I’ve been searching for a while via Ecosia, Google etc. and on Reddit but I’m struggling to find an answer.

My parents are moving together with my grandma to a new house with a little annex for my grandma. They’re planning to get Alexa’s so that my grandma can call through to the other side of the house if she falls over or needs help. I would love for them not to end up giving every conversation they ever have to Amazon’s servers… Is there any way to replicate this functionality in Home Assistant (i.e. call between satellites across the network)? If I can figure this out I’ll build a self-hosted setup for them.

  • sunnyjim@lemmy.zipOPEnglish
    1·
    39 minutes ago

    Thanks for the suggestions everyone. In broad strokes, here’s the thinking to reply to a few comments at once:

    1. We didn’t want to use a phone-based solution because she doesn’t always carry her phone in the middle of the night. This goes for carrying a button.

    2. A LifeAlert system could work, but they usually involve buttons.

    After talking about it, we realised that simply putting out a baby monitor or equivalent might be the most effective - she can shout at it and it will go direct. An alternative would be setting up a HA alert to broadcast based on a phrase (or a few). We’ll weigh up the options but I’m leaning towards the former.

    Thanks everyone! I appreciate the ideas - I think HA might not be the solution after all, but hopefully I can keep them from installing wiretaps Amazon Alexa in their house.

  • CameronDev@programming.devEnglish
    12·
    9 hours ago

    If its safety related, use a paid for tool if you can afford it. The cost you pay for is for all the testing and reliability, that you can’t replicate with a diy solution.

    You’ll feel terrible if something happens and your solution doesn’t work in the moment.

    • brygphilomena@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      5·
      7 hours ago

      I second this. It’s health and safety related. You don’t want to have it break at the exact moment it’s needed.

      Life alert or something similar is the solution.

  • artyom@piefed.socialEnglish
    1·
    10 hours ago

    You could just get her a ZigBee button on a necklace that she can press like a LifeAlert that just automatically broadcasts a message.

  • Ludicrous0251@piefed.zipEnglish
    3·
    13 hours ago

    IDK about a true voice call but you could definitely set something to play a message through a second satellite. You could even make it recurring until snoozed e.g.:

    Grandma: “Computer, I need help”

    HASS - Trigger automation say (through separate speaker) “Grandma called, she needs help”, delay 30, repeat until button is pressed.

    The tricky part is teaching it enough permutations of “I need help” that Grandma doesn’t have to get the phrasing exactly right in an emergency

  • rmuk@feddit.ukEnglish
    31·
    13 hours ago

    I don’t have an answer to the direct question, but if she would struggle to use her phone in that situation I also imagine she might struggle to clearly say “Hey Alexa, make a call to Mommy Jim” or whatever. I’m walking at the moment so I don’t have the details to hand, but mmwave presence sensors can distinguish between someone standing and lying down. You can also buy Bluetooth wristbands that can detect if the wearer falls. It might be worth figuring out if a fall can be sensed rather than reported.

  • just_another_person@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    14 hours ago

    A phone seems like an easier solution, but there are VOIP integrations for HA, as well as ways to stream audio through the media player to different devices. I’m not aware of any integration that specifically does paging as you describe, but it would be easy to do with an esp32 board with a speaker.

    • bluGill@fedia.io
      41·
      14 hours ago

      problem is a phone only works if you have it on you. Grandma falling often is a case where she doesn’t have a phone (often grandma in this case is in mental decline and wouldn’t think to use the phone if she had it).

      A privacy respecting device that can hear “help” and general cries/grunts to get help when needed is what the world really needs. This is much more complex than the ask, but it is the real need here. For me what the OP was asking is enough, I just need to inform a kid in a different room dinner is ready.

      • just_another_person@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        12 hours ago

        In which case, an app on a phone is still much easier. Plenty of privacy-respecting apps out there that handle wake words, STT, and IFTTT actions. Just seems a much easier route than trying to shoehorn it via HA when that’s not even it’s general use-case.

  • RogueBanana@piefed.zipEnglish
    1·
    13 hours ago

    I haven’t played around with voice assistant but I remember seeing something to setup automatons based on keywords. You can use that to send an alert to family members mobiles.

    I haven’t found any easy to use voice calling integration yet. I am also looking for something like this myself to talk to family members on a different floor to replace traditional calling.

  • damnthefilibuster@lemmy.worldEnglish
    21·
    13 hours ago

    You could try Rhasspy - https://github.com/rhasspy/rhasspy

    Mike is a pretty cool guy. I know the repo is archived, but he might help you if you reach him.

    Alternatively, what about a panic button? Both commercial solutions and privacy friendly local solutions exist. I know it’s intrusive and grandma will have to keep it on her person at all times. But… that’s kind of what they’re there for.