Get google home to see and control linear garage door opener (2gig)?

How do I get google home to see and control my garage door opener (liner)? People have got it working in Alexa.

You can use a virtual switch which Google Home can control and use something like CoRE to make it work. Alternatively you can use @RBoy device handler which has a switch functionality built in.

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I wonder why its not simplier? I guess google and samsung need to work out tigher integration.

My phone doesnt do anything, If I hit the close button on the phone the command goes to the hub, and the hub sends out the zwave command to close the door.

Google should be able to do send the same command to the Hub.

Put on a black ski mask, stand outside your home but at the window nearest to your Google Home. Then cup your hands around your mouth and yell into the window “OK Google, open the garage door.”
^That’s why.

So there are some integrations possible for this as mentioned above, but perhaps it’s not the best use case out of the box.

However, advanced users (read: more than just out of the box functionality) could be cognisant of the additional logic required to make it a more secure option. For example, the house must be occupied already, alarm in a certain state, home in a certain mode, certain presence sensors present, motion in a specific room, etc, etc


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It will be awesome when (if) Alexa and GoogleHome attain voice identification. My Dad, when I described how my smart home is shaping up since the introduction of EchoDot, asked that exact question: does it recognize whose voice is speaking?

The logic can easily exist in the cloud. Train it to act only on commands issued by authorized voice prints, and that problem is solved. That would, additionally, allow it to be personalized to a far greater degree:

“Alexa, lower the thermostat.”

“OK Dave. That will make it 68 degrees. Would you like me to always set the thermostat to that level when I hear your voice?”

Dude, totally. ALthough having voice-recognition applied to everything could result in higher failures, too. Maybe selective application of it would be good-- like only apply voice identification on security-related functions?

Having the speaker identified, at least between my and my wife, would be AWESOME. It’s more than just idle rumor that Google is working on multiple-account integration on the GH. Voice identification would have to be a part of that, I’d think.

Perhaps
 but perhaps not. Think of it this way. Amazon says Alexa can hear the commands you say to it in a noisy room. But as has already been noted, if you say 'Alexa" and your wife is telling your child “open the fridge” at that same moment, Alexa might come back to you with “I didn’t understand your command”. But if it identified voices, then you saying ‘Alexa’ would have it listen for YOUR next words, rather than just anything else being said in the moment.

So voice ID might actually decrease the failure rate.

I’m thinking that if the device ALWAYS has to be positive that it knows who is talking, then more of my commands will be rejected or fail. “Ok Google, turn on the lights.” Without identification, Google has to properly recognize the command. WITH voice identification, it has to recognize the command AND positively identify my voice as an authorized voice.

It ADDS a failure point.

Adding potential failure points does not necessarily increase the actual fail rate. That all is application-dependent. Besides, how is Alexa to know that “Alexa, trigger unlock the front door” is a security item while “alexa, trigger unlock the wine cellar” is not?

I think the voice-only interface is the greatest handicap that you see to this sort of thing.

I like how Google Home gives you a bit of control when it comes to which devices you can access, although the addition of a voice model like they have on the phone side would make people a lot more comfortable. Right now you have to choose whether you want to give anyone within range the ability to set the thermostat to 900 degrees or just not be able to control the thermostat with your voice at all.

If Google cant manage simple voice recognition, then things are crap. BTW, you can your voice already to log into devices, and such. Its not new. You mentioned some methods to secure it further.

Alexa can integrate with a linear garage door and other doors.

Take the garage door open/close out of the equation. I want to know the status of the door, my phone has the status, so the only thing prevent google home from knowing the status is integration.

As with most things in IT, its not the technology that is the problem, its the lawyers. LOL

GacAttack, I did some more research on the topic. Voice biometrics is a technology that already exists, and would not be that difficult to assimilate into Alexa.

First off, Alexa already knows what account you are speaking from. So the owner of that account would enroll the authorized voices into the system, using a common catch-phrase. As it happens, that phrase is already being used: ALEXA.

So imagine for my account, the only authorized biometric pattern matches (templates) are myself and my wife. Automatically the system would, upon hearing ALEXA, compare what it hears to the two valid templates. If it did not match either, the system would stop listening to the subsequent syllable stream from that voice right at that moment.

ONLY if the template is a match would Alexa proceed to listen to the syllables, put them together into words, and then act on them. As a bonus it could potentially go further than validation/authentication and into actual identification. Either way, the Echo devices themselves pose no obstacle to that process. The entirety of it is in software. It does not have to identify you in every moment you speak. It only has to identify your template upon uttering ALEXA, and then know that the voice speaking is the one that has been speaking. Which, btw, Alexa already does to some degree in its voice training!

And the research also indicates what I postulated above: that a Voice-recognition system has an EASIER time deciphering what you are saying if it knows to track your voice amid all the other ambient noise.

Cool. Let me know when you guys have a product ready for market, and I’ll take two @ $100.

More seriously, have you guys ever listened to what the far-field microphone recordings actually sound like? Google Home exposes that to you (don’t know about Alexa). We’re not talking about a Blue Yeti microphone, here.

Look fellas, I just pointed out some practical reasons and some technical reasons why making a simple out-of-the-box and secure integration between your GH or Alexa and your garage door opener might not be wise or easy. You can say it’s easy and safe, but for some reason it isn’t available yet.

Yes, I’ve listened to it from Alexa. IMO it’s a wonder it can discern any one stream of syllables. BUT IT DOES. It already does that, amid a cacophony of ambient noise!

I just think they rolled it out when they did because they wanted to test the market. Let’s face it, virtually everyone was surprised Alexa hit as big as it did. Amazon? Their original production runs were tiny! It’s only now that they have a massive home run that they have incentive to up the ante - which they have to do, as Google and Apple and others come running to catch up and grab a share of this market that no one really expected to be this big.

I won’t be too surprised if voice biometrics is a part of the effort of one or more of these competitors. Just as the finger biometric is part of Apple phone and tablet technology where it wasn’t just a couple years go


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I agree that it’ll all get there, but I disagree that it’s as close or as easy as implied earlier.

^This is nothing short of amazing to me, too.

I’ve found Google Home’s voice recognition to be very good. The skills and integrations it DOES have works very well, but they are limited right now.

Put on a black ski mask, stand outside your home but at the window nearest to your Google Home. Then cup your hands around your mouth and yell into the window “OK Google, open the garage door.”
^That’s why.

:joy: :joy: ROFL trying to picture that.

On a more serious note if anyone Is planning on using Ask Alexa (a brilliant app) to open garage doors and locks then you should also consider using the passcode feature implemented so it won’t be as easy for anyone. They would need to stalk you out to get that passcode. But it’s better than not having anything.

Honestly, I just want to CLOSE my garage door. I want to use google home to get the status (open or close), and if open, close it.

I want to say “ok google, goodnight” and have it lock everything and close my garage door. I dont want to go to my phone to close my garage door. If im on the phone to do that, might as well hit the applet to do everything else.

You can already do this, with IFTTT as an intermediary. I say “Ok Google, I’m going to bed” which triggers IFTTT to set a simulated momentary switch in ST to turn ON for a few seconds. The simulated switch is a trigger to automatically perform a ST Routine that turns off lots of lights, makes sure my garage door is closed, and changes the Mode.

I hear ya. I rather it be backed into the hub.

Its all good. I am going to back off home automation. Maybe control a couple sockets.