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Is there A problem with the Homey microphone?

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Comments

  • MarcoFMarcoF Member
    edited September 2016
    ZperX said:
    How do you know it is the same engine?
    Why should it be different? Why using and maintaining 2 engines ?
    I have no source in the way of a forum/slack post, but if i'm right Athom stated the app and Homey use the same engine.

    Also looked up the Kickstart update on which the said to finetune the mics;
    https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/athom/homey-the-living-room-talk-to-your-home/posts/1523076

    Its from 8 march 2016 to we are almost 6 months further and people have still big issues with speech.....
  • ZperXZperX Member
    edited September 2016
    Because if they write an android app than they can use the services provided by the android ecosystem, eg.: google speech recognition.

    At the end of the day the point is that English speech recognition does not works as it is advertised ("Talk to your home") or similar products on the market. It should be tackled by tuning the microphones and/or by changing the speech to text service.

    Some engines are better handling poor sound quality, background noises and works with many different microphone types, acoustic properties.
  • Fire69Fire69 Member
    They are already using multiple services (not disclosed which ones), your speech is always sent to multiple services and based on certain criteria (amongst others the speed the answer is returned) they select which one is used for that particular command.

    You're 100% correct that it's not working as advertised and something should be done about it, but I wouldn't hold my breath while waiting for a solution. :relieved: 
  • 2Be2Be Member
    They also mentioned they were trying the google speech engine as a test in one of their updates.
    Seeing that talking to the app gives no problems in the recognition and they use the same speech service, the speech engine/service is not the problem. 
    The problem is the calibration of the software used for the microphones (2x) in the Homey itself. Emile showed a picture once in an update with the software possibilities for calibrating the microphones. Untill today I don't think this is calibrated yet.
     
    @Emile ;
  • MarcoFMarcoF Member
    @2Be ;
    good points!
    Speech is going over multiple layers (mics, speech2text services, Homey software, IVONA for playback, etc).


    Athom is using several Speech services and experimenting with Google's service(s).
    https://forum.athom.com/discussion/comment/1791/#Comment_1791
    here also some more info;
    https://forum.athom.com/discussion/comment/12634/#Comment_12634

    (quote)
    The microphones in Homey are really good and are not the problem.


  • thayoung1thayoung1 Member
    edited September 2016
    Let's just Hope it will get better over time because the use case 'talking to Homey directly / without the App from 4 meters' in my living room and a friend of mines living room doesn't work 90% of the time while giving the same commands by phone work great.
  • mitchmitch Member
    thayoung1 said:
    Same problem here from the start. No progress noticed since april.

    Love these videos of Alexa which looks like working better (haven't seen / experienced it live but I bet user experience with speech is better).
    You're right. I've had my Alexa for 6 months now and she works everytime. Almost flawlessly. The only time she ever gets tripped up is when I ask her to turn the iron on and she thinks I'm saying turn the timer on. Mostly that is due to me talking too fast. Plus when playing music through Alexa, she picks up on her name everytime while lowering the volume. 

    I'm in the US, which means that I am also using Smartthings for my home automation. Along with LIFX, Wemo and Logitech Harmony Hub, Alexa is doing what Homey just refuses to do. My Homey is just a very expensive light ring :(
  • mitchmitch Member
    ZperX said:
    Fire69 said:
    Maybe your relatives' English is too 'flat' :p
    The technology should serve us not us serving the technology. Yes I am very familiar with the speech input page. I was thinking to make a video and post it on youtube to show how ridiculous the interpretation of simple commands are. But I refrained doing it, don’t want to make bad marketing for Athom. But if they won`t tackle this issue for long I might do it to demonstrate the depth of the issue. It feels like the speech recognition 7 years ago. If the Cambridge accent is not good enough than I don`t know what to say. Shall we speak Geordie, Scottish or with Alabama accent?

    Oh yes there is no issue with the app, that works perfectly like it should. I reckon that uses the google speech to text engine.

    Maybe you should make a video. Maybe it would be viewed as extra motivation for the Athom team to get this right and get it done right much sooner. I think this is way overdue since this was a main pitch point in their advertising (video on Kickstarter). If they are going to pitch it, make money off of it, then live up to it. 
  • Fire69Fire69 Member
    mitch said:
    Maybe you should make a video. Maybe it would be viewed as extra motivation for the Athom team to get this right and get it done right much sooner. I think this is way overdue since this was a main pitch point in their advertising (video on Kickstarter). If they are going to pitch it, make money off of it, then live up to it. 
    I agree.
    I've seen some videos already of people showing how good it works, but there should also be videos of people showing it doesn't work at all...
  • jimmy_zeropmjimmy_zeropm Member
    I have to agree Homey could do better... about most of the time it doesn't understand speech right. Otherwise through the phone app it's close to 100%..  I think this should get top priority because it was one of the main selling points when marketed. 
  • MathijsMathijs Member
    Today I build a Amazon Echo from my Raspberry (amazingly easy now) and put it next to my Homey.  It uses a $9 microphone.  And it simply worked where the Homey simply did not.  I even tried the sound from the Homey demo videos, lol. I simply do not believe that with the current hardware/software they could show that again without having to do many many takes. Voice was promoted as the big difference between Homey and it's many other smart hub competitors and I would think that it would be the one thing Athom would focus on. They are clearly not or not in a way that we can see or understand. 

    To be honest I am not sure the hardware is able to handle it. I do hope we get some more information on this.
  • TheoDeKoningTheoDeKoning Member
    edited October 2016
    Athom say that you have to switch to Dutch. There I waiting for now to see it's better.

  • msmitsmsmits Member
    I can tell you that it isn't... I don't talk anymore to my Homey since 60% fails. TheoDeKoning said:
    Athom say that you have to switch to Dutch. There I waiting for now to see it's better.


  • TheoDeKoningTheoDeKoning Member
    edited October 2016
    If KaKu is not OK and Voice is not OK then Homey is OFF

  • bvdbosbvdbos Member
    Dutch is >80% ok for me, KaKu too... But beware KaKu:
    http://td-er.nl/2013/10/31/kaku-ervaring/
    https://www.google.nl/search?q=kaku+problemen+site:gathering.tweakers.net
    Don't blame Homey for everything...


  • TheoDeKoningTheoDeKoning Member
    A week a go I had also problems with KaKu. Some interfering I think.
    But if a wall-switch can reach a KaKu socked further away then Homey, same direction, and sensors idem then it is not good.
  • MathijsMathijs Member
    TheoDeKoning said:
    Athom say that you have to switch to Dutch. There I waiting for now to see it's better.

    Marginally better. But still far from actually usable. 
  • RamonBaasRamonBaas Member
    Be aware that mobile phones have advanced hardware and software for effects as Acoustic Echo Cancellation (AEC), Noise Suppression (NS) and Automatic Gain Control (AGC). Looks like Homey has the hardware, but it is not tuned and lacking the advanced software algorithms.
  • MathijsMathijs Member
    RamonBaas said:
    Be aware that mobile phones have advanced hardware and software for effects as Acoustic Echo Cancellation (AEC), Noise Suppression (NS) and Automatic Gain Control (AGC). Looks like Homey has the hardware, but it is not tuned and lacking the advanced software algorithms.

    Yes and as the voice aspect of Homey is the feature that sets it apart from many others smart hubs it surprises me that we have seen so little improvement lately. 
  • TheoDeKoningTheoDeKoning Member
    Before I give my final opinion of the speech recognition I wait to use the Dutch language first.
    Also I shall put Homey on the spot where now my KaKu ICS-1000 stays to compare fairly.
  • MathijsMathijs Member
    As the Kaku does not voice I don't see why the location will matter. The problem is not in the connection but in the recognition. And as Athom keeps telling us they can switch engine and thus can select the best possible it stands to reason that the voice data it collects right now is not of a quality that is very usable. I simply do not get it, why keep pushing that voice thing (and sonos for that matter) is it just does not work as expected.

    Btw, it would be VERY weird if Dutch would be interpreted really better as there has been little work done on Dutch recognition compared to English. Just speak Dutch to you iPhone or Android and you see the difference.
  • TheoDeKoningTheoDeKoning Member
    edited October 2016
    Oops. maybe I was not clearly and that causes a misunderstanding.
    For me are voice and KaKu the main things what I have to do for Homey now. There is no other switching brand here.
    Both are sadly not OK for the moment thus both received a fairly change in testing.

    On the spot where the KaKu ICS-1000 stays is not ideal for IR to my AV-system.
    If on the right spot for that, switching KaKu in the garden could be tricky.
    Fares point for ICS-1000 in to the garden is 20 meters with double-glass window and closed vertical "lamellen" .      *)

    EDIT
     *)



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