Turkey day is officially upon us, and while everyone is gearing up for early morning – or shall we say late night – shopping, whether grabbing quick steals for stocking stuffers or scanning for serious savings, it is always fun to come up with your own creations if you’re planning on spending Black Friday (News - Alert) indoors to avoid the long lines and jam packed parking lots.

Normally, while interactive voice response (IVR) and voice recognition technology are implemented for vital purposes in such things as the healthcare industry, this same sort of know-how can also be applied to more leisurely, light-hearted activities. If you’re tech-savvy, this one may be of particular interest to you: Voice-activated lights.

We’ve all seen that infamous YouTube (News - Alert) video of a house set to light up according to a famous song. It lights up accordingly for the entire duration of the song, check it out below if you haven’t seen it already:

So following this type of holiday spirit, can you imagine merely speaking and controlling those lights draping down from your roof shingles? Lifehacker.com’s Thorin Klosowski reports how DIYer Mike Pieters shows us how to do it in his step-by-step tutorial.

“Voice controlled lights are one of those futuristic ideas that never really caught on for mass consumption,” Klosowski explains. “All you need is an Arduino, a SimpleVR voice recognition shield, and something to control the voltage. Drop Pieters' code on both of the microcontrollers, and you'll have a cool, retro-future voice controlled lighting system.”

While Pieters trains his lights more like a guard dog, applying the code word “lamp” to turn it on and off, imagine what you can do with some extra elbow grease in preparation for this holiday season?

To learn more about esteemed IVR solutions, click here.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO Miami 2013, Jan 29- Feb. 1 in Miami, Florida.  Stay in touch with everything happening at ITEXPO (News - Alert). Follow us on Twitter.