The Raspberry Pi is the perfect candidate for Google’s AIY where you can talk to a cardboard box with some electronics in it. [BuddyCasino] took on the challenge of squeezing an Alexa Client in an ESP32 and to make things interesting, a bunny rabbit was chosen as the host of the virtual assistant.
A few months ago, we did a teardown of the Google AIY Kit where [BuddyCasino] commented that he managed to port the Echo Dot client into and ESP32. Sure enough, the video below shows a demonstration of the build in action. The project uses the MAX98357A which is the same I2S DAC used in the Google AIY Voice Hat. For the microphone, the device is again an I2S component however unlike the Google AIY kit which uses the SPH0645LM4H, [BuddyCasino] opted for the ICS-43434.
Two NeoPixels are employed as visual indicators for various purposes. This project is an excellent example of how simple and cheap modern-day designs have become. We are hoping to see the author add more features to the design and who knows maybe we will see a Google Assistant port on the ESP32 in the future. Check out the original teardown for more inspiration.
Totally impressed by this, sure, it lacks the wake up command but that’s totally impressive!
Thanks. There is not enough RAM to run Snowboy, an OSS wakeword engine. There might be another option from Espressif, but I have no details yet.
Oh, and sorry for the vertical video syndrome. I realized too late what I was doing.
You Tit! I soiled my armor I was so scared of those legendary black bars of AAAAARRRGGHH!
What behind the rabbit? It is the rabbit…
How hard would it be to toss in another chip to do that? say a teensy 3.X for just the wakeword and have it trigger the rest of the bot.
There are three options:
– use uSpeech instead, which uses very little RAM
– Espressif allegedly is developing its own solution, so we could wait for that
– use the ESP-Wrover instead of ESP-Wroom, which has 4MB external RAM
In the short term, uSpeech might be the best option.
I would love a service like this, bunny and all; but with a button and careful trigger words to filter sending off to the cloud, I don’t want a home spy system. But it has to be something built to be private, like duckduckgo or ixquick.
From the title I was expecting something more like the mouse mouse. http://www.instructables.com/id/Mouse-Mouse!/
A lot of HaD would fit what Donald A. Norman described in The Invisible Computer. Computing power so cheap that it’s practically everywhere, hidden away.
“But it’s just a bleedin lil bunny!”
Tell that to Jimmy Carter!
awesome. i like it.