Raspberry Pi / Google

Technology's biggest companies are shifting to become artificial intelligence firms. In addition to hiring the world's top AI talent, Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Baidu, have all opened-up parts of their systems to let developers work in the emerging field.

Google is now taking things a step further. The Silicon Valley giant has teamed up with the UK's Raspberry Pi to create an addition to the credit-card sized computer.


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Dubbed 'Artificial Intelligence Yourself' (AIY), the two organisations are aiming to bring natural language processing to the Pi with a 'Voice HAT' (Hardware Accessory on Top) board and speaker. This means it will be possible to control a Raspberry Pi 3 in a similar way to the Amazon Echo or Google Home.

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Russell Barnes, head of publishing at Raspberry Pi, tells WIRED it is the first time Google has designed or developed a device for makers and hobbyists. "The Voice HAT brings a microphone to the Raspberry Pi 3, which is one of the few areas it currently lacks support for out-of-the-box," Barnes explains.

"More than that, though, it brings the ability to integrate natural voice interaction to anything you want to do with a Raspberry Pi."


Initially, HAT is being launched as a free accessory with the latest edition of The MagPi – the official Raspberry Pi magazine. Costing £5.99, the magazine will ship with the HAT, a stereo microphone, speaker and cables needed. Raspberry Pi says it may release the HAT separately but didn't elaborate further.

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On Raspberry Pi's 5th birthday in February, the charity's founder Eben Upton told WIRED 12 million of its computers had been sold, and it was planning on software improvements and capabilities.

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The new HAT works using Google Assistant's SDK – first launched on phones and the Google Home – with the firm's Cloud Speech API. Revealed in September 2016, Google Assistant is the firm's AI-powered answer to Siri.

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The items within the AIY kit mean it is possible to build a voice-controlled speaker system, inside a cardboard box, and Raspberry Pi says it is possible to register your own natural language voice commands to link-up with other projects created with the Pi.


In a statement, Billy Rutledge, the director of AIY Projects at Google, says the firm hopes to help makers "familiarise themselves with voice interfaces" and is planning to develop more ways for its systems to be used.

The partnership between Pi and Google doesn't come as a surprise. In January 2017, it was announced both of the groups were working together so Google could "arrive in style in 2017".

A blog post on the Raspberry Pi website at the time said: "The tech titan has exciting plans for the Raspberry Pi community, with a range of AI and machine learning services ready to roll." This was pre-empted by Google showing an interest in bringing Android to the Raspberry Pi.