Voice Control your 3d Printer?

I imagine a future where everything can be voice controlled and 3d printing is in every home. This future may be a long ways off.. but how close are we now?

I had a little fun and found a way to at least partially control my 3d printer with Amazon's Echo voice controlled speaker/smart home device.

Check out the my video below:

If you are following along at home and want to try controlling, or at least turning on and off a device like your 3d printer your going to need a few things.

With these two devices you can use your voice to turn on something as simple as a light or as complex as a 3d printer. I have used both the Belkin and the TP-Link both work well with the Echo.

To remote control the 3d printer I use a Rasberry Pi and Octoprint. As of right now no one currently makes a plug-in to interface Octoprint with the Echo but if you are a skilled programmer I think it would be possible. If you do undertake such a task and are successful be sure to share it with me as I would love nothing more than to tell my printer to "Print another Yoda head!"

#3dprinting #smarthome