I upgraded a cool vintage lamp to work with voice commands through my Amazon Echo using an ESP8266 microcontroller and relay circuit. The fauxmoESP Arduino library is what does the heavy lifting in this project; it emulates a Belkin WeMo device, so the Alexa app setup is exactly the same as the store-bought device. I hollowed out the wooden base of the lamp to enclose the electronics, and installed a power override switch that controls the light independently of the voice commands. The full tutorial is on Instructables, and I talk through the code in the video.

Wanna get started with Arduino? Sign up for our September 16 class: Intro to Arduino: Sensors and Input/Output