Even though she can barely understand me, Siri can do some pretty cool stuff. She can find the answers to movie trivia and tell me if it’s raining, but she still can’t do really useful things yet, like turning off the lights or adjust my thermostat, even though home automation is going to be Apple’s next big thing.
A YouTube user by the name of Elvis Impersonator decided it’s time to take Siri to the next level, and make her a truly great personal assistant. So thanks to a Raspberry Pi, Siri can now open and close his garage door, turn off his house alarm, change his TV channel and so much more.
Here’s a video of this awesome Siri home automation hack in action:
All of the wonderful home automation tricks are done through a Raspberry Pi running SiriProxy. The iPhone sends voice commands from Elvis to the Raspberry Pi which then executes his orders. It seems pretty complex, but it only took Elvis about three days to get everything running.
“I have been following the development of SiriProxy since its initial appearance in November 2011 and even got it installed and working on an Marvell SheevaPlug ARM based plug computer. I spent countless nights dreaming of the day I could use voice commands to control my home, but I was still under a long term contract on my existing iPhone. I already had been experimenting with IP2IR control in various forms, but the controller I use in the video seemed to offer the most features which the manufacturer added a REST API in March 2012.”
The components that Elvis’s system uses are as follows:
- Elk M1 Gold security panel (https://www.elkproducts.com)
- ISY99i Series X10/Insteon lighting controller (https://www.universal-devices.com)
- Trendnet IP cameras (https://www.trendnet.com)
- Nest Thermostat (https://www.nest.com)
- RedEye IP2IR controllers (https://www.thinkflood.com)
- SiriProxy running on a RPi (https://www.raspberrypi.org)
- iOS mobile apps MobiLinc HD ( https://mobilincstore.com) and eKeypad Pro (https://blog.ekeypad.net) for iPhone/iPad touch control. (not in video)
All the software that Elvis uses in his home automation setup is completely open source. You can download it over on his GitHub page and get to work on your own house of the future if you’re feeling adventurous.
Source: YouTube
Via: TNW
