Who's interested in beta testing my Amazon Alexa / APEX skill?

[rab2215]

.

 

[rab2215]

well this is interesting, i got banned from the neptune forum for sharing information on how to do this over a year ago for "violation of terms and conditions" and NOW look... s.m.h.

 

[nero0762]

Any updates on this?

 

[Tmcgoo13]

https://reefs.com/2018/04/07/news-f...upport-new-apex-base-unit-and-trident-update/

 

[Joe Carioti]

Any updates on this?

I've pretty much done my part of the integration and it's now going through internal testing before a final release. There might still be a small beta run with the NSI group, but that's outside my control at the moment.

 

[New R2R Member]

Hey everyone. I've been working on an Alexa skill that allows you to use voice commands to control outlets on your APEX controller. I think the app is ready for some real world testing, so I'll need some daring participants to test it out.

Here are a few live demos from my last build:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BX0OOv5lJzP/?taken-by=nullreef
https://www.instagram.com/p/BX0N2WEFESY/?taken-by=nullreef

For anyone that's interested in testing this skill, I only ask that you report back any bugs, comments, or concerns that you have with the app. I will have to add testers on a per-person basis, and all that's required is an active email address.

Let me know if you're interested!

I am very interested in the Amazon Alexa skill I do have the new versions of the apex head unit

 

[rkpetersen]

I am very interested in the Amazon Alexa skill I do have the new versions of the apex head unit

Hey, welcome to Reef2Reef!

It's under development and beta evaluation right now. Each tester's experience is somewhat different, but I'm having a lot of success with requesting tank status reports and commanding specific outputs as well as activating feed cycles, changing lighting spectra, and so on. It's also possible to switch voice control from one Apex to another. It won't replace having a dashboard in front of you but it sure is handy when your hands are occupied.

 

[Joe Carioti]

Hey, welcome to Reef2Reef!

It's under development and beta evaluation right now. Each tester's experience is somewhat different, but I'm having a lot of success with requesting tank status reports and commanding specific outputs as well as activating feed cycles, changing lighting spectra, and so on. It's also possible to switch voice control from one Apex to another. It won't replace having a dashboard in front of you but it sure is handy when your hands are occupied.

Yep, just to echo rkpetersen here, the official skill is in beta and will be released for all Apex Fusion users once we work out any issues we might have with the beta crowd.

 

[mch1984]

Just stumbled across this. I guess it’s still in testing?

 

[Joe Carioti]

Just stumbled across this. I guess it’s still in testing?

Yep, the NSI group has it now and they're doing a great job of uncovering annoyances that everyone else won't have to deal with

 

[GuntertCorals]

I’m excited for this.

 

[User]

Does it recognize Scottish accents? Because half the time, she opens my garage door if I ask her to dim the lights...

I like the voice feedback of parameters. Would be cool for her to auto report when you walk into the fishroom.

Do you intend for her to report all parameters? Is there any way to change the command string?

“Alexa- diagnostic report.”

Cheers- appreciate your work on this

 

[ZoWhat]

Alexa....Makes Joe's tank temperature 99 degrees fahrenheit

 

[rkpetersen]

Does it recognize Scottish accents? Because half the time, she opens my garage door if I ask her to dim the lights...

I like the voice feedback of parameters. Would be cool for her to auto report when you walk into the fishroom.

Do you intend for her to report all parameters? Is there any way to change the command string?

“Alexa- diagnostic report.”

Cheers- appreciate your work on this

When you enable voice control, you will custom design a status report for your Apex system, including which parameters to include, what term Alexa will use for each, and the order in which they're reported. Then all you have say is "Alexa, ask Apex Fusion for a status report". And as with most Alexa functions, you can interrupt/cancel the report at any time, so there's little downside to adding more items to the report list, as long as the priority information is at the top/beginning.

 

[Joe Carioti]

Alexa....Makes Joe's tank temperature 99 degrees fahrenheit

Hey, I'll remember that!

 

[Joe Carioti]

Does it recognize Scottish accents? Because half the time, she opens my garage door if I ask her to dim the lights...

I like the voice feedback of parameters. Would be cool for her to auto report when you walk into the fishroom.

Do you intend for her to report all parameters? Is there any way to change the command string?

“Alexa- diagnostic report.”

Cheers- appreciate your work on this

So the answer to that question is more "I'm not sure" than anything. We have enabled our skill for the UK Alexa marketplace as well as US, AU, and NZ. Now that doesn't mean that Alexa's recognition of Scottish accents is very good... I've seen plenty of videos and articles about Alexa falling flat on her face when presented with a Scottish accent.

As far as the Apex Fusion skill is concerned, it will work fine throughout the UK. The quality of voice recognition, on the other hand, is completely out of our control and will rely on Amazon making some stark improvements in recognition for Scottish accents.

 

[User]

So the answer to that question is more "I'm not sure" than anything. We have enabled our skill for the UK Alexa marketplace as well as US, AU, and NZ. Now that doesn't mean that Alexa's recognition of Scottish accents is very good... I've seen plenty of videos and articles about Alexa falling flat on her face when presented with a Scottish accent.

As far as the Apex Fusion skill is concerned, it will work fine throughout the UK. The quality of voice recognition, on the other hand, is completely out of our control and will rely on Amazon making some stark improvements in recognition for Scottish accents.

Lol, I’m a Scot relocated to US. But yeah- bunch of funny videos with Alexa Scottish dialect fails.

Is it possible to change the command string, to something cool like ‘status report’?

 

[Joe Carioti]

Lol, I’m a Scot relocated to US. But yeah- bunch of funny videos with Alexa Scottish dialect fails.

Is it possible to change the command string, to something cool like ‘status report’?

Oooh that might be tricky then. Do you keep the Echo language set to English - US?

The command phrase is pretty rigid. All Alexa skills have to start with "Alexa, tell <skill invocation name>..." or "Alexa, ask <skill invocation name>...". Our invocation name is "Apex Fusion".

Amazon has a feature in beta right now that will bypass the need to say the invocation name, but we can't test that feature until we've gotten the skill certified and released. After the initial release, I will be experimenting with the ability to use the skill without the invocation name and if it works well, I'll make a second announcement about it.

 

[User]

Sounds good, great stuff.

I guess I *could* enunciate better, a try to sound like a normal person, but my American wife loves my accent

 

[Snorg]

I'm getting unreasonably excited for this release to the general public. Does anyone happen to have any idea of when that might be? I know, I'm impatient.