Height Tracker Using Alexa and RasPi

If you want to calculate dimensions of something you need search for your measuring tape and find the dimensions. Instead you can use RaspberryPi and Alexa do the job for you.

Also if you have a child and want to track their growth, rather using wall tapes and excel sheet/paper you can use this skill to measure height and keep track of it in DynamoDB. This will enable you to get answers for the following queries.

• How much did Bob grow in last 30 days?

• How much did Harry grow in last 40 days?

And much more...

Architecture

I used SQS to communicate between AWS Lambda and RaspberryPI.

I created 2 queues,

• In one queue RaspberryPi is the subscriber and listens to 'find height' message from Lambda.

• In response RaspberryPi publishes the height in another queue which Lambda subscribes to. This way they both communicate.

Sample Workflow:

• "Alexa, ask Virtual Scale to measure height"

• Lambda function is invoked

• Lambda publishes 'find height' message in SQS queue1

• RaspberryPI listens to the queue for incoming messages.

• Gets the message from Lambda

• Measures height using Ultrasonic sensor

• Publishes the height in SQS queue2

• Lambda listens to the queue for incoming messages

• Lambda gets the height

• Lambda generates response and returns that to Alexa

• Alexa - "Height is 23.45 centimeters"

Development Workflow:

• Setup Alexa Skill set

• Setup a Lambda function

• RaspberryPI

• Setup the circuit

• Code to calculate distance using UltraSonic Sensor with good accuracy

• Setup SQS to pass message between RaspberryPI and Lambda function