S Blog: Using Siri For Home Automation. I've created a Twilio, Node.js mash up that allows me to control appliances and the thermostat in my house using the iPhone 4S's Siri voice recognition. Here's a demo of turning on my bedroom fan. How does this work? From Siri to the end result the chain goes: Siri Twilio SMS numberNode web applicationIndigo Web ServerInsteon thermostat/appliance Let's go through the setup in reverse order in more detail.
Insteon and Indigo I purchased the following items last year from Amazon to add some basic home automation to my house. I have a Mac Mini I use as a server which is connected to the PowerLinc Modem via USB. Node.js Web Application The Node.js application is the middle man between Twilio and the Indigo web server. For hosting the Node app I picked Heroku because it's convenient to use and free. Twilio Setting up Twilio was super easy. Siri I can now control my appliances using the following commands: Tell Gladys to set thermostat to 73Tell Gladys to turn off the bedroom fan. S Blog: Using Siri For Home Automation. A verbal command line for the world. I've been playing around with Siri since I got my iPhone 4S, and I've seen various articles painting Siri as the next evolution of UI, while others express disappointment that Siri is not as amazing as Apple seems to think.
Allow me to take a quick step outside of the "startup advice" theme of this site to describe why I think Siri is worth paying attention to. The mighty command line If you ask geeks everywhere, they will extoll to you the virtues of the command line, affectionately known as CLI (Command Line Interface). CLIs are brilliant if you know how to use them. In an environment designed for CLIs, like Unix (or OS X, or even some aspects of old and modern Windows/DOS), where every piece of software can and is driven by a CLI, the command line is incredibly powerful. With it, you can type a simple line of apparently mysterious characters, and get "the computer" to perform tasks with nearly magical efficiency. The easy GUI (pronounced Gooey) Enter Siri Siri is not a GUI. Siri vision. Head To Head: Siri Vs. Google Voice Actions. When you first begin using Siri it’s not entirely clear what you can do with it.
(It’s also not clear how to access it.) Yesterday Danny wrote up some initial thoughts/criticisms of the Siri local search experience. In this piece I’m going to offer some general thoughts comparing Siri (on an iPhone 4S) with Google Voice Actions on my current phone (Android EVO) as well as some head to head examples of queries on both. Siri Leans on Google If you say to Siri, “What can I ask you?” It returns a list of the categories of things it can do. Indeed, Siri is not a Google killer.
What Can You Do with Siri? In less than a handful of days since the first demo phones were distributed there are already hundreds (maybe even thousands) of articles discussing and evaluating Siri’s capabilities. You can do many (but not all) of those same things with Google Voice Actions already. Siri More “Conversational” than Google Voice Actions Siri Has “Personality” Comparing Results Find the closest gas station.
Nuance To Acquire Swype For $100+ Million « Nuance has acquired Seattle-based startup Swype for something more than $100 million, says a source with knowledge of the deal. I’m a big fan of Swype, and this is a brilliant acquisition by Nuance. Swype first launched at a TechCrunch conference in 2008. It’s software for mobile devices, and helps people input text at far faster speeds than through normal methods. It will soon be on over a hundred million devices. Nuance already has T9, a predictive text application first developed in the 90s, and T9 competes directly with Swype. I have no idea how this acquisition affects the existing Nuance T9 product. Sidenote – Swype didn’t win the launch competition at the TechCrunch event. And like UJAM, Swype stole everyone’s hearts. Congratulations to the founders and executives (Mike McSherry, Cliff Kushler, Aaron Sheedy, Loreen Milbrath and Mark Illing), employees and investors (the company has raised just $14 million).
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