Brainstorming How to - On call signal

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I am looking for ideas from the community..

Like many I am work from home I have a strip of LEDs on my office door that I can use to indicate "do not disturb" but I have to remember to turn them on and off; and I don't always :slight_smile:
I am looking for ideas on ways to automate this
My thoughts so far:

  1. Calendar integration - but I work for a big corp with pretty locked down MS outlook system but their may be a way

  2. a USB hack that detects when my Mic/speaker is in use

  3. a sound sensor attached to PC speaker

anyone tackled this or have any ideas on how to address this?

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Glad you brought this up, I am going to have to deal with it next month when we go back to school.

I have the same limitation with MS products and my work, I don't want to tie into it, and I am not sure I even could.

Do you close a door, or do something particular to when you are in the office? Is this office used only for work, so you could use a motion sensor? Maybe simple is better, a button you can push? How about something like @april.brandt where she made a phone holder that senses when the phone is placed on it?

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What are you using for a phone? a cell? Or a land line? Is this when you're not to be disturbed?

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@april.brandt Webex, Skype,Microsoft Teams, Zoom all computer Audio if I could cover those thats 95% of my on calls

@neonturbo dedicated Office door closed but I am ok with wife coming in when I am not on a call.. and Yes I can use a button but thats no fun and I forget to turn it on and off :slight_smile:

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Hmm .... I know that you can connect windows to node red.
I know I know ... it's not the ultimate answer for me, but was the first thought.
You could connect it to the activation of your webcam, as it seems that it's common in your recipe of apps. Kind've like my alexa integration with the light sensor. If your webcam has lights on it, you could trigger that to turn on a light.

They drop some hints in this thread, which, thanks @pat.richards you've got me interested now, and just so you know, my Pi is down for the count until parts arrive. Also thank you. I have no patience. Might be able to reverse engineer something.

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This solution was brought up in another thread recently.

It seems cool but limited utility outside an office/call center setting.

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Just a suggestion as he's working from home and not in a call center. As there are a lot of ways to trigger actions from windows. I think it's a possibility. I think that perhaps @ogiewon or @adamkempenich could expand on an idea here. @JasonJoel also.

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I need to check this but I believe the speaker I am using (https://www.jabra.com/business/speakerphones/jabra-speak-series/jabra-speak-710##7710-309) has a ring of leds that always lights up when I am using it in a call ( need to check and verify that if so I could use a light sensor like you did with your old time radio @april.brandt

Windows integration not sure what I could use to trigger because both skype and teams are always running..... so can't trigger on app running....

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What if you used a sound sensor (to monitor whether you’re talking), such as the one in Netatmo PWS. I use it all the time to detect when my teenagers are partying when we’re not around. :wink: