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[HA Dave]

https://blueprints.amazon.com/bp/amzn.ask.bp.9ed9e4f7-b8bb-4cd5-b1db-57c5aa3e1092?ref_=ask_bp_featured_0

https://blueprints.amazon.com/?ref_=pe_3214500_280830650_e_cta

[Tuicemen]

I read about this else where and on the surface looks promising.
However currently it is of no use for HA and appears only useful  for creating simple games and knowledge bases.

[HA Dave]

I read about this else where and on the surface looks promising.
However currently it is of no use for HA and appears only useful  for creating simple games and knowledge bases.

Automation.... home or otherwise... has always tended to lean on mechanizing repetitious actions..... like using a motion sensor to turn lights on and/or off. But monitoring rarely used actions like glass breakage or water sensors has long been old HA standards as well.

I use Alexa... and it's AI features a lot as part of my HA now-a-days. Timers, reminders, calendar, questions answers, my mentally calculated math [verbally] checked.... and so forth. I think there may be automation skills yet to be created... or even thought of. And they may not have anything to do with lighting.

   

[HA Dave]

Custom responses using "Blueprints"

https://interestingengineering.com/amazon-now-lets-you-customize-your-alexa-commands-and-responses

[Tuicemen]

. I think there may be automation skills yet to be created... or even thought of. And they may not have anything to do with lighting.
 

There are loads of them already which don't control lighting or light control is a fraction of their ability.

The custom responses is a nice feature of the Blueprints and the one thing that makes this attractive.
However until more blueprints are added they aren't useful to me.
I will be keeping an eye on their development as the possibility of a useful Blueprint being produced is there.

[HA Dave]

I think we need a way to brain-storm these new abilities. I just can't believe there isn't anything there that can't exploited.

I remember the story of Xerox.... (the photocopier was) invented 20 years before it was ever marketed. And even though on day-one in-house engineers saw a potential to exploit the phone lines for remote printing.... management saw no market for... fax machines.

I don't see a potential for blueprints to replace anything we currently do. I am looking for a way to do something.... we've never thought of doing.

[Knightrider]

I think fax machines were invented for the military at the University of Cincinnati. Used radio before phone and took a day to send a page.

[Knightrider]

Strike that. Was just a story they told incoming freshmen at UC. Looks like the fax machine goes back to Scotland in the 1840s.

[HA Dave]

I think fax machines were invented for the military........

No... the military used what was called radio teletype. But they did use a print-out similar in poor quality (dot matrix) to early thermal fax machines. But it was very high-tech... and the security was so good it's still classified. ........ It was nothing even near photocopy technology.

Fax machines are merely (cheap crappy) photocopy machines separated by phone lines. But the concern of marketing a copier that could be used over distances was that companies would centralize (continue to centralize) print operations in the print shop. Whereas copiers would be placed (several of them) in various offices and departments throughout the company.

AND.... that is really the topic I'd hoped for. The human paradigm is what often stalls or inhibits progress. IMHO... every new gadget (particularly electronic, computer, internet.... or AI) is a potential boon to Home Automation. Heck.... the best advances to HA could have been introduced months ago. But the way humans naturally organize thoughts prohibits us from seeing the new potential and possibilities.... in many cases. I just believe if we force ourselves to think out of the box and actively look for new ideas..... we will find them.

P.S. I worked in a message center and was a radio/radio-teletype operator (even ran one on a 577 on occasion. Very high tech stuff half a century ago.

[Knightrider]

They had a WWII era prototype in the entrance to one of the engineering campus''s buildings. Sent pics (maps) on thermal paper. Was always told it was the first fax machine, and never questioned it.

[HA Dave]

They had a WWII era prototype in the entrance to one of the engineering campus''s buildings. Sent pics (maps) on thermal paper. Was always told it was the first fax machine, and never questioned it.

FAX,  1940s: abbreviation of facsimile.

The origin of the word:  1940s: abbreviation of facsimile. would imply it predated "practical" photocopies.... however the photocopy noun is just as old. I would assume the current use of the words... differ somewhat from the use intended by the creators. Just like technical/trade terminology often differ from the common use of the terms.

Just like the first browser... allowed for the use of The Hypertext Transfer Protocol. But that was about all it had in common with todays browser. So where I had a browser in the early 90's.... there weren't no naked pictures on the web then. (Which is probability why they didn't just email pictures of those maps back in WW2.  )