Sometimes the simplest hack can prove to be one of the most useful and a college student is proving that contention with a Google Android Wear app that may be one of the greatest to date.
I mean, who doesn't want to utter the famous phrase "Open Sesame" and have something, such as the front door to your apartment or house or garage just open without you having to do or say anything else.
Dheera Venkatraman, a graduate engineering and computer science student at MIT, has built an app, appropriately called "Sesame" via Google Now, that lets Android Wear watch owners utter "Ok Google, Open Sesame" to open a door. That is once the door is outfitted with some simple hardware.
As Venkatraman explains on his website, the app development effort was borne from his interests in wearables technologies though he's also into quantum communications and computing as well as human-computer interaction.
In clear concise detail he maps out what he describes as an "exceedingly simple project" that incorporates a HC-05 Bluetooth module, a HS-311 servo and a vanilla Arduino Uno and provides the basic Arduino code.
"Here's a barebones Arduino framework to read commands from the HC-05 Bluetooth Module and write them to the servo. You should add some form of authentication of your choice," he explains, also providing the Android code that outputs commands over Bluetooth.
Here's how it works, the servo is connected to a door latch with simple hardware and the code is cut into two parts.
Here's a video of how it all came together:
The initial feedback from fans is sweet. Michele Perla notes how the app is "nothing new, but the execution is spectular and hilarious at the same time," adding "kudos, my friend."
Reader Dion is a bit more excited in his feedback: "Thats awesome. Love the video and the novel 'facial anonymizer' rig he has there :-)."
