I'm waiting for wireless power. That way, I can have a full time AND a vacation home with only one utility bill.

Join the crew trying to figure out what Tesla was doing in Colorado.

not only that but

[Link: slashgear.com]


there have been several incidence where voice recognition was used by mistake, advertisement or pranks.

I like what voice control can do, but it's not ready to take over just yet.
I don't mind saying: "Alexa, turn off Master bedroom lights", but saying "Turn off the house" instead of "Arm the house" or "Goodnight" is not natural.

Its getting there but i felt same way. Savant now has alexa control but to run a scene you have to say "turn on" first, so "turn on goodnight" or "turn on house off" just doesn't sound right. It is cool that it can take any name a client creates for a scene they create and it becomes available on the alexa though

I also don’t like is it’s usually slower than other options. The whole dish integration is a joke because even when it works, it’s slower than picking up the remote. It’s even worse on systems that require confirmation. The voice commands on my truck work well, but before doing anything it says what it thinks I said then asks if it’s correct.

I always find such statements funny.
1) it is never about the 99.9% that is boring, it is about getting that .1% that is not. you have a device listening in, not a person, if someone was sitting there listening/watching an empty room he would get bored after a while and leave, but you get rid of 99% of that and it is no longer an issue to pay attention to the none boring parts.

2) it is not only about the legitimate stuff, unfortunately if it is listening to everything and every one, look at my previous post, others can use it for their own benefit

3)it is also about the illegal stuff. If Alexa (or anything similar) can listen in, what is to stop a hacker, virus or malware from doing the same? Amazon might not try and take your banking info (they know my credit cards, I typed them in myself) but that does not mean there are not others that could benefit from it.

"They" do listen in, I have (very wealthy)clients that design the software that does it, cell phones, anything with a mic and internet access.
Right along with when you turn your cell phone off, its really not off.
Everyone pictures a prairie dog room with people listening, get a kick out that visual.
My phone usually lives in my pocket but the other day while driving with my wife we were talking about a specific restaurant and my phone was sitting on the center console chilling. We get home and guess what my first "suggested post" was on liberalbook. Coincidence,me thinks not.
I never searched it,nothing, did nothing other than talk about it, never drove by it, da nada nothing.
Unfortunately we live in a society where all these seemingly far fetched Sci-Fi ideas are becoming a reality, and we all know how those movies end.
AI is a slippery slope, just ask Will Smith! :)

But yes the conception of buying one of these devices and instantly your house is automated is laughable, at best.

Wouldn't it be nice if Alexis would communicate with all our Clappers!

One can purchase little Faraday bags to keep your phone off the air. Now these bags need acoustic isolation too. Yes, I know that the Faraday bag will keep the phone from relaying audio in real time, but the phone could store audio for later transmission. As a further hedge against audio snooping, the audio shield could randomly recite a dictionary, the tax code, or the Constitution for the phone to log.

so much out there on this subject
the alexa fail videos are funny

Nikola, or the new company?

One of us. One of us.


I worked for a Crestron dealer in 2005 and one day, we went to a house to do some updates, including a new 12" touch screen. While we were working, the programmer said that he wanted to create a .wav file for the lights so that when they were activated, two hand claps would be heard.

Considering the high cost of the touch screen, Crestron controller and all of the Lutron, the homeowner didn't seem amused.

Nikola

Speaking of crazy things programmers say...At a project 10 years ago where we had a surround zone in the bedroom...A programmer uploaded his program and i started testing rooms. I get to the Master Bedroom where i have a surround receiver and i hear no sound. I report back to the programmer and remind him that the room has a local AVR. He gets angry and yelps "when people tell me they want surround sound in bedrooms i laugh...you only have two ears".

So basically this programmer didn't understand what surround sound is.

|... create a .wav file for the lights so that when they were activated, two hand claps would be heard.

The programmer would be a hero to some of my cheap customers -- reuse those Clappers!