When it comes to making homes smart, the first thing people consider is the artificial in telligence that powers it. This judgment will ultimately influence any further decision on hardware peripherals. So, if you’ve chosen to initially go with an Amazon Echo in your smart home efforts, then the rest of your IoT devices should most likely be comprised of Amazon Alexa compatible products.
So, if you’re in the process of choosing your A.I., weigh your options carefully because you’re going to be stuck with your choice. The decision is made even more difficult because each A.I. has their own strengths and weaknesses. Alexa's strengths, for example, is on the vastness and inexpensiveness of its Amazon-made peripherals, Google Assistant's, on the other hand, is on its reliable Google-powered data management, while Siri' s is on the closed circuit and highly secure iOS and Apple Home peripherals.
But, there’s one device already out on the market that can eliminate the limitations of each of these A.I. brains.
The Raspberry Pi is a versatile little credit-card sized computer that can potentially interact with any of these operating systems. This means users can craft whatever IoT device they desire and have it connect to their smart home A.I. of choice. The projects that people have already made with the Raspberry Pi are remarkably innovative. The best part of this is that they actually upload DIY guides over YouTube or other means to empower anyone to take full advantage of such an amazing device.
Here are some of the best:
Smart Mirror
Connecting your mirror to the internet might not seem like a useful idea at first but the real-world application to its pioneer is surprisingly excellent. With his smart mirror, Michael Teeuw no longer has to check his phone or computer for weather updates as he plans for his OOTD. Having weather information ready for you at a glance at the mirror that you’re really going to take a meandering gaze anyway cuts your prep time short.
He does this with the use of a one-way mirror and a Raspberry Pi connected to a display. It’s quite an easy task to program the tiny computer for simple things like displaying and updating weather information through the Android platform.
Smart Media Player
Considering that portable media players such as the Google’s Chromecast aren’t exactly cheap, a Raspberry Pi-powered media player with Google’s own Android TV installed on it is one the most utilized project the microcomputer is currently used for.
This option is a lot cheaper than the Google-branded player but with exactly the same capabilities with an even more powerful CPU. This way, it’s not just an inexpensive alternative to a smart IoT device, it’s an extremely capable upgrade to the original.
Smart Display
Tech writers and magazines are currently going crazy over Lenovo’s recently launched Smart Display with Google Assistant last July. But, in the Raspberry Pi community, smart displays are yesterday’s tech.
Manufacturers have already developed Raspberry Pi-specific LCD touchscreens and speakers. Using these modular pieces can basically turn your Raspberry Pi into a smart display even before major companies like Lenovo started making them.
Because of the presence of a screen, these devices can also display messages from internet messaging apps such as WhatsApp or Viber. Some users even programmed their Pi-powered smart displays to use Skype and other internet calling apps for video conferencing.
In a way, the tiny Raspberry Pi computer was the pioneer of an entirely new IoT device line.
This particular project has endless applications with the smart home display being one of the more obvious ones. But, since the software on these devices is completely programmable, some users configured it with Android Auto and installed it in their car.
This basically made a feature worth thousands of dollars accessible to the masses.
Smart Pet Feeder
One of the hassles of taking a vacation for pet-owner is having to take your pets everywhere with you. On-boarding pets on a plane can be expensive but if you don’t have trusted sitter, that’s just the price that you have to pay to get a good solid vacation without having to worry about coming home to an emaciated pet.
The Raspberry Pi can power a smart pet feeder that pet owners can control through the internet. This way, pet owners can still regulate the amount of food and the feeding time of their pets and not just rely on the whims of the sitter.
You can even level things up and automate feeding time and regulate the amount of food given. This project essentially makes feeding pets a practice in accuracy and efficiency.
Robots
You may not be able to make Tony Starks high tech robot arm in the Iron Man movies, but you can certainly make your own rudimentary robots powered by the Raspberry Pi. It’s most often used as toys but given a certain level of expertise, these robots may be able to give Iron Man a run for his money.
One project even made a Pi-powered auto-pilot computer for a drone. It's an otherwise expensive system to buy pre-built but the Pi-powered system performs just as well.
Verdict
The Raspberry Pi has endless potential applications in smart home building. This tiny modular computer can do just about anything from powering touchscreen gadgets like a smart display to building robots.
Its capacity to run any OS is what makes it such an important IoT device. Basically, with whatever A.I. users are already using in their home, they can program their Pi-powered device to work on it. It’s not something that other IoT devices can boast of.
But the unrestricted software choices and the unlimited applications aren't even the best aspects of the Raspberry Pi.
The best thing about it is that pioneers aren’t selfish with their guides and manuals. The community shares a lot of between each other about new projects and applications. They even share some constructive criticisms about existing projects in a respectful way. This makes this computer hobbyist’s device a truly revolutionary tool of the future.
So, if you’re in the process of choosing your A.I., weigh your options carefully because you’re going to be stuck with your choice. The decision is made even more difficult because each A.I. has their own strengths and weaknesses. Alexa's strengths, for example, is on the vastness and inexpensiveness of its Amazon-made peripherals, Google Assistant's, on the other hand, is on its reliable Google-powered data management, while Siri' s is on the closed circuit and highly secure iOS and Apple Home peripherals.
But, there’s one device already out on the market that can eliminate the limitations of each of these A.I. brains.
The Raspberry Pi is a versatile little credit-card sized computer that can potentially interact with any of these operating systems. This means users can craft whatever IoT device they desire and have it connect to their smart home A.I. of choice. The projects that people have already made with the Raspberry Pi are remarkably innovative. The best part of this is that they actually upload DIY guides over YouTube or other means to empower anyone to take full advantage of such an amazing device.
Here are some of the best:
Smart Mirror
Connecting your mirror to the internet might not seem like a useful idea at first but the real-world application to its pioneer is surprisingly excellent. With his smart mirror, Michael Teeuw no longer has to check his phone or computer for weather updates as he plans for his OOTD. Having weather information ready for you at a glance at the mirror that you’re really going to take a meandering gaze anyway cuts your prep time short.
He does this with the use of a one-way mirror and a Raspberry Pi connected to a display. It’s quite an easy task to program the tiny computer for simple things like displaying and updating weather information through the Android platform.
Smart Media Player
Considering that portable media players such as the Google’s Chromecast aren’t exactly cheap, a Raspberry Pi-powered media player with Google’s own Android TV installed on it is one the most utilized project the microcomputer is currently used for.
This option is a lot cheaper than the Google-branded player but with exactly the same capabilities with an even more powerful CPU. This way, it’s not just an inexpensive alternative to a smart IoT device, it’s an extremely capable upgrade to the original.
Smart Display
Tech writers and magazines are currently going crazy over Lenovo’s recently launched Smart Display with Google Assistant last July. But, in the Raspberry Pi community, smart displays are yesterday’s tech.
Manufacturers have already developed Raspberry Pi-specific LCD touchscreens and speakers. Using these modular pieces can basically turn your Raspberry Pi into a smart display even before major companies like Lenovo started making them.
Because of the presence of a screen, these devices can also display messages from internet messaging apps such as WhatsApp or Viber. Some users even programmed their Pi-powered smart displays to use Skype and other internet calling apps for video conferencing.
In a way, the tiny Raspberry Pi computer was the pioneer of an entirely new IoT device line.
This particular project has endless applications with the smart home display being one of the more obvious ones. But, since the software on these devices is completely programmable, some users configured it with Android Auto and installed it in their car.
This basically made a feature worth thousands of dollars accessible to the masses.
Smart Pet Feeder
One of the hassles of taking a vacation for pet-owner is having to take your pets everywhere with you. On-boarding pets on a plane can be expensive but if you don’t have trusted sitter, that’s just the price that you have to pay to get a good solid vacation without having to worry about coming home to an emaciated pet.
The Raspberry Pi can power a smart pet feeder that pet owners can control through the internet. This way, pet owners can still regulate the amount of food and the feeding time of their pets and not just rely on the whims of the sitter.
You can even level things up and automate feeding time and regulate the amount of food given. This project essentially makes feeding pets a practice in accuracy and efficiency.
Robots
You may not be able to make Tony Starks high tech robot arm in the Iron Man movies, but you can certainly make your own rudimentary robots powered by the Raspberry Pi. It’s most often used as toys but given a certain level of expertise, these robots may be able to give Iron Man a run for his money.
One project even made a Pi-powered auto-pilot computer for a drone. It's an otherwise expensive system to buy pre-built but the Pi-powered system performs just as well.
Verdict
The Raspberry Pi has endless potential applications in smart home building. This tiny modular computer can do just about anything from powering touchscreen gadgets like a smart display to building robots.
Its capacity to run any OS is what makes it such an important IoT device. Basically, with whatever A.I. users are already using in their home, they can program their Pi-powered device to work on it. It’s not something that other IoT devices can boast of.
But the unrestricted software choices and the unlimited applications aren't even the best aspects of the Raspberry Pi.
The best thing about it is that pioneers aren’t selfish with their guides and manuals. The community shares a lot of between each other about new projects and applications. They even share some constructive criticisms about existing projects in a respectful way. This makes this computer hobbyist’s device a truly revolutionary tool of the future.