The HE forum software just notified me that a link I posted in 2019 (below) is popular. Some of the current interest may be driven by Amazon's recent dropping of their List Api for Alexa skills which caused several popular 3rd party services (ex: ToDoist) to lose voice control. It also highlights a vulnerable dependency many of us have with our HE setups ...vulnerable because Amazon's Alexa cost center is a big, black money pit that has lost some serious money.
The “popular” link is given when a link has been clicked 50 times, no matter how many years it took.
Local voice control of HE devices has been available via Siri for a few years via iPhone and Homebridge or Homekit integration.
Voice control was relying on a number of PI projects which never came to fruition. (Mycroft, Rhaphassy, etc.). Perhaps there is software out there that will enable this functionality.
Nonetheless, if an individual is willing to replace an amazon alexa/google device for a Pi with a speaker, this approach will work as a TTS (text to speech) solution.
To be frank, I could not make this work in my house, because my family wanted all of the advantages that Alexa could bring. Even knowing that there is a tradeoff between functionality and privacy, they decided that they wanted the functionality. Perhaps if Amazon starts charging for basic functionality, the scale will tip again in another direction.
I personally don't like it (due to the loss of privacy), but the cost to build a device with the same functionality as an alexa dot far exceeds the cost of an alexa dot.
The only commercial voice alternative for home automation that I know of is josh.ai. $600/device, $1,200/yr subscription fee. I have no doubt at some point there will be an affordable mainstream alternative. But today is not the day.
I currently use HomePods to do voice commands. I’m looking for something a little more visually aesthetic. I was thinking of something that i could embed into the wall or ceiling like a speaker.
Would also love it if this device did not need internet access to handle the voice control.
You have to really want it. Some thousands $ for the hardware, several hundred $ for annual fees. As of a year ago still needs internet to fully work even as most of the processing is local.
I think for thousands of dollars i will just. Disassemble a home pod and glue the speakers and microphones to a speaker grill and mount it in the wall.
