1. An environmental condition detector comprising: an environmental condition sensor; control circuitry coupled to the sensor; the sensor senses an indoor presence of an environmental condition in the ambient vicinity of the detector; speech recognition circuitry coupled to the control circuitry in response to audible verbal commands recognized by the recognition circuitry, the control circuitry initiates one of a selected non-test function of the detector or a test of the detector, wherein a first received and recognized verbal command prepares the detector to receive and recognize at least a second verbal command; after reception of first recognized verbal command, if a second verbal command is not received and recognized within a preset time interval, the detector re-enters a waiting mode to receive a first verbal command; an output device, coupled to the control circuitry which indicates a test result; the sensor comprises at least one of a smoke sensor, a fire sensor, a carbon monoxide sensor, a heat sensor, or a motion sensor; and a housing which contains the sensor, the circuitry and the output device.