After the rumors of Apple’s smart home display launch being delayed for next year, there is not much waiting in the niche of voice assistants. Wait! The Seeed Studio’s home automation platform Home Assistant has some good news for smart home enthusiasts. The studio has launched an official product with its own voice assistant named “Assist”.
Primarily focused on privacy, the all-new, Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition makes locally-controlled home automation possible, which means you can have your private voice assistant that talks to you in your own language. It currently supports more than 50 languages but reliable local speech-to-text models are still not available for many.
The company says it doesn’t harvest your data and the voice command data is processed completely within the walls of your home. Another highlighting feature of the Assist is that it can run without the internet, unlike any competitor in the market.
You just need to pair this handy device with Home Assistant hardware to run it fully locally. The company recommends the system be based on an Intel N100 or higher. If you have weaker hardware, you can use the Home Assistant Cloud subscription for optimal speech processing performance.
The device has dual microphones and an XMOS audio processor to hear voice commands clearly. There is also a multicolored LED ring for visual feedback. The Home Assistant Voice PE has a rotary dial to control volume and LED brightness as well as a multifunction button to trigger the voice assistant. For privacy, there is even a mute switch onboard.
With the new Home Assistant Voice PE, you can use voice commands to control different smart home devices. You can set timers, turn on lights and even lock the doors. You can also connect an external speaker for media playback via its 3.5mm headphone jack. Furthermore, there is a Grove port to connect external sensors or accessories.
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Every aspect of the Home Assistant Voice PE is customizable including firmware and circuit board. You can even create custom wake words; however, it comes preloaded with wake words like “Okay Nabu,” “Hey Jarvis,” or “Hey Mycroft.
Being open-source, you can make changes that work best for you and even get help from the community. It can also be connected to AI providers like Chat GPT, or local LLMs for more customization.
The Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition is now available to purchase for $59 from the Seeed Studio’s official website.
Via: Press Release
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