Echo and Insteon ISY Devices?

[stusviews]

Update: http://forum.universal-devices.com/topic/17082-interface-with-amazon-echo/ See message #5

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi guys,

 

We are checking into various names. Some have lower chances of success. I.S.Y is understood very well. I am not sure about Izzy. Please note that it should not be related to either ISY or Izzy. Any others please?

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[ScottAvery]

Is the problem with "Izzy" that Echo won't understand, or that it won't be available?

 

I have offered Bob, and would add to that George (love him, and pet him, and squeeze him), or Isabel, or maybe (maybe) "Icey", but Izzy just feels right.

 

Come on, it's snazzy!  It feels like the geeky ISY will be coming out as a debutante at the cotillion by just taking off her eyeglasses!  A whole new persona for the great, open consumer market.  Siri and Alexa are all talk; Izzy gets it done.

[ScottAvery]

"Gets it done" being just a little safer than "goes all the way"

[randyth]

It would be interesting to get a poll going of possible names.

[Jimbo.Automates]

I know you said it shouldn't be related to ISY or Izzy, but I was thinking "Missy" for "My ISY"  The #2 and 3 definitions fit well?  http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Missy

[stusviews]

As posted in a different message, Yoo-Dee-Aye

[isyrocks!]

"The House" as opposed to I.S.Y.

[philtor]

I would like to use Iron Man's "Jarvis" (Just A Rather Very Intelligent System).

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[bmercier]

Hello, 

 

Just a quick update on Alexa skill certification;

 

Amazon returned to us last week with certification results. There were some items that needed to be changed which are now completed. It has been resubmitted for a second round.

 

We took the opportunity to change the invocation name for the skill. Based on feedback and discussions, the invocation name has been changed to "Home", instead of "I.S.Y."

 

Therefore, you will be able to talk to Alexa like this:

Alexa, tell home to turn on hallway to 50%

Alexa, tell home to lock front door

Alexa, ask home for the temperature of second floor thermostat

 

It will be more natural to say things like: "Alexa, tell home to switch ISY to <ISY name>", for those with multiple ISYs registered on UDI portal.

 

Note that in cases like above, based on your feedback, ISY can be pronounced I.S.Y or Izzy. Both are now accepted.

 

Thanks,

 

Benoit.

[jerlands]

Amazon returned to us last week with certification results. There were some items that needed to be changed which are now completed. It has been resubmitted for a second round.

 

Great news!  Crowning glory on this integration will be when Alexa can notify me when my wife's arriving home

 

Thanks for the update!

 

 

Jon...

[ahwman]

Hello, 

 

Just a quick update on Alexa skill certification;

 

Amazon returned to us last week with certification results. There were some items that needed to be changed which are now completed. It has been resubmitted for a second round.

 

We took the opportunity to change the invocation name for the skill. Based on feedback and discussions, the invocation name has been changed to "Home", instead of "I.S.Y."

 

Therefore, you will be able to talk to Alexa like this:

Alexa, tell home to turn on hallway to 50%

Alexa, tell home to lock front door

Alexa, ask home for the temperature of second floor thermostat

 

It will be more natural to say things like: "Alexa, tell home to switch ISY to <ISY name>", for those with multiple ISYs registered on UDI portal.

 

Note that in cases like above, based on your feedback, ISY can be pronounced I.S.Y or Izzy. Both are now accepted.

 

Thanks,

 

Benoit.

Thanks for the update. That said, any idea how multiple Echo's will be handled? I'd like to place one in my family room and one in my master bedroom. I'm assuming that both will operate independent of each other without any awareness of the other. If this is the case, is there potential of both picking up the same command and causing issues?

 

Thanks again for the info,

Chuck

[randyth]

That's great news, and I like the skill name very much.  However, I thought skill names had to be more than one syllable.  I hope Amazon has changed this requirement because, as I said, I think "home" is a great skill name for this purpose.  If Amazon does ask you to choose a new name with more syllables, I suggest you change it to "my home" or "my house."

 

-Randy

[ahwman]

It's unfortunate for us MobiLinc Connect users since the Echo will require the ISY portal, forcing us to abandon MobiLinc Connect and therefor lose push notifications - which is an important component of my overal system...

[bmercier]

Thanks for the update. That said, any idea how multiple Echo's will be handled? I'd like to place one in my family room and one in my master bedroom. I'm assuming that both will operate independent of each other without any awareness of the other. If this is the case, is there potential of both picking up the same command and causing issues?

 

Thanks again for the info,

Chuck

 

That should work well. From the Amazon perspective, it's two different devices, unaware of each other. They can be both configured to talk to the same ISY using the same portal account. It's similar to having 2 browsers connected to the same ISY.

 

Benoit.

[bmercier]

That's great news, and I like the skill name very much.  However, I thought skill names had to be more than one syllable.  I hope Amazon has changed this requirement because, as I said, I think "home" is a great skill name for this purpose.  If Amazon does ask you to choose a new name with more syllables, I suggest you change it to "my home" or "my house."

 

-Randy

 

Hello Randy,

 

Testing shows that "home" is accepted and speech recognition worked well with it.

 

However, if the certification team tells us for some reason that we have to choose something else, the fallback plan is to use "My home".

 

Benoit.

[Scottmichaelj]

It's unfortunate for us MobiLinc Connect users since the Echo will require the ISY portal, forcing us to abandon MobiLinc Connect and therefor lose push notifications - which is an important component of my overal system...

As a possible work around you could use Pushover for notifications. Also when IFTTT is released you will be able to use that as well both direct from the ISY.

[ahwman]

As a possible work around you could use Pushover for notifications. Also when IFTTT is released you will be able to use that as well both direct from the ISY.

I previously used Prowl for push notifications, however once in a while the Prowl push server would go down, so I lost a little confidence and decided to migrate to MobiLinc Connect. I'm not farmilar with IFTTT, can you give me a brief understanding of how it works and if this will be integrated in the ISY portal or is it something else?

 

Thanks so much,

Chuck

[Scottmichaelj]

I previously used Prowl for push notifications, however once in a while the Prowl push server would go down, so I lost a little confidence and decided to migrate to MobiLinc Connect. I'm not farmilar with IFTTT, can you give me a brief understanding of how it works and if this will be integrated in the ISY portal or is it something else?

 

Thanks so much,

Chuck

The best advise is to check out the IFTTT website for full details. Michel hasnt released details how its going to be integrated specifically in the portal but that it its on the roadmap after Amazon Echo.

 

I feel you on Prowl and I have seen the same for PushBullet but Pushover has been stable for me and was is the fastest of the three for me. I guess it all depends on how high of importance the notification is but my personal opinion is if its very important you shouldnt rely on them at all. Pushover is cheap. Give it a try, you dont have much to lose the app is only a few bucks. Then use it side by side with what you use now and see how it works. Let us know if you do and how it goes as I am sure other will be interested if they move over too.

[MustangChris04]

I've been gone for a while and I come back to see this exciting news. I can't wait until it is available!

 

Michael, 

 

In regards to the Portal, I have no issues paying for this as it is a nominal fee for such a great convenience, but why is this required? Does this mean that Echo is making the calls to the ISY over the internet through the portal? If so, what is the latency like for this? I'm always adverse to adding services like this, which is why I never purchased Mobilinc Connect. 

I'm using the Echo bridge with the emulator, and it is communicating locally to the ISY without requiring an internet connection, although the echo uses the internet to process the voice commands. The devices respond before the echo can even say "OK". 

 

Thanks!

[ahwman]

The best advise is to check out the IFTTT website for full details. Michel hasnt released details how its going to be integrated specifically in the portal but that it its on the roadmap after Amazon Echo.

I feel you on Prowl and I have seen the same for PushBullet but Pushover has been stable for me and was is the fastest of the three for me. I guess it all depends on how high of importance the notification is but my personal opinion is if its very important you shouldnt rely on them at all. Pushover is cheap. Give it a try, you dont have much to lose the app is only a few bucks. Then use it side by side with what you use now and see how it works. Let us know if you do and how it goes as I am sure other will be interested if they move over too.

I played around with the IFTTT iOS app today and though it's interesting, I fail to see the benefit of it when it comes to the ISY as we already have this ability thought ISY logic. Obviously, I'm missing something?

[MustangChris04]

I played around with the IFTTT iOS app today and though it's interesting, I fail to see the benefit of it when it comes to the ISY as we already have this ability thought ISY logic. Obviously, I'm missing something?

IFTTT has hundreds of other providers that they support. Yes, this functionality is built in the ISY, but it doesn't extend beyond that. For example with IFTTT, you could create an recipe to turn on a light when you receive a certain email, or flash your lights when ESPN has your favorite sports team playing, or know when you are out of town (based on your calendar) and set your home to away, or have your HVAC and lights turn on when you get near home, etc. 

[ahwman]

IFTTT has hundreds of other providers that they support. Yes, this functionality is built in the ISY, but it doesn't extend beyond that. For example with IFTTT, you could create an recipe to turn on a light when you receive a certain email, or flash your lights when ESPN has your favorite sports team playing, or know when you are out of town (based on your calendar) and set your home to away.

 

Wow, that's crazy - a whole other world. Thanks for the explanation. That said, does this poentialy expose us in terms of security from the standpoint that our ISY would be accessible to a third party?

[MustangChris04]

Wow, that's crazy - a whole other world. Thanks for the explanation. That said, does this poentialy expose us in terms of security from the standpoint that our ISY would be accessible to a third party?

 

I would say so, now that you have another party involved that has access to control the ISY. But the question is, how much are we really exposed and what type of security is in place? This was why I was asking Michael in my earlier post about the Portal. I don't use IFTTT (because of the 15 minute delay on the recipes), but for the Echo, I'd like commands to remain on my local network so nobody outside could gain access. 

 

I have a Nest thermostat, which is connected to the internet through their own portal.  If my account was compromised or Nest was hacked and somebody gained access to the thermostat they could turn my heat on when it is 90 degrees in Florida and cause some serious issues. It is all about mitigating risk and asking yourself how much are you willing to expose. 

[ahwman]

I would say so, now that you have another party involved that has access to control the ISY. But the question is, how much are we really exposed and what type of security is in place? This was why I was asking Michael in my earlier post about the Portal. I don't use IFTTT (because of the 15 minute delay on the recipes), but for the Echo, I'd like commands to remain on my local network so nobody outside could gain access. 

 

I have a Nest thermostat, which is connected to the internet through their own portal.  If my account was compromised or Nest was hacked and somebody gained access to the thermostat they could turn my heat on when it is 90 degrees in Florida and cause some serious issues. It is all about mitigating risk and asking yourself how much are you willing to expose.

 

That's very good advice. I wish I could get the hue emulator working properly as I'd probably just stick with that and save myself money and increase security...