Barkly Environmental Control

Functional Requirements Document

Project: Barkly Environmental Control (BEC) Interface: CYN-X Environmental Interface Status: Draft Version: 0.1 Organization: Barkly Labs

01 — Purpose

Barkly Environmental Control (BEC) is a human-centered environmental control system that allows people to control building environments using natural interaction rather than requiring them to manually operate individual devices.

BEC provides a software abstraction layer between CYN-X and physical environmental systems such as network speakers, lighting, displays, notifications, and other connected devices.

The system shall allow a person to express an environmental need such as:

“CYN, that's too loud.”

and have the environment adapt accordingly.

The system shall prioritize human control, accessibility, predictability, and local operation.

02 — Human Need

Traditional building-control systems require humans to understand the structure of the technology before they can change their environment.

BEC reverses this relationship.

Instead of:

Human → Learn device → Find control → Change setting

BEC shall support:

Human → Express need → System interprets need → Environment adapts

The system exists to reduce cognitive load and make physical environments responsive to their occupants.

03 — Scope

BEC shall provide an abstraction layer for:

Audio

Speaker volume

Music playback

Room/zone control

Environmental scenes

Announcements

Notifications

Lighting integrations

Future building-control hardware

The first hardware integration may use ZYCOO network audio equipment.

BEC shall not make CYN-X dependent on a specific hardware manufacturer.

04 — System Architecture

The system shall use the following conceptual architecture:

Human

↓

CYN-X

↓

Barkly Environmental Control API

↓

Hardware Adapter

↓

Physical Environment

Example:

Human → CYN-X → BEC → ZYCOO Adapter → Network Speakers

The BEC API shall provide a stable Barkly-defined interface regardless of the hardware vendor underneath it.

05 — Functional Requirements

FR-001 — Human Environmental Command

The system shall accept natural-language environmental commands from an authorized human.

Examples:

“CYN, that's too loud.”

“CYN, turn the music down.”

“CYN, quiet please.”

“CYN, workshop mode.”

“CYN, study mode.”

“CYN, turn everything off.”

FR-002 — Intent Detection

CYN-X shall interpret environmental commands into structured intents.

Example:

Human:

"CYN, that's too loud."

Intent:

REDUCE_AUDIO_STIMULATION

The intent shall be converted into one or more BEC operations.

FR-003 — Zone Identification

BEC shall support independently controllable environmental zones.

Example zones:

Entrance

Study

Workshop

Computer Lab

Documentation Room

Community Room

Kitchen

Outdoor

A command affecting one zone shall not modify unrelated zones unless explicitly requested.

FR-004 — Volume Control

BEC shall provide an abstract volume-control operation.

Example:

set_zone_volume("study", 25)

The underlying hardware implementation shall be handled by the appropriate hardware adapter.

FR-005 — Zone Muting

BEC shall support muting individual environmental zones.

Example:

mute_zone("workshop")

Muting one zone shall not automatically mute other zones.

FR-006 — Audio Playback

BEC shall support requesting playback of an approved audio source or scene.

Example:

play_scene("study")

The implementation shall determine the appropriate physical playback devices.

FR-007 — Environmental Scenes

BEC shall support predefined environmental scenes.

Initial scenes shall include:

Study Mode

Audio:

Low-volume lo-fi

Lighting:

Calm

Notifications:

Reduced

Announcements:

Quiet

Other zones:

Unchanged

Workshop Mode

Audio:

Workshop playlist

Lighting:

Work lighting

Notifications:

Normal

Announcements:

Normal

Community Mode

Audio:

Community playlist

Lighting:

Community/event lighting

Notifications:

Normal

Announcements:

Enabled

Quiet Mode

Audio:

Muted or minimal

Lighting:

Reduced stimulation

Notifications:

Reduced

Announcements:

Suppressed where appropriate

FR-008 — Natural-Language Scene Activation

CYN-X shall be capable of activating scenes through natural language.

Example:

Human:

"CYN, I'm studying."

CYN-X:

Detected intent: STUDY_MODE

BEC:

activate_scene("study")

FR-009 — Environmental Adaptation

The system shall be capable of modifying multiple environmental systems in response to a single human request.

Example:

Human:

"CYN, I'm overwhelmed."

Possible response:

Audio → Reduce

Lighting → Reduce stimulation

Notifications → Suppress

Announcements → Quiet

Displays → Simplify

The system shall not modify unrelated environmental systems without an applicable rule.

FR-010 — Human Override

A human shall always be able to override an automated environmental decision.

Example:

CYN:

"Study Mode activated."

Human:

"No, keep the lights on."

System:

Restore/retain requested lighting state.

Automated behavior shall never permanently prevent manual control.

FR-011 — Explicit Confirmation

BEC shall request confirmation before executing potentially disruptive or high-impact actions when configured to do so.

Examples:

Whole-building shutdown

Emergency broadcast interruption

Changing another person's protected environment

Disabling safety-related systems

FR-012 — Device Abstraction

BEC shall not expose vendor-specific commands to CYN-X's primary intent system.

CYN-X shall interact with Barkly-defined operations such as:

set_zone_volume()

mute_zone()

unmute_zone()

play_scene()

activate_scene()

get_zone_status()

Hardware-specific translation shall occur inside adapters.

FR-013 — Hardware Adapter

BEC shall support hardware adapters.

Example:

BEC

├── ZYCOO Adapter

├── Lighting Adapter

├── Display Adapter

└── Future Adapter

Replacing a hardware vendor shall not require redesigning the CYN-X intent system.

FR-014 — Device Status

BEC shall provide device and zone status information where supported by the connected hardware.

Example:

Study

Volume: 25%

Playback: Lo-fi

Status: Online

FR-015 — Failure Reporting

If a requested environmental change cannot be completed, BEC shall report the failure.

Example:

Human:

"CYN, turn the workshop speakers down."

System:

"I couldn't reach the workshop speaker controller."

The system shall not falsely report successful execution.

FR-016 — Partial Failure

If only part of an environmental operation succeeds, BEC shall report which operations succeeded and which failed.

Example:

Study Mode:

Audio: ✓

Lighting: ✓

Notifications: ✓

Speaker 2: ✗ unreachable

FR-017 — Local Operation

Where technically possible, environmental control shall continue operating locally without requiring an external cloud service.

Local operation should be preferred for:

Basic control

Device discovery

Scene activation

Status monitoring

Safety functions

FR-018 — Access Control

BEC shall distinguish between authorized and unauthorized users or devices.

Environmental controls shall not be exposed as unrestricted network commands.

FR-019 — Audit Logging

BEC shall optionally record environmental control events.

Example:

2026-09-28 19:42

User request:

"CYN, that's too loud."

Intent:

REDUCE_AUDIO_STIMULATION

Action:

Study volume 40% → 25%

Result:

SUCCESS

Logs shall avoid storing unnecessary personal information.

FR-020 — Accessibility

BEC shall support multiple interaction methods where available:

Voice

Text

Physical controls

Web interface

Mobile interface

Automatic scenes

No single interaction method shall be required for basic environmental control.

06 — Safety Requirements

FR-021 — Safety System Isolation

BEC shall not disable or override systems that are designated as safety-critical unless explicitly authorized by the safety architecture.

Examples:

Fire alarms

Emergency notifications

Required evacuation systems

Life-safety equipment

FR-022 — Emergency Priority

Emergency communication shall have higher priority than ordinary environmental scenes.

Example:

Study Mode

↓

Emergency Broadcast

↓

Emergency message takes priority

FR-023 — Fail-Safe Behavior

Loss of BEC, CYN-X, network connectivity, or an adapter shall not create an unsafe physical environment.

07 — Privacy Requirements

FR-024 — Data Minimization

BEC shall collect only information required to operate the environmental system.

FR-025 — Local Processing

Where practical, environmental commands shall be processed locally.

FR-026 — Human Visibility

The system shall provide a human-readable indication of significant automated environmental changes.

08 — Configuration

BEC shall support configuration of:

Zones

Devices

Device adapters

Maximum/minimum volume

Default scenes

Scene permissions

Quiet hours

Accessibility preferences

Emergency priority

Logging settings

09 — API Requirements

BEC shall expose a stable internal API.

Example:

set_zone_volume(zone, volume)

mute_zone(zone)

unmute_zone(zone)

play_scene(scene)

activate_scene(scene)

get_zone_status(zone)

get_device_status(device)

The API shall remain independent of the underlying hardware vendor.

10 — Example Interaction

Scenario: Speaker Too Loud

Human:

"CYN, that's too loud."

CYN-X:

Intent:

REDUCE_AUDIO_STIMULATION

BEC:

Current zone:

Study

Current volume:

40%

Requested adaptation:

Reduce stimulation

BEC:

set_zone_volume("study", 25)

Hardware adapter:

ZYCOO → Volume 25%

CYN-X:

"Okay. I turned the study speakers down."

11 — Regression Testing

BEC shall maintain automated tests for:

Intent recognition

Zone selection

Volume limits

Scene activation

Human overrides

Hardware failures

Network failures

Partial failures

Access control

Emergency priority

API compatibility

Example regression:

Input:

"CYN, that's too loud."

Expected intent:

REDUCE_AUDIO_STIMULATION

Expected action:

Reduce active zone audio

Expected result:

Audio volume decreases

12 — Acceptance Criteria

BEC shall be considered functionally complete for the initial release when:

A human can issue a natural-language environmental request.

CYN-X can translate that request into a structured intent.

BEC can translate the intent into hardware-independent operations.

A hardware adapter can execute those operations.

The system reports success or failure accurately.

A human can override automated behavior.

Individual zones can be controlled independently.

At least one environmental scene can be activated.

Safety-critical systems remain protected.

Core functionality continues to work locally where supported.

Automated regression tests exist for the core control paths.

The system can operate without CYN-X being directly coupled to a specific hardware vendor.

13 — Design Principle

BEC follows the Barkly Labs system pattern:

Human → Need → System → Adaptation → Feedback → Improvement

The building is treated as an interface.

The human should not need to understand the underlying technology in order to communicate what they need from their environment.

Technology should adapt to humans.