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Usable speech recognition

13

Comments

  • I bought an Amazon Echo Dot and I am very impressed by the voice-recognition so far.

    The thing is that I use Homey since the march and I've got voice working for me so far. It took a lot of training of how to say something and now I've got it working 99% and this even across different rooms.

    But the problem is that it has to be quiet and it is not a native way of speaking because I have to use my "trained" sentences to get the commands working (ofc I use only words as trigger but as stated it's more reliable if you use them in sentences)

    With Alexa (Echo Dot) it feels more native and fluent to interact with. This is caused by the much better tuned hardware and the enormous ressources of Amazon and you really can feel this. It makes a lot more fun to use Alexa for speech commands. So I am looking forward to have full IFTTT Support on both devices, maybe even a Alexa App / Homey Skill (on Alexa) because I think both combined are the most powerful  "smart-home" solution on the market atm.

  • Recently nvidia showed it's nvidia spot. Would that not be perfect to increase the homey mic range? Or at least something simular.
  • A success rate of 90% lol. Okay Homey 30% at good days. I need to lower my voice to an unnatural Dept to get Homey to respond. Everything after Okay Homey, 20% at best.the reason I'm not using voice commands. It's quicker to walk 2 flights of stairs an turn of the light than retrying Homey. And my body is quit more reliable (thank God)

    Sure hope for improvement, did like the functionality as an idea. But it's not the main reason for backing this device.
  • At what distance are you trying?
  • MarkVanWindenMarkVanWinden Member
    edited January 2017
    1m, 2m, etc etc. Only distance that's close to working is 50cm...

    Normal voice lowers the success rate is far lower than when is lower pitched tone... And it's not that I have an absurd high voice whatsoever.. so Homey and wifoo are also not getting along speech wise , so that's a plus
  • My success rate with voice commands is somewhere between 50 - 75%. I stuck to english, speculating on better results there, than with a less used language like Dutch. I'm usually at a 2, 3 or 4 meters distance. As expected, results improve significantly when coming closer to Homey. Less than 1 meter away from Homey, results are above 75% success.

    In my case, apart from the way sentences are constructed, I noticed a big impact on how the flow of words are spoken. At first, I tried to improve understandability by slowing down when talking, using more separated words with a slight pause inbetween. This had an opposite effect. When speaking more fluent (glueing words together in a sentence, like when speaking to a human), results improved a lot.

    An (exeggarated) example:
    OK Homey.... Turn... on... the lights... in... the... livingroom -> No Go
    OK Homey, Turnonthelightsinthelivingroom -> Success
    That said, I don't use speech that often, and don't find it that important. Being an open platform and not relying on Apple/Google, are two major reasons I chose Homey over other systems.
  • I personaly don't think that the software is that bad. Mine homey is standing next to the TV and with normal sound coming of the TV i have a 98%+ hit rate with "OK Homey" and a 90% + hit rate with triggering the key words in the spoken sentences. ( when i talk to homey all audio is muted)
    When my daughter speaks to homey it works also verry well.

    Homey has some problems listening what my wife has to say:-) But that i find not strange....we all have that problem here:-) Or maybe it has something to do that she doesn't like talking to homey ( Made some extra buttons for her that she can do everything with the app)


  • glijie said:
    I personaly don't think that the software is that bad. Mine homey is standing next to the TV and with normal sound coming of the TV i have a 98%+ hit rate with "OK Homey" and a 90% + hit rate with triggering the key words in the spoken sentences. ( when i talk to homey all audio is muted)
    When my daughter speaks to homey it works also verry well.

    Homey has some problems listening what my wife has to say:-) But that i find not strange....we all have that problem here:-) Or maybe it has something to do that she doesn't like talking to homey ( Made some extra buttons for her that she can do everything with the app)


    With the TV on. It's unusable for me here.. also when I'm boiling some water it's a no go.

    The wife though. Don't know yet if it would be a pro or a con.. ,,,,
  • Hi @Robert,
    Would this be a way to make Homey listen better: https://creator.matrix.one/#!/index ?
    A way of plugging this into our Homey or combining it with a raspberry pi. Would be more expensive than the Amazon dot but better for our privacy (personally not a bi deal for me)  and we have more control.
    Maybe for some people a bit overkill, but I think having all these sensors along with better mics is nice

    Just an idea
    Greetings,
    Aaron 
  • I bought a Shield TV 2017 edition. Installed the APK from homey. 
    it works perfectly with the mic in the controller and the remote. 
    receives every question loud and clear. until now it never missed a request. 
    The only thing is, the app looks awfull on a tv. no landscape mode. 
  • cool :) Does the shield run a normal copy of the chrome-browser? You might be able to set it to normal desktop-mode, I can on my phone...
  • @Gratje, super idea, where can i find the homey apk? Tnx
  • viktor said:
    @Gratje, super idea, where can i find the homey apk? Tnx
    http://www.apkmonk.com/app/com.athom.homey/
  • For me, the bigger concern is not the usage (although it can be frustrating) but how Homey now stacks up against the competition (Amazon Echo/Google Home) regarding voice recognition.

    If I recall, Athom started the Kickstarter for Homey long before Echo and Google Home were available and looked to be the first home automation system with such capabilities at the time.

    Though I think it's incredibly impressive what has been achieved for such a small team, without the financial backing of companies such as Amazon or Google, I wonder how they will stay competitive in what appears to be a growing market, when one of the main features is not up to par with the competition.

    With Homey finally going retail, I think this is something that really should be addressed if the device is to be a commercial success.

    I have faith in the team and hope that over time things will continue to improve. I just hope it's something that is being actively discussed and developed internally, rather than left by the wayside.

    Just my $0.02.
  • Gratje said:
    I bought a Shield TV 2017 edition. Installed the APK from homey. 
    it works perfectly with the mic in the controller and the remote. 
    receives every question loud and clear. until now it never missed a request. 
    The only thing is, the app looks awfull on a tv. no landscape mode. 
    Hi Gratje - smart idea. Out of curiousity; is the Shield always listening or do you need to hit a button on either the controller or remote to be able to start talking?
  • lenonline said:
    Gratje said:
    I bought a Shield TV 2017 edition. Installed the APK from homey. 
    it works perfectly with the mic in the controller and the remote. 
    receives every question loud and clear. until now it never missed a request. 
    The only thing is, the app looks awfull on a tv. no landscape mode. 
    Hi Gratje - smart idea. Out of curiousity; is the Shield always listening or do you need to hit a button on either the controller or remote to be able to start talking?
    I'm not sure. I will give it a try tonight. The app was always listening. No need to press a button. But if it always listens........
  • It's always listening for "Oke Homey", that's built-in in Homey and only after that the recorded voice gets send to recognition-servers ;)
  • The Shield only listens when you hit a button on the remote control or controller.
  • Bumblez said:
    The Shield only listens when you hit a button on the remote control or controller.
    Thanks Bumblez! I've been also in touch with Nvidia and I can confirm this. The new controller and mic already have the option to listen at all times.. They are actually waiting on Google releasing the Google Assistant (which is similar to Google Home) into the wild. This update should be widely available 'somehwen in Q1' :)

    This also makes the Shield a good contenter (over time) for improving Homey's ability to listen to voice commands; e.g. we could create a custom Homey bot and then use Google Assistant commands like 'Ok Google, tell Homey to....'.

  • The first step to that update is upgrading your Shield to firmware v5.0 / Android 7.0 - that update should be available soon...
  • Emile said something very interesting in the latest version update. He posted ' soon another very popular speech integration will join the Homey family...'... Could it be Alexa or even better Google Assistant? 
  • WouterNLD said:
    Emile said something very interesting in the latest version update. He posted ' soon another very popular speech integration will join the Homey family...'... Could it be Alexa or even better Google Assistant? 
    Since it was just after a line about Facebook Messenger, I thought it was about something like WhatsApp. 
    I do like your interpretation better though :)
  • For facebook this already exists :)
    https://messenger.athom.com/


  • I hope they can implement a different speech recognition. I've bought an Echo dot and the voice recognition is three generations ahead. At 5 meters, around the corner, saying "Alexa turn on the living room" (no pause, speaking fast) works without hesitation. At that location I can't even get Homey to start listening.

    Homey has a lot of features that the competition is missing, but if you want to use voice forget about homey (for now?)
  • +1 for implementing a different speech recognition (preferably Google Assistant). I don't think Homey's own recognition will ever be at that level, so I say: "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" !
  • Workaround that works can be found here https://forum.athom.com/discussion/2435/connect-google-home-to-homey#latest

    Do you have a Google Home?
  • I bought both an Echo dot and a Google Home, but haven't taken the time yet to install the Home because the Echo works so fantastic. But if there is a way to combine with Homey I'll surely give that a try!
  • WathLamersWathLamers Member
    edited February 2017
    I bought both an Echo dot and a Google Home, but haven't taken the time yet to install the Home because the Echo works so fantastic. But if there is a way to combine with Homey I'll surely give that a try!
    Is it possible to use http whit echo?     
    and, if so,   how do one do this?   
    EDIT      and whitout ifttt  (i am not a fan)
  • glijie said:
    I personaly don't think that the software is that bad. Mine homey is standing next to the TV and with normal sound coming of the TV i have a 98%+ hit rate with "OK Homey" and a 90% + hit rate with triggering the key words in the spoken sentences. ( when i talk to homey all audio is muted)
    When my daughter speaks to homey it works also verry well.

    Homey has some problems listening what my wife has to say:-) But that i find not strange....we all have that problem here:-) Or maybe it has something to do that she doesn't like talking to homey ( Made some extra buttons for her that she can do everything with the app)


    LoL, my Homey responses beter to ky wife than me!
  • folkert said:
    glijie said:
    I personaly don't think that the software is that bad. Mine homey is standing next to the TV and with normal sound coming of the TV i have a 98%+ hit rate with "OK Homey" and a 90% + hit rate with triggering the key words in the spoken sentences. ( when i talk to homey all audio is muted)
    When my daughter speaks to homey it works also verry well.

    Homey has some problems listening what my wife has to say:-) But that i find not strange....we all have that problem here:-) Or maybe it has something to do that she doesn't like talking to homey ( Made some extra buttons for her that she can do everything with the app)


    LoL, my Homey responses beter to ky wife than me!
    probbely you respond better to your wife then homey      :o          ;)
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