Keep in touch with Grandma, with this low-tech Raspberry Pi and Telegram Messenger powered interface

We have so many options through which to communicate with our friends and relatives during the lockdown, thanks to our smartphones and the number of apps that serve all possible needs. Impressive as they are though, a smartphone is not suitable for everyone.

On the top of the box is a microphone with push-to-talk switch, a small thermal printer, and a set of 1/4″ jack sockets with associated jump lead. Each socket corresponds to a relative, and an audio message to that relative can be posted via Telegram simply by speaking into the microphone with the button pressed. Replies are then printed through the thermal printer. Meanwhile, behind the scenes is a Raspberry Pi holding it all together.

Telegram of course has an easy-to-use API that can facilitate such communications for free, and Python was used for the coding. He has described the process in the Twitter feed but is aiming to make a proper post about it and publish the code to Github.

See Keep In Touch With Grandma, With This Lo-Tech Interface

#technology #opensource #raspberrypi #telegram #Yayagram

We have so many options through which to communicate with our friends and relatives during the lockdown, thanks to our smartphones and the number of apps that serve all possible needs. Impressive a…