Add Uncanny Eyes to Your Echo Dot Without Any Hardware Modifications

Alexa devices are really quite incredible, listening for your commands and responding in kind. While it has a light ring on the top that illuminates for various reasons, what if this visual feedback was a pair of eyes, similar to Phillip Burgess' Uncanny Eyes project?

If you’re hacker 'markwtech,' you don’t have to imagine this at all, as he’s created an eye module that sits on top of an Echo Dot, adding OLED eyes without actually modifying the underlying hardware. This new augmentation uses a Teensy 3.2 board for control, and is based upon the Adafruit design.

In order to avoid keeping the eyes on all the time and shortening their life, the module employs a photoresistor as a voltage divider to the Teensy, turning the eyes on for 15 seconds when it sees the lights on the Echo Dot light up. The eyes can then look around to give the gadget a bit more personality.

Everything is housed in a 3D-printed frame, with a piece of clear CNC in the lower portion to allow the Dot’s lights to shine through, appearing as a sort of mouth. The eye displays are recessed slightly and shine through 30mm cabochons – curved glass circles that act as lenses. Cleverly, this cover sits 2mm off the ground when on top of the Dot, enabling sound to escape without sounding muffled. Code and other info is available on the project writeup, and STLs are on Thingiverse if you want to build your own!