Habits automation system for Mycroft

Presentation

The habits automation system aims to detect the user habits when using Mycroft, and to offer automation of these identified habits.

A habit is defined as a set of commands that the user is used to launch together on Mycroft. The habit detection identifies 2 types of habits:

• "Time based" habits (e.g. Everyday at 8 a.m. the user often says "turn on the boiler")
• "Trigger based" habits (e.g. Right after saying "Turn on the couch lamps" the user often says "Turn on the kitchen lamps")

Once that a habit has been identified, the user can choose between:

• automating the habit: every time the habit "trigger" is detected (time or triggering command), the habit will be reproduced automatically without asking the user
• being given the option to reproduce the habit: every time the habit "trigger" is detected, Mycroft will ask the user if he/she wants to reproduce the habit this time
• not automating the habit

When it comes to "trigger based" habits, the user is free to chose the command to be used as trigger. A command can only be the trigger of one habit.

How does it work?

The habit automation system is composed of 3 Mycroft skills working together:

1. The listener, that logs the user activity. It is also responsible for launching the 2 other skills when needed.
2. The habit-miner, that extracts the habits of the user from the logs.
3. The automation-handler, that interacts with the user to offer habits automation. It is also responsible for launching the different commands of the automated habits.

The logs are stored locally and never sent to a third party server for privacy reasons.

More technically, a habit is composed of a set of {intent, parameters}. Intents are defined here and parameters are the keywords from the vocab files. The analysis of the logs is launched automatically when you don't talk to Mycroft for 5 minutes.

You can find more technical details on the repository of each skill.

How to install the skills?

Direct installation within Mycroft with:

Hey Mycroft, install skill listener. Hey Mycroft, install...

On a Linux environment with Mycroft installed you can install the skills using msm (Mycroft Skill Manager) by following these steps:

# get into Mycroft virutalenv
source ~/.virtualenvs/mycroft/bin/activate

# use msm to install the skills
sudo /<PATH_TO_MYCROFT-CORE>/mycroft-core/msm/msm install https://github.com/PFE1718/PFE1718-skill-listener
sudo /<PATH_TO_MYCROFT-CORE>/mycroft-core/msm/msm install https://github.com/PFE1718/PFE1718-automation-handler
sudo /<PATH_TO_MYCROFT-CORE>/mycroft-core/msm/msm install https://github.com/PFE1718/PFE1718-habit-miner

Don't forget to leave the virualenv with the command

deactivate

when you are done!

After successfully installing the 3 skills and restarting Mycroft, the system should start logging your activity and eventually offer you to automate habits after they are identified!

How to manage your habits?

When you first reproduce a detected habit, Mycroft will ask you if this habit should be automatized. You can then choose between the 3 automation options.

A dialog allows you to modify your habits' preferences later on. You can access it with the command:

Hey Mycroft, list my habits

SmartCroft, an Electron GUI to manage your habits is available for Linux! For now it allows you to modify your habits settings and to register new trigger based habits.