alanchow Posted March 24, 2012 Author Share Posted March 24, 2012 Yeah that's project cortana.We have set a RRP of $300.00au inc gst for the driver. Note that this price is a guideline and does not include installation. install pricing is upto your dealer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
urbanmark Posted March 24, 2012 Share Posted March 24, 2012 This is cool. Nice work Alan... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanchow Posted March 25, 2012 Author Share Posted March 25, 2012 as pe request i have implemented the followingDATE{} - This provides the current date in DD MM YYYY format DAY{} - This provides the current day of the weekTIME{} - This provides the current time in HH MM AM/PM format Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wappinghigh Posted March 25, 2012 Share Posted March 25, 2012 Alan, I think this driver is awesome. I have discussed this with my family of women. The technology "testers" in my family. If it won't past the female acceptance factor at my place it's dead in the water at my joint.The key issue here is how do you stop these sort of announcements from becoming annoying?Other than making the voice more realistic, is there any way to stop/modify/change things in the driver, or set something in programming to prevent "the annoying factor" that may invariably develop..Please. Don't take this as a criticism. The whole concept is fantastic. But it would be a factor, would it not? I know from using various other voice type announcement products (there is one that announces a fire evacuation at work) that they can soon be ignored...even despised. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wappinghigh Posted March 25, 2012 Share Posted March 25, 2012 Maybe everyone can come up with a list of situations where announcements could be useful (without becoming irritating)...I'll try and make a start. I'd put most of them in the "in an emergency" categoryeg "evacuate to the rear doors" (during a fire)or "someone has opened the side gate" (after the perimeter setting in an alarm has been armed. then "breached")or "your main controller is about to switch off: (just prior to the UPS running out of juice)or "you've left the garage door open" (say at 1045pm..before you go to bed)Anyone else have some suggestions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanchow Posted March 25, 2012 Author Share Posted March 25, 2012 Hi Alex,I think the secret to not making it annoying is by utilising it for dynamic information on demand. For example at our office people are starting to get annoyed that it says welcome <name> everytime someone enters the building so although this was cool for the first week or so repetitive unnecessary announcements can get annoying.FYI The examples you have given you can already do without my TTS driver with the ATT labs service or with any other service. The power for this driver in my opinion lies in the information.My plan is to have it inform me of what the weather is like and what new emails i have in the morning. For the moment my own house has power usage, time and dynamic announcements integrated using this TTS driver. For example i can email my house with "ANNOUNCEMENT i'm coming home late tonight" and it will translate the text to speech play it on all of my zones in my home and display it on my inwall touchscreen.Alot of this technology is dependant on other drivers (some developed, some in developed, some still conceptual) but the possibilities are quite endless with what you can do. I hope this gives you a few ideas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wappinghigh Posted March 25, 2012 Share Posted March 25, 2012 Ok. I get it. Restrict the boring repetitive announcements to boring (infrequent) events like the fire alarm one. Then use the dynamic announcements for events with "variability" So the Dynamic announcements:By this you mean it can pick up a variable like "time" or "outside temp" or "current power usage" and speak them...So you could even add further variables in programming like: if (power usages is > 3KW) then announce "turn off some lights"or if (Solar input is > power usage) then announce "house is now running on pure solar power"or if (outside temp > 35 degrees C) then announce "time to switch on the aircon"Things like thatRight?Wow...This is way cool... :cool: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wappinghigh Posted March 25, 2012 Share Posted March 25, 2012 You know Alan, you have really hit a jackpot with this... Because in the logic I have used above, (for example) it brings the "human" (ie the home user) back into the process to give them the option of whether or not to act upon the variable or logic..... It gives the user the option to turn on the aircon, or switch off the lightsWay to much of this home automation logic falls apart because it leaves the end user *out* of the process...and invariably the computer get's it wrong... eg it turns off the lights when you didn't really want them to go off.....that sort of thing...I'm used to this sort of "computer getting it wrong stuff and acting inappropriately"... and the end user having to intervene.... all the time in my daily work..I hope you have a patent on this stuff Alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanchow Posted March 25, 2012 Author Share Posted March 25, 2012 Yes that is correct Alex. Here are some examples from my projectThe current date and time is DAY{} DATE{} at TIME{}The current power usage is PARAM{23, 1006} watts.As mentioned its really upto you. Everything you wanted to announce before can now be done as its all dynamic. None of these pre-generated wav files. None of this 10 meg announcement limits. Its all on demand now.At the moment i don't have a ness m1 system but will do so later on this year. my plans is to have it tell me what happened at my house whilst i was away from home (non critical things that is).for example.Welcome home <name>, whilst you were away your doorbell was pressed at <x> time, you have <x> amount of messages on your answering machine.Its all part of my iron man project:) The idea is that alot of my drivers, many of which are or will be serice related will interact together. Hell we all want tony stark's house:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wappinghigh Posted March 25, 2012 Share Posted March 25, 2012 Hi Alan. Can you please instal this driver for me on my project tomorrow? I'm home all day, so I can test it out. I'll use the analog audio out (no1) from the HC300 in the family room. I now have a dedicated amp I can connect it up too..I want to have some fun CheersAlex Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanchow Posted March 25, 2012 Author Share Posted March 25, 2012 I'll give you a buzz tommorow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyanE Posted March 25, 2012 Share Posted March 25, 2012 I'd buy it myself, if it had the voice of the computer from Portal.RyanE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wappinghigh Posted March 26, 2012 Share Posted March 26, 2012 This driver is great. I have it up and running. It's simple to instal, and very easy for a novice unfamiliar to composer HE to use.In fact it's a great way to get a handle on how ComposerHE worksSo far I have it announcing some simple things like the status of the B&D door lock and the day date and time from an SR250 button press...It certainly add's in a geek factor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanchow Posted March 26, 2012 Author Share Posted March 26, 2012 Glad you like it Alex:) You can do some really advanced stuff with it once you get the hang of it. Then again i am biased as i wrote it:P. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wappinghigh Posted March 27, 2012 Share Posted March 27, 2012 I'm already copping heaps of flack on this little HA add on...Comments like "Dad has really geeked out this time" and lots of eye rolling...So yeh...anything to reduce the annoyance factor will be good. A more natural speaking voice choice would be a start. But this driver is heaps of fun. It would be great for the sight impaired. I'm just not sure I need reminding every day what a nerd I really am!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanchow Posted March 27, 2012 Author Share Posted March 27, 2012 Yeah its really a solution waiting for a problem. Either that or a new geeky toy. Glad you're having fun though. I don't think natural speaking voices will really help that much. Its just the nature of the technology. Maybe one day when we can have conversations with computers then it'll be ok. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecodeman Posted March 27, 2012 Share Posted March 27, 2012 Maybe my announcements shouldn't sound like HAL-9000. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
me23 Posted March 27, 2012 Share Posted March 27, 2012 Yeah that's project cortana.We have set a RRP of $300.00au inc gst for the driver. Note that this price is a guideline and does not include installation. install pricing is upto your dealer. Nice Halo reference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tumult Posted March 27, 2012 Share Posted March 27, 2012 driver sounds great! just mentioned this to my wife and she said what would be perfect for her is if the driver could parse her google calendar, and if she had an appointment it could make an announcement. maybe this functionality already exists?tum Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanchow Posted March 27, 2012 Author Share Posted March 27, 2012 The text to speech driver doesn't do that. It is designed to work with other drivers to announce what data it has. For example my energy meter at home is connected to my control4 system with a driver I created. This driver has a variable for current power usage. Using this tts driver I Utilise that variable in the announcement. I hope this makes sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannyboy Posted March 27, 2012 Share Posted March 27, 2012 Alan,I didn't think the energy service providers had turned the zig bee radios on inside the smart meters yet... I assume you have a third party solution, can you please explain more.... Even if you want to start a new thread, I'll delete my message here to keep ths thread clean and on track Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanchow Posted March 27, 2012 Author Share Posted March 27, 2012 Hi Danny,The zigbee power meters run on a different zigbee then the zigbee we are all used to. Basically there are two zigbee profiles Zigbee HA and Zigbee SE. In order to connect to your power meter you will need a Zigbee SE radio which Control4's residential lineup of products do not have.So to sum it up. No i have not integrated a zigbee power meter at my home i have utilised a 3rd party solution. At this stage i am not going to talk it any futher as the solution is not ready yet. Hope that helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wappinghigh Posted March 27, 2012 Share Posted March 27, 2012 Alan you should give serious thought about packaging up this driver with an HC800 and SR250, for use for the visually impaired. Im serious Alan. This combo would be a bargain. and be incredibly beneficial for the blind. The sky is the limit here in combo with your other drivers (like the finger scanner/security/email/motion detector integration etc)I mean a handicapped person could put their finger on the print scanner and then be directed into their house, then around the house with some smart software programming...They could pick up an sr250 and every key could trigger an individual audio message. Time/emails and feedback of what was going on with their property and what they were doing...Awesome stuff Alan. I think you deserve an award for helping the handicapped. Someone from recluse should nominate you. There must be *some* award out their you can achieve for this (in addition to a financial one)Maybe Control4 could give you one. It would be great publicity and PR for the company.Imagine this press release. "Australia dealer designs a Control4 based smart home for the visually impaired". This would be a fantastic PR boost for the companyCongrats Alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanchow Posted March 27, 2012 Author Share Posted March 27, 2012 Thanks for the compliments Alex. This would work perfectly for the blind. Having said that though there is alot of work to be done to provide the additional services that they require which means that i will need to complete work on my other drivers (have been a bit slack a few projects) and start up some new ones.I've got a few good ideas that i want to implement over the coming months. Don't want to give too much away at this stage until i get something working. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannyboy Posted March 27, 2012 Share Posted March 27, 2012 Hi Danny,The zigbee power meters run on a different zigbee then the zigbee we are all used to. Basically there are two zigbee profiles Zigbee HA and Zigbee SE. In order to connect to your power meter you will need a Zigbee SE radio which Control4's residential lineup of products do not have.So to sum it up. No i have not integrated a zigbee power meter at my home i have utilised a 3rd party solution. At this stage i am not going to talk it any futher as the solution is not ready yet. Hope that helps.Look forward to learning more when you are ready... Tar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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