S.A.R.A.H : Self Actuated Residential Automated Habitat

Few days ago I discovered the S.A.R.A.H project. This is a framework developped by Jp Encausse which allows you to code (or use plugins created by the comunity to build) a chatterbot wich has a lot of interractions with your habitat. It works with a kinect for gesture and face recognition expressed in XML, for QR codes and for voice recognition (any microphone). It is based on C# and node.js :

• The C# part translates the input (gesture, voice, face, QR code) into an HTTP request  which is sent to the node.js part
• The node.js part recieves the request and scrap websites  (with phantomJS) or execute a software, whatever you planned. It can send back an HTTP request vocalized by the C# part
• The node.js part can also carry out periodic script (CRON) that triggers HTTP requests

This is a very powerfull tool that I tried without Kinect, I plaid with the voice recognition only. With a really bad microphone it still understands pretty well (with few noise around) the words I say and the voice recognition is really easy to use for building plugins. 

Even if I hate javascript, I decided to give a try and create a plugin that will start Deezer's playlists by simply saying something like "Sarah, playlist {playlist name}". The Deezer's widget helped me a lot and Sarah is so easy to use that in the end I spent most of the time debugging caracters escape from the batch file or the js. I'm thinking about a Spotify's plugin now !

The community is working hard to build new plugins and some boxes like the Zibase are already working with Sarah. It means you can control everything in your house with your voice and you are doing it by yourself, as YOU want it. I've always dreamt about living in a house with a voice control, I think that I'll continue to work on plugins and I hope this project will continue to grow !