The Verge:
Google and iRobot have announced they’re working together to improve smart home technology using mapping data collected by iRobot’s robot vacuums. The two companies say the aim is to make smart homes “more thoughtful” by leveraging the unique dataset collected by iRobot: maps of customers’ homes.
And:
“Much like assigning smart lights or other smart devices to rooms in the home, the Assistant only learns what names people have given to areas of their homes, so that it can then deploy the iRobot i7+ to that area,” said Google in a statement. “We do not receive any information on the layout of the home or where the areas are, respectively.”
Very interesting read. AI continues its creep inside your home. Though Google says they do not receive the mapping info, I am skeptical that that info won’t eventually find its way outside, even if it’s via the work of hackers.
And if you find yourself asking, who cares about room data? It’s an avenue, a path to a future where all your data is visible to outside agencies, a pinprick in the balloon of privacy.
“Who cares about room data?”
Anyone who wants to add more context to a smart home environment. Instead of having to remember the name of lights, cameras, thermostats , sensors and such, with context you can simply say “Hey [Siri, Google, Amazon, etc…] turn on the living room lights and tell me if anyone walks past the front door camera.”
I’m not saying there aren’t security/privacy implications, of course. Just answering the question that was posed.
Well said.
Homekit has scenes for this. You name rooms whatever you call them. There’s no need to map the room and if google doesn’t let you do that, that’s on them. BTW, you’d still need to name everything you listed in your example. The living room. The front door. All have to be named and if that’s too hard for someone, well… Ever see Wall-E?
Yup, HomeKit has this functionality available via manual setup. So does Google Home and Amazon Alexa; I use them all. You’d be surprised by how many mainstream folks don’t understand how or why they should set up rooms.
Regardless, your view is very focused on the current state. I’m thinking more of the future state since the smart home market is really still at the beginning of its development lifecycle. Context is the right data at the right time and place; more of it will help any of these platforms add value. For example, cameras can tell me what they can see and what room *they’re* in. But the can’t (yet) tell me what actual room the activity is in. Maybe I have a pet that I don’t want a certain room, for example. Lots of potential use cases. Again, I was simply trying to answer the question from a different perspective.
But how does mapping the house solve this? I still need to name that large rectangular space “Living Room”, the smaller one “Joey’s Bedroom” etc.
As I’ve said to you on Twitter, I don’t see normal people really buying into home automation until it’s FAR cheaper, basically plug and play and offers more benefits that aren’t based on “gee whiz” feelings. HA has been ‘on the cusp’ for two decades. It does feel like we might be at an inflection point but I’ve said that before and been fooled.
no thanks