you then have the added access with your smart apps.

 

Yeah, so the issue here is the old Danish switches are extremely narrow, and mounted on the wood of a door frame (Don't ask me why). Another thing they are keen on (and not something I've ever seen before) is having a wall outlet, from which they then run a fucking cable dangling along the ceiling to a lamp they mount at some impossibly placed spot.

In Holland, we offer mounting points, so you mount the light directly on the electricity inlet. Not here in Denmark for some reason.

I'm not sure my house would support the switches you show, but I'll look into it. That's actually something I'd be very keen on. Burglary "protection" and all, by having lights switch on at "random" times in different sequences.

 

Interesting you refer to China. I know this is off-topic, but over the last few days, Reddit has been aflame with footage of the Tienanman square massacre. Like multiple posts showing documentaries (or the same one over and over) and reminding people that the Chinese government willingly butchered thousands of its' own citizens.

Most of the Chinese people don't even know it happenned. It's simply been erased from Chinese news history, and anyone attempting to report on it will get harassed by "security officials". I recall seeing a reporter attempting to do a piece on it, and having a bunch of plain-clothes people opening umbrellas in order to disrupt the broadcast.

With what they are doing with AI, and basically building a fucking AI-driven real-life version of Orwell's 1984, it's a scary proposition. And yet, at the same time, every other super power in the world seems to give them a pass.

China is fucking rotten to the core, and the people in control of that country are many many times worse than the very people we in Europe label the worst people to have ever lived. Mao was a piece of shit, and his successors are arguably worse.

I currently own a Huwaei phone, but that's going out the fucking window very soon. Thing is, pretty much everything we buy nowadays contains Chinese components. Thank god I don't have to order baby formula from that shithole.