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Ask HN: Most interesting tech you built for just yourself?

1901 points l2silver | 1 comments | 27 Apr 23 15:04 UTC | HN request time: 0.416s | source

Maybe you've created your own AR program for wearables that shows the definition of a word when you highlight it IRL, or you've built a personal calendar app for your family to display on a monitor in the kitchen. Whatever it is, I'd love to hear it.
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sriram_malhar ◴[28 Apr 23 06:47 UTC] No.35738249[source]▶
My MIL is 93, and the only tech she can really deal with is turning on the radio and TV and changing channels.

She is fond of music from old classics (from the 60's and earlier), so I hooked up a Raspberry PI with an FM transmitter and created her own private radio station. She tells me what songs she likes and I create different playlists that get broadcast on her station. It preserves the surprise element of radio, and there is nothing in there she doesn't like.

The tiny FM transmitter is surprisingly powerful. Her neighbours (of similar vintage) are very happy too, so their requests have also started coming in :)

EDIT: I wanted to add that I am the UI ... she doesn't get to choose the playlist. To make my life easier, I just created different playlists for different times of the day ... calm/spiritual/slower numbers in the early and late hours, peppy during the late morning and evening etc.

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quaintdev ◴[28 Apr 23 07:37 UTC] No.35738575[source]▶
OP seems from India and AFAIK its illegal to transmit on FM frequencies without a license. I understand it might be low powered but theres a chance of Police coming knocking on the door. Whats worse is it might interfere with emergency services. There is a reason we have spoctrum licences.
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_thisdot ◴[28 Apr 23 09:17 UTC] No.35739137[source]▶
Worth noting that there already exists a product in the Indian market by a big music label that addresses this exact issue. I’ve bought my grandfather one of those and he’s very happy with it!
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1. sriram_malhar ◴[28 Apr 23 11:26 UTC] No.35739946[source]▶
Do you mean the saregama Caravaan? If so, I bought her one of those and it just didn't cut the mustard.

The built-in collection either didn't have songs that she liked (from the '40s), or they weren't clustered together, or were mixed up with other songs.

I could load a flash disk with her playlist to plug into that player, but it wouldn't know what to play at what time (calm songs in the early and late hours, peppier numbers on other days, festival specific numbers on some days). This was a big deal. I can even change the playlist from elsewhere (a script automatically mirrors the playlist that I maintain on a server)

Bluetooth streaming is possible with the device, but not an option for my MIL ... that would require her to learn to use a cellphone.