Amazon's Raspberry Pi Guide Lets Coders Build An Echo (bbc.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from BBC: Amazon has published an online guide explaining how to access its virtual assistant Alexa via a Raspberry Pi. The walkthrough includes access to the necessary app data and certificates in order to link the budget computer up to the tech giant's servers. Amazon says that users require at least the second-generation model, released in February 2015, as well as: a plug-in USB microphone, microSD card, ethernet cable, Wi-Fi wireless adapter, mouse, keyboard, and screen. The coding involved is limited to typing in sets of commands, but the guide explains the purpose of each one. Users also need to register for an Amazon Developer Account, which they can get for free.

Comments

Re:Bit of a fail

[Anon-Admin]

I have a first generation (First run model) of the pi.

With only 256megs of ram, it is hard to do much with it.
The second generation had 512meg and that made a lot of difference! I have a couple of them.
Then there was the second generation B+ with the extra ports, I have 3 or 4 of them laying around.
Now with the third generation having 4cores and 1g of ram, there is a lot you can do with it. That reminds me, I need to order a couple. ;)

So Amazon can use my hardware to listen to me?

[hughbar]

I'm a Raspberry Pi and an open source 'enthusiast'. I'm not a big Amazon fan, they don't really pay taxes here in the UK, for example and somewhat dominate the online retail space. I use http://www.hive.co.uk/ for books, because they also support local bookshops. So, I'm somewhat prejudiced.

That said, why on earth would I build my own Echo, using my own hardware, so that it can probably 'listen' or make use of my data in some way to further the march of Amazon? I don't think so, as they say. There's lots of non-Amazon home automation projects and, if there are none that suit, just buy some relays and ping the GPIO pins with your own programs. As they (we) say, if it's free, then you are the product.