Building an Alexa-Powered Electric Blanket
shkspr.mobi
shkspr.mobi
# Weekday morning blanket schedule
# 4 min boost before lighting schedule begins
46 7 * * 1-5 blanket on for 4 minutes &>/dev/null
# 2 min boost before first smart-watch alarm
58 7 * * 1-5 blanket on for 2 minutes &>/dev/null
# 2 min boosts before each subsequent smart-watch alarm
8-38/10 8 * * 1-5 blanket on for 2 minutes &>/dev/null
50 7 * * 1-5 for n in $(seq 1 99); do light $n; sleep 30; done; sleep 270; for n in $(seq 98 -1 0); do light $n; sleep 2; done
I also have OpenHab on my server so I can manually control the blanket and lights from both my Android phone and also my Pebble Watch.
I could however do with hooking it into my calendar so it doesn't run if I have an "Annual Leave" event on that day, or if it's a bank holiday. Just haven't got round to that yet.
It always amaze me how a couple of shell scripts is almost always is the very sweet spot of any real life automation.
50 7 * * 1-5 atworktoday && blanket on for 5 minutes
curl -s https://link-to-my-ics | \
ics --start $(date +%Y%m%dT000000Z) \
--end $(date +%Y%m%dT235959Z) \
--filter-summary 'annual leave'
ANNUAL_LEAVE=$(curl -s https://link-to-my-ics \
| ics2json --start $(date +%Y%m%dT000000Z) \
--end $(date +%Y%m%dT235959Z) \
| jq 'map(select(.summary|ascii_downcase|contains("annual leave")))|length')
if [[ "$ANNUAL_LEAVE" == "0" ]]; then
echo "At work today"
else
echo "On holiday, wahoo!"
fi
I'm curious how you cope in that situation? Just SSH in a temporarily stop it?
We do the first 100% on-device and private-by-design Voice AI platform which you can use for free and run on a Raspberry Pi, to make it possible to use your blanket without sharing your bedtime secrets with Amazon ;)
https://medium.com/snips-ai/an-introduction-to-snips-nlu-the...
https://www.electricblanketfires.com/electric-blanket-fire-s... suggests that the primary issue is user error.
Are hot water bottles better? What other affordable means are there to easily warm a cold bed?
Humans are pretty good at warming a cold bed. Sucks for the first ten minutes though.
Totally agree with you. I guess it is rewarding to make this kind of work with success, moreover if, at the end, it costs less than the original one. I hope the skils u've learnt will be reused in another project, maybe more "elaborated".
But, more seriously, I don't go to bed at the same time every night. I'd be surprised if most people do. I want to pre-heat the bed while I'm on the bus home from a night out.
Even I don't know when I'm going to bed until just before I do so. I might go upstairs to brush my teeth, but then go back down to play more video games.
I might go into the bedroom to pick up a book - doesn't mean I'm going to sleep.
The idea of predictive analysis of human behaviour is almost nonsense. Even if it weren't, a quick shout to a robot, or a tap on a button, is quicker and cheaper.
You will be surprised how repetitive your patterns (like pulse, for example) are and how well they predict will you decide to play the game or to go to the bed. Maybe you just don't analyze these patterns thoroughly enough, so you have an illusion of unpredictability of your decisions.
And by the way, smart things aren't there to only predict. If your blanket, and all other devices - including your todo list app - would vote for the bed, especially if they formulate it with carefully crafted suggestive words in sweet voice, you better agree.
That would work mostly for me, perhaps including the TV and computer being off. That's going to cover 99% accuracy, probably as much as I'd get with a button.
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
Most electric blankets have overheat protections built into them these days, reducing the risk of fire hazards.
Aaand after some research I don't see it available anymore on Amazon or elsewhere. Interesting.
it's scary what a third party can do through your smartphone, let alone all the IoT garbage connected to an Echo
"Computer, lights" - turns on lamps behind the couch. Better than craning my neck and struggling to find that cheap push-pin switch on a scary fragile glass lamp x 2.
"Computer, pause" - when my hands are coated in layers of an escaped burrito and I need few more ice cream scoops of congealed vegetables and cheese in my maw.
"Computer, set timer for 20 minutes" - for the bread baking, because I already used both microwave and oven timers for rice and vegetables.
"Computer, convert 1 liter to cups" - because imperial units and surprise recipe.
"Computer, switch inputs" - when I want to watch cable. Of course, I have to say it four times rapidly because of an awkward Sharp TV.
This one is a bonus feature, but I can say "computer" with a fake British accent and it still works.
I was always searching for the major killer feature, hehe.
For my family, one of the best features is the shopping list via the AnyList skill. We say "echo, add butter to my shopping list" and it gets added to the AnyList app in the correct category. Next time we are at the store, I pull up AnyList and can see my entire shopping list. For a single person, it might not be a big deal, but it's works very well for a family.
"Computer, set a 20 minute timer for rice"
"Computer, set a 10 minute timer for vegetables"
Then you can query it:
"Computer, how much time is left on my rice timer?"
"Computer, add nitrile gloves to shopping list."
(Shopping list goes to a phone app, just a simple list with checkmarks, not to be confused with purchasing something from Amazon.)
What's next, Alexa-powered ASMR...get lulled to sleep as an AI-generated voice whispers to you all the holiday deals you'll have waiting for you when you wake up? I wonder what else it will whisper once you're fast asleep.
If you must have the convenience, at least ditch the cloud and run your smart home entirely on your LAN.