1960s-Themed Amazon Echo Talking Computer

In older works of science fiction, computers often respond to voice commands in a similar manner to home assistants like Alexa and Siri. Instead of a screen, headset, or other general-purpose graphics device, such computers responded visually to humans with an array of blinking lights that indicate… whatever.

For better or worse, today’s blinking computing landscape isn’t what was envisioned many decades ago, so dermbrian set out to change that with dermbrian's 1960-ish Science Fiction Talking Computer Terminal. The device is rather ingenious in its simplicity. It uses an Amazon Echo Pop as its computing heart, while an audio-activated relay board triggers nine blinking LEDs to show human observers it’s doing something.

The board’s microphone is positioned close to the speaker, and adjusted so that the Echo triggers it while ambient room noise does not. The setup also has a big red covered switch to deactivate the “predictive logic” and “sentience” indicators. While this takes care of the lighting, it (ominously?) enables the Echo Pop to still function.

The setup is stuffed into a large cookie tin, with a 1960s-esque LED display made out of cardboard and metallic trim. Parchment paper allows the LEDs to shine through, with a small amount of cotton stuffed inside to assist with diffusion.

Dermbrian's project is demonstrated in the video below. Although it may look a little silly by today’s standards, it would fit in perfectly on the bridge of a far future spaceship that travels the galaxy and resolves any pressing issues in about an hour.