I’m trying to solve a somewhat awkward voice assistant problem which is shortening verbal instructions by using short device names.
So instead of “turn off the bedroom lights” or “turn off the living room lights” I’d want to say “turn off the lights” for the room I’m in.
I am not sure what’s the best way to do something like this but I’m sure it likely needs presence sensors and addressing a specific device in that room.
Currently have a couple of sensors on the way and I have an Echo 5, Echo 8, and Nest Mini 2 in 3 different rooms and Siri on everyone’s phones.
Unfortunately, detecting where you are at home is very tricky. Even with good sensors, a devil lies in the details—especially if another person or a pet shares your space.
I am not sure if an integration exists for it, but I’ve refrained from trying to make this work even though I have a lot of motion sensors at home. I just don’t think I’d be happy with the results generally, even if it could work 80 or 90% of the time.
You didn’t mention your setup or which voice assistant you’re using, but if you’re using Voice PE assistant, I suggest the Speech-to-Phrase add-on. I have two PEs and they are “room” aware, works great! I’m running HAOS on generic NUC.
I mentioned near the bottom of my post that I’m using a mix of Alexa devices and Google Assistant devices as well as Siri in our phones.
Interested in knowing more about Voice PE though! Admittedly like most new home automation enthusiasts, I started with 1 device (Google) experimented with another and committed to what was the most supported (Alexa) then found HA
I have 1 other person in the home and 1 dog.
I’d imagine the best thing to do is separate devices in each room and potentially ensure each device has a different wake word perhaps?
Never used Google assistants, but I started with Alexa too, ended up with 5 of them over the years! My main goal in coming to HA was to get rid of them and run my voice assistants locally. I’m down to 1 Echo now and its days are numbered.
For my use case (controlling devices, no playing music) the PE works great. The only issue is that it doesn’t work well in loud environments like my living room…I usually have to mute the TV before using the PE. In the bedroom, where it’s quieter, that’s not an issue.
Is the PE a replacement for Alexa? No. Guess it depends on how you use Alexa. For my simple needs, it’s an acceptable replacement. It’s a Preview Edition, so can’t really compare it to the established assistants by big $ companies.
I might have misunderstood your setup. If you can tell which room is implicated based on which microphone triggered the request, it’s a very different situation than relying solely on motion sensors to determine the relevant room. Take a look at @tom_l’s post below.
@d921@tom_l thanks for the confirmation. I’ll check out the behaviour when adding things to areas. Is this the same as assigning to rooms in HA?
@Deedee neat! I’m thinking of getting Voice PE to test it out in an office environment. Can you still purchase the PE or do I have to wait for an official release?
@Deedee amazing thanks for that! I just bought one from SeeedStudios as their shipping was cheaper. I’ll stick with one for now and play around with it then hopefully get another one or two when it’s fully released when funded.
Brandon from ameriDroid here. I’m sorry to hear you ended up with a cheaper shipping option through Seeed. I just checked their site, and shipping for one HA Voice PE seems to range from ~$7–$10 depending on the state. On our site, shipping should typically be ~$5–$6 per unit, also depending on the state. If you could let me know which state you shipped to, it’d really help me compare rates and figure out if there’s an issue with the shipping costs on our end.
Hi Brandon, I’m in Canada in the province of Ontario which is likely why your calculations differ especially with international shipping options. But so good here!
