Ancient Human has a date with Amazon Echo

[csearle]

Hi,

Background: 95 year old mother living alone in Cornwall with Parkinsons, confined to chair, no longer able to reliably operate the remotes for her (non-smart)TV and Sky box. She is also unable to learn (or more to the point, remember) even slightly obscure command sequences (e.g. "Alexa, Enter TV mode") but something like "Alexa, turn BBC1 on" might be achievable, don't know yet.

After a bit of Googling and YouTubing I have ordered an Amazon Echo Dot, a Broadlink Pro WiFi/IR Blaster (which I understand I'll have to up[?]grade with an older software version) and intend to use an old Android phone running a couple of apps (that I will have to configure to map each command to the appropriate sequence of remote control IR transmissions - relying on this video heavily).

I won't be down there for another fortnight but I thought I'd introduce this little project and update you with how it all goes, both with the set-up and the ancient P's ability to use it.

Regards,
Chris

[masped]

Good luck with your project, but at the risk of throwing your plans into disarray, does your mother already have broadband and WiFi? The Echo Dot can't do any speech recognition offline, it needs an internet connection.

Apologies if you've already got this covered, but your description of your mother didn't sound like someone who would have WiFi!

I notice that the chap who made the YouTube video also has a website which would seem to be worth a read if you haven't seen it already:
http://www.paulhibbert.co.uk/2017/11/24 ... -to-alexa/

[csearle]

Oh my giddy aunt!

It is sooooooo frustrating. I've set this up now at my mum's and it works pretty damned well. It is a bit tedious to set up but once the little sequences are programmed it is really quite reliable. Also the Echo Dot is performing very well. Absolutely no problems controlling the TV by just talking.

Or so one might think. Turns out my mother is almost incapable for saying "Alexa". Mostly she says "Alexia" or, if she can actually read the name written large on a card in front of her, she says it so slowly that it isn't recognised as one word or, she says it in such a muffled way that it is not recognised, or she drops the initial "a" and shouts "Lexa" over and over and over and over again in quick succession.

Every time I try to help her I activate Alexa and mum repeats is back straight afterwards before Alexa had gone back into listening mode. This is a complete nightmare. The thing works almost perfectly but mum suddenly can't actually talk normally anymore it would seem.

On the three or four times she's been attended to by Alexa mum is so slow to put in her request that Alexa has long since given up.

If there ever is a point where she reliably wakes Alexa up then there is another issue. I programmed the device "TV", which can be turned on or off. The first time mum managed to wake up Alexa and issue a command she used "television" instead, which Alexa didn't recognise as a device. I rectified this by creating a device called "Television" that duplicated the device "TV" but mum hasn't got that far ever since.

The parlance used by a smart TV would be totally beyond her I am convinced. This convoluted method I'm using has the advantage of being simple and programmable and works with non-smart TVs. Doesn't work with non-smart mothers though.

One of the only technical things that is not great is that because the Echo Dot is expecting on/off devices the commands are always "Turn xxxxxx ON" or "Turn xxxx OFF" ("Switch" can be used). This is fine for things like "Turn BBC 1" ON" but if for example I want a command to reset the volume to her preferred level then I have to find a logical way of expressing this in the "Turn xxxx ON/OFF" format.

Also, I haven't found a way of inputting the volume level as a number so it can only be set to a specific level by doing volume down 100 times then (in mum's case) volume up 75 times. This takes an age. The trouble is that mum is prone to fiddling about with the remote control, messing things up, then not knowing how to get things back working again. Turning down the volume control is one of her favourites because she is incapable of pressing a button just once. She always presses buttons for at least three seconds. This is why I'm trying to provide her with another means of controlling the TV.

Very, very frustrated,
Chris

[csearle]

...but your description of your mother didn't sound like someone who would have WiFi!

Sorry for my delay in replying. Yes you're right my mother would not normally have wi-fi & broadband but as I come down here so often and spend time doing my paperwork I insisted she invest in it.

Regards,
Chris

[Julian]

I don't know whether you're a programmer and/or how much time you're able to devote to this but I wonder whether Amazon Echo Buttons might help with the issue of getting Alexa into listening mode. Right now they seem to only work with a few games but I see in this article from about 8 weeks ago (https://www.techradar.com/news/amazon-e ... e-lot-more) that Amazon has made the functionality accessible to developers via the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK). What I'm wondering is whether you could have an Echo button (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Echo-Buttons-A ... B072C4KCQH) on the arm of your mother's chair that she could press instead of needing to use the trigger word to wake up Alexa. If you went that route and had the capabilities (programming skills and the ASK offering the facilities that I hope it does) maybe you could set up a skill for a second Echo Button to normalise the TV volume when pressed.

I've no idea whether the functionality is there to do the above, whether the ASK might be difficult/expensive to get hold of, or the many other things that might make the above a non-starter but thought maybe it is worth a few minutes of your time to see if it might lead somewhere.

Alternatively, can an Echo be woken up by pressing one of the buttons on the top? I realise that your mother has issues with remotes so presumably hitting the right button on an Alexa is unlikely but given that an Echo Dot is so cheap (£40 - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01DFKBL68? ... buttons_dp) maybe it might be worth getting a second one and voiding the warranty by opening it up and seeing if you can solder a couple of wires onto the PCB where the activation switch is connected so that you can connect up a nice big external switch to sit on the arm of her chair. I'm guessing those top switches will be PCB-mounted switches but it's usually pretty easy to identify the correct solder pads on the reverse of the PCB. Again, this depends on your level of technical ability although at least on my street in SW London there is still a good old fashioned TV/electronics repair shop (believe it or not!) so if you're not handy with a soldering iron you might be able to take a potentially sacrificial Echo Dot into such a place if you have one near you and see if they could attach the necessary external switch wires for you.

Good luck with the project. I hope you can find a solution of some sort.

- Julian

[genou]

Turns out my mother is almost incapable for saying "Alexa".
Chris

In the Alexa app you have a choice of keywords - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/custom ... =201971890

I see Alexa / Amazon / Echo / Computer

[mc2fool]

In the Alexa app you have a choice of keywords - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/custom ... =201971890

I see Alexa / Amazon / Echo / Computer

Yeah, now if it could only reply in the voice of Majel Barrett

There's been talk of phoneme sampling the 24th century Star Trek series to get her voice into a text-to-speech system (she died in 2008) but AFAIAA that's never happened....

[csearle]

In the Alexa app you have a choice of keywords...

...I see Alexa / Amazon / Echo / Computer

Oh excellent thank you. I've just changed it to Echo because she can say that without a problem.

Actually I've just had to leave the room as she says "Echo" in such a stilted way (but only) when addressing the gadget that it doesn't even recognise that from her. Now she's started saying Alexa vaguely properly to it (I might have to change it back).I could almost throttle her, she is so infuriating.

C.

[johnhemming]

we tried the other wakewords but reverted to Alexa because it works the best.