• CEPro_logo_blue-new
  • TOPICS
      • News
        • People & Places
        • Product Briefs
      • Projects
      • Events
      • Control
        • Central Vac
        • Energy/Power
        • HVAC/IAQ
        • Interfaces/Devices
        • Lighting
        • Motorized Shades
        • Whole House Systems
      • Audio/Video
        • Audio/Video
        • AV Accessories
        • AV Racks
        • Cabling
        • Displays
        • Furniture
        • Headphones
        • Home Theater
        • Media
        • Mounts/Lifts
        • Multiroom AV
        • Projectors/Screens
        • Speakers/Subwoofers
        • Wireless AV
      • Security
        • Access Control
        • Alarms/Sensors
        • Services/Platforms
        • Surveillance/Cameras
      • Business Support
        • Associations/Buying Groups
        • Cell Phone Boosters
        • Distributors/Reps
        • Operations
        • Recurring Revenue
        • Research
        • Sales/Marketing
        • Software Services
        • Tools/Testers
      • Networking
        • Cellular
        • Devices/Equipment
        • Wireless
        • Wired/Installation
      • Markets
        • Builders
        • Commercial
        • Design
        • Europe
        • Outdoors
        • Resimercial
        • Wellness
      • CE Pro Hub Pages
        • Bose
        • Savant
        • Inside Sound United
  • PRODUCTS
  • RESOURCES
    • Reports/Downloads
    • Buyer’s Guide
    • Webcasts
    • Podcasts
    • Integrator Jobs
    • Digital Edition
    • CE Pro-iQ
  • SUBSCRIBE
    • CEDIA SHOW UPDATES
    • CEPRO PRINT EDITION
    • CEPRO DIGITAL EDITION
    • CEPRO NEWSLETTERS
  • DISCOVER
    • CEDIA Expo
      • September 29 – October 1
        Dallas, TX
      • VISIT SITE
    • KBIS
      • February 8 – 10
        Orlando, FL
      • VISIT SITE
    • Total Tech Summit
      • October 26 – 28
        Orlando, FL
      • VISIT SITE
    • Commercial Integrator
      • VISIT SITE
    • Security Sales
      • VISIT SITE
    • Tech Decisions
      • VISIT SITE
    • Campus Safety
      • VISIT SITE
    • Design Well
      • VISIT SITE
    • KBB Online
      • VISIT SITE
    • AV-iQ
      • VISIT SITE
    • CE Pro-iQ
      • VISIT SITE
  • Search
  • TOPICS
    • News
      • People & Places
      • Product Briefs
    • Projects
    • Events
    • Control
      • Central Vac
      • Energy/Power
      • HVAC/IAQ
      • Interfaces/Devices
      • Lighting
      • Motorized Shades
      • Whole House Systems
    • Audio/Video
      • Audio/Video
      • AV Accessories
      • AV Racks
      • Cabling
      • Displays
      • Furniture
      • Headphones
      • Home Theater
      • Media
      • Mounts/Lifts
      • Multiroom AV
      • Projectors/Screens
      • Speakers/Subwoofers
      • Wireless AV
    • Security
      • Access Control
      • Alarms/Sensors
      • Services/Platforms
      • Surveillance/Cameras
    • Business Support
      • Associations/Buying Groups
      • Cell Phone Boosters
      • Distributors/Reps
      • Operations
      • Recurring Revenue
      • Research
      • Sales/Marketing
      • Software Services
      • Tools/Testers
    • Networking
      • Cellular
      • Devices/Equipment
      • Wireless
      • Wired/Installation
    • Markets
      • Builders
      • Commercial
      • Design
      • Europe
      • Outdoors
      • Resimercial
      • Wellness
    • CE Pro Hub Pages
      • Savant
      • Bose
      • Inside Sound United
  • PRODUCTS
  • RESOURCES
    • Reports/Downloads
    • Buyer’s Guide
    • Webcasts
    • Podcasts
    • Integrator Jobs
    • Digital Edition
    • CE Pro-IQ
  • SUBSCRIBE
    • CEPRO PRINT EDITION
    • CEPRO DIGITAL EDITION
    • CEPRO NEWSLETTERS
    • CEDIA SHOW UPDATES
  • DISCOVER
    • Cedia Expo
      VISIT SITE
    • Commercial Integrator
      VISIT SITE
    • Security Sales
      VISIT SITE
    • Tech Decisions
      VISIT SITE
    • Campus Safety
      VISIT SITE
    • Design Well
      VISIT SITE
    • Total Tech Summit
      VISIT SITE
    • KBB Online
      VISIT SITE
    • AV-iQ
    • CE Pro-iQ
M
POPULAR SEARCHES
News
Projects
Control
Audio Video
Security
Business Support
Markets
SUBSCRIBE CEDIA EXPO
Control | News | Projects | Slideshow
December 20, 2016

Alexa, Rack ‘Em Up: Inside an Amazon Echo Voice-Controlled Game Room

Liberty Games shows the innovative ways you can use Amazon Echo, like hooking up a pool table, Jukebox, arcade machine and pinball machine with voice control via Alexa.
Chelsea Cafiero  
Liberty Games shows the innovative ways you can use Amazon Echo, like hooking up a pool table, Jukebox, arcade machine and pinball machine with voice control via Alexa.
Article:
Control | News | Projects | Slideshow
December 20, 2016

Alexa, Rack ‘Em Up: Inside an Amazon Echo Voice-Controlled Game Room

You have to give the CE industry props for innovating and creating systems with whatever technology it can get its hands on. Nothing is off limits, out of bounds, too big or too small.

Liberty Games, the game room specialist based in the UK that sells pool tables, arcade machines, pinball machines and other gaming favorites, put on the integrator hat for its latest project: syncing an entire game room with Amazon Echo.

The luxury game room is a demo project where users can control all the equipment in the room with voice control via Amazon’s smart assistant, Alexa. With a simple voice command, players can stat up any game without any fumbling around for buttons or coins. The game room features include:

  • Pool table
  • Jukebox
  • Arcade machine
  • Pinball machine

Liberty Games adapted these four most popular game room products to make them smarter and more interactive, with the help of a Raspberry Pi, a tiny computer that facilitates easy programming, and a Logitech Harmony Hub.

CE Pro Newsletters

CE Pro’s Email Newsletters deliver timely news, industry-leading content, product information, and downloadable resources directly to your email inbox. Sign Up Today!
Liberty Games chose the four most popular game room products to sync with Amazon Echo. View more photos.

There were two big parts of the setup, says the company. Creating the skill and executing the result.

The first task was to teach Alexa a new skill. Amazon documents how to build a skill, by creating a list of phrases people would use to ask Alexa to perform the action as well as what Alexa would say back to the user. Liberty Games also created cards to display in the Alexa app on iPhone or Android.

This is all done on a server that talks to Alexa. The same server talks to the Raspberry Pi, which is what makes the magic happen.

For any coders/programmers out there, this communication with Alexa is done via JSON, making it platform independent (although you can host your skills on Amazon Web Services).

The pinball machine use Amazon Echo and Raspberry Pi to enable voice controlled start. View more photos.

The execution is done a little different depending on the equipment. The CD Jukebox is controlled using an infrared remote, which provided an easy process to hook up the Logitech Harmony Hub to Alexa and program in a CD-playing command.

The pool table, arcade machine and pinball machine are coin-operated using a mechanical coin drawer. All three use Raspberry Pi and PiFace Digital, an add-on to the Raspberry Pi. Liberty Games wired the outputs of PiFace Digital to the coin mechanism and ran a small piece of code on the Pi to trigger the mechanism to release the pool balls.

The server, which was already communicating with Alexa, just needed to sync to the Pi to pass on the command, which it did pretty quickly.

Check out the video:

Liberty Games Echo Voice-Controlled Games Room from Stuart Kerr on Vimeo.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Follow
Chelsea Cafiero:
Chelsea Cafiero is Senior Web Editor of CE Pro. She also manages the corresponding websites of sister publications Commercial Integrator, Security Sales & Integration, Campus Safety and Electronic House. Chelsea has previously covered politics, local news and consumer electronics. She joined the CE Pro family in 2012.
View Chelsea Cafiero's complete profile

ARTICLE TOPICS

Control • News • Projects • Slideshow

ARTICLE TAGS

Alexa • Amazon • Echo • Voice Control

SHARE

Share On Facebook
Share On Twitter
Share On Linkedin
Share On Whatsapp
Share Via Email
Copy URL
← Previous Article Next Article →
Article MarketsWellness

Selling Wellness Technology: 7 Ways Integrators Already Know How

Integrators may already be prepared for selling wellness technology without knowing it -- are you involved in any of these seven areas?
Article CEPro 100News

CE Pro 100 Integrator Wipliance Acquires Eastern Wash.-Based Huppin’s

Perennial CE Pro 100 integrator Wipliance adds to its Seattle-area and Scottsdale, Ariz., bases by acquiring 114-year-old Huppin's of Spokane, Wash.
Article MarketsWellness

Selling Wellness Technology: 7 Ways Integrators Already Know How

Integrators may already be prepared for selling wellness technology without knowing it -- are you involved in any of these seven areas?
Article CommercialDevices/EquipmentNetworkingNewsResearchWireless

Wi-Fi 6E Market Set for Rapid Expansion

ABI Research predicts shipments of Wi-Fi 6E access points will more than triple by 2024 to 5.2M units, driven by 6GHz spectrum deployment.

SHOW NEWSLETTER

Sign Up

CE Pro

Subscribe Sign Up

Content Types

News
Products
Projects
Companies
Downloads
Webcasts
Podcasts
Events

Specials

IntegratorJobs
CEDIA EXPO
CE Pro 100
CE Pro Summit
Awards Programs

Company Info

About
Contact Us
Customer Service
Media Solutions & Advertising

Subscribe

Magazine
Newsletters
Digital Edition

Connect

Twitter
Facebook
LinkedIn
YouTube
RSS Feed

Categories

AUDIO/VIDEO
AV Accessories
AV Racks
Amplifiers/Receivers
Cabling
Displays
Furniture
Mounts/Lifts
Multiroom AV
Projector Screens
Speakers/Subwoofers
Wireless AV
CONTROL
Central Vac
Energy/Power
Interfaces/Devices
HVAC/IAQ
Lighting
Motorized Shades
Whole-House Systems
NETWORKING
Cellular
Devices/Equipment
Wireless
Wiring/Installation
SECURITY
Access Control
Alarms/Sensors
Services/Platforms
Surveillance Cameras
BUSINESS SUPPORT
Associations/Buying Groups
Distributors/Reps
Operations
Recurring Revenue
Research
Sales/Marketing
Software/Services
Tools/Testers
MARKETS
Builders
Commercial
Design
Europe
Outdoors
Wellness
FOLLOW US ON
  • Follow
  • Follow
  • Follow
  • Follow
  • Follow

© 2021 Emerald X, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

  • ABOUT
  • CAREERS
  • TERMS OF USE
  • PRIVACY POLICY