Hackers turn Cortana into a home automation controller

Wouldn’t it be cool if you could use your smartphone to control your home appliances? Well, we suppose that is technically possible, thanks to apps and devices like the WeMo or the D-Link WiFi Smart Plug, but wouldn’t it be cooler if you could activate or deactivate certain features just by using your voice? Well the hackers over at Onion.io have recently put on a demonstration of home automation using Microsoft’s Cortana voice assistant, a feature that will be bundled with Windows Phone 8.1. 

Hackers at Onion.io have demonstrated using Cortana, the Digital Assistant in Windows Phone 8.1, to control appliances like lights or even print. The feat relies on a cloud back-end for Internet of Things Appliances and the unique extensibility of Cortana, a feature not available on other platforms. For simply switching lights on and off I suspect the application is an overkill, but I think with a bit more intelligence we could see a real application in managing an energy efficient home very simply.