Amazon Echo - Project

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chrisost
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Re: Amazon Echo - Project

#41

Post by chrisost »

Since there's no indication that the certificate issue is going to be resolved, I was able to set up an AWS API Gateway to proxy the CDN content and get it playing. For development work that (with a URL re-write to redirect the media2 content to the gateway) was enough for me to be able to experiment on my side.
kylefin
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Re: Amazon Echo - Project

#42

Post by kylefin »

Any updates here? I've hacked together a very alpha version for Google Home using API.AI. From my experience, it was pretty intuitive to define interaction flows, and it seems very straight-forward (as in, click a button) to export the project for Google, Amazon Alexa, Microsoft Cortana, Facebook Messenger, Twitter, Slack, Skype, etc etc.

Anybody who wants to poke around with my code, here's my API.AI project you can import: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bysqb ... XYtWW1mMU0
You should be able to import it into an API.AI project of your own then run it on the Google Home simulator (https://developers.google.com/actions/t ... -simulator). While the test is active on the simulator, you can also use it on your physical device logged in with the same Google account. Currently, this is the only supported interaction:

"OK Google, let me talk to gospel library"
"OK, here's gospel library. 'Hi!'"
"Play a talk"
Wait for a random talk from the most recent conference to load and start playing

Here's the exported Alexa version: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bysqb ... WtucnNpWkk
(I don't have a device to test on, and don't know what's involved to install. Would be interested to hear if it works.)

Very excited to see/contribute to a more polished app!
kylefin
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Re: Amazon Echo - Project

#43

Post by kylefin »

In the mean time (for any other Google Home users primarily interested in playing conference talks), you can play a conference talk (and tons of other Church music, Mormon Messages, etc) from YouTube on a Chromecast from Google Home: "OK Google, play <content> on my TV"
JudkinsTM
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Re: Amazon Echo - Project

#44

Post by JudkinsTM »

I'm extremely interested in something that does this. I would love for it to be championed by the church but whatever works. I couldn't find any discussions open on this topic so I made my own. I'll have to try out your skill. https://tech.lds.org/forum/viewtopic.ph ... ead#unread and I'd be interested in contributing. I have dynamodb exp and node.js though I'm no expert.
JudkinsTM
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Re: Amazon Echo - Project

#45

Post by JudkinsTM »

Here are some ideas from my thread that might be worth bringing up here.

Since Alexa is only tied to one person's account however, it would be nice if we could somehow enhance the experience to allow for multiple people to be able to use alexa for their scripture studies. I guess I could always use bookmarks for that. "Alexa open Gospel Library", "Alexa go to Dan's Book Of Mormon bookmark" "Alexa update bookmark.... ok which bookmark would you like to update?.... Dan's Book Of Mormon bookmark. Ok Updated Dan's Book of Mormon Bookmark..... continues reading..." "Alexa read Book of Mormon, Book of Moroni, chapter 10. .... alexa create bookmark. ok,..what would you like to call your bookmark? .... Dan's Book of Mormon ... ok. created Dan's Book of Mormon Bookmark .... continues reading... "

Another thing I'd like to see happen is being able to play songs from the childrens songbook or hymn book as well. It would be nice if it could randomly pick which ones to play but I'm sure the underlying api is limited at the moment.

If there's anything we as a community can do to help improve the APIs for the changes that are needed to work with these home automation devices they should let us know. I'm sure that there are plenty of us that could help crowd source on the rest api as well not just the Alexa or other home automation device sides. I want to work on anything that's going to help facilitate this because I really want it like yesterday.
JudkinsTM
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Re: Amazon Echo - Project

#46

Post by JudkinsTM »

is it up in the air at the moment how you might tie your alexa account to your ldsaccount? Another app that I use called YNAB did something very similar to this and their founder also happens to be lds (he was my brother's home teacher at one point Jesse Mecham.) I wonder if we could learn from what they had to do to link their YNAB accounts to alexa.... https://www.youneedabudget.com/landing/alexa/
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sbradshaw
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Re: Amazon Echo - Project

#47

Post by sbradshaw »

I would love to see this become a full-fledged volunteer project, but I think we need official support from the Church for it to reach its full potential. I think that ultimately it should be hosted on a Church-managed server, and it should be under the Gospel Library umbrella, pulling content from the same source.

thattolleyguy has interacted some with the Gospel Library developers. I've interacted with them as well. From what I can tell, there is casual interest in the project. I think the Android developers would be interested in a service that would work with Google Home, too. The biggest roadblock, as I understand it, is that the managers who make decisions about what to focus on haven't had the project on their radar, because of other priorities.

In my interactions with the Gospel Library developers, it seems there's not a lot of interest in working with Node.js (I'm not sure all the reasons – I'm not much of a programmer myself). I think we need to figure out what the preferred language and structure is and build in that direction. If we start there, I think we will see more support and involvement from the Church.
Last edited by sbradshaw on Fri Jun 09, 2017 12:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Samuel Bradshaw • If you desire to serve God, you are called to the work.
JudkinsTM
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Re: Amazon Echo - Project

#48

Post by JudkinsTM »

Maybe I can reach out to some of my contacts and figure out what the roadblocks are.... I'll see if I can feel around what's holding it up. is Tom still heading up the LDSTech community from the church side or is someone else in charge of it now?
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sbradshaw
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Re: Amazon Echo - Project

#49

Post by sbradshaw »

LDSTech is no longer being maintained and as far as I know there are no employees officially assigned to it. The only active LDSTech projects I know of are Gospel Library for Windows, LDS Music for iOS, LDS Music Content, and Mobile Translation. A few other projects are being used for beta testing.
Samuel Bradshaw • If you desire to serve God, you are called to the work.
JudkinsTM
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Re: Amazon Echo - Project

#50

Post by JudkinsTM »

I guarantee you there's still a contact who's the liason for coordinating LDSTech efforts. it used to be Tom. I'll reach out to a couple of my buddies and find out who I need to talk to.
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