ISY Portal Wording for 'Location'

[MWareman]

When adding spokens to devices in Google home - the 'Room' is notated with '(Optional - not used)':

Optional is correct. However - while this used to be not used - they are, in fact, used now. If you list rooms in a consistent way - these will be synced to the Google Home app and devices will be grouped by the room. If you have a Home device in the same room as one or more lights - saying 'Hey Google - Turn on the lights' will turn the lights in that room only on. From any Google Home - you can 'Turn on the kitchen lights' and all lights in the 'kitchen' will turn on.

The only challenge I have is this...

You cannot have two devices with the same spoken - even though Google at least appears to support this now (as long as the devices are in different rooms). A 'Floor lamp' can apparently exist in two rooms (say, the family room and bonus room). Saying 'Turn on the floor lamp' in the bonus room would turn only the 'floor lamp' in the bonus room if the command was heard on a Google Home that was assigned to the Bonus room. Saying 'turn on the family room floor light' will direct the command to the floor lamp in the family room even if it was heard at the home in the Bonus Room.

Is it possible to test changing the unique keying to include the location as a key? So - all devices must be unique within a room - but can be duplicated in different rooms? I'd like to know if this will work now that rooms are a 1st class concept in Google Home. As someone who has Google Home Minis all over my house - this would be a huge addition...

Thanks!

Edited January 14, 2019 by MWareman

[Michel Kohanim]

@MWareman,

@bmercier mentioned that he would enhance our GH implementation to support this.

With kind regards,
Michel

[MWareman]

[mention=2553]MWareman[/mention],
[mention=2507]bmercier[/mention] mentioned that he would enhance our GH implementation to support this.
With kind regards,
Michel

Thank you! Awesome as always...

[bmercier]

@MWareman, this change is now in production.

You can use the same spoken as long as they are in a different room.

Can you test it and see if this works well for you?

Benoit

[MWareman]

@MWareman, this change is now in production.
You can use the same spoken as long as they are in a different room.
Can you test it and see if this works well for you?
Benoit

It works! Thank you so much...

[MWareman]

“Hey Google, Turn on the overhead light in the kitchen and family room”

“OK, turning on two lights”

And indeed, the correct two lights came on.... Got to love how Google Assistant can chain commands. I tested “Turn on the kitchen and family room overhead lights” - and it got that right as well.....

Standing in my family room (regular Google Home)... “Hey Google, turn off the overhead light” - and off it goes. Kitchen stays on.

Move to my kitchen (an LG Smart Display)... “Hey Google, turn off the overhead light” - and off it goes.

This is fantastic. I now don’t need convoluted spokens and the whole system becomes far more intuitive.

Thanks again for the fast feature!

[david-4]

8 minutes ago, MWareman said:

“Hey Google, Turn on the overhead light in the kitchen and family room”

“OK, turning on two lights”

And indeed, the correct two lights came on.... Got to love how Google Assistant can chain commands. I tested “Turn on the kitchen and family room overhead lights” - and it got that right as well.....

Standing in my family room (regular Google Home)... “Hey Google, turn off the overhead light” - and off it goes. Kitchen stays on.

Move to my kitchen (an LG Smart Display)... “Hey Google, turn off the overhead light” - and off it goes.

This is fantastic. I now don’t need convoluted spokens and the whole system becomes far more intuitive.

Thanks again for the fast feature!

This sounds like a great improvement.

When you created the name for each of your devices in ISY portal for Google control did you include the word "light" in each of them, ie, overhead "light" or just "overhead" ?

[MWareman]

This sounds like a great improvement.
When you created the name for each of your devices in ISY portal for Google control did you include the word "light" in each of them, ie, overhead "light" or just "overhead" ?

I generally don’t include ‘light’ in the spoken field. It’s not necessary. You can omit saying it and Google knows what to do as the device is known as a light already. Or you can say it and Google will look for a ‘light’ device matching the spoken. Seems to work very well.

I’ve started removing the room names from spokens now - or at least adding secondary spokens without the room. This also is no longer necessary. You can still specify the room the voice command is directed to via any Google Home.

For example, I have the primary spoken as ‘kitchen overhead’ and a secondary spoken as ‘overhead’. That way, when Google announces what it’s doing it says ‘kitchen overhead’, but I can ask for ‘overhead’ (if near the Kitchen Smart Display), ‘kitchen overhead’ or ‘kitchen overhead light’ via any Google Home in the house. If I ask for the ‘kitchen lights’ then both the overhead and island lights in the kitchen respond - which makes sense since both are ‘light’ devices assigned to the ‘kitchen’ room.

Hope all that makes sense!

[david-4]

Thank you. That is a very helpful clarification.

[beninsteon]

@bmercier

This is working well, thanks. 

Ben

[asbril]

The room location feature of Google Home is indeed very useful. I changed names from Kitchen Fan and Guest Room Fan to just Fan in each case. However I also had to change the names of the fan lights because when asking Google to switch on the fan, both Fan and Fan Light came on in the specific room. I had to come up with an alternative name for Fan Light that does not include the word fan. I chose Ceiling.

Edited January 23, 2019 by asbril

[MWareman]

The room location feature of Google Home is indeed very useful. I changed names from Kitchen Fan and Guest Room Fan to just Fan in each case. However I also had to change the names of the fan lights because when asking Google to switch on the fan, both Fan and Fan Light came on in the specific room. I had to come up with an alternative name for Fan Light that does not include the word fan. I chose Ceiling.

That makes sense. I think the Google Assistant fundamentally ignores any ‘light’ in any spoken, and matches on what’s left. I’ve gone thru and taken them all out with no noticeable change.

I just call the fan light in my family room the ‘overhead’ light.... whatever feels most natural. Of course, multiple spokens can be registered if our better halves disagree with what we feel is the most natural word..

[giomania]

I may have missed it, but Is this feature available for Amazon Echo? I notice you can set the rooms in the portal.

Thanks.

Mark


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