I came up with a design to control the bed through voice using an Alexa device. To accelerate the prototype, I partnered with graduate student Amanda Spyropoulos. By attaching an Arduino to the remote controller, we were able to create code that communicated with cloud services (io.adafruit.com and ifttt.com) enabling a person to use voice commands that trigger specific actions on the bed. For example, a person could say “Alexa, trigger raise bed” and the bed would raise to a predetermined level. Similarly the individual could lower the bed using the appropriate command. In effect, any traditional remote control action could be achieved through voice.