Hey impers! There’s a couple Instructable contests going on right now that you might want to know about (Instructables is a website for sharing projects / build instructions).
Home Technology Contest - build something that makes home living easier!
Remote Control Contest - build something that’s remote controlled.
There’s some great prizes - and sharing projects is always fun!
I’m working on AT&T API code for speech to text. I’d like to speak to a Lala and have it convert audio to text for control. What to control for a contest…hmmm…
Something involving a giant red led and the phrase “I’m sorry, Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that” ?
Neopixel color would definitely be a good starting point. I’ve been trying to think of an ingenious way to make the recorder start without having to do something like push a button. I suppose you could start the sampler and try to create an audio trigger.
It’d be the perfect antidote to Siri, Google-now, "“Eugene Goostman” and Cortana, whatever you ask the answer is no!
Here’s a giant red button with a big LED inside that looks just like HAL when it’s lit up:
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9181
That’s the button I used for IoT-Pizza project… it’s nice.
Ooh, that might be the trigger for my snack man!
These are all great ideas, but not to be a downer, don’t forget the contest is about making life easier. 
Joel’s voice-activated idea really intrigues me. Being a guy who’s into building management and control systems, I can think of a few things I’d enjoy seeing published…if not already:
Voice-activated light. “Light on”. Wouldn’t it be dreamy if it could be “Light on 50 percent” (or such) to control brightness?
Voice-activated Thermostat. “Room Temperature 75”. Probably could use a voice-feedback where thermostat could reply “Room temp set to 75” after receiving a command and changing room temp. I picture a Star Trek-like voice…that woman who does all of the computer voices. There is obviously a lot more that can be said on this, but without a specific equipment type in mind, best to leave it there.
My personal fav (and i would love if someone showed me how to do this)…
Voice-activated water mixing (and or faucet on/off). Two variable valves could be connected to a hot and cold line individually. Using one to three temp sensors, some creative code could vary each valve position to hit a desired output temperature. “Water on temp 80”…and then maybe a beep when temp is achieved. Probably should have an automatic shutoff after some time period, and respond to “water off”. I could draw up a plumbing schematic and attempt to find the right valve, if it helps.
This has the added benefit of being a marketable safety feature - it could make sure that output water temp never exceeds 120 degrees, valuable in homes with kids (vulnerable to scalding).