Non-cloud voice assistant/control bindings

#1

Just wondering what everyone is using if they’re not on board with cloud-based Amazon/Google/etc services?

I’d like to keep my voice processing off of the cloud, if at all possible. I’m looking into Jasper, as there are options to use a local Speech to Text processor, as well as MyCroft. MyCroft is still cloud based, for now, but at least deletes the audio and text when it is done being processed. I’m still hoping the MyCroft team releases a local version, but who knows?

Anyway, if you happen to be using these, or have other suggestions, I’m curious which works well for you, and what difficulties I may have in store.

#2

I know it’s a cloud based product. But I have been using the Amazon Alexa for a voice assistant for some time now. It works well enough with my current smart home system (HomeSeer), but there are a few issues.

For instance, I cannot make custom trigger words. To launch events I need to say; “Alexa, trigger morning”, and it would trigger my morning routine. The word trigger is the key word for the IFTTT service. It’s a extra “hop” in the cloud, which takes a bit of time to register.

Another thing I have mentioned is false activations. Recently I have noticed that Alexa keeps getting activated even when no one has said Alexa. Usually when watching videos or listening to music.

Third, it’s not that good on understanding language. This might as well be me not speaking clearly :slight_smile: Certainly is annoying having to repeat yourself four times when you want a 13 minute timer, but Alexa keeps making it a 30 minute timer.

Mycroft seems like a intresting project. One that I would rather use than Alexa. Although I think it has less features, and a less fluent text to speech. Would be awesome if they made it possible to keep it offline! But the privacy focus is a nice compromise for the moment.

#3

Thanks for the info. I have the same issues with Siri on iPhone that you seem to have with repeating yourself on Alexa. To the point that, I know I can use HomeKit but I probably won’t until Siri works better than it does.

I’m curious to see how Jasper and MyCroft will do, and I kind of wish I could just throw more CPU at the STT problem to make it better. :frowning:

#4

I’m not quite sure how Apple HomeKit works with open source projects like OpenHAB. It’s not a technology I’m familiar with, but since it’s from Apple, I’m guessing it’s closed off. I would rather use Z-wave if I had to go wireless, or a wired standard if it’s doable. Having a smart home wireless can be a nightmare stability wise. Previously I have actually worked with a company that sells smart home solutions. We sold primarily Z-wave, and I can say that the outcome varied a lot house to house.

Yeah I agree with the SST issue. Many of us probably have some spare CPU power laying around. But I think the issue is that the technology is owned by a company. Hence they cannot give it out to the public, since it would ruin their STT business. There has been some open source projects, but they are nowhere near as good as Alexa or Siri. As of writing, I would say Googles STT service is the best. Although that’s a different can of worms in terms of privacy.

As a ground rule, I want to keep my smart home as open source as possible. Even if that is making my own electronics and systems. Having proprietary protocols and systems just makes integrating them in one solution more trouble than its worth. Not to mention its often a hack or workaround, which just makes it less stable.

#5

HomeKit is okay but it’s still reliant on cloud STT. It’d be alright in this case since my wife and I both carry iPhones everywhere, but I don’t want to rely on only that for voice commands.

I’m not sure how good Jasper is, or really any of the options since I’m still at the planning phase here. Like you said, I have plenty of CPU(s) to spare for STT, but for whatever reason having a local STT server seems to be the exception and not the norm. :frowning:

Z-wave Plus is good, but expensive. I’m planning out Z-Wave for switches here, but I wish I had better options available without having to build my own.

#6

In my opinion, a smart home is a home you don’t have to give voice commands to :slight_smile: In that case it’s a remote controlled home, not a smart one. Sure, having the ability to do certain tasks with voice is neat, but the primary actions should be automated.

For instance if i don’t exit the bedroom before a specified time, an extra alarm goes off. When i do get up, the lighting gets put a certain way, and my coffee machine starts pouring. It even plays music during the weekends. If i had to tell a voice assistant to do all of those tasks each day, i would have gone nuts. :slight_smile:

The jasper project seems really interesting though. But don’t want to rely on the cloud for that service. I have experimented with some open source projects in the past. (forgotten which) But they all were fairly unpredictable, and was awful at recognizing my voice. Could have been improvements since last i tested, or it could have been a technical problem i didn’t realize. Would be awesome to see one of those open source STT projects taking off.

Z-wave product is a nice and simple way to go for home automation. I wouldn’t recommend doing your own mains powered electronics though. First off, its a major fire hazard, and brings risk of electrocution. I have a degree in electronics, yet i’m very hesitant to do anything with mains power.

#7

Why do you think it is a nightmare stability wise? I have been running mine flawlessly for over a year.

#8

Can’t speak for Kad, but maybe they are speaking to the Z-wave range? I’ve heard with non-plus hardware you need a line of site/equivalent of about 100’ between devices since it’s a point to point relay system.

Not to hijack/change subjects, but Matt, if you don’t mind my asking, do you have a dedicated wireless network for your setup? (Separate from your normal wifi network) I probably missed a video where you talked about this, but I’m trying to plan my infrastructure and it’s starting to get into the convoluted level… and I’m a network admin by trade, lol. VLANs and static routes, managed switches and PfSense routers… ugh.

#9

In the past i have worked with a lot of z-wave based smart home installations. Mostly related to my work, where i have planned, installed and completed 20+ installations. As in your case wireless protocols might be a non-issue, and work as expected. But my experience has shown me that wireless systems can be very different from house to house. Say a concrete based apartment might have major issues with signal reach, and a small wooden one would not. Its a reason factories and critical installations use wired communication, namely due to stability.

Z-Wave also uses a pairing system. Whereas you have to pair every component with the central controller. Say if you had to re-pair a component that is installed behind a wall switch in a home. It might not be within range to communicate directly to the controller. So the pairing fails. The only option then is moving the antenna closer temporarily. Which might be harder than it sounds. Newer Z-Wave features, like network wide inclusion, has reduced this issue a bit, but it’s only available on newer devices.

Wireless isn’t all that bad though. It can be a good solution if you are retrofitting a house to have smart home features. But it does require that you have a well functioning network for reliable operation. I’m just saying that it could be a issue depending on your house and external factors like radio noise.

Z-Wave uses a so called mesh network. Which means that the antenna doesn’t necessarily need to be within its range. The out of range devices can communicate to other devices within range of the antenna, which sends the message to the antenna. This means a “healthy” Z-Wave network must consist of many devices. More cases than not, people don’t have that many devices, and could lead to unstable communications.

#10

Yep. That’s kind of what I was afraid of. My house is a loooooong ranch, but luckily I can put some z-wave+ stuff in the basement below or the attic above until my switches/etc are all in place, otherwise there is no way I could go direct from the Z-wave+ USB dongle to even the middle of my home for a single device in the network.

A lot of Matt’s stuff is running ESP8266 though, and that’s over non-meshed networking, so as long as he’s got decent wireless coverage he should be good. Triggering those devices might be tough if z-wave can’t reach to the next hop, or someone turns on a microwave between two devices.

There’s a PoE ESP32 dev board being worked on somewhere out there, and I’m almost salivating over the prospects. All my cameras and access points are already PoE so I’d love to just push data and power to everything over one cable. Still, human control is going to be tough to work out without making custom switches. :frowning:

#11

No, I have everything running off of the same network. I have a guide where I show me setting my home network from the hardware to software. But basically, I have complete coverage on my entire property, even the neighbors yards lol.

@kad oh ok I see what you mean, so not the actuall technology but where they are used.