The book is split into two parts: the first part covers creating Alexa skills and the second
part designing Internet of Things and Smart Home devices using a Raspberry Pi. The first
chapters describe the process of Alexa communication opening an Amazon account and creating a
skill for free. The operation of an Alexa skill and terminology such as utterances intents
slots and conversations are explained. Debugging your code saving user data between sessions
S3 data storage and Dynamo DB database are discussed. In-skill purchasing enabling users to
buy items for your skill as well as certification and publication is outlined. Creating skills
using AWS Lambda and ASK CLI is covered along with the Visual Studio code editor and local
debugging. Also covered is the process of designing skills for visual displays and interactive
touch designs using Alexa Presentation Language. The second half of the book starts by creating
a Raspberry Pi IoT thing to control a robot from your Alexa device. This covers security issues
and methods of sending and receiving MQTT messages between an Alexa device and the Raspberry
Pi. Creating a smart home device is described including forming a security profile linking
with Amazon and writing a Lambda function that gets triggered by an Alexa skill. Device
discovery and on off control is demonstrated. Next readers discover how to control a smart
home Raspberry Pi display from an Alexa skill using Simple Queue Service (SQS) messaging to
switch the display on and off or change the color. A node-RED design is discussed from the
basic user interface right up to configuring MQTT nodes. MQTT messages sent from a user are
displayed on a Raspberry Pi. A chapter discusses sending a proactive notification such as a
weather alert from a Raspberry Pi to an Alexa device. The book concludes by explaining how to
create Raspberry Pi as a stand-alone Alexa device.
