When Google ruined Voice UI

When Google ruined Voice UI

There are plenty of good examples of a company making a tone-deaf move to attempt to develop its business. Whether it is Tennis’ ATP keeping sexism alive and well, or brands making tone-deaf discriminatory adverts, there are plenty of unfortunate and badly thought through business choices.

In April 2017, Google made a change that wasn’t at all discriminatory, but it was mind-bendingly annoying. They moved my shopping list from the Google Keep app on my Android phone to the Google Shopping List in Google Home / Express, and some folks were pretty unhappy about it. Google haven't ported much of the Keep functionality into the new shopping list, and of course they've stuck and ad next to every item, and cluttered the rest of the screen with ads too.

Ron Amadeo from Ars Technica highlights the differences

It took me a few weeks to even realise that had happened. There wasn’t a notification of the change. Because my shopping list in Keep was shared by two other people, the fact that my shopping list items, added through Google assistant, weren’t making it to my Keep ‘Shopping List’ went unnoticed. I originally thought that someone else had deleted the entries. Maybe we didn’t need more toothpaste after all?

Eventually I twigged. Google was putting shopping list items in a new place, the Google Home Primary Shopping List – whatever and wherever that is.

After a little more ‘Googling’, I found the list online and also potentially through the ‘Google Home’ Android app. I downloaded that, and not being at home at the time, it was as good as useless. I don’t own any ‘Google Home’ devices, and digging through the UK version of the app didn’t get me to my Primary Shopping List. So the webUI is now the only way to see my shopping list – which is pretty useless given the terrible data coverage in the majority of UK large grocery shops.

So, I wanted to go back to using Keep for my shopping list, and there is simply no way to do this with voice unless you want to faff with IFTTT recipes and Keep lists that aren’t called “Shopping List”.

Simply put, Google has hijacked the “Ok Google, add something to my shopping list” function. It is obvious why they’ve done this in the US. They want to be able to sell adds which pop up next to the Primary Shopping List items and point you to retailers like Target & Walmart, who could fulfil your needs. That would generate a reasonable sum in advertising revenue and possibly through vendor kickbacks for successful sales. But not in the UK. Google Express isn’t yet in UK, and at best is a niche solution in US where Amazon Prime does a far better job of connecting shoppers with product, in all categories.

In the meantime, while Google messes around with our user experiences for critical apps like note-taking and voice UI, in a way that is irrelevant and frustrating to UK consumers, Amazon are taking over. Alexa works brilliantly, Amazon Fresh is bringing well priced fast delivery grocery shopping to UK homes, and premium video content to our TVs.

Voice UI is certainly the future of the smart home, and when I’m shaving it’s the perfect moment for me to add shaving foam to my shopping list using my voice. My Google assistant will no-longer be used, I’m putting my Echo Dot in the bathroom.

Voice UI - the future of your morning routine

We're told that the next frontier for human-computer interaction is Voice UI.

When it doesn't make sense to hold a device or controller, but you need things to happen or content to appear, Voice UI is going to be your friend.

To most people today, Voice UI is a frustrating and flawed experience. Only Amazon seem to have got it nearly right with Echo/Alexa. But give others time to catch up and refine their voice recognition and we'll have a host of usable, maybe even vital voice interactions:

In the car - to control audio entertainment, to communicate and to navigate whilst keeping hands on the wheel and eyes on the road:

"Which is the quickest way to work today? I need petrol and a Starbucks"

In the kitchen - recipe directions, appliance control with doughy hands:

"I've added the eggs, what's next? Oh, and set the oven to 190 for half an hour then to 150 for 90 minutes"

In the lounge - media control, atmosphere settings, dimming the lights, drawing curtains, bumping the heating up a notch:

"Find a Schwarzenegger film, but family friendly. Movie-night room settings please."

In the bathroom - infotainment, house control, day planning:

"Show me my meetings. Ok, move the review with Jim to Tuesday. Show me news related to my morning meetings today. 
Has the dog been fed yet?"

In the bedroom - sleep maximisation, based on sleep phase, calendar and sunrise time:

"Early start tomorrow, up between 7 and 7.30, unless Dave sets an early meeting. Dark now"

At work - setting reminders, adding to lists, communicating:

"Remind me to get milk on the way home. Add parmesan to the shopping list. Text Jake to ask about beers on Thursday. Call the Doctor before 5.30."

On holiday - logistics and planning, poolside with sun-creamy hands:

"Where are the kids right now? Tell them dinner is at 8. What can we do tomorrow? Ok, book the scuba trip for 3 of us."

In presentations - for setup and note taking:

"Connect everyone to the WebEx. Dial out to John's mobile. Record the role-call, update Salesforce."

Whilst travelling:

"Tell me when to start walking to the gate. Text Jenny when I land and when I get to the hotel."

Whilst exercising:

"Set pacer to 7 minute miles. Alert every half mile and if heart rate goes above 180."

It'll take a bit of getting used to, and we need to find a better way to initiate the listening mode than saying key phrases. The software needs to be context aware, handle natural language, understand inference, know my preferences and have access to my data, apps and other devices. It also needs to respond only to my voice, and keep all this private and secure. If they can add some personality to the experience, that might not be a bad thing either!

Your new affordable voice assistants: Google Home, Apple Homepod, Amazon Echo

I'm starting to like the way the future looks and sounds. To steal a strap line from our second favourite smartphone company... un-box your phone. Start talking to it, rather than tapping on it, and see where it can take you.

A Bluetooth Christmas Tale

Last Christmas was a Bluetooth Christmas. A few of the presents under the tree were Bluetooth enabled.

The list of Bluetooth devices was as follows:

- Bluetooth Toothbrushes

- Bluetooth Lifx Lightbulbs

- Bluetooth Rev Remote Control Cars

- Bluetooth BB-8 Starwars Droid

We're now into April, and let me tell you how it's going...

BB8 and the remote control cars were played with for a week, maybe two. The most fun we had was playing car soccer with the Rev cars and BB8-minus-head as the ball. They are now in a drawer waiting for a rainy day.

The Bluetooth Toothbrushes are still being used as electric toothbrushes, and have been a success in that they enforce the two minute brushing routine. But after the first 3 days, having your phone and app in one hand, whilst arranging brush and toothpaste in the other, was too much hassle. Alas, the pyjamas Santa gave the kids didn't have pockets for the phone. So however engaging the Oral B app might be for children of a certain age, it just didn't get used.

Let's talk home automation now. There were two primary reasons behind the Lifx lighbulbs. Firstly, I was sick of reminding my children to turn off their bedroom lights. Secondly their trusty IKEA bedside lamps were worrying unstable. So I thought... help them set schedules for their smart-lights to come on and go off, and let them create perfect mood lighting for bedtime reading and homework sessions.

How wrong I was. Children #1 and #2 got the hang of schedules, proximity and the unfathomable Lifx app. So that works almost as intended. Except when it doesn't. I don't know how the lights are left on, but sometimes they are, and when the lights are left on, I turn them off at the switch. Which renders them completely unresponsive to impatient children who expect to drive them only through their phones. And in the 'off' state the lights don't respond to schedules or proximity.

That's pretty annoying when Child 2 has set up Amazon's Echo to control lights via voice. But however hard you shout at Alexa, it can't switch the light on at the wall.

Child #3 had his light installed in a bedside lamp because of limited head-room in his high loft bed. Said lamp has one of those utterly ridiculous switches that require you to finger the light fitting hidden under the lamp shade. So rather than flick the wall switch as I pass to turn the light off, as I used to do, I'm now fumbling to turn the damned thing off most mornings.

On top of this, on installation, the children 'claimed' their light bulbs, meaning they are the only ones authorised to change the schedules, or logic. If I claimed them, then they wouldn't be able to set their own schedules, which means more admin for me, and less autonomy for them.
So without faffing with the settings through the kids' phones, I can't re-organise the lightbulbs into sensible groups, so that I can turn all the lights off when we all go out. I have less control than I did when wall switches were all the rage. I would have done better to buy clapper switches, which have been around since 1985.

I'm a father in this industry. Hell, I'm even selling connected home solutions to Telcos. These automated, connected homes are going to have to be a lot smarter and a lot easier to use than the current diaspora of disconnected, poorly-thought-through devices and apps.

Fortunately, the carriers have a real opportunity here. The likes of BT, Virgin and TalkTalk have the capability to simplify, consolidate and market complete smart-home solutions, including the lightbulbs, the heating, the security and the gadgets. With one app to control it all, with an apple-esque interface, allowing easy configuration but with advanced menus for the connoisseurs. Google, Amazon, Lifx, Phillips and Samsung will struggle to cover enough bases to deliver the smart home and the local support we're going to need to get it all working. So come on Telcos, now is the time to bring this all together.

As for next Christmas. It might be a non-Bluetooth affair.

IOT for concerned families

As a confirmed IOT early adopter, I've often been asked what IOT is and why it's important to everyday folk. I'm only just beginning to work it out.

A year ago I was really struggling to give non-telco people a good reason to connect up their houses, cars and family. The naysayers were divided into a few groups.

1. The "didn't need it before, don't need it now" group
2. The "my phone is all I need" group
3. The "it's not worth the money" group

Group 2 have a point, because almost everyone has a smartphone which allows for a human-centric network of assurance and security. But that's a very manual method.

Group 3 certainly have a point, as not many people have yet to turn a profit from buying smart home heating e.g. Nest, or solar panels for that matter. The returns tend to kick in after 8-10 years.

Group 1 are the hardest to convince. No one really needs the new fangled IOT. If we did need it desperately then it would have taken off a long time ago. For 9 out of 10 people on the planet, the IOT is solving distinctly 1st world problems.

This year my viewpoint changed. With aging parents becoming increasingly vulnerable and in need of care, the IOT offers a valuable data stream for a busy family.

A UK survey of elder-care revealed that the cost of care has risen to at least £590 per week. The government only contributes towards this if your savings are less than £27,000. So many families will be looking at steep care costs from the parental age of 65 onwards. This is happening in parallel with sky-rocketing living costs thanks to Brexit and more and more children living at home until their 30s.

Putting off residential care by providing better awareness of elder well-being to allow aging-at-home is becoming mission critical for the middle-aged generation.

The IOT is now ready to support families with a variety of non-intrusive, security and safety services, overseen by family members.

Motion detectors can track normal movements of the elderly around their home, alerting carers for anomalies. If there is less movement than normal, or movement is only shown in one or two rooms, then an alert can be shown. And these are intelligent alerts that use machine learning to understand normal behaviours, normal deviations, and significant changes in activity. They can also track deterioration over time. If an elderly Parkinson's sufferer is taking longer and longer to prepare food, or wash, then this can be evident from the data. Longer term trends like this can be very difficult to identify. With this new data, carers can make informed decisions and sensitively raise issues with the elderly.

Panic alarms have been provided to the elderly for many years, but only recently have these devices been cost effective and miniature enough to be used everyday, inside and outside the home. Now the panic button can be voice enabled, so that immediate remote triage can be achieved, reducing false alarms, and delivering the right carer visit or emergency service. This significantly reduces the cost of providing the service, and also speeds up the correct resonse action.

The ability to install easily, with remote configuration and support, to easily add devices, and to enable carers to monitor the system remotely, means less wasted time. This translates into more quality visit time for family members, and more visibility of care needs as time ticks on.

For that alone I'm grateful for the IOT, and will take advantage of the benefits to carers that it brings, as our family moves into the next phase of life.

The Internet of Things and the battle for your airwaves

The Internet Of Things is coming to a home like yours. But do you know which things are trying to connected to the internet, and to each other ... and how?

Sure you do, right? 

The first things we connected were computers and smartphones, connected either in-home through your broadband router (fibre or copper), or out-of-home through a wireless connection (WiFi or 3G/4G wireless).

And now it's safe to say that your games console, smart TV and maybe even your heating controls are internet connected through that home broadband link, and connected in-home with a LAN cable or WiFi. And some people are using Powerline technology to create a LAN through the electricity cables around your home.

So there's a fair amount of connectivity going on already, and at least a few wireless protocols clogging up the air waves. 

Look a little deeper and you'll see some short-range wireless chatter happening. Aside from the Infrared or RF-frequency that your TV remote is kicking out, there'll be a host of keyboards, mice, headphones speakers and game controllers competing for their place in your household airwaves.

Most of these short-range connections will be using the 2.4GHz or 5GHz spectrum band. This is unlicensed and free to use, unlike the 900/1800/2100MHz spectrum bands which the government auctioned off to the mobile phone networks in 2000. A further auction for 4G spectrum bands at 800MHz and 2.6GHz was completed in 2013, further slicing up the airwaves for 'Mobile Broadband' use.

What that all means is that in the big picture is that the two most common bands for short-range connectivity including Bluetooth, console controllers, smart light bulbs, heating controllers, garden moisture monitors, fitness trackers, home gym equipment heart-rate straps, etc... is somewhat congested. 

And by the way... you're not the only people using those bands. Ofcom have also allocated portions of these bands for military use and outdoor TV broadcasts.

The many different wireless protocols do a pretty good job of not interfering with each other, and being digital, they should either work perfectly or not work at all. But if you have a leaky seal around your microwave door, there could be interference that no protocol can fix. A 1000 Watt microwave has shielding to ensure the chef doesn't get cooked, but the shielding isn't 100%.  Your WiFi router is probably kicking out less than 1 Watt, so the potential for disruption by a 1000 Watt microwave is quite high.

In my experience, right now, there is plenty of 'white space' spectrum to have every device connect successfully in this short-range space. But if the Internet Of Things continues to accelerate and create the 50+ billion devices by 2020, this will bring unprecedented load to the white space spectrum. 

If you already have to hold your Garmin Bike Computer close to your Cycle Power Meter to pair them, or you have the occasional glitch with your Bluetooth mouse, or you can't move your phone far from your wireless speaker without the music breaking up, then you may be seeing the start of congestion in your home airwaves.

What can you do about it? Not much, I'm afraid. But there are a couple of tricks...

1. Enable 5GHz on your WiFi router. The 5GHz is not as congested, and isn't affected by Microwave ovens. The devices that can talk 5GHz for WiFi will be happier and the 2.4GHz devices will have a little more breathing room too.

2. Switch to a low channel (1 or 3) for your 2.4GHz WiFi. This is below the wavelength that a Microwave operates at, so should be less prone to discruption.

3. Make use of extra WiFi accesspoints, connected through LAN cables and/or Powerline homeplugs to extend WiFi coverage, rather than use WiFi repeaters or higher power directional WiFi routers.

And if you don't think you can make a difference by cleaning up your WiFi environment, here's a little story to amuse and educate...

In 2015 I was working for a company that had a division which tested WiFi routers for performance. Most of the UK broadband providers had this company check their routers before releasing them to the public. The company owned a house in Berkshire which was furnished like a regular English home, but purely used to test WiFi performance. The router was placed in a set number of locations, at various orientations, while laptops and smartphones were placed throughout the house running specialised software to measure the WiFi strength. 

On a normal day, the results were completed predictable and repeatable. After hundreds of routers had been tested, the team had a solid methodology for reproducing the measurements. They even had WiFi-shielding curtains in every room to reduce any external WiFi influences.

One day the lead engineer came back from lunch to repeat a test on a well known router brand, and this time some readings were different. Only by a factor of 3%, but still different. As this was highly unusual, he checked that none of the devices had been moved, they were all running correctly and that nothing else had changed. He was flummoxed, until his colleague returned from the bathroom and casually suggested to him that he 'Close the toilet seat before he flushed'. The engineer, being a clean living sort, said that he always did. Then the penny dropped. 

On this occasion, the engineer had left the toilet seat up. The reflective surface of the toilet seat had sent the WiFi waves bouncing in different directions than they were bouncing before his lunch. Problem solved, and a new stricter toilet seat protocol was introduced!

The moral of the story... keep a clean-living approach to your WiFi connections, and if you start getting connection problems, invest in some WiFi-shielding curtains.