ReSpeaker is an Open Modular Voice Interface for Hacking Things

The brainchild of Seeed Studio, ReSpeaker is an open source, modular voice interface for hacking. Rather than a voice assistant that fulfills simple tasks only when asked, this new platform provides Makers and developers with hands-free control of the things around them.

With ReSpeaker, you can communicate with everything from toy robots, to home appliances, to office equiment, to other Internet-equipped devices.

Powered by an MT7688 Wi-Fi module and a built-in high performance microphone, ReSpeaker responds to your voice and recognizes speech based on powerful online cognitive services like Microsoft Cognitive Service, Amazon Alexa Voice Service, Google Speech API, Wit.ai and Houndify.

What’s more, setting up ReSpeaker is super quick and easy. Without any app installation, you can start by connecting ReSpeaker to your Wi-Fi network and then directly using Seeed’s web-based program to access a range of feature-rich applications, including music streaming, file manager, plug-in, and customized settings.

And that’s not all. ReSpeaker supports Airplay/DLNA for wireless music streaming. Just connect it to any ordinary speaker via an AUX cable, and voila!

Designed with the developer crowd in mind, ReSpeaker is open-source and runs OpenWrt. An SDK enables users to create more apps using Python on Linux. Plus, ReSpeaker supports other popular programming such as C/C++, Arduino, JavaScript and Lua.

ReSpeaker is expandable using plug-and-play hardware add-ons, incuding a far-field mic array. In addition, a Grove extension board opens the door to endless possibilities as you can connect various Grove sensors and actuators to extend its functionality. The two onboard expansion headers also offer I2S, I2C, AUX, USB 2.0, GPIOs and many other interfaces. As if that wasn’t enough, ReSpeaker is compatible with the Wio Link, Wio Node and the Wio Core.

Sound like the hacking platform for you? Check it out on Kickstarter now!