Echo Skill

[thomaszoo]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

For the first part, are you saying when you say "play XXXX" the video starts but pauses?

Yes. Sometimes it will start playing, but most of the time it is paused.

For the second part, those utterances will not make anything happen on the TV. That's all in a "virtual view" in Alexa's head The only way to make something happen on the TV is by uttering "play <show name>" (or one of the other "play" utterances mentioned in previous posts) or to say "command <keystroke>".

It's currently not possible to co-ordinate Alexa with what appears on a physical Sage user interface. Many people have asked for it, it's just not possible unless I use a stripped down user interface and prohibit all UI Mod plugins.

Thanks. I'll stop trying to make that happen!

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by wayner

This is doable though isn't it? From the web UI you can search for a movie by name and then play it in any UI context, so I imagine it is the same for the Echo.

So I would think something like this "Alexa, ask SageTV to play Frozen in the kitchen" should work, assuming that Alexa could parse the movie title.

Would you have to do something to differentiate the voice commands for TV shows from movies?

You would think that there would be Alexa skills for apps like Plex and Kodi but I don't see anything for those when I search the Alexa app.

Playing things isn't a problem. Asking Alexa to decipher what to play is the problem.

So no, it may not be doable. Parsing human speech is trivial for humans (although sometimes I wonder if my kids understand what I am saying) but very difficult for machines.

To see the kinds of utterances Alexa is capable of deciphering look here: https://developer.amazon.com/public/...intent-library Pay special attention to the "video" intents. I need to implement "VideoCreativeWorks" and/or "CreativeWorks" intents.

It's very tedious to implement these intents because Alexa does not neatly put words it hears into the right fields. For example, it took a while for me to get "play the first unwatched episode of <show name>" to work because Alexa would often return "on watched", "and watched", "on watch", "and watch", "unwatch", etc. instead of "unwatched". Sometimes the show name would come through as "and watched <show name>".

Then there is the complication of finding shows that closely match what the user utters. For example, sometimes "play game of thrones" is deciphered as "play game of thrown" or "watch Star Trek Deep Space Nine" is deciphered as "deep space 9". Trivial for a human to see what the user meant, but not trivial for a machine.

I'm actually awed by how well Deep Blue and other AI systems perform.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by thomaszoo

Yes. Sometimes it will start playing, but most of the time it is paused.

What state is the UI in when you ask it to play? (For example: Is the screensaver on? Is there something else playing or paused? Is it sitting at the main menu or some sub menu?) I try to make sure that the screensaver is deactivated and anything that is playing or paused is stopped before playing a new video. I probably have overlooked something.

[SDeGonge]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

I just submitted the "Sage For Echo" UI Mod plugin to the repository. You no longer need to search through this thread for the manifest or for the latest echoFunctions file. Instead, just install the UI Mod plugin.

The plugin will work for SageTV version 7 or version 9.

I just tried installing the Sage For Echo plugin but got the following error...

Plugin Install Progress: Done-FAILED-Dependency Install sageforechofunctions-FAILED-Dependency Install sagex-api-services-FAILED-Dependency Install jetty-FAILED-Resource Download http ://downloads.sourceforge. net/project/sageplug i ns/jetty%2 OS tarter/2 .3.0/plug in/jetty-sta rter-jars-2 .3.0.14.zip?use mirror=

Not sure what is going on. I'm pretty sure I do not have any Jetty stuff installed and I think I'm using Java 8 if that has any impact. Also running Gemstone.

Any suggestions?

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by SDeGonge

I just tried installing the Sage For Echo plugin but got the following error...

Plugin Install Progress: Done-FAILED-Dependency Install sageforechofunctions-FAILED-Dependency Install sagex-api-services-FAILED-Dependency Install jetty-FAILED-Resource Download http ://downloads.sourceforge. net/project/sageplug i ns/jetty%2 OS tarter/2 .3.0/plug in/jetty-sta rter-jars-2 .3.0.14.zip?use mirror=

Not sure what is going on. I'm pretty sure I do not have any Jetty stuff installed and I think I'm using Java 8 if that has any impact. Also running Gemstone.

Any suggestions?

I think sourceforge has been up and down a lot. Wait a little while and try again.

Your Java version is not an issue. I'm not a Gemstone user, does it use the Setup->Detailed Setup->Customize menu from the default STV? That's where you have the ability to name the TV/extender.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by SDeGonge

I just tried installing the Sage For Echo plugin but got the following error...

Plugin Install Progress: Done-FAILED-Dependency Install sageforechofunctions-FAILED-Dependency Install sagex-api-services-FAILED-Dependency Install jetty-FAILED-Resource Download http ://downloads.sourceforge. net/project/sageplug i ns/jetty%2 OS tarter/2 .3.0/plug in/jetty-sta rter-jars-2 .3.0.14.zip?use mirror=

Not sure what is going on. I'm pretty sure I do not have any Jetty stuff installed and I think I'm using Java 8 if that has any impact. Also running Gemstone.

Any suggestions?

on a similar note, I've been having loads of trouble using the plugin repository, with failures pretty much the norm now. frustrating...

[NoodleNT]

We need a way to confirm the port change request. My wife was playing with Alexa and trying to get Sage to change to a TV channel... instead it changed the port.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by NoodleNT

We need a way to confirm the port change request. My wife was playing with Alexa and trying to get Sage to change to a TV channel... instead it changed the port.

Agreed. For some reason she likes to hear hex digits instead of other commands

[wayner]

@tmiranda - Have you come up with any way of having users enter data like port and locator ID? I am having this issue with other skills that I have been working on - other than figuring out how to use the official Account Linking feature of Alexa. And speaking of that, have you looked into using Account Linking at all for this information?

Here is the Amazon page on this: https://developer.amazon.com/public/...in-your-system

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by wayner

@tmiranda - Have you come up with any way of having users enter data like port and locator ID? I am having this issue with other skills that I have been working on - other than figuring out how to use the official Account Linking feature of Alexa. And speaking of that, have you looked into using Account Linking at all for this information?

Here is the Amazon page on this: https://developer.amazon.com/public/...in-your-system

Yes, I looked at that a lot. It's probably the better way to go but it requires a web back end and I don't have the skills (no pun intended) for that. Ideally I'd have a dedicated web back end running the skill as well as doing OAUTH duty.

If there are any web developers out there who want to help I'd be more than willing to collaborate.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by NoodleNT

We need a way to confirm the port change request. My wife was playing with Alexa and trying to get Sage to change to a TV channel... instead it changed the port.

While updating this I found a bug that was probably preventing users from entering the port correctly. I hope to have a fix out today that includes adding a verification before changing the port.

[NoodleNT]

What back end service is managing the locator ID for Sage? Perhaps we can extend that to hold the port info? Isn't the locator ID some version of a dynamic DNS service?

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by NoodleNT

What back end service is managing the locator ID for Sage? Perhaps we can extend that to hold the port info? Isn't the locator ID some version of a dynamic DNS service?

That service is being hosted by Google. I think it is asking a lot, and really doesn't make sense, to update the core to support a single plugin.

Let's see if improving the way the skill handles the port change will help. I found a bug in there that was probably messing things up.

I also considered using the Amazon login server. There are "user profile" fields in Amazon that I can probably hijack. That's a bit clunky but I think it's doable. An interesting side effect is that we may see people on Amazon with interests that look suspiciously like locator IDs and ports

[tmiranda]

I just deployed a new version of the skill. Now when you change the port it will ask for confirmation.

I also fixed a bug that was preventing some users from entering a custom port number.

[tmiranda]

Just made a few more updates:

- If you ask "What can I do?" it will give you some ideas on things to try.

- If you ask "What new things can I do?" it will tell you what's been added in the most recent version.

- It will now handle simultaneous requests and you should never hear "Sorry, the server is busy."

[KarylFStein]

Could this be made to handle SSL connections?

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by KarylFStein

Could this be made to handle SSL connections?

It uses Jetty and sagex-services to communicate between the skill and the Sage server. As long as they support SSL the skill will.

[KarylFStein]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

It uses Jetty and sagex-services to communicate between the skill and the Sage server. As long as they support SSL the skill will.

It doesn't work. I opened my firewall to allow my non-SSL port through and that connects, but if I use my SSL port it won't connect.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by KarylFStein

It doesn't work. I opened my firewall to allow my non-SSL port through and that connects, but if I use my SSL port it won't connect.

Sorry I wasn't clear. It will work,but I need to update the code.

[tmiranda]

I introduced a bug in the last version. I will fix it tomorrow.

To whoever was trying to watch "Elementary" - You need to update the plugin on your server.