Check out this amazing Google Now powered LED coffee table (!)

Gadgets, Home Appliances
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What’s brilliant about the likes of the Raspberry Pi and Arduino is that it makes hacking together your own gadgets pretty straightforward. Check out the above video showing Mikel Duke’s coffee table – which features an array of LED lights that can be controlled through voice on his smartphone.

Here’s how it works:

“This a demo of using Google Now voice commands to change the modes on my led array based coffee table.

The table is run using an Arduino to control the leds. The Arduino has a few demo modes coded in to it and the ability to output byte arrays sent over serial to the leds.

The Arduino is hooked up to a Raspberry Pi over USB, which is running a Java program I have written. This program can send images to the Arduino, make animations, and change the built in auto modes. The Java app has a web service built in to it which allows for remote control.

I created some simple Tasker scripts using the HTTP GET command to access the RPi webservice and control the table. Then by using the Tasker plug in AutoVoice, I am able to run Tasker tasks by saying OK Google and using it’s voice recognition.”

Amazing!

James O’Malley
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