Using cheap phone

Aaron

Hi,

Wil it be possible to use a cheap android phone (in every room, wall mounted) to communicate to Homey, by just speaking to the phone (not touching it) and that Homey knows in whitch room the phone is. That way it would be possible to use a cheap wall mounted phone/tablet to give commands to Homey without being next to Homey. Like a remote microphone (and speaker).

greetings,
Aaron

honey

I reckon you are better off with a small tablet, like a second hand Nexus 7. It is also more decorative, easier to recess/semi recess into the wall. According to the Kickstarter video the app will have voice recognition. And hope they will make a tablet dashboard similar to this: https://forum.athom.com/discussion/388/the-spot-on-app
The constant power supply can be a bit of headache.

Aaron

Yes, that is true. But my point was, will it be possible to make that phone/tablet listen all the time to the "Hey homey" command? And will that work from a distance. Wil Homey know where the phone is an execute the command accordingly? So basically, wil it work like there was another Homey in the room?

That way I could put a cheap (2e hand) tablet/phone in every room and be able to talk to Homey wherever I am.

greetings,
Aaron

Emile

You could just install the Homey app on it

Aaron

Yes, that is what I meant. I can then give it a room in Homey? So that Homey knows it is the livingroom (for example).

Emile

No, that's not possible. A mobile device is, well, mobile.

Aaron

Yes but then it would not be mobile anymore but fixed to a wall (or room) :-) When i tell it to turn on the light it would not know which light that would be because it does not know where I am.
I am searching for a way to give commands from other rooms without buying 10 Homeys.

Emile

Just say 'Turn on the lights in the {{room name}}' ;-)

DaneeDeKruyff

Isn’t a mobile device just another input method? If each device with the app installed would identify itself with a unique ID couldn’t this be used in a flow to get the desired result?

Aaron

I know Emile and I will do that, but it would be more "friendly" if that was not needed ;-)
DaneeDeKruyff, that would/could be possible if you use a flow, but how I understand it, the basic things do not need a flow (like lights).

MartijnHarte

Does the app always actively listens to "hey homey", or is this a setting? I was planning on placing a wall mounted tablet with the homey app always open in the same room as homey. But if the app always listens for voice that would result in double commands..

superice

MartijnHarte said:
Does the app always actively listens to "hey homey", or is this a setting? I was planning on placing a wall mounted tablet with the homey app always open in the same room as homey. But if the app always listens for voice that would result in double commands..

Whenever the app is opened and in the foreground, it's listening to the trigger phrase. If you want to use the tablet only for controlling the cards, you could consider keeping the tablets' screen off by default, and only turning the screen on when you want to control the cards. Then again: getting your phone out of your pocket is probably a lesser effort than standing up and walking to the wall mounted tablet.

JaapPelt

@Aaron: Sounds like an interesting experiment. I have been thinking about something similar using a raspberry pi. It will all depend at how good the microphone of a smartphone is and how well Homey can recognize the activation comment. The accuracy of the voice recognition in a noisy room with conversation, music of background noise will be something we just have to try once we have our Homeys.

MartijnHarte

superice said:

MartijnHarte said:
Does the app always actively listens to "hey homey", or is this a setting? I was planning on placing a wall mounted tablet with the homey app always open in the same room as homey. But if the app always listens for voice that would result in double commands..

Whenever the app is opened and in the foreground, it's listening to the trigger phrase. If you want to use the tablet only for controlling the cards, you could consider keeping the tablets' screen off by default, and only turning the screen on when you want to control the cards. Then again: getting your phone out of your pocket is probably a lesser effort than standing up and walking to the wall mounted tablet.

Thanks for your answer. You're right, it is less effort, but it looks so shiny . Was hoping to show temperature and/or other information (not sure how the homey app would work, does it have something like this, a dashboard?).

Aaron

So many people and so many ways to control our homes. I think everybody has their own "best way" to use homey ;-) And I think one should not exclude the other.

@JaapPelt raspberry is also a good solution. A smartphone or tablet has a smal footprint, a screen, microphone, speakers, camera, easy to setup. So that was why I was thinking of it. We will have to test it, yes

superice

MartijnHarte said:
Thanks for your answer. You're right, it is less effort, but it looks so shiny . Was hoping to show temperature and/or other information (not sure how the homey app would work, does it have something like this, a dashboard?).

Something like that: it shows a card for every device. Every card is interactive and you can control every device by toggling switches or dragging sliders on the card.

It's easier to give you a sneak peak than to explain everything. A picture is worth a thousand words

MartijnHarte

That looks awesome! Thanks for the sneak peak

Emile

Correct me if I'm wrong, but if the tablet runs android 6, maybe you can just don't give it the microphone permission to make it stop listening

MartijnHarte

Very clever! That's worth a try

superice

Emile said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but if the tablet runs android 6, maybe you can just don't give it the microphone permission to make it stop listening

That might work indeed. There are not very many Android 6 tablets yet through

RobinVanKekem

CyanogenMod has the permission model since 5.0