Google AIY Voice Kit

Welcome to the new year! Last time we posted we talked about working with the google AIY voice project kit. This was a while ago, but here is a condensed update on the AIY Google Voice Kit.

The Google voice kit is available for any price from around 5 dollars, to the price at Target which is 49.99.

It makes me sad that some stores would take advantage of the interest of developers and interested adventures to mark the product up so high, but please check the price where you buy it to insure you are getting a fair market price for your expense.

Alright, the Google Voice Kit, all the parts add to the Raspberry Pi are included in the kit. These parts include the daughter board, a button, stereo microphone board, and speaker. Along with the various wires need to connect this project. A cardboard box is included as part of the kit that is designed to house both a Raspberry Pi and all the kit parts.

However, with my Raspberry Pi it is already mounted to a 7 inch touch screen in a form fitting case. So the question that was left will the case allow for the new daughter board? The answer is yes it can be fitted inside of the case, however due to the height of the daughter board the rear panel will not remain on, without tape.

The instructions are easy to follow. Their is one point to press in the development of this kit, the AIY kit to follow the projects within the kit, utilize a Raspbian image. This image is downloaded and installed on an micro SD card for use as the operating system on the Raspberry Pi.

It is available at this link: The AIY Raspbian OS.

Once all assembled the Raspberry Pi can utilize the new daughter board to listen to and record sounds, as well as a speaker to provide output and feedback. The microphone is useful and can easily pick up a conversation around it. A bit of python code is provided already written when installed on the desktop. With this code examples are provided that check the network connections, speaker, and microphone. After using this code one can follow the project book and discover ways to utilize the Voice Kit with the Raspberry Pi.

If one inspects the daughter board, one will see that the board can be a more versatile board in that it has unused pin outs to add a second speaker for stereo sound, as well as four pin outs for servo connections.

Google AIY Project can be found here.