Home Automation has gone mainstream

[Tuicemen]

I've been looking at Alexa's possibilities more now.
And have found there are some hidden, not well documented features (Easter eggs one might say).
There are several sites dedicated to revealing them just Google "Alexa Easter eggs"
Since Alexa can hear  and understand a PC speaking to it, it is possible for Alexa to do announcements on another Amazon echo, dot or tap in another room.
Since I have only one, the announcement gets made only on the Dot that receives the command.
The trick here is the Simon says feature.
Have your PC say " Alexa, Simon says Your Announcement"
Your Announcement" will be spoken back on all Amazon Alexa enabled devices.

[HA Dave]

..... it is possible for Alexa to do announcements on another Amazon echo, dot or tap in another room.
Since I have only one, the announcement gets made only on the Dot that receives the command....

I was thinking I had read somewhere that the dot has a jack.... so another speaker system could grab audio from just a single DOT device. So with a few minutes (X10 minutes) of feeding wires and installing speakers you can have a whole house audio from even just one DOT.

[racerfern]

https://www.amazon.com/TaoTronics-Bluetooth-Transmitter-Connected-Transmission/dp/B00P24XKS8/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1482014117&sr=8-3&keywords=3.5mm+wireless+transmitter

https://www.amazon.com/Mpow-Bluetooth-Receiver-Streambot-Hands-free/dp/B008AGQMQC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1482014223&sr=8-1&keywords=3.5mm+bluetooth+receiver

Only takes one X10 minute.

[Tuicemen]

..... it is possible for Alexa to do announcements on another Amazon echo, dot or tap in another room.
Since I have only one, the announcement gets made only on the Dot that receives the command....

I was thinking I had read somewhere that the dot has a jack.... so another speaker system could grab audio from just a single DOT device. So with a few minutes (X10 minutes) of feeding wires and installing speakers you can have a whole house audio from even just one DOT.

Yep you could do that but they only work as speakers not a mic same with the Bluetooth route I believe.
The speakers in the Dot are actually very good for such a small device.

[racerfern]

The receiver plugs into a 3.5mm jack on the front of your home theater receiver, hence Alexa out of many speakers. At least that's how I read it.

[HA Dave]

I really think we're getting back to a place where the use of Home Automation will be limited... only by our imaginations. Lot of potential projects.

[dhouston]

I'm not sure what to make of this but the ESP32 Hardware Design Guidelines available at...
http://espressif.com/en/products/hardware/esp32/resources
has this at the last page...

5.2 ESP32-Lyra Smart Audio Platform
ESP32-Lyra is a cost-effective smart audio platform, which is specifically designed by Espressif for the IoT industry. With its ESP32 dual-core processor and Wi-Fi + BT capability, ESP32-Lyra features voice recognition, audio playing, and access to cloud services. The ESP32-Lyra platform supports systems of artificial intelligence, voice and image recognition, wireless audio systems, as well as smart home networks.
The ESP32-Lyra Smart Audio Platform has the following features:
• Support for multiple audio interfaces with high extensibility
• Support for touch buttons
• Support for multiple audio formats including WMA, ALAC, AAC, FLAC, OPUS, MP3, WAV, and OGG
• Support for multiple wireless audio standards including DLNA, AirPlay and QPlay
• Support for multiple cloud platforms including Ximalaya FM, YunOS and Amazon
• Support for multiple distribution network protocols including ESP-TOUCH, ALINK, JoyLink3.0 and AirKiss

I've been unable to find any additional documentation but it appears that the $7 ESP32 chip has built-in speech capabilities. What other hardware, if any, is needed is unclear at this time.

[HA Dave]

Yep you could do that but they only work as speakers not a mic same with the Bluetooth route I believe.
The speakers in the Dot are actually very good for such a small device.

You could/can add the voice remote.. I think .... to wirelessly connect to the DOT.

[Tuicemen]

Not sure if that would work but maybe.
I definitely wouldn't get it to work here as My wife would shoot me If I got one more remote! 

[racerfern]

I have one. I can be in another room with the remote and activate my new Fire Stick but not Alexa. You just bark commands at it, without even saying "Alexa". Play music, watch Netflix, etc. At least for now.

[dhouston]

Here's an in-depth article on the current state of voice recognition.
http://www.denverpost.com/2016/12/18/google-microsoft-amazon-voice-technology/

[HA Dave]

Here's an in-depth article on the current state of voice recognition.
http://www.denverpost.com/2016/12/18/google-microsoft-amazon-voice-technology/

Yep. The product has improved a lot over the last few years. But more-so..... I think users learn how to talk to the machine. Learning how to talk to a machine.... might compare well to learning how to speak to a dog. It isn't hard to learn or hard to do. But it is slightly different than talking to a person.

[dhouston]

So, instead of you training Alexa/Siri/Cortana, it's Alexa/Siri/Cortana that's training you?     

[bkenobi]

But it's all a lie!  I saw a commercial where someone asked the google version "what's the magic word?" and it responded "the magic word is please".  I tried the exact same thing and she gave me some gibberish about the meaning of "magic word".   

[HA Dave]

But it's all a lie!  I saw a commercial where someone asked the google version "what's the magic word?" and it responded "the magic word is please".  I tried the exact same thing and she gave me some gibberish about the meaning of "magic word".   

No almost all of them are really great! Only YOURS... is a lair.