This post got nailed by the voting ring detector, but I'm restoring it because we want to see original work on HN.<p>A "voting ring" is when people get friends to upvote their stuff. This is against the rules. We want stories to be on HN because they're good, not because they were promoted.<p>It's sadly common for a great Show HN post to get demoted because its creators, eager to get it on the front page, tried to game it. I've noticed a pattern, too: usually their gaming technique is pretty weak. Perhaps that's because they're creators, not promoters. Unfortunately, it has the side-effect of making it certain that the ring detector will nail their otherwise good post, while we carry on the usual cat-and-mouse game with people pushing crap.<p>I've got what I believe will be a sweet solution to this problem, but it awaits time for implementation.<p>Please everybody, don't ring-vote your posts; just take your chances with HN's randomness. If a post is solid and hasn't gotten any attention yet, a couple of reposts is ok. Be careful not to abuse that, though, since we penalize accounts for reposting too much.<p>I'm going to demote this comment as off-topic so it won't get in the way of the real discussion. Send any moderation questions to hn@ycombinator.com.
> I then jokingly opened siri and said “Open the garage”. Siri responded with “I can’t find an app named ‘The Garage’”. Lightbulbs went off. We realized we could get around the fact that Siri has no API by making apps named the phrases we’d like to recognize.<p>Priceless!<p>I wish Siri had an API though.
I did this a few years ago using text messages and Twilio. Not quite as slick as "Siri, open the garage", but it worked! <a href="http://rumsey.org/blog/2011/11/voice-controlled-garage-door/" rel="nofollow">http://rumsey.org/blog/2011/11/voice-controlled-garage-door/</a><p>"Siri, text house open the garage" was as close as I got.
That duct tape... and electrical stuff hanging off the ceiling... makes me cringe! EEs in my dad's company used to call that kind of project an "ikebana." :-)<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikebana" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikebana</a>
A team at PennApps had a project [1] which used a DNS-override to take advantage of the fact that Siri defaults to Googling things when it doesn't have a native approach. They could then parse these requests and see if they could do something cool without before going ahead and just Googling it. The example they used in the demo was controlling a Phillips Hue light with Siri commands. I thought this was awesome, one of the better hackathon demos I've ever seen. There really should be an easier way to do this an spoofing Google DNS, which I'm not comfortable with even though I trust these guys.<p>1 - <a href="http://betterthansiri.com/" rel="nofollow">http://betterthansiri.com/</a>
Very cool hack! I would never have thought about implementing each command ("open the garage") with a specifically named app ("the garage"). I guess it'll work until you already have a (real) app called like the thing you want to open :)<p>An easiest way would have been to use Wit.AI API [1](disclaimer: Wit team member here). You can create any command in minutes and use any device capable to stream audio to the API (including your iPhone) as client. I'd be interested to have your feedback if you have time to check it out!<p>[1] <a href="https://wit.ai/blog/2014/02/12/speech-api" rel="nofollow">https://wit.ai/blog/2014/02/12/speech-api</a>
There is SiriProxy[1] which lets you respond to arbitrary commands by proxying requests to the Siri backend. Apparently doesn't work with iOS 7 yet unfortunately.<p>[1] <a href="https://github.com/plamoni/SiriProxy" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/plamoni/SiriProxy</a>
This is great, although it's too bad it requires such a clever twist to integrate with Siri. Cortana should shine in situations like these: <a href="http://9to5mac.com/2014/04/02/microsofts-cortana-siri-clone-shows-the-potential-of-third-party-app-integration-for-the-personal-assistant/" rel="nofollow">http://9to5mac.com/2014/04/02/microsofts-cortana-siri-clone-...</a>
BAD ASS!<p>I see in the near future a folder named "commands," on your iPhone filled with long name apps just for automation. Are you using https or some type of SSH keys to authenticate?<p>I know you said your running wired instead of wireless, but it sounds like you have to run some type of lightweight server to listen to the http requests. I guess you could just port forward/trigger internally through the router.
An example using a Raspberry Pi and SiriProxy, which actually handles more than just the "open" command from a year or so back: <a href="http://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=25118" rel="nofollow">http://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=25118</a>.
Things like that are perfectly possible without any internet-connected services with open source software like CMUSphinx. And as an addition you can get better features like continuous listening (no need to push any button), flexible vocabulary and even speaker identification (only you will be able to open the garage). I really wonder what is cool in Siri doing that.
Nice hack! Could you elaborate on why arduino + ethernet shield will be a better choice than raspberry pi + wifi? I'm genuinely curious because I've been looking at both for a hardware project and would love to know the advantages (and gotchas) of both approaches. :-)
Very cool!<p>I use a hack to have Siri retrieve my bank balance via a SMS. This comes in handy while in the car and you want to balance your checkbook in your head.
Very cool.<p>But when you say "app" what exactly does that mean? Can it just be a web app that you save a shortcut to? Or is this actually a native app?