Four young scientists, accompanied by Eskom Expo’s Business Manager, Mmamoloko Rancia Riba, won their place to represent the country at the Indonesia competition, renowned…
Voice controlled home automation devices, our three favs
Hey device…!! Who left me a message last Thursday about the tech summit?
Device response: [Pause, loading, calculating possible response, provide feedback] Answer, it was Joe, Marcus.
That is exactly where we are when considering how far voice-controlled home automation systems have come.
Future of AI assistants
A “jailbroken” Google Nest Mini running custom LLM’s & voice models by Justin Alvey
This demo is insane, a matter of time before these are shipped like this as standard.
Link in next tweet
— Linus (●ᴗ●) (@LinusEkenstam) August 17, 2023
The reason
The idea for home automation is largely imposed and driven by the need for efficiency. Voice recognition not only uses today’s AI but continues to grow Large Language Models when considering the amount of data obtained and processed data.
Three favorites
To state that some devices are our favorites simply means right now. It does not negate other compelling devices on the market, with possibly better features including competitive pricing.
Google Nest series
Google Nest mini voice assistant
The security system and voice assistant devices are compatible with both iOS and Android and come up top of mind when considering which voice home automated voice recognition device could make life a little easier.
When factoring in pricing or the cost, the Google Nest mini voice assistant is priced to accommodate users who could also get more than one.
The Nest mini features:
- Voice control for managing tasks, setting reminders, and getting answers to questions.
- Compatibility with a wide range of smart home devices, including lights, thermostats, cameras, and more.
- Visual display for showing information, calendars, and video feeds.
- Integration with Google services like Google Photos and YouTube.
Amazon Alexa
This system is not only named perfectly with an easily pronounced name for any country, but the Alexa system can also control smart home devices via received voice commands.
Imagine commanding the playlist or movie genre. Home automation is the desired goal and Alexa, a virtual assistant technology based on a Polish synthesizer, was introduced in 2013 and launched around 2014.
It has come a long way and it’s slowly becoming a household name in some countries but slightly battling in the country. Pricing is competitive and accessible and we wonder if this almost housemate could improve the phrase I hope you’re having a good day, to Ekse Vandag was some kind of crazy, welcome home sir. Alas, we digress…the mind does wonders.
Features include:
- Voice-activated control for various tasks, such as setting timers, creating shopping lists, and answering questions.
- Integration with various smart home devices, allowing you to control lights, thermostats, locks, and more.
- Skills and routines that enable personalized automation and interactions.
- Music streaming, weather updates, and news briefings.
- Voice profiles for recognizing individual users’ voices.
The HomePod (Siri)
The home pod from Apple is also on the list of thumbed-up devices from our camp.
The high-quality smart speaker with Siri integration has voice control, can send messages, set alarms and make phone calls.
It also comes with:
- Seamless integration with Apple devices and services, allowing control of HomeKit-compatible devices.
- High-fidelity audio playback with spatial awareness for room-filling sound.
- Privacy-focused approach with on-device processing for voice recognition.
Convenience, hands-free operation, accessibility, and entertainment control are all reasons why we personally approve voice-controlled devices even when grandma says they’re listening in on our conversation.
Also read: Now you can send HD photos on WhatsApp
