I thought I could ask the community brain for a brainstorm to come up with useful ideas to do with HE as my wife will slowly lose her central vision (in the coming year(s)).
I am trying to automate as much as possible, and where necessary using the great Google Home Community app to interact with HE using a Google mini
We have door/window sensors . We can ask whether a door is open/closed, get a notification on our Google mini when the front door is left open, and use them as part of our alarm system (with siren).
Lights can be switched on and of by voice, and some are motion activated.
The temperature in the living room and bedrooms can be set and queried using the Google mini (GHC) (custom melcloud integration)
The local temperature outside is available via a local weather API and custom driver as well.
We have Tiles to locate keys etc (not integrated).
So far it is unclear whether locks will pose a problem (as touch and peripheral vision will be ok). If not, I'll add lock control.
I use modes to switch lights, temperature, and set the alarm.
I am pretty happy so far, but perhaps there are options I am not thinking about.
I am very grateful for the great work @mbudnek does wrt GHC! And with HE and the community in general
I'm thinking maybe some TTS functionality that is not cloud-dependent... would hate to have the whole thing stop working because of an internet outage.
Many years ago I worked for an organization that provided services for people losing their vision. We had an adaptive technology service that helped match people with technology solutions. I'm wondering if there's an organization in your area that provides a similar service. They may have some great ideas that can be implemented with HE or otherwise.
I have a button I press at my bedside which turns on the bed side table light and the bathrrom light run by Hubitat. I also have a Google routine called "I need to pee" which does the same thing.
There is an opensource effort called Mycroft which is working on smart speaker functionality running on Raspberry Pi. I haven't bother to investigate it though. It does work with the open source Home Assistant which still is not, or so I hear, quite ready for general use.
I did setup the Yale YRD-216 lock which uses buttons for each digit rather than the touich control screen which most smart locks appear to use. I"m quite happy with it. When I attempt to insert my mail box key I look like a drunken idiot it takes me so long. Even though it is, literally, six inches from my nose. There is just too much glare for me to see things well.
I was attempting to get the Securifi Key Fob working but never could get it working. I really need to get back to that. Then I can just reach into my pocket and press the button to have the hub unlock the deadbolt. Because the fob is Zigbee it is secure.
I have several 8 digit easy to use number combinations setup on my lock in case I'm unable to reach the door to let the ambulance or fire folks in the door. These codes are not as abvious as 12345678 but are somewhat similar but not guessable. I have registered one of those codes with the local Fire Department.
If you do this don't forget to adding "pressing the checkmark on the keypad" to your instructions. This is the one irritating problem with the Yale smart lock. I see no reason for this extra key press.
As a general safety thing, nothing to do with visual impairment, you can get smoke alarms which are zwave enabled. First Alert is one. One women on Amazon ssid that she got a alert and phoned her local fire department. But the time she got home from work they had powerful fans clearing out the smoke and the now thorougly soaked previously smoldering object was on her lawn.
As an alternative I use a Homelink receiver and an Ecolink zwave contact switch. The Ecolink has dry contacts. I connect one channel of the Homelink receiver to the ecolink. The receiver came with a two-button fob. You still have to press the key but it works GREAT. It also works from the Homelink transmitter in my car. Obviously that's less critical to someone with a visual impairment but it is handy for others.
You could use one of the zooz dry contact sensors instead of the Ecolink, especially since they are multichannel. I had the Ecolink on hand so it was simpler just to grab that.
Thanks a heap for you detailed response! Where we previously were rather hesitant to bring smart speakers (google) into the house, we decided now to embrace them. I don't mind having that part running on cloud (as it is not essential and fortunately our internet is very stable).
I did have a cursory look at smart locks. Fortunately, locks are not yet a problem (but progression is rather fast though unpredictable). Good to know there are options with physical buttons. A security fob sounds very interesting indeed.
We still have to adjust our kitchen. We're cooking on natural gas, but will have to switch to an electric stove. Our smoke and heat detectors are connected to eachother , but unfortunately not zwave/zigbee.
There are smoke detector listeners that can bring the smoke detectors into Hubitat. Ecolink Firefighter, the Zwave version, works with Hubitat. You can set up rules that when the smoke detector goes off, it does things like unlocks locks or turns on lights.
I would think an induction cooktop would be ideal. It won't work unless it detects the metal of a pan. Even if you leave it on, it can't get hot if there is no metal.
I have a standard coil type electric range with traditional dials. For which I am grateful. I have the black stick on thingies at appropriate places. In particular on the stove and 350 and 450.
Did I mention I found a voice controlled microwave by GE on Amazon. It is not officially available in Canada but is supported, although somewhat poorly, by Google. It is not supported by Alexa outside of the USA. Which I find particularly annoying.
TTS and notifications we’ll help a lot.
For instance apart of the being notified by contact sensors about doors being closed:l/open I use notifications for smart plugs to let me know when the wireless is on/off . Other people are monitoring the smart plugs to let them know when the washing and drying is complete and so on.
While most of this info can be more or less important has also the advantage of making you to feel that you are in control and sometimes can help to detect some malfunctions ( rules or hardware l)
