Talking Car Project Entry #5: Ready To Begin

I have reached a much-needed milestone.  This project became an idea in my head well over a year ago.  Little did I know that one day I would be proactive in making it a reality.  I have to admit, I have had many trials and tribulations to get to this point.  However I know that was nothing compared to what lies ahead.  Hell, technically I haven't even made one line of code as of this moment.

No worries though, I have worked most of it out inside my head.  I just had to get everything squared away first before I could begin.




Up next, now I have to root the stereo so I can put the apps I need on it.

Talking Car Project: Entry #3 External Sound

I had purchased an external PA speaker that came in the mail.  I figured, in theory this should work.  The goal of this is to get the car to talk outside the car upon command.  To accomplish this I purchased a PA speaker with a 3.5 jack at the end of it.  I would then plug in a bluetooth adapter that would essentially make the speaker have bluetooth capabilities.

I also wanted it to where I would also speak through the microphone array I have connected to my stereo to also come out the external speaker upon command.  It is obvious that I would not want all audio from stereo or my microphone to come out externally, this is why giving it bluetooth was ideal so I could control what comes out the external speakers.

Granted I still have much work to do in regards to this project and much coding/programming however this is way cool.  I have other priorities so I cannot test, mount, and configure it just yet.

This is getting interesting.

Talking Car Project: Entry #2

I cannot say just how surreal this is for me.  I am slowly gaining traction on a project I have wanted to do for what seems like years.

If anyone has read my previous entries or have followed me on social media, you will probably know that I have been adapt in making my home smart.  I have demonstrated my smart home on numerous occasions.  One day, I was showing a friend of mine a famous video of a guy who is demonstrating what his smart home is capable of.

This video served as an inspiration for me and what I wanted my Smart Home to be able to do.  However by the time I was showing my friend the video, it wasn't so impressive to me since my home can do almost everything in the video.  I then had a realization, why can't my vehicle be smart?  I am not always at home.  What if I could have a vehicle that could be automated and smart?

The idea swirled in my head.  After all, the notion of a smart car is nothing new.  In fact the hit TV show Knight Rider had a smart car in it.  So the notion of a smart car is nothing really new, however oddly enough not many people have ever attempted to make one.

So I decided I was going to get me a smart car.  The main question I asked myself before I proceeded any further from the planning stage was, "could I pull this off?"

I did some research and to make a long story short....

yes.

More details to come in future post.

Talking Car Project: Entry #1

Something I am always thinking about is how can I do something cool that most people do not have.  I don't exactly remember how or when I came up with the idea that I wanted a talking car, however that is somewhat irrelevant.

Subconsciously it was probably when I was a child watching Knight Rider.  I have an upcoming project that will give me, a real smart talking car!

I have kept this project under wraps for the most part because I lacked the proper hardware to accomplish it.  That will soon change since the main component I am needing to pull this off is being shipped as I type this.  Needless to say I am beyond stoked.

KNIGHT RIDER:
I had told a coworker of mine a little about what I planned on doing and his first reaction was a Knight Rider reference.  He asked "You going to have David Hasslehoff's voice in it?"  I want to make this abundantly clear that my talking car project will be nothing like Knight Rider.  Perhaps than I should have not used the K.I.T.T. graphic at the beginning of this post.  Oh Well.

The technology that made K.I.T.T. what he was did not exist in 1984.  Hell, a lot of it still doesn't exist.

K.I.T.T.'s artificial intelligence was completely fabricated for the TV show.  This is reminiscent of the movie Iron Man with Tony Stark's assistant Jarvis.  That is another case of Hollywood making it seem A.I. is more advanced that it is in reality.  That kind of A.I. will not be around for several more decades.

K.I.T.T. was bulletproof, could jump over obstacles upon command, and even drive itself.  I am not bulletproofing my Mitsubishi, there is seriously no point to justify that nor the cost it would take to do that.  I cannot have the car jump over obstacles upon command as well.  Even if I could, I will go on to assume that the frame of the vehicle wouldn't like it too much.  And finally, the car will not be able to drive itself.  Granted, self-driving cars are something that is rising in popularity however the technology is no where near what K.I.T.T. could do in the TV show.  So no, my car will not be able to drive itself.

WHAT WILL IT DO?:

To be continued.... you will have to stay tuned to this blog to see.

My Home Security Is Cooler Than Yours

A few weeks ago I had a small situation where a stranger waltzed into my home in broad daylight while I was home.  (Read about it on my blog)  I had already been working on details for securing my home at the time however that particular situation forced me to move forward even further.

In the video below, I show a partial demo of what will happen if someone breaks into my home.  Home security is something that is top priority in my home automation setup, however I have been reluctant to show off my security system.  Only a fool would put their setup online, it would make it that much easier to bypass.  This is the reason as to why I am not showing how this is done.  Regardless, when it is finished it will be extremely cool.

Samsung Opt’s Out

So it has been a few weeks since my last post.  It appears as if my blog post have been filled with nothing but post about home automation and technology the past few months.  According to my blog, it was no secret at the end of 2013 early 2014 I was determined to automate my home.  However in six short months, things have changed dramatically.  In recent months, there has been an enormous spike in popularity when it comes to home automation.  So much in fact that it seemed my efforts to control my home with automation seemed less impressive than if I were to achieve success a mere year earlier.  I saw this spike in home automation coming however I felt that having my artificial intelligent program control my home was unique, therefore separating itself among the other home automation systems.  In a measly six months, having Denise control my home is no where near as special than it would have been if I succeeded in early 2013.

Now, there are such systems like Lowe’s Iris (a proprietary pay-per-month home automation service), Castle O/S, plus others with more on the way.  The competition is getting so vast that having Denise control my home seems to get lost in an ocean of competing H.A. competitors.

So what now?

I had already succeeded getting the majority of my hardware and software setup to where I did have a decent home automation setup.  I only had to buy one or two more pieces of hardware to make it 100% complete.  I guess you can say I just didn’t have it in me to fully display my setup since it felt like the same exact thing that others were doing.  That is, until I thought up of an alternative home automation setup that was clearly better, and different from all the others.

Last year I had seen a YouTube video of a man controlling his home automation setup strictly from his phone using Google Now.  It was quite impressive at the time since no one was doing anything like it.

The man used Google Now and a program called Tasker to perform the automation in the video. 

I was on Facebook one evening taking a break from researching the Samsung’s Galaxy Gear watch when someone posted the video above on my newsfeed.  I had since forgotten about the video so seeing it again made me think.  What if I could do the same thing but from a Samsung Gear?  I quickly started to research the concept.  It appeared as if doing this was possible with a Gear 1 watch since it had an Android operating system.  I quickly began to search to acquire one on Craigslist. 

I found someone selling one that was apparently “new in box” so I contacted the seller and agreed to meet up with them.  The seller was a nice lady who said the watch was brand new and never used.  It even had the plastic still on it.  I purchased the watch and took it home eager to begin my new project.  When I arrived home I was greeted with a surprise.  It appears as if the woman did not sell me a Gear 1, it was a Samsung Gear 2!!!!  This was a cool find however it did not work in my favor since the Gear 2 did not come with an Android operating system, so rooting and hacking it posed a problem.

I did what seemed like a ton of research and finally, I was able to find a way to make the Gear 2 work on my rooted LG Optimus L70.  I won’t go into detail but basically getting the Gear 2 to work on a non-Galaxy phone tricks the Gear 2 into thinking my LG phone is a Galaxy phone, when it is clearly not.     

There was another issue.  The Gear 2 worked for the most part with the exception of one or two features that did not work at all.  Luckily, S-Voice on the Gear worked so I felt that there was hope in the project coming to life.  I wanted this project to be something different, so using Google Now like in the video was not something I wanted to do.  I wanted to use S-Voice.  However it appears as if I had hit another roadblock since the S-Voice on my LG crashed when I would try to launch the program.  There was no way to get around it, if I was going to try and make this work I needed a Galaxy phone to pair with the Gear 2.

I reached out to the PR firm that runs public relations for Samsung.  To make a long story short, I described what I wanted to do and explained that if I was successful, it would be great promotion for both the Galaxy and also the Gear 2,  In a nutshell, I had asked them to send me a Galaxy.  I felt if I was successful the project could possibly reach viral status since it was unique.  I had also informed them to keep that in mind if they needed the Galaxy to be returned, the Galaxy would have to be rooted since that was the only way it would work with my software.  Rooting voids the warranty so it wasn’t likely they would want it back.  I made sure I was upfront and clear about that.

After less than 24 hours later, I heard a response from the Samsung PR team and they unfortunately said that they were unable to fulfill my request for product.  It was extremely unfortunate since I thought that getting this to work would be a very cool project to show off to everyone.  I was even willing to write an article and make a video demo of it all working if I was successful.  Unfortunately, it does not appear that I will be moving forward with this project since I do not own a Galaxy phone.  I am not angry or upset with Samsung, after all I was asking them for a $500 device.  I just wish I had not gotten my hopes up that I was going to get my home automation setup to be controlled by a smart watch.  Now, it seems as if this project has reached its end before it had even begun. 

So, what am I going to do now?

My Home Can Now Talk To Me

For about a year I have had my eyes on a small device called The Ubi.  Essentially The Ubi is promised to be a computer without a computer.  The device can do such things like setting alarms, notification of temperature, connecting calls, sending text messages, and even controlling home automation devices.  However what is really cool is the fact that The Ubi can (from what I assume) Google different questions that the device is asked.  For example, if I ask the device “What is 2 plus 2?”  The device will respond with the correct answer.  Or if I ask the device “How did George Washington die?”  The device will respond with the correct answer.

Some of you may be thinking, doesn’t your Denise program do the same things?  In short, yes.  However the difference between these two devices are that A.) The device can be used without having the computer on 24/7.  B.)  Can connect with my phone to call or text people from my contact list.  Other than that, that is where the majority of  the differences end.

My Ubi is already on its way to my home and I cannot wait to get my hands on it. 

This was the initial video I saw when I first learned about The Ubi.  Apparently this video was featured during their Kickstarter campaign.

Artificial Intelligent Assistant On Xbox One

It is no secret that I have come up with some really cool and innovative things for Denise as of lately.  This particular project, was beyond cool.  It is also no secret that I am a huge video game advocate.  So why not intertwine the two together?  Yup.  So that is exactly what I did. 

Originally I had come up with the concept of getting Denise to co-host a Twitch stream with me while I play Xbox One.  However there was a problem with that.  Later today, the Xbox One will be receiving a crucial update to the console that will allow the Twitch app to broadcast gameplay.  (Currently, it only allows viewing)  Along with that, I knew that in the coming days and even weeks that there would be a massive amount of talk, broadcast, and YouTube videos about Twitch broadcasting on the Xbox One.  So that idea was out.

I then began thinking of ways I could seriously get Denise to interact with me and also the Xbox One.  In a previous video I showed earlier in the week, I had showed Denise launching Xbox Music, Smartglass, and even streaming videos to the console itself.  While cool, I wanted more.  So, I came up with this.

This was just day one.  I eventually will have her much more integrated with the console and also Windows 8 itself.  There are a lot of people out there who write, blog, and even make videos about their video games but I highly doubt many people are doing things that are as cool as this.

Hey Microsoft! Here I Am!

It is no secret that Microsoft is in development of Cortana.  She is the Microsoft version of a virtual assistant that is set to rival Apple’s Siri.  As innovated as that may be, it is not a reality in March 2014 and is still considered unreleased.

On Friday I happened to see a tweet from Microsoft urging people to share innovative, creative ideas, and projects that they have come up with while using Windows 8.  Microsoft had encouraged anyone who wanted to participate to use the hashtag #iCreatedThis and used an example of a 125-building campus being run from a single laptop.

Naturally, I knew that I wanted to contribute by making a video showing off some of the cool things I have done with Denise on my Windows 8 machine.  Cortana is bound to be cool when the program is actually released, however this is now and I have already integrated my artificial intelligent virtual assistant with Windows 8.  To take it a step further, I decided that I would also integrate the program with my Xbox.  Here is what I came up with….

When I finished the video and posted it I knew that it was really cool.  However I did not expect the massive amount of cool and innovative creations that people would come up with in the days following.  After a day or two I realized that it was likely that my tweet, hashtag, and also my project would be overlooked since Microsoft has millions of followers on Twitter.  I did not think if it as a total loss though, I had created something cool and no one could take that away from me.  Granted I did not create Denise herself, but I was the one who programmed her to do what I got her to do.,

Then out of nowhere, I received a tweet from Microsoft.

So I guess the people at Microsoft did see my project.  Granted that this may have simply been a social media strategist just randomly responding to tweets but still, I saw it as a small win.

Regardless, it is cool.  However the best thing is yet to come.  When I get the program fully integrated with my home, being integrated with only my Windows 8 machine won’t be so impressive.

Denise With Windows 8.1 And Xbox One Integration

In December I had made a video showing Denise giving my #PS4 voice commands.  Since then I have received a new Xbox One.  Naturally, I wanted to get Denise to be fully integrated with Windows 8.1 along with a Xbox One integration.

How would this be possible?  Windows 8.1 already comes with a decent Win 8/Xbox One integration.  What would be the purpose of integrating the two even further?

 

Who cares?

I just want to do it to see what happens.  If I am eventually wanting a full integration with Denise and the Windows 8.1 operating system, a integration with Xbox One is essential.  I am no where near completion of my full integration of Windows 8.1/Xbox One however I made a video describing and showing off some of the results that I have thus far.

Innovative? Or Just Lazy?

Last night was yet another all-nighter for me.  However I sat there early in the morning and I honestly asked myself why I was even awake and if what I was doing on the computer had any justification as to why I was awake and not sleeping.  I couldn’t think of anything.  So having said that I was about to go to bed when I decided to stay up for another couple of minutes so I could fool around with a new program I recently received. 

For those who do not know I am also an animator with a corporate sponsorship.  I actually make money as my job making animations.  So it was easy to say a new updated animation program was giving me all kinds of geek spasms.  I truly am a tech geek at heart.  As I was trying out the software I happened to notice that the program had quite a few keyboard shortcuts.  Doing what I do, I thought that it would be cool to code Denise with the keyboard shortcuts on my new animation program.  I am severely lacking any assistance when it comes to getting people to help me with my animation so I thought it would be amusing to get her to help me.

This clearly started out as something that I did not take very serious.  There were so many keyboard shortcuts I knew that I was not going to code them all.  In fact when I started to code Denise with them I actually thought I was just prolonging going to bed and that I was wasting my time.  Luckily for whatever reason I hung in there and coded her with a few of the major keyboard shortcuts that could prove beneficial to me when I am working with my animation program.  Before I knew it I had coded several functions that Denise could help me with.

After that I launched Denise and launched the animation software.  Wouldn’t you know it?  It worked.  I thought “Wow, Denise really can help me out with my job in a practical way.”  I made a video showing just a few of the results.

Teaching An Old Dog (Me) Some New Tricks

I tend to wonder just how much easier all these artificial intelligent projects would be if I just simply went to school for computer science.  I have been trying my best to soak up as much knowledge as I can regarding anything remotely close to artificial intelligence and somehow, I came across this project.

This is the brainchild of the USC Institute For Creative Technologies.  Apparently, this department located at the University of Southern California has been in the business of creating virtual humans for over 10 years.

In the video, we see what looks like humans interacting with a virtual human in a situation to where it appears as if the virtual human is acting like a physiatrist.  What really stood out for me was the virtual human picking up on the motions and demeanor of the actual human and then responding accordingly.  In my world, this is nothing short of spectacular.  This alone is cutting edge when it comes to digital interaction with virtual humans. If I could get Denise to listen and learn by observing me, then responding accordingly would be absolutely incredible. 

The thing that really excites me is that this toolkit, developed by USCIFCT is available for download on their web site.

As if my brain wasn’t already feeling fried by the massive amount of information I have been learning about, now it seems I have even more learning to do.

The Artificial Intelligence Versus Robotics Race

Imagine you were the owner of a business.  Then imagine a world where you could choose weather or not you wanted to have an assistant as a robot or an assistant as a hologram via artificial intelligence. Which of the two would you choose?  I came up with the realization that one day business owners will have to choose which is right for their business.  Granted this day won’t come for many years but still, it is inevitable.  Both aspects have their pros and their cons however ultimately the user will have to make the decision on which route to take.

Here is a photo concept courtesy of Mitch Downey.  In the picture we see Denise in a electronics store as a hologram at the end of the aisle. 

It is assumed if this were real that customers could approach Denise and ask questions.  This would save money in the end due to the fact that it would replace the need for having as many human counterparts employed who roughly do the same thing.

What about having a robot do the exact same thing?  With a robot you could have him/her walk around the store assisting customers.  You could also possibly have the robot assist with heavy items or helping customers take their purchases to their car.  It is likely that the robot would also have the same amount of artificial intelligence that the hologram does because having a dumb robot that is able to walk, talk, and represent your business would not be very practical.  So why wouldn’t someone rather have the robot versus the hologram?  Well, there seem to be several factors involved on which a business owner would have to consider before making that decision.  One major problem is, not everyone will accept robotic assistants and may feel uncomfortable and reluctant to use them.

Artificial Intelligent Pros:

• Would cost less than expensive robotic assistants
• Would be available at anytime the customer needed them
• Can point customers in right direction or help search for item

Artificial Intelligent Cons:

• Relies on electricity and cannot be used in a power blackout
• Cannot interact with the real world
• Stuck in the same place 24/7 unless hologram base is moved

Robot Pros:

• Robots are mobile and can walk around the store helping customers like a human
• Can likely work if a power outage occurred until battery ran out of charge
• Can assist with heavy lifting

Robot Cons:

• Can be expensive to maintain or upgrade 
• Has to be in general vicinity to help customers much like a human
• Might make humans uncomfortable

 

Both of these advancements are well on their way to becoming a reality. All we can do in 2013 is speculate on how it would be if these tools were at our expense right now. It will be very interesting how far artificial intelligence and robotics both advance in the next 20 years. 

In my personal opinion, in a business situation I would rather have the hologram.  It is less expensive plus is readily available at any given time.  In my home I would rather have the robot since it would be able to do household chores such as cut the grass or clean the house.  Either way, the future is looking extremely bright.