Hey Google

(Photo Description: Grey Google Home Mini Speaker.)

Everyone knows I’m a techie. My house is getting smarter and smarter. The smart lamp next to my bed switches on automatically at half past seven in the morning and switches itself off again at half past eight. It even turns blue when the button of my smart doorbell hanging by the front door is pressed. The nurses have seen this before and they are now used to it.

It was the Google Chromecast that came first. You connect this to your TV and turn it into a smart TV. After the Chromecast came the doorbell, the lamp and then a second Chromecast. Then I thought it would be nice if I could control these devices without having to have 3 different apps open on my phone. Of course I could just install the Google assistant app on my phone and control them with that, but then I would still have to grab my phone and if someone happened to call me while I was watching TV, I would be in a bind because I first would have to open an app to turn off the TV. I’ve accidentally hung up with callers because I wanted to turn off the TV.

So I purchased my first smart speaker. A Google Home Mini with Google Assistant. I can just talk to that to turn off the TV and stop hanging up with my dad when I just want to talk to him.

I have discovered a lot about this smart speaker in the past year. Including routines. Due to the routines, the smart lamp switches on and off at certain times. Not long after that I discovered that the routines can do more than just control another smart device. I could have google talk to me at certain times.

He calls out several times a day for me to use an inhaler or administer an eye drop. A while after showering he tells me to close the bathroom window again. At night he even reminds me to take my asthma inhaler to bed. Super handy! They don’t call that thing an assistant for nothing. Just a little while, then he will also receive a carer appreciation every year on November 10th.

He calls the first announcement at 8:15 AM. This one is to remind me to use my inhaler. Usually around this time, the nurse has already administered medication and is off to help the next client. But occasionally that doesn’t work. Sometimes the nurse is late and I’m downstairs a little later.

That was the case one dark morning when the nurse was a little late. The clocks had just gone back to winter time and I had no idea what time it was. After she handed me the medication, I got up to brush my teeth. She went downstairs to get the rest of my medication ready before moving on to the next client. Down…. To the living room…. Where the smart speaker is….

Later when she came back for the ADL, the conversation started something like this:

“I got a fright when I laid out your medicines downstairs this morning,” said the nurse.

“Oh.. why is that”? I asked.

“I heard a male voice shout something from the corner of the room. I looked around, but have no idea what I heard. Even though my heart was pounding.”

I struggled to contain my laughter.

“Oh oops,” I said. “Did he tell me to use my inhaler”?

“Something like that,” the sister replied.

“Ah so nice of Google. The smart speaker on my desk. I really wouldn’t know what to do without his announcements. He reminds me of everything.”

“Oh,” she said. “He really gives you a fright when you’re standing in a quiet room laying out the medicines.”

I couldn’t contain my laughter any longer. Luckily she thought it was funny too.

There is only one small problem with such a smart speaker. It stays where you put it and if you’re not in the room it’s in when it makes an announcement, you won’t hear it. That’s why I decided to get a second one that I can place upstairs in my bedroom. I planned to buy it after Christmas. But after a Saturday afternoon conversation with Jessica and Mom, a new one was in a box on the couch a few days later. Jessica had seen it in the Black Friday deals and bought it.

So I installed it in the bedroom and gave it a warning. Not that he would understand me, but I told him he isn’t allowed talk at 3am. Otherwise I’d send him flying across the room.

He didn’t dare at 3 a.m., but he did at 8:15 the next morning when the same nurse was in my bedroom signing off the medicines.

“Hey CJ, time to use the inhaler!”

“That’s not possible yet,” I snapped back at him. “I’m still in bed.”

“Jeez,” the nurse muttered from across the room. “That thing still scares me.”

Later after the ADL I gave a short demonstration of the other things he can do for me. Including operating the bedroom lamp and I also let him sing a funny song.

“It can also play normal music,” I said.

On the way to the stairlift, the sister asked; “How much does such a thing actually cost, are they expensive?”

“Some are,” I replied. But I’m not into expensive things. Even without Black Friday deals, these are under fifty euros.

As for her question about the smart bulbs, I told her to do her own research. Because some can be very expensive, but there are also cheaper options.

Who knows, maybe the nurse will have such a smart home one day.

Have you ever had a fright from a smart speaker a client owns? Or do you have one at home? I’d love to hear it in the comments.