In Al Williams’s marvelous rant he factors out quite a few the issues with chatting with computer systems. Apparent issues with voice management embody issues like a number of individuals speaking over one another, discerning instructions from background conversations, and so forth. One way or the other, not like on the bridge in Star Trek, the place the pc appears to grasp everybody simply superb, Al generally can’t even get the darn factor to play his going-to-sleep playlist, which ought to be nicely throughout the machine’s capabilities.
Within the feedback, [rclark] suggests making a single button that performs his playlist, no voice interplay required, and we have now to confess that it’s an ideal answer to this one specific drawback. Heck, the “bedtime button” would make enjoyable mission in and of itself, and it’s such a restricted scope that it might in all probability solely be an weekend’s work for anybody who has touched the internals of their residence automation system, like Al actually has. We love the simplicity of the thought.
However it ignores the most important potential advantage of a voice management system: that it’s a one-size-fits-all answer for every part. Think about what number of different use instances Al would wish to make a single button machine for, and what number of coin cell batteries he’d be signing himself as much as change out over the course of the yr. The trade-off is that the final objective answer tends to not be as strong as a single-tasker just like the button, but additionally that it could possibly probably simplify the general system.
I endure this in my own residence. It’s far more a loosely-coupled internet of particular person hacks than an total system, and that has execs and cons. Every particular person half is simpler to keep up and hack on, however the total system is much less coordinated than it could possibly be. If we modify the WiFi password on the house automation router, as an example, I’m going to should individually log into about eight ESP8266s and alter their credentials. Yuck!
It’s in all probability a matter of choice, however I’ll nonetheless take the free, MQTT-based system that I’ve acquired now over an all-in-one. Like [rclark], I worth particular person machine simplicity and reliability above the general system’s simplicity, however as a result of our stereo isn’t even hooked as much as the community, I can’t play myself to sleep like Al can. Or not less than like he can when the voice recognition is working.
