Voice Command Solution - Discussion

Devices & Integrations
83

Cortana is essentially “hey google” or " Siri," but for windows.

When windows 10 is released at the end of July, initially you won’t be able to do anything directly with Cortana and SmartThings. Just like you can’t do anything directly with Siri and SmartThings.

Just like Siri, though, you could probably use Cortana to send an email to IFTTT and get indirect integration that way.

It’s Unlikely that it would ever be as good as Echo, because echo’s huge advantage is its hardware, which has amazing farfield recognition. If you’re running Cortana on a PC, you’re probably going to have to be sitting right in front of it in order for it to understand you.

since Smartthings doesn’t have A program that runs on your PC, you’re basically going to have to treat it like a cloud to cloud integration.

So could someone eventually write some software that would allow for integration between SmartThings and a PC running Cortana? Sure. Will it happen soon? Who knows, that would depend on community members. I don’t see it being an official integration anytime soon because of the hardware limitations.

Until someone writes some specific integration software, though, Just having Cortana on a PC won’t give you anything more than the option for an IFTTT recipe.

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84

And just to add to what @JDRoberts said, given the lack of love that it sounds like the Windows Phone app already gets, I’d say any kind of integration official or not is a fairly remote possibility since it would likely be aimed at the phones, not the PCs.

85

Well, SmartThings might decide to write a universal app which could run on both the windows phone and a Windows 10 PC. We can always hope. :sunglasses:

86

just thought i’d add that amazon recently (as in the last week) opened up alexa support on other devices and there are already apps on google play. I am using one called “alexa listens” which even lets you change the activation word. You should be able to control smartthings from just the mobile app without owning an echo or firetv, and i can confirm it doesn’t even have to be on the same network. Smartthings is already controlled by web interface.

87

there’s an app in the windows store that you can control smartthings from, but it’s a pain to setup. It can’t generate its own oauth so you have to create an app and copy the oauth to this one. Seems to be a fully featured app though and runs on pc and windows phone.

88

Hi @JDRoberts, @danielccm, You can try poors man echo, I used some old android phone to get voice command in all house, I have setu up english and spanish, google voice recognized both languages, I can ask in english and spanish and google recognize both very well.

You no need to config avery name of your devices, just to select the switches, contact sensors, locks , speakers, from the smart app , and you can cotrol it with voice.

In the androis you must to get taker and tasker now, but its easy.

I have added some radio stations from radionomy and you say, “ok google, play jazz music in living room”, or say “turn on bedroom lights”

try it

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89

OAuth tokens for one SmartApp are definitely not supposed to be valid for any other SmartApp, even under the same Account.

If this indeed works as you describe, then this a serious vulnerability or bug. @jody.albritton?

90

For cortana there is an app in the store called cortana triggers.

I use this on my windows 10 machine to perform actions.

You configure phrases and a Web url l. I just wrote a simple smartapp with multiple mappings for each of the actions I wanted. Its not an echo for sure but just for Ha control it’s an interesting solution

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91

Hey @ule

Can you tell me the steps to how you did the “poor man’s echo”?

I would love to do it…

Do you think it could run off a raspberry pi 2 or 3?

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92

HI @danielccm, the concept its easy, android use “ok google” to send text to smartthigs , the echo poor´s man take the text and parse it, to extract commands and devices , if the text contains a recognized command, the app execute the command on he device, I have some arrays to get the command and name of devices (in echo poors man) in Spanish and English, but you can add or replace the language, ex French , Turkish , etc

The app use a function called “text to alexa” , this function send a text to alexa and receives the audio from amazon servers, in this way you can ask everything to Alexa like you do in a echo ex “Who is Gorge Washington” and alexa answer you in audio.

The echo music service does not works (becouse is not an echo) but I have added some free radio stations from Radionomy, and you can order to play some music in your speakers like “Ok google, play love music in living room” and you can hear the music in the “living room Speaker”

The app strips the common words like “speaker, lamp, light, switch” from the name device then you can ask in a easy way
Ex I have my devices named like
"Bedroom speaker" If I ask a command like “play, stop , pause, mute” the app removes the word speakers from the devices and search the device

I can say "play jazz bedroom " = “play music jazz in bedroom speaker” = “play my favorite jazz music in my bedroom”, the app just search for valid words or structure,

“Bedroom light”

I can say "turn on bedroom " = “turn on bedroom light” = “turn on bedroom switch”, the app just search for valid words or structure,

If you can make a raspberry 2 to recognize speech , you can use the poor’s man echo.

93

I would hope they finish the existing apps before embarking on another platform!

94

Cortana here Cortana (Xbox, Windows (Phone/OS) Integration (with Simple SmartThings App)

95

I don’t see the value in voice control if the first control point is that you have to go to a device and press a button. By that point, press the screen twice more to do what you need. This, btw, is why Alexa is succeeding so wildly while such competitors as Siri face an uphill battle despite having a far larger installed base.

My wife actually had the exact scenario today. She was cooking osso bucco and her hands were full of tomatoes that she was peeling, and she realized we were almost out of butter. Are you going to stop what you’re doing, wash your hands, go retrieve your Microsoft phone/tablet, open it up, enter your ID and password, then say “Cortana, add butter to the shopping list”?

THAT is why the installed base of Siri and Cortana is not as big an asset for the future of home automation as one might imagine. It is why HomeKit should be a lesser priority for companies such as, say, Chamberlain than Alexa and GoigleHome.

96

Siri can be easily set up to be totally hands-free. (I am quadriparetic with limited hand control, so I follow most of these technologies very closely.)

At my house, we have a plugged in tablet which acts as a home automation center and is also hands-free for Siri. As well as using Siri on the Apple Watch, which doesn’t require a touch although it does require a wrist tilt.

I prefer echo’s voice recognition, and use it for most things, but I do use hands-free Siri as well.

The cookie monster hey Siri commercial was intended to demonstrate the use of hands-free Siri while cooking. :sunglasses:

Cortana can also be set up handsfree.

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97

Jdroberts, that’s cool… though I see practical issues with the Cookie Monster use case. First, I really don’t want my ipad sitting among my cookie dough ingredients. Second, if the device ordinarily times out / sleeps after X minutes, you likely have to adjust that so it stays awake in such use case. On my iPad if I tell Siri “turn off sleep”, it does not know what I mean… so I have to go into the settings to do that.

So it’s still inferior to a device that is, by design, always listening. Especially when said device is only $40.

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98

No question, the purposebuilt devices like echo and Google home are better, but the handsfree voice assistants on tablets/phones aren’t bad. And I use the voice feature on the Apple Watch all the time. Choice is good. :sunglasses:

99

as a reminder you can also have hands free “ok google” on android… 6 and above?

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