Alias: a smart-speaker "parasite" that blocks your speaker's sensors until you activate it

Alias is an open source hardware/free-open firmware 'parasite' that fits over your smart speaker's sensors and fills them with white noise; the Alias has its own (non-networked, user-controlled) mic and speaker and when you speak a magic phrase, the Alias temporarily stops the white noise and transmits your commands to the speaker; Alias also lets you specify strings of commands and other useful utilities that restore control over your smart-speaker to you.

This is the first time I've ever considered getting a smart speaker, but I'd want a version of this thing that also blocks the smart-speaker's network connections except when it is responding to a query that Alias has relayed to it.

Alias acts as a middle-man device that is designed to appropriate any voice activated device. Equipped with speakers and a microphone, Alias is able to communicate and manipulate the home assistant when placed on top of it. The speakers of Alias are used to interrupt the assistance with a constant low noise/sound that feeds directly into the microphone of the assistant. First when Alias recognises the user created wake-word, it stops the noise and quietly activates the assistant with a sound recording of the original wake-word. From here the assistant can be used as normally.


The wake word detection is made with a small neural network that runs locally on Alias, which can be trained and modified through live examples. The app acts as a controller to reset, train and turn on/off Alias.

The way Alias manipulates the home assistance allows to create new custom functionalities and commands that the products were not originally intended for. Alias can be programmed to send any speech commands to the assistant’s speakers, which leaves us with a lot of new possibilities.

project_alias [bjoernkarmann/Github]

Project Alias [Bjørn Karmann & Tore Knudsen/bjoernkarmann.dk]

(via Four Short Links)