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[gfish]

On the long drive home Monday, I had plenty of time to think. I happened to come up with a very interesting idea for an extension to the PhraseServer element of my media infrastructure.

The question I pose to you is: What kind of things would you want to do using the voice interface for a smarthome? Ask when the next bus is, set the thermostat, what? Specifically, I'm trying to get a feel for what kind of content it would be conveying, and what the range of structures of the generated phrases would be like.

Comments

[hpapillon.livejournal.com]

The smart home for lonely people. Responds to sounds of crying, pain, and swearing, with meaningless comfort.

May need careful tuning to distinguish "Being murdered with a knife, call police" from "Really wild sex, disable webcams".

[loree.livejournal.com]

Weather, time, traffic, lock/unlock/open doors when my arms are full, answer the phone, check voicemail, check temperature/chemical levels in the hot tub, check quantity/volume/freshness/expiration dates of items in the fridge/pantry and tell me when it's time to go grocery shopping, tell me when the laundry's done, be able to tell me the difference between a delivery person and a Jehovah's Witness and answer the doorbell accordingly....

[kathrynt.livejournal.com]

Lock/unlock/open doors. Change the temperature. Change the volume of the TV or music. And, MOST IMPORTANTLY, draw me a bath. I would love it if I could call home and say "Start a hot bath" and have it waiting for me when I got there.

[mrlogic.livejournal.com]

Set illumination room-by-room (/intensity/color)
Turn oven on/off
Set a timer with either audible or visible alarm for a specific time, or for a specific offset from now
Set/defuse a security alarm
Check/read email
Record TV programs
Check bus/movie/theatre/plane schedules
Enter and confirm appointments
Obtain phone numbers, place calls
Play movies or music from library
Screen visitors
Call 911

[rigel-p.livejournal.com]

security, home maintenance (feed pets, water plants, climate control, hot tub control, maintenance required error beeps) , "Tea, Earl Grey, Hot.", entertainment system - make sure this part isn't self referential- don't allow it to call the fire dept just because you're playing an old Bloodhound Gang (http://www.lyricsfreak.com/b/bloodhound-gang/20391.html) album. :)

[tfabris.livejournal.com]

...Clean house...

;-)

[sistawendy.livejournal.com]

Ask where my son, spouse, or dog are. Turn lights on or off in other parts of the house. Check the appointment calendar. And, of course, tunes.

[sistawendy.livejournal.com]

Oh: whose birthday is next and when.

Smart Kitchen

[anansi133.livejournal.com]

I want a semi-robotic kitchen: a stove that will stir my sauce when I want it to, but will let me do it manually when I need to check its consitency. Endless variations, but as it applies to your question, I want to know what's in the fridge and how much of it, without opening the door. Same for the pantry. I want it to be able to suggest dishes based on what I've got, and to tell me what I need to buy. A video camera inside the oven, color calibrated, so it will know when the cookies are done, and can tell me so. Weight scales in the fridge to know how much milk, etc. was just used up. (RFID in the packages, of course.)

If the computer can parse the current Joy of Cooking, Spices of the World and maybe the Moosewood cookbook, then that would be a good starting point.

[shadowblue.livejournal.com]

thermostat, "what's the weather like?" (now / rest of today / whatever I might find relevant -- like warnings, or "oh, and by the way, Mount St Helens erupted while you were sleeping. Thought you might like to know." that could be expanded to any supermajor news, but I am not sure how to differentiate between major news and supermajor news.)

I don't think I'd use voice for lights very often. Or, even, security (locks), if I had some better way of doing it. (handprint? I know biometrics are iffy, but I'd give it a try.)

Traffic reports. Bus routing. Voicemail/e-mail (for the latter, a "(x) e-mailed you" is probably quite sufficient). Set/activate/deactivate timers & alarms, e.g., "wake me up in two hours", "remind me to go to (blah blah) tomorrow".

Only in future revisions would I ever dream of being able to say "make me a cup of tea and some eggs". Although when I think about it, those aren't incredibly complex tasks. Perhaps we should work on a kitchenbot.

[tikimonkey.livejournal.com]

here's what i'd like, working my way through the day:

"start teakettle" (would fill it with fresh water and start it, and then stop it when it boils.

"fill bath cool/warm/hot with bubbles"

"global radio" would turn on the various radios on the NPR station so that i can follow the stories as i'm getting ready in different parts of the apartment

"preheat car" would start the car with its defroster on

"precool car" would start the car with its air conditioner on

(and then, when i get home again)

"voicemail" would play it and transcribe any numbers

"set alarm"

"prewarm bed" would make the bed all toasty

"goodnight radio" would play the one by my bedside softly until i fell asleep

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

Oh man, that last one especially.

[shadowblue.livejournal.com]

I realized now, in the kitchen: if you actually were to make something that we were to interact with in complete sentences, etc, then I think it should at least be able to react sarcastically to a couple of things. e.g. a random friend says "wow, you can talk!" and the house says "well, yeah." or something.

I suppose that could just be a later expansion pack, though. Sarcasm Pack 1.0.