Any Home Automation Ideas for visually disabled

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Killerkiwi2005

374 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#245230 24-Jan-2019 14:47

Looking for any ideas that we can add to the setup, note we are only using off the self components so parts are easily replaceable

What we have currently

1 Echo
1 Echo Plus
Light switch control for 6 switches
- Alexa
Air Conditioner (temp set and on/off)
- Alexa
Garage Door controller
- IFFT SMS to open/close from iPhone via Siri
- Alexa
TV
- Harmony Hub
- Alexa
Sky
- Harmony Hub
- Alexa

Notes on this stuff so far

5g Wifi is a major issue here, most devices do not like it, we setup a guest wifi network in the end without 5g
Tile locators seem good but you can't voice activate them
Haromny Hub Alexa control could be a bit better it allows scene selection but it would nice to be able to have routines it runs that can be repeated adhoc

chimera

506 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2171148 1-Feb-2019 09:58

TV/Sky for the visually disabled? Or do you just listen to it? Serious question - I'm curious!

Amazon Echo is pretty good, couldn't get much better than that for voice control. Everything you run is pretty much what I also run. What about music? Do you just use the Echo for this or do you have an Stereo/amp? If an amp and want quality sound you could look at an "Echo Link", I'll be buying one next month. Integrates Alexa voice control into your stereo has RCA and optical out (a little better than the analog audio jack on an echo dot) Additionally, a Fire TV would be really good for you, you can use voice control to search for movies, youtube videos, etc, works a bit better than the Harmony I reckon for asking Alexa to play, pause and so on (or press the button on the top of the Fire TV remote and speak to it)

Personally I don't like IFTTT much. You could look at running local (non-cloud based) home automation and integrating that with Alexa, rather than purely relying on cloud based skills.

Killerkiwi2005

374 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#2171270 1-Feb-2019 13:15

chimera:

TV/Sky for the visually disabled? Or do you just listen to it? Serious question - I'm curious!

Amazon Echo is pretty good, couldn't get much better than that for voice control. Everything you run is pretty much what I also run. What about music? Do you just use the Echo for this or do you have an Stereo/amp? If an amp and want quality sound you could look at an "Echo Link", I'll be buying one next month. Integrates Alexa voice control into your stereo has RCA and optical out (a little better than the analog audio jack on an echo dot) Additionally, a Fire TV would be really good for you, you can use voice control to search for movies, youtube videos, etc, works a bit better than the Harmony I reckon for asking Alexa to play, pause and so on (or press the button on the top of the Fire TV remote and speak to it)

Personally I don't like IFTTT much. You could look at running local (non-cloud based) home automation and integrating that with Alexa, rather than purely relying on cloud based skills.

re tv/sky legally blind does not mean 100% eye sight loss....

We have an apple tv installed that has good voice recognition for netflix and movies etc, the harmony just controls the tv functions (hdmi selection, power etc)

The one thing I'm looking more into is bluetooth locators, but they would need to be activated by voice some how

chimera

506 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2171276 1-Feb-2019 13:25

Killerkiwi2005:

chimera:

TV/Sky for the visually disabled? Or do you just listen to it? Serious question - I'm curious!

Amazon Echo is pretty good, couldn't get much better than that for voice control. Everything you run is pretty much what I also run. What about music? Do you just use the Echo for this or do you have an Stereo/amp? If an amp and want quality sound you could look at an "Echo Link", I'll be buying one next month. Integrates Alexa voice control into your stereo has RCA and optical out (a little better than the analog audio jack on an echo dot) Additionally, a Fire TV would be really good for you, you can use voice control to search for movies, youtube videos, etc, works a bit better than the Harmony I reckon for asking Alexa to play, pause and so on (or press the button on the top of the Fire TV remote and speak to it)

Personally I don't like IFTTT much. You could look at running local (non-cloud based) home automation and integrating that with Alexa, rather than purely relying on cloud based skills.

re tv/sky legally blind does not mean 100% eye sight loss....

We have an apple tv installed that has good voice recognition for netflix and movies etc, the harmony just controls the tv functions (hdmi selection, power etc)

The one thing I'm looking more into is bluetooth locators, but they would need to be activated by voice some how

I'm fairly sure Tile locators have an Alexa skill you can add. Heaps of other ones on the market too that have Alexa skills available, PebbleBee, TrackR etc.

chimera

506 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2171279 1-Feb-2019 13:33

This should give you a pretty good rundown on them...

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-key-finders,review-2657.html

Above seems to say Tile is still the best, here is the Alexa skill for the tile...

https://support.thetileapp.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005861707-How-do-I-use-Tile-with-Amazon-Alexa-

EDIT: "*The Tile skill in the Amazon Alexa Skill shop is currently only available in the United States and Germany." - YMMV...

Still, it may work ?

EDIT 2: Just tried this with Tile on my iPhone, and asked Alexa to find my iPhone and it started chiming away. Unsure if it works with actual Tiles as well though (last one I had batteries are dead, the other says last located in Australia somewhere!)