As computers become more powerful, they also become smaller and less obtrusive. Maker Thomas Burns goes a step further, claiming they often lack visual character. In fact, most language assistants like Amazon’s Alexa eke out their existence in cylindrical or spherical dwellings that have little to do with a C3PO or Wall-E. Burns sees this as a problem and has attempted to solve it. Using animatronic eyes and an old tube TV, he gave Alexa a face and lovingly renamed it Alexa-Tron.
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Burns got hold of the required television at a flea market and uses an amplified audio signal to visualize Alexa-Tron’s mouth with an oscillating line. As an eye mechanism, he uses a design by Will Cogley that he on instructables has found and combines this with the Person Sensor from the Californian manufacturer Useful Sensors. With its help, Alexa-Tron can follow human conversation partners with the artificial eyes. The maker controls the electronics with an Arduino Mega because his Arduino Nano accidentally burned out. Lasered transparent acrylic panels serve as the housing, which he screwed together so that everyone can see what the technology looks like from the inside.
In his video, Burns is visibly satisfied with the result and calls Alexa-Tron probably the best project he has ever built. Of course, the prototype snags here and there, but that’s totally fine with the maker. He already has plans for the next iteration: ChatGPT is supposed to replace Alexa so that you can talk to the assistant even better in the future.
(akf)