July 29, 2013
Ever since Apple introduced SIRI, electronic manufacturers and entrepreneurs have been exploring ways to use voice control to operate TVs, lights and home automation systems. But who wants to walk around the house all day shouting at things to turn on and off when you could just whistle.
That’s the promise of Whistled—an open hardware and software initiative developed by embedded systems engineer Mathieu Stephan. It’s a tiny device that can be incorporated into any electronic product to allow a user to operate it via whistles.
The device apparently can be programmed to respond differently to different kinds of whistles, and the developer demonstrates that in a video that shows him whistling to turn a light on and off and to cause a light to dim.
Is it silly? Silly like the clapper? Well, yes, but it’s still kind of neat. It would be fun to walk into my living room and whistle the lights on, or go into the kitchen and whistle the coffee maker on. I see two main downsides though. First, you need to be able to whistle. Only two people in my household can whistle well. The other two just make squeaky-spitting noises when they try. The other issue is with dogs. If I had to whistle to turn on every light, my dog would go crazy. I’d hate to do that to him
Right now the product is just a simple printed circuit board. You have to wire it up to a light yourself. A kit with an LED light strip is also available.
Ever since Apple introduced SIRI, electronic manufacturers and entrepreneurs have been exploring ways to use voice control to operate TVs, lights and home automation systems. But who wants to walk around the house all day shouting at things to turn on and off when you could just whistle.
That’s the promise of Whistled—an open hardware and software initiative developed by embedded systems engineer Mathieu Stephan. It’s a tiny device that can be incorporated into any electronic product to allow a user to operate it via whistles.
The device apparently can be programmed to respond differently to different kinds of whistles, and the developer demonstrates that in a video that shows him whistling to turn a light on and off and to cause a light to dim.
Is it silly? Silly like the clapper? Well, yes, but it’s still kind of neat. It would be fun to walk into my living room and whistle the lights on, or go into the kitchen and whistle the coffee maker on. I see two main downsides though. First, you need to be able to whistle. Only two people in my household can whistle well. The other two just make squeaky-spitting noises when they try. The other issue is with dogs. If I had to whistle to turn on every light, my dog would go crazy. I’d hate to do that to him
Right now the product is just a simple printed circuit board. You have to wire it up to a light yourself. A kit with an LED light strip is also available.
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