This smart table belongs in the house of the future. There have been many different LED coffee tables, but this takes it a step further and adds voice commands via the Google app on Android. You can say things like “table on”, “table off”, and “table pulse” and the table will react to your commands.
The LEDs are controlled via an Arduino which has preset patterns built into it. You can also send arrays of bytes to control the LEDs remotely over serial. A Raspberry Pi is connected to the Arduino, which runs a custom Java program. This program is what communicates with the Arduino, controlling the LED patterns, and it also features a web service built it. This allows for remote control over the Internet.
Mikel then created some Tasker scripts to access the Raspberry Pi, and using the Tasker plugin AutoVoice, he can send commands to the Raspberry pi using the OK Google app on Android. You can view the whole source on GitHub.
I am the the founder and editor of Codeduino. I'm a developer by trade, and a maker by night. I've been 'making' ever since being introduced to Arduino at university - my final year project was an Ableton Live controller based on Arduino.