Google Home
Harmony Hub/remote
Chrome Cast
Nest Camera
I have a crazy idea and I’m not sure it will work.
Is it possible to say “hey Google, show me the front door camera feed.” And then your TV turns on and changes to the input with the chrome cast on it. Then the chrome cast opens the nest app and shows the live feed from the front door. All without me having to do anything but say the one command.
Evidently you can have the google Home talk to cast and tell it to show the Nest cameras but I would like to take this one step further and have the TV change inputs so no matter what I am watching it will show the best camera and then I can tell it to change back after x seconds or min.
Is it possible to do something similar with amazon Echo?
The answer to this question will determine if I buy google Home or Echo for my entire house… or if there is a different compelling reason I’m all ears I just spent all this money on my nest cameras and would like to be able to see them on my tv if possible.
I posted this in the webCoRE forum as well but I think this is more of a ST question not a webCoRE question.
As long as you have a CEC capable TV, I think you’re covered.
Edit:. I re-read and, for the switching back, it would be pretty difficult. MIGHT be possible with some middleware SmartApp and nodejs based cast integration…
It’s got some nest camera integration (the whole project is in alpha though so subject to change). You could use that to issue start/stop nest stream commands rather than the built in Nest/Home integration.
Maybe something like this:
[IFTTT] IF - Google Assistant service - OK Google, show me a short clip from the garage camera
[IFTTT] THEN - Webhook service - Triggers webcore piston
[webcore piston] using assistant-relay device - Start nest stream from the garage
[webcore piston] Wait 30 seconds
[webcore piston] using assistant-relay device - Stop nest stream
[webcore piston] Harmony Device - Run “Turn on TV” Activity
I’m guessing that with Alexa’s IFTTT integration, this would be possible with either ecosystem (not sure if you need at least one Google Home to associate your nest cameras since I don’t have any…).
It can be done with a smart tv, as long as your cameras can display on the chrome browser on an android phone or tablet. I’m doing it now with earthcam. No need for harmony hub.
You would say “Alexa, trigger front door camera” or something like it.
You would build an IFTTT recipe that would send the stream to your tv.
You would need Tasker with AutoCast.
If u have google home and chromecast and nest cam thats all u need, as long as your tv turns on and switches the input based on hdmi power. Most newish TVs do this. Like if you turn on the cable box, then the tv comes on automatically.
I found this article and this is what @Matt_Behnken is referring to but can i add one more step and use the Harmony Hub to turn the TV on and switch inputs? would I need some webcore actions for this or will the native google AI be able to control the Harmony hub?
yes, that link is the instructions for casting the Nest cam to the chromecast using google assistant. If your tv doesn’t support HDMI-CEC or ANYNET+ then you’ll need harmony integration. HDMI-CEC has been around for 10+ years though so it’s likely there’s a setting on your tv. But, without that it will be more complicated.
An easy way would be to ask google to turn on the chromecast (or whatever you name the activity) so it turns on the tv and then ask google assistant to show you the camera. Possibly, you could use IFTTT or google assistant shortcuts. Google just rolled out the “and” statement and it kinda works. So the example google assistant shortcut could be “OK google, Show me the Driveway” and google actually does “Turn on the chromecast AND show me the driveway.” I’m not sure though.
I went out yesterday and bought a GH and a Chrome cast and am going to put it all together and try the shortcut method and see if it will work. I plan on having the Shortcut as Follows.
“Ok Google, Show me the Front Door”
(Tell Harmony to turn on Chrome Cast) - This will switch the inputs to the correct HDMI and all the other AV equipment
(Show Me the Front Door) which will run the nest App on the Chromecast and pull up the Front Door camera.
We will see if it can do this and I will report back.
You should already be able to do this with Harmony activities.
You set the hub’s activity to different inputs, and it will change automatically. You can even create ifttt shortcuts to lessen the phrasing so you don’t have the secondary “hey Google, tell Harmony to…”
I do this now.
One is my PC, and the other is my Cast.
I have an LG smart tv, but eventually wanting to buy a cast enabled like Vizio to skip that step, but with a 70" tv price, that gets steep for a want of convince
Great tip! If you’re using Google Assistant the shortcuts are easier to setup and can be faster than ifttt but both essentially do the same thing. That being a hot word or phrase that replaces the need to say some arbitrary phrase like ‘tell Harmony to to increase the volume on the TV’ versus ‘turn it up’.