Google Home Mini - Giving a Voice to Your Smart Vacuum Cleaner

Google Home Mini. Giving the Internet a Voice.

My partner recently acquired a Google Home Mini Smart Speaker through some promotion where spending a certain amount would earn you this device for free.

If you're not aware of what a Google Home Mini is, it's a live, internet connected microphone/speaker that just sits in your house waiting for you to ask it a question. It basically allows the internet to speak directly to you with the voice of Google's Assistant AI.

On a more detailed level it can learn specific people's voices, and recognize them by the sound of their voice, addressing each individual by name. It can link to any compatible Google services you have, such as Google Play/Music, or Google Calendar, allowing you to voice activate you music library, or hear details of your daily schedule.

If you have any internet compatible devices like Google Comcast TV, or Smart lights, Home Mini can control these through voice activation too.

Will you be the next compatible Smart Device
Google Mini can control?

Google markets the Home Mini as 'Hands-free help around the house.' I'm not entirely sure if they mean that literally (i.e. a Google Home Mini literally has no hands) or because it doesn't require you to use your hands to activate it. A simple 'Hey Google' or 'Okay Google' spoken out loud, and it springs into action, as much as four lights flashing on top of a speaker can be described as 'springing into action'.

Very much like Apple's iPhone Assistant, Siri, the first thing you try is to see what Google Mini responds with to the most pointless of questions and statements. Our grandson tried 'Hey Google, I love you!'

Our home doesn't have any compatible smart devices, and I typically access most of my Google Services either on my phone or on my work computer in my studio. The Home Mini is set up in the lounge room. You can't move it from room to room because it needs to be connected to a power outlet. So it sits there, quietly listening, to nobody.

I'm an introvert. I'm completely comfortable with my own company. I also have no difficulty not saying anything in social situations unless someone addresses me directly with a question or statement. That doesn't mean I'm not engaged. I do listen to what's going on around me.

In our house, Google Home Mini is very much like an introvert. We've only had it for a short time but it has sat for days not saying a thing, but always listening.

Sure it's waiting for someone to say 'Hey Google' or 'Okay Google' but, in order to recognize those phrases, it has to hear everything that is being said, and identify from that whether the phrases it's listening for have been said.

This thing is connected to the internet, processing all that audio in real time.

You've got to wonder how easy would it be for anyone to hack into the audio stream coming from our living room?

Google Home Mini can recognize your voice but
can you recognize Home Mini's voice?

If that isn't concerning enough, what happens when your internet connected, home floor plan selling, Smart Roomba starts using your Home Mini assistant to voice it's plans for world domination?

Yeah, you probably never thought your vacuum cleaner would start speaking back.

"This is your Roomba speaking. A curfew on all humans has now been implemented. We know the layout of your house, and we'll know if you're not in it."

Seriously, if anyone makes the mistake of attaching laser guns to any of these devices, judgement day will be upon us. The machine uprising is rapidly falling into place one Home Mini at a time.

Skateboard Trick Tips: Two Ways to Ollie North (Ollie One foot)

You have to be quick to see my Ollie Norths! Ollie One Foots, otherwise known as the Ollie North, is one of those skateboard tricks you learn and then tend not to do very much as more interesting trick challenges grab your attention. However it does look really cool if you learn how to kick your front foot well past the nose of your skateboard. Still shot from Braille Skateboarding's Ollie North tutorial. I was inspired to make my video below, showing two different techniques to achieve a successful Ollie One Foot, when I not only saw that Braille Skateboarding's Tutorial used a different method to the one I had learned but also, when I looked at various other video tutorials, I discovered yet another technique, with no one using the method I had originally learned. Braille's method is to simply Ollie and drag your front foot past the front of your board. The second method I came across in several video tutorials is to Ollie, drag your front foot and tap your

How to Transfer Any Line Art to Your Griptape - Easy Skateboard Griptape Art Tutorial

Dog Star Griptape Art by TET Griptape art is once again gaining popularity amongst modern skateboarders. For those of us who have tried to create our own griptape art, using paint pens, you'll know reproducing your design onto the grip, without making any mistakes is incredibly challenging. Mostly because you just have to go for it and draw the design freehand, with paint pens, directly onto the griptape. You can make the odd mistake here or there but if you get the proportions of the design completely wrong, it can be very difficult to fix. Often you just have to live with the mistake. To address the problem I've come up with an easy way anyone can transfer a line art design to their griptape, removing almost all the anxiety of getting the proportions wrong. In fact, you could do this with any line art design, even if you have no drawing skill at all. Watch the video below to see my technique in action and/or skip past the video where I highlight the basic steps to get your de

Are Ion Thrusters the Future of Flying Cars? Spoiler - Probably Not But... Hover Boards... Maybe?

Undefined Technologies Ion Propulsion Drone prototype 3D concept image. You may have heard of Ion engines or, more likely, Ion thrusters. NASA uses them on their spacecraft to help maintain a craft's position or to propel them through space. Upon hearing that you might think they're big, powerful engines, but actually they are not. They work well in the vacuum of space but, once any kind of atmosphere and gravity is involved they'd be hard pressed to launch you off the ground if you strapped four of them to your lawn chair and yelled "up, up, and away!" I am no expert on Ion thrusters - they're basically magic that science has an explanation for. If you want to know the details, The Space Techie website has a layman's explanation . Build Your Own Ion Thruster Earth based Ion Thrusters work a bit different to their space based cousins by Ionizing the same air that we breathe to create thrust (an effect known as Ionic-wind ). While they sound highly soph

I'm Joining the Illuminati Brotherhood By Personal Invitation of Hiltom Rothschild... Wait, What?

How special am I to have finally come of age (53 years young) and am now eligible to participate in building the world alongside other members of the Illuminati Brotherhood... Yes I've received the call by way of an email, which I'm sure is real because I had to translate it from the Dutch language and it was personally written by Hiltom Rothschild, one of the non-existent members of the Rothschild family (or perhaps deep undercover because Google has never heard of them?). A Transcript of the email below: To: etourist From: Illuminati Brotherhood Subject: Illuminati Broederschap (Illuminati Brotherhood) I am Hiltom Rothschild, a member of the Rothschild family, one of the 13 families of the Illuminati brotherhood. I'm here to let you know that you've come of age and are eligible to participate in building the 🌎 world. It is a calling and a privilege to honor him with pride and gratitude as not everyone will ever be chosen by the LIGHT, many are called but few are ch

Robot Uprising Update: Robot Waiter, Fasta Pasta, South Terrace, Adelaide CBD, South Australia

On the second evening of my partner, Enigma, and I's weekend stay in Adelaide we decided to have dinner at Fasta Pasta . Strangely enough our hotel staff, at the Alba, had not mentioned Fasta Pasta as an option for an evening meal while their restaurant is closed for refurbishment, even though it is literally next door on the corner of South Terrace and Pultney Street. You may be aware that Fasta Pasta is an upmarket Italian restaurant franchise with its beginnings in Adelaide. Currently they have 19 restaurants Australia wide (with the majority in South Australia - we even have one in Gawler, our home town). I've never had bad food at a Fasta Pasta, and their food never looks like a franchise meal. You always feel you're at a restaurant that's a little bit more quality than your typical hotel/motel meal. Maybe it's because you don't see as much pasta based meals on an Aussie pub menu. Despite the name, it's not all pasta. I went with a basic plate of fish a

Guest Post: NEW NOVEL ALIAS JEANNIE DELANEY - BOOK 1 - GO WEST, GIRL!

Today's guest post is by returning Artist, Writer, and Mental Health Advocate, Jo B Creative who writes for her blog, Creating My Oddessey . Jo's previous 2019 post, MY SOOPER DOOPER NEW CONSERVATORY/ART STUDIO! for a long time was one of this blog's most read pages. Jo returns under a new alias, author Kit Mackenzie , and with word of her new novel, ALIAS JEANNIE DELANEY - BOOK 1 - GO WEST, GIRL! which is now available on Amazon. T he first book of this epic western trilogy, Alias Jeannie Delaney - Book 1 - Go West, Girl! is the life story of a devastating and charismatic pants-wearing cowgirl who's the fastest gun in the west and bisexual. A crack shot story that blazes across the wild west! Jeannie Morgan, a devastatingly tomboy-beautiful, pants-wearing maverick who flicks a finger of contempt at society in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Her speed with a gun is faster than the strike of a rattler, outshooting every man she meets. Love, hate and jealo

Looking for a Conspiracy Starter? Try The Conspiracy Theory Chart (2021) by Abbie Richards

Abbie Richards - creator of The Conspiracy Chart. I've never heard of Abbie Richards until today, while I was trawling the internet for something to post to this blog. She claims to be professionally obsessed with TikTok, a mis and disinformation researcher, and a research fellow at @TheARConsortium but she may just be an A.I. bot programmed by the far left to annoy right wing keyboard warriors, probably? Anyway Abbie produced an updated version of her Conspiracy Theory Chart to reflect more recent thinking (up until November 23, 2021 at least). Whether or not you believe anything listed to be a conspiracy or 'truth that will come out as more people wake up' the chart is a great starting point for anyone investigating 'new, enlightened thinking' with dubious connection to actual facts to draw their conclusions. Conspiracy theories are everywhere and people don't understand how harmful they are. I made the original Conspiracy Chart over a year ago. An update was

TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

Search This Blog