Using voice-controlled interfaces via Amazon Alexa
Listening to the Word
Want to add voice activation to your IoT environment? Create an Alexa skill.
If you want to control your own home automation environment with Amazon Alexa using natural language, you have two options. Either resort to a prebuilt Alexa skill, as offered by the vendors of some automation components, or write a skill of your own.
If you can find a prebuilt skill that performs the task you want to automate, you can accomplish the automation with just a few short steps; however, the possibilities are limited to the set of options that have already been provided by third-party programmers. If you want to reach other devices – or even if you just want to execute a series of actions that don't fall easily within Alexa's existing skill set, you need to write the skill yourself.
This article shows how to build the front end of your Alexa automation by getting Alexa to communicate with a Raspberry Pi. Once you establish the link to the RaspPi device, you can train the Pi to perform any number of basic functions on your IoT home network.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
TuxCare Announces Support for AlmaLinux 9.2
Thanks to TuxCare, AlmaLinux 9.2 (and soon version 9.6) now enjoys years of ongoing patching and compliance.
-
Go-Based Botnet Attacking IoT Devices
Using an SSH credential brute-force attack, the Go-based PumaBot is exploiting IoT devices everywhere.
-
Plasma 6.5 Promises Better Memory Optimization
With the stable Plasma 6.4 on the horizon, KDE has a few new tricks up its sleeve for Plasma 6.5.
-
KaOS 2025.05 Officially Qt5 Free
If you're a fan of independent Linux distributions, the team behind KaOS is proud to announce the latest iteration that includes kernel 6.14 and KDE's Plasma 6.3.5.
-
Linux Kernel 6.15 Now Available
The latest Linux kernel is now available with several new features/improvements and the usual bug fixes.
-
Microsoft Makes Surprising WSL Announcement
In a move that might surprise some users, Microsoft has made Windows Subsystem for Linux open source.
-
Red Hat Releases RHEL 10 Early
Red Hat quietly rolled out the official release of RHEL 10.0 a bit early.
-
openSUSE Joins End of 10
openSUSE has decided to not only join the End of 10 movement but it also will no longer support the Deepin Desktop Environment.
-
New Version of Flatpak Released
Flatpak 1.16.1 is now available as the latest, stable version with various improvements.
-
IBM Announces Powerhouse Linux Server
IBM has unleashed a seriously powerful Linux server with the LinuxONE Emperor 5.