Assistive technology and accessibility • Can a raspberry pi be used with an Alexa to control an IR remote?

Hi,

I currently work as a support worker for a guy who is a tetraplegic and has very limited movement.

He has a profiling bed that has a IR remote to turn on/and off various vibration settings, this is annoying him as the bed seems to have a built in timer and will only stay on for 15 minutes. He can't push the buttons himself, and although he would like the bed on sometimes he doesn't always bother asking for it every 15 minutes.

He has an alexa, and can use this no problem. I noticed on the raspberry pi website that the Anavi Infrared pHAT can be used with Alexa. I wondered if this could be used to control his bed? and also if a mode could be created where alexa automatically puts this on every 15 minutes? He also has sky and a tv remote that if he could also control these with alexa would help with his independence.

I'm very new to coding, learning Python through Codecademy. Is this possible, and how complicated would this project be? Would a raspberry pi zero be suitable?

Thanks for any help.

Statistics: Posted by ajcross222 — Sat Jul 20, 2024 5:24 pm

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