Smart Home Voice Control: Creating Custom Voice-Activated Commands

Posted on 17th June 2023

Introduction

Smart home voice control is a convenient way to manage your home automation devices and appliances. You can use voice commands to turn on the lights, adjust the thermostat, play music, and more. While most smart home voice assistants come with a set of default commands, you can also create custom voice commands to control your devices. In this article, we’ll show you how to create custom voice commands for your smart home.

Creating Custom Voice Commands

To create a custom voice command, you’ll need to use a voice assistant app or a smart home hub with voice control. For this example, we’ll use the Google Assistant app on a smartphone. Here’s how to create a custom voice command:

Open the Google Assistant app on your smartphone.
Tap the + icon in the top-right corner.
Select Add new command.
Enter a name for your command. For example, you could name your command “Turn on the TV”.
Tap Done.
Add the action that you want your voice command to perform. For this example, we’ll add the action “Turn on the TV”.
Tap Done.
Test your command by saying “Ok Google, turn on the TV”.

Once you’ve created your custom voice command, you can edit it or delete it at any time. To edit your command, open the Google Assistant app and tap the + icon. Then, select the command that you want to edit and make the necessary changes. To delete your command, open the Google Assistant app and tap the + icon. Then, select the command that you want to delete and tap Remove.

Conclusion

Smart home voice control is a convenient way to manage your home automation devices and appliances. You can use voice commands to turn on the lights, adjust the thermostat, play music, and more. While most smart home voice assistants come with a set of default commands, you can also create custom voice commands to control your devices. In this article, we showed you how to create custom voice commands for your smart home.

Assuming you have a basic understanding of HTML and CSS, you can now begin to create custom voice-activated commands for your home. You will first need to create a file called commands.xml in your home directory. The file should look something like this:

TURN ON|OFF|TOGGLE
LIGHT|FAN
1|0

You can now use any text editor to edit the file and add as many commands as you want. Be sure to save the file after each change.

The above example would turn on a light or fan when you say “Turn on the light” or “Turn on the fan”. You can also use “Toggle” to turn on or off depending on the current state. The value is either 1 for on, or 0 for off.

You can also target multiple devices with a single command. For example, the following would turn on both the light and the fan:

TURN ON
LIGHT|FAN
1

You can also use wildcards in your target device. For example, the following would turn on all lights in the house:

TURN ON
LIGHT*
1

You can also use regular expressions to target devices. For example, the following would turn on all lights that start with “Living”:

TURN ON
LIGHT(Living.*)
1

You can also use conditional statements to create more complex commands. For example, the following would turn on the light if it is currently off, and turn it off if it is currently on:

TURN ON|OFF|TOGGLE
LIGHT

EQUALS
$STATE
1

0
1

The element can be one of the following:

EQUALS – Test if two values are equal
NOT_EQUALS – Test if two values are not equal
LESS_THAN – Test if one value is less than another
LESS_THAN_EQUALS – Test if one value is less than or equal to another
GREATER_THAN – Test if one value is greater than another
GREATER_THAN_EQUALS – Test if one value is greater than or equal to another

The and elements are used to specify the value that should be used if the condition is true or false, respectively.

You can also use the element to log a message to the console. For example, the following would log the state of the light to the console:

TURN ON|OFF|TOGGLE
LIGHT

The light is now $STATE

EQUALS
$STATE
1

0
1

You can also use the element to have the system say a message. For example, the following would say “The light is now on” when the light is turned on:

TURN ON|OFF|TOGGLE
LIGHT

The light is now on

EQUALS
$STATE
1

0
1

You can also use the element to set the value of a device. For example, the following would set the light to 50% brightness:

SET
LIGHT
50

You can also use the element to delay the execution of a command. For example, the following would turn on the light after a 5 second delay:

TURN ON
LIGHT

5
1
0

You can also use the element to execute a system command. For example, the following would play a sound file when the light is turned on:

TURN ON
LIGHT

play some_sound_file.mp3
1
0

You can also use the element to make an HTTP request. For example, the following would turn on a light that is connected to a remote server:

TURN ON
LIGHT

http://some_remote_server/turn_on_light
GET

1
0

The element can be either GET or POST. The element can be used to specify POST data. For example, the following would turn on a light that is connected to a remote server and POST some data:

TURN ON
LIGHT

http://some_remote_server/turn_on_light
POST
some_data=1

1
0

You can also use the element to execute a script. For example, the following would turn on a light and then execute a Python script:

TURN ON
LIGHT

python
import time


time.sleep(5)

print "The light is now on"

1
0

The element can be either python or javascript. The element contains the code that will be executed.


You can also use the  element to choose a random value. For example, the following would turn on the light 50% of

 Previous Post - How to Automate Your Home with Smart Garage Organization Systems
     
 Next Post - How to Create and Edit Artboards in Affinity Designer