Gamer modifies Alexa voice assistant for use in Elite: Dangerous

A 16-year-old gamer has created software for Amazon’s voice assistant that allows him to use Alexa in the space game Elite: Dangerous. He has put the necessary adjustments to control spaceships with speech in a step-by-step plan.

Austin Wilson has laid out his customizations for Amazon’s Alexa speaker on Hackster.io. Interested parties can use his software, or build on the application themselves to add their own functions. For the Alexa, Wilson wrote a skill in Node.js. To open it, he simply has to say: “Alexa, open ship assistant”. That voice command results in a session id, which can be linked to an application that provides the connection between the voice assistant and the game.

To control spaceships in Elite: Dangerous with Alexa, the voice assistant must be able to send commands to the game. Wilson made a Universal Windows App for this that can send information from the game to Alexa and process the incoming commands from Alexa. With a C# Console Application, the incoming voice commands are translated into key input, which is performed in the game.