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Can an echo control hue devices in 1 room without using the room name?

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mph070770

Confusing subject - sorry - but, put simply I want to do the following with multiple echo's in my house:

"Alexa, turn on the light" (specific to the Echo in my bedroom), instead of "Alexa, turn on the master bedroom light"

and, similarly,

"Alexa, turn on the light" (specific to the Echo in my lounge), instead of "Alexa, turn on the lounge light"

Is Alexa able to determine which echo has received the request and process the command for the device in the same room?

Offline jwlv

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Re: Can an echo control hue devices in 1 room without using the room name?
« Reply #1 on: September 27, 2016, 09:31:33 am »
The only way this is possible is if you set up each Echo under a different account.
That way "the light" is only known to the specific Echo that controls it.

mph070770

Re: Can an echo control hue devices in 1 room without using the room name?
« Reply #2 on: September 27, 2016, 09:34:01 am »
Ah, that's clever - and it might work. I assume I could still point to the same Spotify account from multiple Echo's on different accounts. And I assume the same applies to connecting to a single Hue bridge?

Thanks for the prompt reply.

Yoda_One

Re: Can an echo control hue devices in 1 room without using the room name?
« Reply #3 on: September 27, 2016, 10:03:24 am »
That is really an overkill. You really need to work with the technology design. It is very easy to use simple names and get accustomed to the procedure. Now that said not every light needs to be or should be smart. A light that are used continually such as the nightstand light would be a prime example of overkill. Technology should improve your quality of life, so if you are not physically impaired then manually makes life easier.

mph070770

Re: Can an echo control hue devices in 1 room without using the room name?
« Reply #4 on: September 27, 2016, 10:25:36 am »
Well I guess that's why making a smart home is difficult - we all have different expectations.

Lying in bed and turning off the ceiling light with a simple "light off" command is smart. Having to call it "master bedroom ceiling light" in my opinion isn't smart.

Equally, telling Alexa "i'm cold" should be enough for her to turn up the temperature in the room where she hears my voice....

DParker

Re: Can an echo control hue devices in 1 room without using the room name?
« Reply #5 on: September 27, 2016, 01:15:24 pm »
I'm with you on the need for location-sensitive commands (and have previously described how it could easily be implemented should Amazon desire to do so), but this one is problematic:

Equally, telling Alexa "i'm cold" should be enough for her to turn up the temperature in the room where she hears my voice....

How cold are you?  By how much should the thermostat be turned up?  Since Alexa integrates with "smart" thermostats, which should already be set to your preferred comfort level, there's no way of knowing from something as vague as "I'm cold" exactly what it is that you're wanting.

Yoda_One

Re: Can an echo control hue devices in 1 room without using the room name?
« Reply #6 on: September 27, 2016, 02:30:04 pm »
Well I guess that's why making a smart home is difficult - we all have different expectations.

Lying in bed and turning off the ceiling light with a simple "light off" command is smart. Having to call it "master bedroom ceiling light" in my opinion isn't smart.

Equally, telling Alexa "i'm cold" should be enough for her to turn up the temperature in the room where she hears my voice....

I would use overhead light out. Hot light source. Grouping light into multitude name also helps including ALL group to turn off all the light in this home.

Re: Can an echo control hue devices in 1 room without using the room name?
« Reply #7 on: September 27, 2016, 05:58:47 pm »
Well I guess that's why making a smart home is difficult - we all have different expectations.

Lying in bed and turning off the ceiling light with a simple "light off" command is smart. Having to call it "master bedroom ceiling light" in my opinion isn't smart.

Equally, telling Alexa "i'm cold" should be enough for her to turn up the temperature in the room where she hears my voice....

could be a future feature, gotta walk before you can run.  the features it currently has is still a whole lot more than a couple of years ago  :-)