Inspiration
Around 12 hours into the hackathon, Quicken Loans was giving away these really cool induction speakers; Since we were bored and didn't have a project idea, we started taking them apart and stacking them together. Now we have one obnoxiously loud speaker. We had plenty of extra time, so we thought it would be cool to make something like a spoof of Amazon's Alexa for these speakers.
What it does
The speaker functionality works as you would think; place your phone on top of the speakers, and they work just like they would normally. The virtual assistant part can take in a few commands, such as asking for up-to-date weather, and other fun gimmicks.
How we built it
The modified speaker part was built by moving around some parts inside the speakers, so that they are stackable on top of each other in order to boost the sound. The virtual assistant uses a JavaScript library called Artyom.js, which helps in using voice recognition and TTS on the web.
Challenges we ran into
Since we were developing the web app for mobile, we encountered some difficulties making certain features, such as playing audio or accessing the microphone. We also had some difficulties making cross-origin HTTP requests in order to use certain APIs.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
To be entirely honest, we're proud we ended up having an idea and a project to work on and demo.
What we learned
We learned a ton about development with JavaScript
What's next for Lexie
We hope to add more functionality to the virtual assistant, such as the ability to control smart thermostats and light switches, among other things.
Built With
- artyom.js
- express.js
- node.js
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