
Turning a Furby into an Amazon Echo - ahemphill
https://howchoo.com/g/otewzwmwnzb/amazon-echo-furby-using-raspberry-pi-furlexa
======
joezydeco
_" Furby is comprised of a few primary components -- a microprocessor covered
in black resin (to protect Tiger Electronics' intellectual property)"_

Wishful thinking. It's chip-on-board technology, which lowers the cost of the
final product. In the toy business, every penny counts.

Anyone can decap a chip package these days, the COB resin is not any more
secure.

[https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/how-chip-on-boards-
are-...](https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/how-chip-on-boards-are-made)

[http://www.ue.com.hk/index.php/Saving_Cost_-
_Bare_Die_Assemb...](http://www.ue.com.hk/index.php/Saving_Cost_-
_Bare_Die_Assembly)

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theseanstewart
During the video he says, "Furlexa, tell me about furbies". My echo dot heard
this and proceeded to tell me about _Herpes_.

~~~
Danihan
That's because the results are personalized.. ;p

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iicc
Disappointed that it doesn't lip-sync (like
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRxhgxH6FUI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRxhgxH6FUI))

~~~
sircastor
I think this is primarily the fault of the mechanism that handles the...
beak(?) movement. I believe opening and closing is a continuous loop on
reduced gear motor. Getting that to synchronize is difficult, especially as
the echo just hands you back an mp3.

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runj__
It would be really cool if it modulated the Alexa voice to sound like a Furby
too!

~~~
k__
And if the mouth would be more aligned with the talking, but the engine is
probably not strong enough.

But it seems that the echo-light is somehow coupled to the eyes, which is
nice.

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davidkuhta
This would be awesome to do with one of Hasbro's "Furbacca".

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fenwick67
It's crazy to me that these things have only one motor that controls their
eyelids, ears, mouth and their base.

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dpflan
Is there a product like this just for kids: a furry, friendly, interactive,
mobile, voice-based connection to the internet? It could be an early learning
tool (and source of great annoyance and surprise hilarity). Kids could learn
to make apps for their wrapped Alexa, apps that help them help themselves and
their friends, parents, etc...

[I am now imagining the _Star Trek_ episode "The Trouble with Tribbles" where
all tribbles are Alexa wrappers... X_x save me!]

~~~
QAPereo
It would be a security _nightmare_ and you’d be targeting kids.

~~~
dpflan
Hm, yeah, maybe a DIY or Kit is better than full-fledged product. But is it
just as bad as giving your child an iPad with Siri?

~~~
QAPereo
In the case of the iPad they get to say they’re not targeting kids
specifically and the rest is on the parent, but oh god yes I agree with the
point you’re making.

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marcosscriven
Cute. Playing the video constantly had my own Amazon Echo answering the same
questions.

It's not clear how much the Alexa Voice Service would cost in a commercial
product?

~~~
kelnos
The device SDK appears to be Apache2-licensed: [https://github.com/alexa/avs-
device-sdk/blob/master/LICENSE....](https://github.com/alexa/avs-device-
sdk/blob/master/LICENSE.txt)

... so I guess at no cost?

~~~
marcosscriven
I can understand the SDK being free, it would seem strange to me that a
commercial product could actually plug in to the service for free, and without
limits.

~~~
userbinator
Ultimately, the service enables people to order from Amazon and gathers
training data for their algorithms, so regardless of whether you're using it
through an Echo or a Furby or whatever else, they win.

To put it bluntly, why would they stop others from making their profitable
data collection easier and doing it for them?

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Echo#Privacy_concerns](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Echo#Privacy_concerns)

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snitch182
Want one. Now. My daughter would freak on christmas.

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schnevets
I wonder if the finished product is smart enough to distinguish between Alexa
"speaking" and playing audio. It would be really annoying to constantly hear
those gears moving while listening to music.

On the other hand, I'd love to code the pi to randomly make the eyes blink and
move on occasion.

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fhood
I'm interested in how the author got the sound working. I would have thought
that external usb dacs would work just fine, as they seem to be plug and play
compatible with just about everything, but apparently that isn't the case.
Could somebody elaborate?

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skate22
Science has gone too far

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659087
Sounds like a great way to train children to interact with and trust corporate
mass surveillance because it's "cute" and "fun".

