Tom's Life Bits

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===== CONTROL OPENHAB ITEMS USING THE AMAZON ECHO =====
==== INTRODUCTION ====
Having a digital personal assistant, like Jarvis from Iron Man, is the ultimate geek dream.  Over the past few years, most of the major tech companies have attempted to turn this dream into reality.  Apple has Siri, Microsoft has Cortana, and Google has Google Now.  Even some smaller companies have tried their hand:  SoundHound recently launched their Hound app which focuses on natural language processing and a speedy response to your queries.  All of these companies have something in common, though.  They’re all focused on using your mobile phone as the input device.

Amazon has taken a different approach with their Echo “smart speaker”.  The Echo is a stylish, cylindrical speaker which is meant to be displayed on a coffee table, kitchen counter, or your nightstand.  However, the important part of Echo is what it’s doing: listening.  Simply speak the trigger word at any time (“Alexa” by default) to make the Echo spring to life and await your command.  That’s why it’s the perfect home automation controller.  It’s hands-free!

In this post, I’m going to show you how to control your OpenHAB items using the Amazon Echo.  Let’s begin!

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