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How I Hacked Amazon’s $5 WiFi Button

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Re: How I Hacked Amazon’s $5 WiFi Button

#101

Post by holyoly »

Nikker wrote: post #91
haswell wrote: post #3

I could see this being a useful tool when trying to form good habits. Brush teeth? push the button. Get a fresh glass of water from the fridge? push the button. When analyzing other aspects of my life such as spending, I have tools to show me what I've done in the past, and those tools can help me improve (e.g. spending reports). This is admittedly reactionary, but I find it useful nonetheless. Track enough other "st…

Keeping track and sticking buttons all over the place is going to be an "early adopter" feature. Once we get to an overwhelming number of "buttons" it will make sense just to put up a couple cameras similar to the Microsoft Kinect and use hot zone + gestures to do the same thing. RFID in boxed products might help out but the buttons will end up being a mess right quick.

Interestingly enough, when I signed up for Amazon Fresh, I got a version of the Dash that is multipurpose. Instead of having buttons everywhere, mine has a barcode scanner, and voice recognition. When I am out of eggs, I just pick it up, push the "Mic" button, say "Eggs," and it appears on my "Dash" list when I log in to Amazon Fresh.

Re: How I Hacked Amazon’s $5 WiFi Button

#103

Post by spydum »

lisivka wrote: post #100
Nikker wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keeping track and sticking buttons all over the place is going to be an "early adopter" feature. Once we get to an overwhelming number of "buttons" it will make sense just to put up a couple cameras similar to the Microsoft Kinect and use hot zone + gestures to do the same thing. RFID in boxed products might help out but the buttons will end up being a mess right quick.

It is cheaper to put microphone and ask for food, similar to regular shop: "Hey, Amazon", "Order, please", "Bottle of milk and bread", "Bottle of milk «Foo» $2,50. Bread «Bar» $1,75. Total: $4,25. Confirm?", "Yes", "Order accepted, wait for delivery.". Something like Siri, but activated by push of hardware button on the fridge.

Isn't that what Amazon echo does?

Re: How I Hacked Amazon’s $5 WiFi Button

#104

Post by mkopinsky »

radlad wrote: post #95
StavrosK wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's 70 euros, which is an insane amount of money for a button, and it's huge :/ The one posted above is small enough to unobtrusively stick on a wall and less than half price this one. Hopefully they'll come out with a standalone mod.

There's also this one, but still not $5 - https://store.particle.io/?product=internet-button

Does that have a cellular modem/wifi module? Seems like you'd need to connect it to a Photon or Electron to get connectivity.

Re: How I Hacked Amazon’s $5 WiFi Button

#105

Post by lordleft »

eob wrote: post #44

Hi folks -- what a surprise to check HN and see my own article. Here's a summary of the reports I've gotten since publishing it the other week: 1) It works. Most likely problem you'll have is installing the Python libraries I used. 2) Check the comments for a version someone posted that works on RasberryPI with no extra libraries. 3) I'd love to hear what you build. Coolest use case so far is a few folks using it as…

How does the baby like the button? (I love this article!)

Re: How I Hacked Amazon’s $5 WiFi Button

#106

Post by jmorrow977 »

Someone please release a generic "generate event" button! (Or please tell me where I can get one... Googling for "wifi enabled button" provides irrelevant results).

Below someone mentioned this: https://flic.io/ But apparently it is only for pre-order right now.

Update: I searched for this on Amazon and noticed: "Available for Pre-order. This item will be released on August 31, 2015."

So, it seems it will be released not that long from now...

Re: How I Hacked Amazon’s $5 WiFi Button

#107

Post by mkopinsky »

Here at Penn we have a research platform where we try to motivate (among other things) medication adherence. We have integrated with various devices in the past that automatically track when the meds are taken, but for some reason the vendors of these devices always seem to flake out. We've been thinking lately that a simpler approach where people just push a button when they take their meds might be more sustainable, especially as a simpler device may reduce our dependence on those outside vendors.

What we're looking for: A simple, preferably small device, that we can program to make HTTP calls home to our server. Participants in our studies are scattered geographically and not all of them have wifi, so cellular is crucial. We have done studies with anywhere from a few hundred to a thousand+ participants, and hope to scale up beyond that as well, so cost at scale is a big factor. Today I came across bt.tn, and I love the UI simplicity of their product, but their prices are high, and it seems they don't include SIM cards with their buttons. Particle.io's prices are more in line with what we're looking for (especially the $3/month data fee), but my concern is that (at least from their website) the devices still look like hobbyist electronics with PCBs still visible, rather than like simple consumer devices.

Does anyone have suggestions for something with the UI simplicity of Amazon Dash or bttn but without bttn's price point? (Or feel like making us 500 or 1000 such things? The economics can totally be worth it.)

Re: How I Hacked Amazon’s $5 WiFi Button

#108

Post by jreed91 »

fweespeech wrote: post #32
jreed91 wrote: post #31

I would like it if I could just change what I order. The options are pretty limited right now.

The hilariously sad part is there is no technical reason this feature isn't available. Just change the ASIN the button buys.

Ahh I was wondering if it had some specific API for only allowed purchases. But if that's the case I may buy one of these.

Re: How I Hacked Amazon’s $5 WiFi Button

#109

Post by jdpage »

spydum wrote: post #103
lisivka wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is cheaper to put microphone and ask for food, similar to regular shop: "Hey, Amazon", "Order, please", "Bottle of milk and bread", "Bottle of milk «Foo» $2,50. Bread «Bar» $1,75. Total: $4,25. Confirm?", "Yes", "Order accepted, wait for delivery.". Something like Siri, but activated by push of hardware button on the fridge.

Isn't that what Amazon echo does?

Yep. But it's a closed-source always-on cloud-connected microphone that lives in the middle of your house, which creeps the hell out of a lot of people (including myself and most of my housemates).

Re: How I Hacked Amazon’s $5 WiFi Button

#110

Post by tmarthal »

haswell wrote: post #3

I could see this being a useful tool when trying to form good habits. Brush teeth? push the button. Get a fresh glass of water from the fridge? push the button. When analyzing other aspects of my life such as spending, I have tools to show me what I've done in the past, and those tools can help me improve (e.g. spending reports). This is admittedly reactionary, but I find it useful nonetheless. Track enough other "st…

This is a different solution, and less manual - but OralB has a bluetooth enabled toothbrush that will auto-record your tooth brushing in their app (as well as metrics like 'time used too much pressure' and 'total brush time'). You need to manually record flossing and tongue brushing via the app though (using a button on your smartphone like others have described). It's not bad, it's not good, but it's a start.
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