Using the Web Triggers app written by Jason Tomsic, I was able hook up my IR blaster Pi that controlled my TV and my Particle Photon smart lamp to my Fitbit Versa. I already have an Alexa skill, a Workflow (now known as Shortcut) on my iPhone and a custom Particle Photon universal remote that allows me to do all of this. But using any of those interfaces requires me to talk Alexa, pull out my phone or find where I last placed my universal remote (which surpisingly gets misplaced a lot even if it is colored bright orange). I thought, since I always have my watch on that might actually be a better remote.

I used the AWS API Gateway to expose a single web API across all my client interfaces. This allowed me to trigger it from different devices as REST is something common across all of them. This also lets me trigger these actions no matter where I am in the world (given my remote had internet access). The AWS API Gateway then triggered AWS Lambda functions that published events. This allowed me to decouple the IR blaster Pi and Particle Photon smart lamp from the AWS services. This asynchornous messaging strategy removes the need for me to expose devices inside my network to the internet reducing my risk of attack. It also provides me better extensibility for those future smart home devices I want to add into my network.