use rpi azure and cortana to automate your home

http://www.instructables.com/id/Use-RPi-Azure-and-Cortana-to-Automate-your-Home/

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Use RPi, Azure, and Cortana to Automate your Home!by jckelley on May 2, 2015

Table of Contents

Use RPi, Azure, and Cortana to Automate your Home! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Intro: Use RPi, Azure, and Cortana to Automate your Home! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Step 1: Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Knowledge Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Hardware Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Step 2: Setting up Azure 1: A Crash Course in Azure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Why Azure? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

What Will We Be Making? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

In a Nut Shell... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Step 3: Setting up Azure 2: Creating Your Azure Service Bus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

1. Create Your Azure Account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

2. Create A Service Bus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Recap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Step 4: Setting up Azure 3: Creating Topics and Subscriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Conceptual Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

1. Create the 'LightTopic' Topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

2. Create the 'LightSubscription' Subscription . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Recap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Step 5: Setting up your Raspberry Pi 1: Environment Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

What Our Raspberry Pi Will Do: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Hardware Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Software Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Step 6: Setting up your Raspberry Pi 2: Coding The Initial Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Import Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Create Constant Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Set up Lights on Start-up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Start Incoming Messages Thread . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Wait Clean-up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Recap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Step 7: Setting up your Raspberry Pi 3: Coding The Subscription . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Initialize the Service Bus Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9


Get the Topic and Subscription . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Looping and Logic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Find and Insert your Azure Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Run Your Code! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

File Downloads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Step 8: Creating Your Windows Phone App Part 1: Intro to Windows Phone 8.1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Introduction to Window's Phone 8.1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Setting up your Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Step 9: Creating your Windows Phone App Part 2: Configure and Navigating Your Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Configuring your Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Navigating the Project Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Step 10: Creating Your Windows Phone App Part 3: Azure on Windows Phone 8.1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Where Things Get Complicated... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Installing Libraries and Permissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Coding the Azure Call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Briefly Looking At SendSbMessage() . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12File Downloads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Step 11: Creating Your Windows Phone App Part 4: Cortana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Introducing Cortana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

How we will use Cortana: An Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Step 12: Creating Your Windows Phone App Part 4: Coding Cortana - SSML . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

SSML . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

A Final Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

File Downloads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Step 13: Creating Your Windows Phone App Part 4: Coding Cortana - Logic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Cortana's Logic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Installing the Voice Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Voice Command Logic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

File Downloads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Step 14: The Final Product! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

You Did It! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Moving Forward... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Step 15: Troubleshooting and References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Related Instructables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Advertisements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21


Intro: Use RPi, Azure, and Cortana to Automate your Home!Introduction

There is new technology all around us and only more coming every day. Our micro controllers are getting faster, are phones getting smarter, and the cloud is becomingstronger. With all this new technology everyone is asking themselves: How can I utilize it all?

Well, today we will do just that. This guide will walk you through using a Raspberry Pi, Microsoft Azure, and Cortana on Windows Phone to automate your house hold.Did you forget to turn the lights off when you left for work? No problem. Want to turn on the Slow-Cooker a few hours before you get home? Consider it done. We canleverage the power of Internet of Things and Cortana to control our home in an entire new way!

Goals

For this guide, our primary goal is to show off a proof-of-concept device cycle that is functional and really lets you see the power of combing all of these technologicalresources. We won't be making production ready code, and won't be utilizing every device/technology to its fullest ability. This guide is already fairly long given all theground we have to cover, and doing a full dive into each would give us quite the novel. Instead, we're focusing on something that most "tinkers" could make as long asthey have the hardware and a limited knowledge of programming. We want to give you a working project and inspire you to push it even further. This project is your'getting started' guide and the real fun begins when you pick up after that!

Step 1: RequirementsKnowledge Requirements

We have tried to make this guide as 'friendly' as possible to the general audience, but in order for us to move quickly and condense the guide down from a three hourepic to a 1 hour project, we have to assume you know a little something before hand.*Don't know something? Don't worry! Throughout the guide we include lots of links to other sources where you can study up beforehand and catch up quickly!

1. Limited Python and C# Knowledge

Basic programming knowledge will be needed. We won't be diving into anything too complicated, but it's good to have a basic understanding of these two languages

2. Raspberry Pi Basics

Because it's a bit more popular compared to Windows Phone and Azure, I won't be going too in depth on setting up your Raspberry Pi and wiring it all together. There arealso a lot of great tutorials out there already to help you get started. Make sure you can ssh into one, know your basic Linux commands, and feel comfortable putting acircuit together (a very basic one).3. General App Development Knowledge (Windows Phone a Plus!)Obviously since we are going to use Cortana we will be building a Windows Phone app. While setting up the project isn't too difficult, and we really won't be doinganything too complicated, it's a good idea to have a basic understanding of the application files and what they do. The code logic versus the design logic, the applicationmanifest, etc. If all these buzzwords are second nature to you, then don't worry. Otherwise, make sure to read up on the resources provided in that section of the guide.

Hardware Requirements

What would a project be without some sweet hardware behind it? This project will actually be pretty bare in the hardware department and instead focus a lot on thesoftware. We'll walk through how to install the specific software packages right before they are needed in an effort to make that process easier.

A Windows 8 ComputerWindows Phone with 8.1 software update (Must have Cortana!)Raspberry PiSD Card with Raspbian for Rasberrry Pi (NOOBS works just fine)3 Wires for your simple circuit1 LED1 270 ohm resistorBreadboard for your LED circuit


Image Notes1. LED

2. 270 ohm Resistor3. Window's Phone 8.14. Raspberry Pi5. Breadboard6. A few wires

Step 2: Setting up Azure 1: A Crash Course in AzureIt's very likely that you have never even used a service like Microsoft Azure so we will start off with a bit of a crash course. Obviously we won't be covering everything(that's what the hours and hours of online material is for) but instead focusing on what exactly we are doing. This way you're not simply building a black box and have noidea that magic happening behind the scenes, but rather a high-level conceptual understanding. This will allow you to expand on it in the future, and also understand thepurpose behind why we are using Azure versus another service.

Why Azure?

Why not Node.js? That's probably a question a lot of you will be asking, and it's a very legitimate question. Why not just create a basic REST server that we can hit tocommand our devices? Well the issue is that we live in the future, and the future is all about the Internet of Things (IoT). IoT deals with tens if not hundreds of littledevices all around your home, all connected giving you unparalleled control. Will a simple Node server running on a Pi be able to handle all of that? Isn't dealing with allof that funky server code another guide (if not an entire book) in it's own right? Yes, yes it is, and that's why Azure is here to the rescue. While we really won't see thebenefits of Azure in this initial guide because we are only hooking up one device, once we begin to hook up more and more devices we will be able to see the truebenefits.

What Will We Be Making?

For our project, we're going to make a Service Bus that will process Topics and Subscriptions. Don't worry, I know we're throwing a lot of fancy words around early,but I assure you that it doesn't take long to get a basic understanding. A Service Bus, in a nutshell, provides a highly robust messaging framework that serves as a relaybetween two (or more) endpoints. It is essentially the magical 'cloud' that we hear so much about. Something sends it a message, it decides where that message shouldgo, sends it, and another device gets that message. The service bus is our mail sorting facility, make sense?

So what about these Topics and Subscriptions? Why can't we just call them messages? Well, because it's not quite that simple. A Topic contains a message, but youcan't say that a Topic is a message. It's just incorrect. So what is a Topic then? A Topic forms a relationship (both logical and physical) between publishers andsubscribers so that a publisher (Cortana) can publish messages to multiple subscribers (all of our IoT devices). Think of it this way: Say we had 10 different IoT devicesall around our home, all hooked up to different light switches. When we give the command "Turn the Lights Off" we want to send a message to each and every IoT devicetelling it to turn off, but we don't want to send 10 different messages. Furthermore, how much of a pain is it that every time we add an IoT device we need to re-code ourentire Cortana logic? Instead, we publish a message to the Topic "LightControls" and that Topic now publishes to all subscribers (which would be every IoT device thatcontrols a lightswitch) to go to the "OFF" position.Still Confused? Don't worry, this isn't something that's easy to pick up (let alone explain) in a paragraph or two. If you still want to learn more, here are some greatresources:

Introducing Queues and Topics in Azure Service Bus - Code Magazine

How to User Service Bus Topics/Subscriptions - Microsoft

Windows Azure Service Bus Topics and Subscriptions - Neudesic

In a Nut Shell...

Cortana is going to send a message to a Topic on the Service Bus (the cloud). Our Cloud will then send that message to every device that has "subscribed" to that topic.So when we send "DeskLightsOff" to the "LightControl" Topic, our DeskLights will have Subscribed to it, will receive it, and then will process that command.


Image Notes1. This is Where Cortana Resides2. Azure Sorts Different "Topics" and sends them to the correct 'Subscriptions'3. All of our different IoT devices!

Step 3: Setting up Azure 2: Creating Your Azure Service BusTime to Code! Well...not yet. First, we have to set up our Azure Service Bus. Microsoft has provided a pretty slick online interface that actually lets us create the wholething without typing a single line of code. Pretty Cool. Let's get started!

1. Create Your Azure Account

Chances are you don't have an Azure Account, so you will need to sign up for their free trial. It's fairly straight forward, although you will need to enter a credit card

Worried about paying monthly for this? Don't. The service bus we will set up will likely receive less than 1 million calls a month. It currently costs about$1.00 for 30 million. You'll be paying a few dimes at most. If you want to continue past the free trial, however, be prepared to shell out about $11 a month.

2. Create A Service Bus

Log into the Azure Management Portal after you have created your account.Figure 1: Click on 'Service Bus' to go to the 'Service Bus' Dashboard.Figure 2: Click on 'Create' In the lower pane.Figure 3: Enter in a name for your namespace (Must be Unique!). Note that my Region is Central US because that's where I am. Azure will likely put in whateverregion it thinks is best, and you should just leave it. Click on the Checkmark in the lower right corner to continue.Your Namespace will be "activating" for a short bit, and then Boom! Your Service Bus has been Created!***NOTE***For this guide, I have named my Namespace "CustomNamespace". Anywhere you see that String, you should replace it with your own Namespacename.

Recap

So basically all we did here was get started with Azure. We created an account and then a Service Bus. Remember that a Service Bus provides us with a Cloud "MailSorting Facility", but right now that Facility doesn't really have any direction. In our next step we will work on adding actual logic with Topics and Subscriptions.

Image Notes1. Figure 1.




Image Notes1. Figure 4.2. My Namespace (You Name Will be What you put in!)

Step 4: Setting up Azure 3: Creating Topics and SubscriptionsNow that we've created the Service Bus, it's time to add our Topics and Subscriptions. Remember from our previous write-up that we send messages to a Topic, which isthen relayed to one or more subscriptions.

Conceptual Setup

Before we just start hacking away, let's take a step back and remember what exactly we are doing. Look at Figure 1 and make sure you have an idea of what's going on.We won't be creating that exact model today, but it is definitely something you could do further down the road. We have a LightTopic which is going to be where wesend commands dealing with turning off the lights. We then have our LightSubscription which we will label DeskLightSubscription because it's what we want the Desklights (the led we have hooked up to the Pi) to listen to.1. Create the 'LightTopic' Topic

Figure 2. Click on your Service Bus to go to the Service Bus DashboardFigure 3. Click on 'TOPICS' on the upper panel to go to the Topics PageFigure 4. Click on 'CREATE A NEW TOPIC'Figure 5. Type in 'LightTopic' (Or whatever you want to call it) Then Click 'CREATE A NEW TOPIC'

Great! We've created our first Topic. This is where we will send all of our commands from Cortana.

2. Create the 'LightSubscription' Subscription

Figure 6. Click on 'New Subscription' At the bottom of your Topics page (Where you should have left off)Figure 7. Enter 'LightSubscription' into the TextBox and click on the Arrow in the Lower Right Corner.Figure 8. You'll be taken to a 'Details' Page. Leaving everything at the Defaults will be fine, so simply click on the arrow again.Figure 9. Once you go back to the Topic Dashboard, you'll notice that there is now 1 Subscription attached to the topic.

Recap

Yup. We're done. It really is that simple. Now, navigating through Azure can be a little daunting at first, especially with all the different terms which we may not all befamiliar with. As we saw though, the process is actually pretty simple. I know it doesn't really feel like we've done anything yet because there isn't really anything tangibleor code, and unfortunately there won't be for a while. But we have created an essential and important part of our project!

Image Notes1. Figure 1 Image Notes

1. Figure 22. Click Here


Image Notes1. Figure 3



Step 5: Setting up your Raspberry Pi 1: Environment SetupNow that we've got our Azure Service Bus setup, it's time to setup our IoT device, AKA our Raspberry Pi.

What Our Raspberry Pi Will Do:

To Recap, our Raspberry Pi is simply going to be a IoT slave. It will do what it is told to do which is either turn on or off the lights. In the future, this could be expanded tosending messages regarding different variables you want to measure, but for now we're going to keep it simple for the sake time and length of this guide. The Pi will beattached to our 'LightSubscription' and listen for anytime it gets a message from that subscription, which is of course triggered by our topic.

Hardware Setup

Setting up the circuit, dealing with GPIO, and general Raspberry Pi shenanigans is a bit beyond the scope of this guide, simply because it's quite literally an instructablein itself. Basically to get a general setup you will need to create a very basic "Blinky" circuit with your Raspberry Pi. If you need help with that, I would highly suggestchecking out a few of these guides that cover the subject.Software Setup

Now that you have a basic led circuit working on your Pi, we will need to install the software packages needed to interact with our Azure Service Bus. Lucky for us, thereis a Python SDK for Azure which works quite well. We can simply use git to clone the repo down and install it on our machine:>>>>git clone https://github.com/Azure/azure-sdk-for-python.git>>>>cd azure-sdk-for-python>>>>python setup.py install

If you're having any trouble, make sure that you have done an 'update' and 'upgrade' recently.>>>> sudo apt-get update>>>> sudo apt-get upgrade

To test and make sure that the azure SDK installed correctly, do the following commands and make sure the output is the same:>>>> pythonPython 2.7.3>>>> import azure>>>>

>>>> exit()


If it installed correctly, typing the line `import azure'` should result in a blank line following it. Simply type `exit()` to leave the python terminal.

Step 6: Setting up your Raspberry Pi 2: Coding The Initial SetupAlright! Time to actually get down and dirty with some code! The code for this is actually pretty straightforward, and it's only about 50 lines of code. That being said, we'lltry and walk through it slowly so you can get a better conceptual understanding of how it works. If you just want to "Grab and Go" so to speak, the entire file is attachedfor those who wish to do so.

Import Libraries

We have quite a few libraries we need to import for all these moving parts to work. Remember that we are also controlling the pins, we will need to import the GPIOfunctionality as well. In total, the top of your import statements should look like the following:import RPi.GPIO as GPIO #For Controlling the Pinsimport threading #To Run Asyncimport sysimport selectfrom azure.servicebus import *import os

The 3 oddball ones are obviously the GPIO, Threading, and Azure libraries. The middle one, threading, might seem a little strange at first. Essentially we need it to makesure we are actively "listening" to the server subscription. To do this effectively, we run that "listening" on a separate thread.

Create Constant Variables

Yes, this can seem a bit trivial, but it will also help a lot with understanding the connection between Azure and Python. The code is pretty straight forward:

# Make sure you set the following:AZURE_SERVICEBUS_NAMESPACE='CustomNamespace'AZURE_SERVICEBUS_SHARED_KEY_NAME='RootManageSharedAccessKey'AZURE_SERVICEBUS_ACCESS_KEY_VALUE=''GPIO_BCM_PIN = 11 #The Pin your LED is controlled by

The 'namespace' and 'GPIO' variables should be pretty obvious, but the middle two could cause some confusion. Essentially, this is your special "login Key' that will grantaccess to your Azure Service Bus. For now, don't worry about it (We'll find out where to get this Key in the next step!).Set up Lights on Start-up

Whenever we start our program, we want to give our Lights (or in our case, our little LED) a specific state. In this case, we will set it to 'OFF"# setup the GPIO for the LEDGPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM)GPIO.setup(GPIO_BCM_PIN,GPIO.OUT)# Initially turn off the LEDGPIO.output(GPIO_BCM_PIN, 0)

Start Incoming Messages Thread

Here is where we start to work the magic. We will create a thread and have it target a new function (which we have not created yet) called process_messages. We willcreate this function in the next step. For now, let's create and start the thread.# start a thread listening for incoming messagest = threading.Thread(target=process_messages) #will create 'process_messages' next stept.daemon=True;t.start()

Wait Clean-up


We will then 'wait' for any raw_input from our user. Essentially, don't end this program unless somebody hits a key. Finally, we'll release any GPIO resources to ensure asafe exit from our program.# wait until the user enters somethingchar = raw_input("Press enter to exit program")# release any GPIO resourcesGPIO.cleanup()

Recap

So what does this code do? Well, not much. In fact in won't even compile right now (we're missing that process_messages function!). But we've set up the structure forhow our IoT device will work. We will set the light to 'OFF', then listen for any command from the Service Bus on a separate thread. The next step will show us how to dothat.

Step 7: Setting up your Raspberry Pi 3: Coding The SubscriptionThis step completely revolves around the process_messages function that we talked about in the previous step. We will use the Python Azure SDK to actively listen formessages from the Azure subscription and update our LED accordingly.

Initialize the Service Bus ObjectFirst things first, we will create this 'process_messages()' function and then the service bus object.def process_messages(): # Initialize the service bus service_bus = ServiceBusService(service_namespace=AZURE_SERVICEBUS_NAMESPACE, shared_access_key_name=AZURE_SERVICEBUS_SHARED_KEY_NAME, shared_access_key_value=AZURE_SERVICEBUS_ACCESS_KEY_VALUE)

Pretty simple, right? Notice that we used our namespace, Key Name, and Key Value to hook up to the Service Bus. These are the key things you need to actually log inand interact with your service bus. We will find out how to add the key name and value at the end of this step.

Get the Topic and Subscription

Pretty Straightforward. We're going to get our 'LightTopic' topic and 'LightSubscription' Subscription'. This way our Service Bus knows who to interact with.service_bus.get_topic("lighttopic")service_bus.get_subscription("lighttopic","lightsubscription")

Looping and Logic

Now comes the interesting part. We will do a basic 'While True' loop (an infinite loop) to actively listen for our Subscription.while True: msg = service_bus.receive_subscription_message('lighttopic', 'lightsubscription', peek_lock=False) if msg.body is not None: print(msg.body) if msg.custom_properties["led"]==1: print("turning on the LED") GPIO.output(GPIO_BCM_PIN, 1) else: print("turning off the LED") GPIO.output(GPIO_BCM_PIN, 0)

You can see that we have a few debugging statements in here (by printing the message body to the console, along with LED commands). You are free to delete them ifyou wish.

This code is pretty straight forward. Our 'msg' object gets whatever message came from the subscription, and then we look at the custom_properties of it. If there is anObject 'led' that equals 1, we turn the LED On. Otherwise, we turn it off. When we start to program Cortana and deal more with the publishing side of things, we will seehow exactly we interact with this 'led' custom property.

Find and Insert your Azure Key

Yes, I know, I'm a tease. It was the first thing I started with and now I'm ending with it. The process is pretty straight forward:

Go to your 'CustomNameSpace' Dashboard on the Azure Management PortalClick on 'Configure'


You will see see a section labeled 'shared access key generator'The 'POLICY NAME' is your Key NameThe 'PRIMARY KEY' is your Key ValueInsert those two things into your code in their respective spotsSee Figure 1. for help

Run Your Code!

And now you're ready to run! Everything should compile and work. If it doesn't, be sure to check out the attached code sample to see if you missed any parts.

That being said, it really doesn't do much. That's because right now it's only listening, but we're not sending anything! It's just sitting there and happily listening to anempty cloud. Next, we'll dive into Cortana and Windows Phone to publish a message to the cloud so that our Pi actually has a message to hear!


File Downloads

ListenForServiceBus.py (1 KB)[NOTE: When saving, if you see .tmp as the file ext, rename it to 'ListenForServiceBus.py']Step 8: Creating Your Windows Phone App Part 1: Intro to Windows Phone 8.1Introduction to Window's Phone 8.1

Despite its low market share, Window's Phone really is a great phone that gives you a lot of power as a developer. Because I know that it may not be the most frequentlydeveloped platform, and not everyone is familiar with C# here, I'll be trying to go a bit slower and with a bit more detail in this section of the instructable. If you already arecomfortable with the Window's Phone platform, Natural Language Processing (SSML), and C#, you will probably be able to zip through this pretty quickly. Otherwise,grab a cup of coffee, find a comfy chair, and buckle up. We've got an app to write!

Setting up your Environment

First things first, as with all coding projects, is setting up our environment. If you've never developed with C# before, chances are you might not even have visual studioinstalled. Let's get it all set up.

Make sure you have a computer that is running Windows 8. You must have this!If you don't have Visual Studio, download Visual Studio Community 2013 with Update 4The Windows Phone 8.1 SDK should be installed with Visual Studio CommunityIf you have a Windows Phone, you'll want to register it for development

Not too hard, right? Visual Studio is a big download and quite a large software package. It may take some time to install, but it usually works out of the box pretty well.Next we'll get started on actually creating our Windows Phone App!


Step 9: Creating your Windows Phone App Part 2: Configure and Navigating Your ProjectCreating Your Application

Let's go ahead and create our Windows Phone 8.1 project, then we can walk through some of the nitty gritty and discover what's inside.Figure 1 - Click on 'New Project...'Figure 2 - Look under: Templates > Visual C# > Store Apps, and you should see an project template named 'Blank App (Universal Apps)'. Select it, and type in aname for your Home Automation app.

*NOTE* - I named my app 'BACH', which stands for 'Badass Automated Cloud Home'. You're free to name your project whatever you please, but anyreference to 'BACH' in my code or pictures should be replaced with your own project name

Configuring your ProjectIf you have never used Visual Studio before, this may look a little daunting (and I also apologize you've missed on what I believe to be the best IDE hands down). I'll try towalk you through the thousands of different knobs and buttons pretty specifically, so don't worry.

An important first step is to take a look at Figure 3 and understand a bit what is going on. Remember how we click "Universal App" back on that project template? Wellthat's because this app could actually be deployed on Windows Phone and Windows Desktop (8.1 versions and higher, of course). That's why we see two differentprojects within our 'Solution Explorer' on the right-hand side. Everything under BACH.Windows(Windows 8.1)? Just ignore it. We won't be developing a desktop appin this tutorial.

Another thing to take in mind is that within our code files, we will see a lot of "Platform Specific Code". That's code that looks like this:#if WINDOWS_PHONE_APP private TransitionCollection transitions;#endif

That's how the compiled app knows if it should a piece of code or not, depending on if it is deployed as a Windows 8.1 app or as a Windows Phone 8.1 app. Why doesthis matter? Well, because Visual Studio is pretty slick, and we can actually tell it what we are currently working on. In Figure 3 you'll notice I have also circled somethingin the upper left corner: a tab that currently says BACH.Windows. That's basically us telling Visual Studio that we are currently working on the Windows app, except thatwe don't want it to say that! Instead, let's switch it over to say BACH.Windowsphone (Figure 4).Now, we also need to tell Visual Studio that when we click "Run Program" we want it to run the Windowsphone version, not the Windows version. To do that, we willsimply right-click on the Bach.WindowsPhone (Windows Phone 8.1) project and select 'Set as StartUp Project' (Figure 5).Navigating the Project StructureNow that we've configured everything to run in 'WindowsPhone' mode, lets do a very quick overview of your project structure (Figure 6):

Properties Beyond Scope of GuideReferences Other libraries you might use, we'll add some libraries letter to connect to our Azure ServiceAssets Where you store all those pretty pictures. You'll see some already in there by default. We won't be dealing with this folder within this guide.MainPage.xaml > MainPage.xaml.cs Your "Design" logic and "Code" logic, respectively. We could make an entire guide in itself about how to code these twodocuments. Basically what you need to know is this is the "Front Page" of your app.Package.appxmanifest App Name, requirements, packages, etc. We will be turning on the "Internet" permissions later on.BACH.SHARED

App.xaml > App.xaml.cs What's all this 'Shared' nonsense? Well, remember this app is 'Universal', so this is code that is shared between your desktopand phone app. This is where we will put all of the Azure Service calls.

Hopefully that makes you a bit more comfortable with the Windows Phone structure, and don't feel overwhelmed. If you do, or would like to learn more, I would highlysuggest you check out Channel9's video tutorial:

Windows Phone 8 Development for absolute beginners - Channel9


Step 10: Creating Your Windows Phone App Part 3: Azure on Windows Phone 8.1Where Things Get Complicated...

That super nice, easy to explain format we've had for so long? Yup. Say goodbye. This specific step, while not hard can be really confusing for anyone not familiar withbasic REST services and network protocols. In the interest of not blowing this instructable into a full on novel, we will treat the Azure Service call here within WindowsPhone as essentially a "Black Box" call. That means we will copy and paste some code down and just compile it. We won't walk through it, and some of you may have noclue what it even does, but that doesn't really matter, because it works.There is a great list of resources at the end of this guide that can help you understand it better, butfor now, let's just bite our lip and press forward.Installing Libraries and Permissions

We will be using some fancy internet protocol libraries to access Azure since unfortunately there is not currently a specific Azure SDK for Windows Phone (yet). In orderto do that, we will have install a Package(a library) from the NuGet Package Manager.

Figure 1 - Right Click on the WindowsPhone project and select 'Manage NuGet Packages...'Figure 2 - Search for 'Json' in the search bar on the upper right, and click on 'Json.NET', then 'Install'Close out of the Package Manager

Great, we've got the libraries we need. Now we need to enable the 'Microphone' and 'Internet' capabilities for our app. This will let our app allow us to use Cortana andpost messages to our Azure Service Bus.

Double Click on 'Package.appxmanifest'Figure 3 - Switch to the Capabilities TabFigure 3 - Make sure that 'Internet(Client and Server) and 'Microphone' are checked.

Now, at the top of your file, insert the following code to allow us to reference all these new fancy packages within our code:using Newtonsoft.Json;using Windows.Security.Cryptography;using Windows.Security.Cryptography.Core;using System.Net;using System.Net.Http;using System.Net.Http.Headers;

Coding the Azure Call

The attached code file AzureCall.cs is not the entire App.xaml.cs file, it is simply 3 functions that you should copy and paste into your App.xaml.cs file. I wouldrecommend copy and pasting these 3 functions underneath the OnSuspending function. Let's do a very brief overview of these 3 functions:

SendSBMessage - The primary function you will call. We will dive deeper into this function below.SASTokenHelper - This function helps us encode out SAS token to log in to our Azure Service BusHmacSha256 - This function is purely there for Cryptography. If you don't understand it, don't worry.

Briefly Looking At SendSbMessage()


Let's just very briefly peek into this message. Specifically, I want us to look at this piece of logic within the function:HttpContent content = new StringContent(json, Encoding.UTF8);content.Headers.ContentType = new MediaTypeHeaderValue("application/json");content.Headers.Add("led", message);string path = "/lighttopic/messages";var response = client.PostAsync(path, content).Result;

Specifically, let's look at that callcontent.Headers.Add("led", message);string path = "/lighttopic/messages";

Remember that 'lighttopic' is our Topic name, and that in our Python script on our Raspberrry Pi we checked for the header variable attached to the `led` header.Hopefully this is starting to come together a little bit. Essentially, this function takes in a 'Message' which is going to be a 0 or 1 for either "OFF" or "ON". We will attachedthat to our LED Header and then send it off to our Azure Service Bus.




File Downloads

AzureCall.cs (2 KB)


[NOTE: When saving, if you see .tmp as the file ext, rename it to 'AzureCall.cs']Step 11: Creating Your Windows Phone App Part 4: CortanaIntroducing Cortana

Cortana is the personal assistant within Window's Phone, and soon the entire Windows ecosystem. She is Microsoft's answer to Apple's 'Siri', and a very strong answerat that. One of the most important features of Cortana is the third party support for app developers. This means that we can actually use Cortana within our app andinteract with her through our own personal app that we developed rather than be restricted to just commands she is programmed with.How we will use Cortana: An Overview

For our App, we won't get too deep into all the different ways we can leverage Cortana simply because there isn't enough time. We'll hard-code Cortana to respond to 2distinct phrases:

"Turn my lights Off" - Will send a message to the Azure Service Bus to turn off our lights

"Turn my lights On" - Will send a message to the Azure Service Bus to turn on our lights

I've provided some more resources for learning more about Cortana and different ways we can develop with her at the end of this guide but without dissecting every littledetail of Cortana, let's learn just enough to get by:SSML - Speech Synthesis Markup Language is how we tell Cortana what phrases to listen to and basic responses.

Installing - When we first install our app, we won't be able to interact with our app through Cortana until we manually start the app for the first time. This is becauseopening our app installs the voice commands Cortana needs to recognize our app.

Pick your App name Wisely - We can't directly interact with our app through Cortana, we have to tell Cortana that we want to use the commands from a specific app,rather than her general list. For example, if I made an sports app and told Cortana "What is the Score of the Packer Game?" she wouldn't use the information from myapp, because she doesn't know that my app can provide such information (she instead would look it up herself and give you the correct answer anyway). So instead, wehave to say "SportsApp, what is the score of the Packer game?". This tells Cortana that the command 'what is the score of the Packer game?' belongs to the 'SportsApp'and she should consult that app to give the proper feedback.

Want to learn more about Cortana and her features? I highly recommend Channel9's excellent video lecture on her.

Step 12: Creating Your Windows Phone App Part 4: Coding Cortana - SSMLSSML

For the first part of coding Cortana we will focus on the SSML or Speech Synthesis Markup Language document. This xml document, also called the will allow us toprogram Cortana and tell her what to listen for and what kind of phrases should open our app. First things first, let's go ahead and create our SSML document.

Figure 1 - Right click on the WP8.1 project, click Add and then New ItemFigure 2 - Scroll to find the Voice Command Definition template, and create it with a name. I named mine ControlCommands.xmlClick OK to create the document.

Navigating SSML

This might look overwhelming at first glance, but that's just because the template is nice enough to fill it with tons of examples. In reality, we don't need a lot of this code,and once you get the hang of it is actually pretty simple. Let's take a look at the first block at the top:

Contoso Rodeo play a new game

Figure 3

The 'CommandPrefix' tag is what we talked about in the last step: Your app's name as known by Cortana. This doesn't really even have to be your actual app's name, itcould be anything. I suggest something easy that you are going to remember. Remember that I named this app 'B.A.C.H" so I am going to insert 'bach' as myCommandPrefix.

The 'Example' tag is a suggestion to the user. When they scroll through Cortana and see all the available apps, it can show them suggested things to say.

Now erase the other large tag blocks in the file!

What? Why did I have you do that? Well, because we're using KISS in this project (Keep It Simple Stupid). At the risk of boring/teasing you to death with all the differentSSML write-up we can use for Cortana, we will keep it simple and just use what we need (Also, inserting xml code on Instructables is very difficult due to their editor!).So what do we need to put in? Let's insert the following command block:

turn on my desk lights


turn on my desk lights Turning On Your Desk Lights...

So what the heck is going on here?

Command - the tag block is what we reference in the actual code. When we refer to this later on, we'll call it 'DeskLightsOn' after it's name attribute.Example this is, again, the suggested input to the user for this commandListenFor - What phrase 'triggers' this command to 'fire' . Pretty self explanatory hopefully.Feedback - What Cortana responds with (she actually speaks it out loud).Navigate This would be used it we were going to a specific page in the App, but we're not, so let's just leave it blank for now.

Take a look at Figure 4 to see the XML code for both the "ON" and "OFF" commands for the desk lights. If you want to check out the entire code file, you can download itfrom the attached file.

A Final Note

The above usage of Cortana is very primitive, and I will fully acknowledge there are quite a few things we could do to improve this code. However, this isn't aninstructable about Cortana (Coming Soon though!), it is simply an introduction to her. If you wish to learn how to leverage and improve this SSML even more, I highlysuggest you check out my resources guide at the back of this instructable!





File Downloads


ControlCommands.xml (754 bytes)[NOTE: When saving, if you see .tmp as the file ext, rename it to 'ControlCommands.xml']Step 13: Creating Your Windows Phone App Part 4: Coding Cortana - LogicCortana's Logic

Now that Cortana can hear you, we need her to understand you. This part of the guide goes into the 'backend' of Cortana and pairing her with our app's logic. We want toprogram her so that when she hears one of these commands, she sends a message to our Azure Service Bus and turns on or off the lights.

Installing the Voice Commands

Don't Forget! This is a problem a lot of people have when first using Cortana, simply because it is easily overlooked. Let's do it right away to make sure it is done andover with.

Put the following code in your MainPage.xaml.cs document.

First, import the correct reference calls at the top of your file:using System.Threading.Tasks;using Windows.Media.SpeechRecognition;using Windows.Storage;

Then the code to install our voice commands can be written as a function like so:

private async Task InstallVoiceCommandsAsync(){var storageFile = await StorageFile.GetFileFromApplicationUriAsync(new Uri("ms-appx:///ControlCommands.xml"));await VoiceCommandManager.InstallCommandSetsFromStorageFileAsync(storageFile);}

Not familiar with Async and Await? Read up on the MSDN documents here.

Now that we have our function, let's make sure to call it! A good spot to put it is within the OnNavigatedTo function.

Because our install is an asynchronous task, we will have to turn the OnNavigateTo function into an async function by simple adding the following code:protected override async void OnNavigatedTo(NavigationEventArgs e)

Then we just check that this is the first time the page has been navigated to and install our voice commands:if (e.NavigationMode == NavigationMode.New){await InstallVoiceCommandsAsync();}

Great! Now our voice commands will install as soon as open the app for the first time!

Voice Command Logic

Now, we will use what command the user spoke to figure out which command to send to our Azure Service Bus. Open up your App.xaml.cs file and scroll to just belowthe RootFrame_FirstNavigated function. We will put the following function under there:protected override void OnActivated(IActivatedEventArgs args) { base.OnActivated(args); if (args.Kind == ActivationKind.VoiceCommand) { var commandArgs = args as VoiceCommandActivatedEventArgs; if (commandArgs != null) { SpeechRecognitionResult speechRecognitionResult = commandArgs.Result; var voiceCommandName = speechRecognitionResult.RulePath[0];

switch (voiceCommandName) { case "DeskLightsOff": SendSBMessage("0"); break; case "DeskLightsOn": SendSBMessage("1"); break; } } } Window.Current.Activate(); }

This function is called every time somebody uses our Command Prefix (BACH) when giving Cortana an instruction. While it may seem a little confusing at first, the realimportant part are the following lines of code:switch (voiceCommandName){ case "DeskLightsOff": SendSBMessage("0"); break; case "DeskLightsOn": SendSBMessage("1"); break;}


We use a switch statement to jump through the different commands in our SSML document. What we are checking is for the String to match up with our Command Namefrom our Command blocks in the ssml doc. Once we know what command we have received, we can then act accordingly by firing our SendSBMessage which sends amessage to our Azure Service Bus. For "Off" we send a '0' and "On" we send a '1'.

Code not working 100%? Don't worry, I've attached both a MainPage.xaml.cs and App.xaml.cs that should give you more clarity when following along.

File Downloads

MainPage.xaml.cs (2 KB)[NOTE: When saving, if you see .tmp as the file ext, rename it to 'MainPage.xaml.cs']

App.xaml.cs (8 KB)[NOTE: When saving, if you see .tmp as the file ext, rename it to 'App.xaml.cs']Step 14: The Final Product!You Did It!

With a few simple clicks, you can deploy your app to your Windows Phone device and you are all set! Initially, you'll simply see a black screen (Figure 1), but that isnothing to be alarmed about. Remember we didn't really code any GUI for this project and simply based it entirely around the voice commands with Cortana.By holding down the search button you can activate Cortana. Simply say

"BACH turn on my desk lights"

Cortana should return with the message that she is turning them on (Figure 2).Hopefully, this will trigger your LED to go on! Congrats!

Moving Forward...

In this guide, we've only just barely scratched the surface of what this technology is capable of. Here are just a few ideas that you can take going forward to really fleshout your automated home with Cortana and Azure:

Hook up your music player to Cortana, set wake-up alarms!Hook up a relay with your RPi to control large lightsUse Cortana's Geofencing feature to have the lights turn off when you leave your house (Guide on this coming soon!)Create a GUI interface on your Windows Phone app to control your lightsCreate an Azure Storage Table and keep the 'status' of different IoT devices around your home and send them to your App!

Got more ideas? Post them in the comments and I will add them to the list!


Step 15: Troubleshooting and ReferencesTroubleshooting

I keep getting the error:Error 2 The type or namespace name 'SpeechRecognition' does not exist in the namespace 'Windows.Media' (are you missing an assembly reference?)

Yes, this is a strange one. I actually made two of these projects (one to test it, the other as a code-along). On one project I did have this error, and the other I didn't,despite identical code. The problem is that 'SpeechRecognition' is a library only available to Windows Phone, and not Windows in general. Because this code is in our'App.xaml.cs' file, it's technically shared code. To get around this, simply wrap it in a Windows Phone 8 IF:#if WINDOWS_PHONE_APPusing Windows.Media.SpeechRecognition;#endif

That will make it exclusive to your Windows Phone project, and should compile.I keep getting a "Authorization Denied" when trying to connect to my Azure Service Bus through the Windows Phone app

Let me guess, you were the rebellious one who decided to name all their variables on their own? Double check that you have substituted all my instructable names withyour own custom names. Doing a 'CTRL-F' on certain variables works well.

It takes almost 20 seconds from giving the command to my phone to the light actually turning on/off, what gives?

Yes, I've encountered this too. I've seen the 'delay' range anywhere from 10-30 seconds, with an average of just around 17 seconds. My initial thought is that this slow-down is coming from the code on the RPi, and it isn't 'listening' to the subscription as fast as we would hope for. If I find a fix for it in the future, I will add to thisinstructable.

I will post more troubleshooting tips as people comment on various problems!


References

Raspberry Pi

WiringPi GuideGPIO ReferencePython and LED Wiring Tutorial

Azure

Brokered Messaging REST TutorialAzure Service Bus and IoTHow to Use Service Bus Topic/SubscriptionsService Bus Queues, Topics and Subscriptions OverviewService Bus Topic and Subscription TutorialPython Azure SDKShout out to 'mlinnen' for his work in developing this awesome RPi Service Bus Example!

Windows Phone 8.1 and Cortana

Windows Phone 8.1 for Absolute BeginnersWindows Phone SDK DocumentationWindows Phone 8.1 Development CenterUniversal Windows App Development with Cortana and the Speech SDKLaunch a foreground app with voice commands in CortanaIntegrating your Application to work with Cortana in Windows Phone 8.1Building Text to Speech Applications using Windows Phone 8.1 and CortanaWhat Developers need to Know about the Cortana API

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Comments9 comments Add Comment

tomatoskins says: May 18, 2015. 7:14 AM REPLYSo much great detail here! Thanks for sharing and welcome to the community!

dominicm2 says: May 19, 2015. 12:06 PM REPLYwill there be a guide/howto on adding more devices such as an oven to preheat, little custom devices that are little more than a motor in a circuit..etc.

jckelley says: May 21, 2015. 5:06 AM REPLYThat's a fine idea. It becomes tricky because a lot of those kind of solutions are very custom. There isn't really a strong standard interface for ovens,microwaves, washing machines, etc. Making a guide on how to hook it up to my oven might be totally different from what you would need.

Lolman4000 says: May 20, 2015. 7:45 AM REPLYNice speech at the front, Like this instructible!

olegsh says: May 19, 2015. 12:46 PM REPLYThere's no way I'll put my home automation server to the cloud but the tutorial is good, thanks for sharing.

jckelley says: May 20, 2015. 4:52 AM REPLYI would agree that if you have the networking skills, it makes far more sense to just create your own local server. I used Azure mainly so that peoplewithout strong networking skills could get get something up and running quickly.

IanB7 says: May 19, 2015. 10:10 AM REPLYA great exploration of this topic! Very useful as I am trying to decide between many different paradigms for this same objective. I have been leaning towardsTemboo, python, RPI, arduino, android implementations because those are the ecosystems I am familiar with. Thanks!

casinosonalia says: May 19, 2015. 7:01 AM REPLYGood work.

I like the name Windows Azure.

antoniraj says: May 19, 2015. 6:18 AM REPLYVery nice...

use rpi azure and cortana to automate your home

Documents

azure account

azure key

azure service bus51

raspberry pi

windows phone app

environment setup

initial setup

hardware requirements