ADVANCEDPROJECTS
ISSUE 378|COMPUTERSHOPPER|AUGUST 2019 137
NEXT MONTH
USEWORD LIKEAPRO
MicrosoftWord might be widely used,
but is it well used? We show you some
power-user tricksforthe authorisation code,which is
generated once you enter the huge URL
intoaweb browser.
Youdon’t need to copythe URL manually,
however,asjust highlighting the text
automatically copies it to your clipboard.
Youcan then switch to aweb browser,
pastethe copied URL intothe address bar
and follow the instructions to link the AIY
kit to your Google account. Once the
authentication code has been generated, you
can pasteitback intoPuTTY by clicking the
highlight button (the two overlapping
squares) and right-clicking the PuTTY
window.Hit Enter and let the code work
through; after afew seconds you should see
the button on your AIY kit light up,with a
message on the PuTTY screen to press the
button to start aconversation.Once you press the button, you’ll see
the message in PuTTY updateto
INFO:root:Converstation started. Ask your
AIY kit aquestion and it will answer,while the
PuTTY screen will show any AI or learning
information required. It’s fascinating to
watch as the AI tries to rework words that it
didn’t quiteunderstand in order to form a
sensible question to answer.And some
questions throw up interesting responses:
‘Is this parrot dead?’ forexample,or
requesting the AIY kit to ‘beatbox’.
Some answers aren’t so brilliant, but the
responses come pretty quickly.
Aquestion-and-answer box is the most
basic use forthe kit, especially as you have
to press the button to ask the question.
Youcan playwith activation phrases, or use
the exposed six GPIO pins to interact with
the physical world.⬅Setting up the Google Cloud Service
is quitefiddly⬇Getting your Credentials information
is the trickiest part of the process, not
least because Google’s advice was out
of dateatthe time of writing⬆You need to copyand pastethis huge URL intoaweb browser to authenticatethe AIY kit.
Thankfully just highlighting the URL in PuTTY automatically copies it to your clipboard