Skip to main content

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.

Comments

Buy Gifts and Apparel featuring art by TET.

Popular posts from this blog

Is AI Art 'Art'? The Say NO to AI Art Movement, and Why Human Artists Will Adapt

AI Art No T-Shirt by TET Also available on other items . Right now there is a big debate over not just whether AI art is 'art' but whether AI's are actually ripping off the work of actual human artists, without their consent, to create their images - particularly images 'in the style of' specific artists. From my own observations this debate started to get more traction when artist's signatures began appearing in the output of AI Art  image generators. Is It Art? Cool Froyd the Cat Sketch by TET. My style is very much influenced by classic Disney and WB character styles. To get some clarity on how real human artists work (of which I am one)... we, that is all of us... take influences from the art that has come before. i.e. whatever artists we like, have studied, seen etc. we are influenced by. It shows up in our work, intentionally or not. If you really study my own cartoony art style you'll see I'm heavily influenced by early Disney and Warner Bros cart

If I Could Talk to the Animals... Maybe AI Can Make This a Reality?

W e've always been able to talk to animals, and it's sometimes said, jokingly, you may have a problem if they start talking back, but what if they could? One thing that AI is good at is processing data and spotting patterns, common elements, and highlighting relationships which makes it ideal for all kind of research, so why not studying the language of animals? It seems like science fiction but so were  real-time language translators not too long ago. What if you could understand exactly what your pets are saying to you and speak back to them (through a real-time translator) in their own language? While were not there yet, advancements in AI learning systems seem to suggest that the idea is no longer as far fetched and fanciful as it used to be. To be honest, using AI to decipher animal communication accurately, is something that never crossed my mind but I'm truly excited to know that this research is being done. Watch the Bloomberg Originals video, Could AI Unlock the S

The Braille Skateboarding App - How it Changed My Mind on Switch Skating

My Profile on the Braille Skateboarding App. Braille Skateboarding launched it's new Skateboarding App worldwide on November 23rd, 2020. About a month prior to that they did a 'soft launch' via email for anyone living in Australia. I'm guessing this was to give the app a final test in the real world before launching it proper. Rather than explain what it is, watch Aaron Kyro, founder of Braille Skateboarding, run you through the app in the launch video below.  In a nutshell the app is virtually everything Braille has to offer accessed right from your phone, from tutorials to the Braille Army Community. The app is free but you can unlock more features if you upgrade to a paid membership. Braille App Trick List. One of the apps unique free features is keeping track of the tricks you've learned and giving you an overall score so you have some way to measure your progression. There is an extensive list of tricks, covering all types of skateboarding, categorized by diff

Optimus Robots, Self Driving Cars and Buses - Tesla's 'We Robot' Event and the Evolution of Optimus

Tesla Optimus Robot Serving Guests. Image: Tesla O n the tenth of October Tesla held their 'We Robot' event, which I guess is the new incarnation of their previous Tesla AI Day annual event. There were three much talked about reveals, the driverless taxis, a driverless bus, and Optimus robots moving around the event, fully interacting with people 'on the ground'. Tesla Driverless Taxi. Image: Tesla While it was cool to see so many driverless taxis, that you could get in and experience for yourself as they drove around the Warner Brothers lot, and the driverless bus was something of a surprise reveal nobody expected, my attention was on Optimus. Tesla Driverless Robovan. Image: Tesla It was in September of 2021 that Elon Musk first announced his plan to create an affordable, humanoid, domestic robot, that would eventually be in homes worldwide. That vision was underlined with a person wearing a robot suit, that wasn't as well received as Elon may have liked, despite

Movie Review: Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023) *No Spoilers*

I f you're like me and didn't go to see  Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom  in theatres you made the right choice. For context, I loved the first Aquaman movie . It's one of my favorites from the Snyder/DCEU era. It is a relatively well made adventure story, with some fantastic world building, amazing visuals, and included some commentary on  environmental issues as well. Despite having, mostly the same creative team, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom comes across as a film that couldn't decide what it wanted to be, in terms of a sequel. On the one hand it wants to showcase the cool, fun, wisecracking, but bad ass, rock'n'roll  version of Aquaman (Jason Momoa) with another rollicking adventure. On the other it feels like someone said it had to be epic with potentially world changing stakes so Aquaman would have to do 'King Shit' and be all serious, navigate deep sea politics, and generally try to be a responsible heroic good guy that he is when he's not being

Boom Crash Opera Born Classic But Not Again

Boom Crash Opera are an Australian Band that reached the peak of their popularity in the mid to late nineteen eighties. They are a band that I knew about at that time but was never really excited by until they released their ill fated double album Born and Born Again in 1995 (Album cover pictured). At the time of its release I was very much into emerging Australian musical acts and was also looking out for new sounds that were different and had kind of a futuristic/electronic sound. Artists that I was buying at the time included; Swoop , Nine Inch Nails and Pop Will Eat Its Self . As well as a really interesting release by David Bowie, the concept album, Outside . Born was a fairly radical departure for Boom Crash Opera (BCO). The first single, Gimme , was often compared to the sounds of Gary Glitter, particularly his single, Rock n Roll part 2 , because of the pounding drum loops. Watch the video below. My favorite single from the album is dissemble which probably went now

Big Hero 6, Baymax and Real Inflatable Robotics

Baymax - a fictional example of a 'Soft' robot. Baymax , the inflatable robot from the animated Disney movie, Big Hero 6 is probably the most famous 'soft' robot in the world of fictional robots today. I didn't really give it much thought when I saw the film but it's not too surprising that Baymax is inspired by real research into the potential of soft robots. I realize I'm a bit late to the party as Mashable wrote about this very subject in their post  'Big Hero 6' star Baymax was inspired by a real robot back in November of 2014 (which is where I first discovered real world soft robotics). However, since I'm somewhat obsessed with the almost certain robot uprising of the not too distant future, I thought it best to bring soft robotics to your attention.