Posts made by bartalluyn

@lucallmon
Hi, yes i’ve got everything working just fine now. As a matter of fact I haven’t got anything on GitHub just yet. Primarily because I haven’t gotten around to it yet. i want it to be a bit more “finished” before I do so. Furthermore, it’s more than just the one project. You’ve also got the debug hub, the adapted java client, the code on the amazon server, the custom skills, dynamodb table etc. It’s not a “next, next, finish” type of thing…
But if you follow the steps on my blog closely you will come a long way. If you want to have a specific piece of code or something, just drop me a line, and i’ll send it to you. Also, currently, some of the code is broken because i’m experimenting with the camera right now. I’ll be posting some updates on that soon.

@darianbjohnson Hi, thanks. I’ll be sure to check that out. Good luck with the new project. Let us know how it goes!

@joanaz That’s indeed something that wouldn’t work in that case.
It sounds like you would need something like account linking. What if the smart mirror would publish a service that takes and gives account credentials to hook on using the account linking functionality of a custom skill?
Thinking out of the box right now?
Also, suppose it works. When people start to install your module, and use your skill, your 1 million free lambda calls might expire sooner than you think? That’s one of the reasons why I’m not considering putting any of my skills out there.

Hi Darian,

That’s a cool mirror project you have going on there.
I’ve been creating the same kind of thing, and I was wondering how you got the communication between Alexa and the mirror going.

I’ve been doing it using a queue in DynamoDB, but you might have had some other Ideas. I quickly checked out your blog, but didn’t find any technical details. Go ahead and check out mine, and let me know if you’re interested in sending me some pointers or code of you alexa skills to help me improve mine.

[http://smartmirrorprojectblog.wordpress.com/](link url)

thanks!

Bart

Hi,

I’ve succeeded in succesfully linking Alexa to the smart mirror. When I issue a command, the mirror responds automatically. It has automatic wake word detection, audio feedback, automatic authentication using a refresh token, connection through a mirror interface. In the background it uses Alexa Skills kit and DynamoDB to make the communication happen. Read about it on my blog :
[http://smartmirrorprojectblog.wordpress.com/](link url)
Go ahead and follow the blog to find out on the progression and further development.

Tips and suggestions welcome of course.

Hi,

I’ve succeeded in succesfully linking Alexa to the smart mirror. When I issue a command, the mirror responds automatically. It has automatic wake word detection, audio feedback, automatic authentication using a refresh token, connection through a mirror interface. In the background it uses Alexa Skills kit and DynamoDB to make the communication happen. Read about it on my blog :
[http://smartmirrorprojectblog.wordpress.com/](link url)
Go ahead and follow the blog to find out on the progression and further development.

Tips and suggestions welcome of course.

@lucallmon
things for the tip!
I’ll be sure to check that out…

@lucallmon,
as a matter of fact I am. I’m using the sample software provided by Amazon, and adapt it to be able to talk to the mirror.
It has plenty of advantages :

• not using AlexaPi, which is a third party software module, possible containing extra bugs (with all due respect to the developers of course ; respect), where as I’m supposing the Amazon samples all run pretty good
• Amazon supports it, and when new features arrive, new samples would theoretically be easier to integrate without having to code them myself or wait for the alexa pi community.
• All features are supported out of the box: music playback, alerts, feedback cards. These features are not all supported by AlexaPi, I think (or I should be mistaken).
• Wake word detection provided by Amazon, not using sphynx etc (or using a hardware button for that matter). Something provided from the vendor, free of charge (for personal use).
• Automatic integration of custom skills.
• My interface will use a simple communication platform in which practically no external code is required, except for some java code extending the java client provided by Amazon. But that is rather straight forward.

In effect is an alternative to AlexaPi which I intend to extend further. My “problem” is that I don’t know python, but I do know Java and Javascript. Learning python and extending the code would take me longer to implement as well. I don’t need to extend any code expect for forwarding alexa’s feedback the mirror, and acting accordingly there. I haven’t come this far yet, but I intend to do this in the course of next month.

Any questions, tips, pointers, etc. Keep them coming, and subscribe to the blog to keep up to date with my progress. Eventually I’ll be uploading the whole shabang to GitHub, but you can see all the code & the explanations in detail right now on the blog as well.

cheers!

Thank you kindly for the quick reply.
I had a feeling it was going to be quite a simple solution. :-)

I’m just a noob getting the hang of things more and more.

This is exactly what i’m building right now.
I’m using a pimped java client with a refresh token and a http communication setup to do it.

I don’t need any coding except for the comm between the client and the mirror. The client handles everything from alexa : wake word, auto authenticate, alerts, etc. The mirror is the interface.

Not there yet, but one of my next steps is displaying the feedback of alexa on the mirror and creating a custom skill that impacts the mirror.

Keep track of my progress in my blog :

[https://smartmirrorprojectblog.wordpress.com](link url)

pointers are welcome