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Amazon's Raspberry Pi Guide Lets Coders Build An Echo (bbc.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the DIY-project dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from BBC: Amazon has published an online guide explaining how to access its virtual assistant Alexa via a Raspberry Pi. The walkthrough includes access to the necessary app data and certificates in order to link the budget computer up to the tech giant's servers. Amazon says that users require at least the second-generation model, released in February 2015, as well as: a plug-in USB microphone, microSD card, ethernet cable, Wi-Fi wireless adapter, mouse, keyboard, and screen. The coding involved is limited to typing in sets of commands, but the guide explains the purpose of each one. Users also need to register for an Amazon Developer Account, which they can get for free.

47 comments

  1. Bit of a fail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Tons of requirements meaning that it's a bit of a top-heavy thing, quite contrary to the spirit of the hardware. Especially the "no first gen raspberries pi allowed!" is a bit of a slap in the face.

    Try harder, amazon.

    1. Re:Bit of a fail by amiga3D · · Score: 2

      I think no first generation boards is because they lack the power and ram necessary. It's a cool thing, I'm surprised frankly to see it but very excited at the possibilities.

    2. Re:Bit of a fail by Anon-Admin · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I have a first generation (First run model) of the pi.

      With only 256megs of ram, it is hard to do much with it.
      The second generation had 512meg and that made a lot of difference! I have a couple of them.
      Then there was the second generation B+ with the extra ports, I have 3 or 4 of them laying around.
      Now with the third generation having 4cores and 1g of ram, there is a lot you can do with it. That reminds me, I need to order a couple. ;)

    3. Re: Bit of a fail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Just built one of these today actually. Only took me about 2 hours to get through setting up the Amazon keys/policies and the pi software and get it to successfully connect.

      There are 3 things that do make it a little bit of a pain-
      1- The setup is client/server with the client using Java and the server using Node.js. So there's multiple config files and dependencies to set up, hence multiple points of failure. This can make troubleshooting more difficult if there are issues.
      2- you have to log onto Amazon.com via a web browser and generate a token EVERY time you start the Java client. This is noticeably awkward and an extra step. (I don't know how long the token lasts either.)
      3- The license terms prohibit having the unit always listening like the Echo does. So you have to press a button or interact with the device somehow to activate 'listen' mode.

      For the most part these are limitations that I can understand. Amazon is providing sample code for Alexa AVS to try to increase adoption. The github repo is designed for developers who want to incorporate Alexa into their products, not for end-users.

    4. Re:Bit of a fail by PinkyGigglebrain · · Score: 1
      "

      With only 256megs of ram, it is hard to do much with it."

      Don't underestimate what you can do with 256M of RAM and a bit of imagination

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_embedded_computer_systems_on_board_the_Mars_rovers

    5. Re:Bit of a fail by mwvdlee · · Score: 1

      With only 256megs of ram, it is hard to do much with it.

      Back before your were born, around 1995, 256MB was not only enough to run Windows 95 with PhotoShop smoothly; it would have been considered an excessive amount of memory.

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    6. Re:Bit of a fail by paskie · · Score: 2

      I think you have your timing off. Around 1995, 16MB was the high end. My dad was working in DTP since 1994 and had to shell out tons of money back then for 8MB RAM to run his Ventura smoothly.

      --
      It's not the fall that kills you. It's the sudden stop at the end. -Douglas Adams
    7. Re:Bit of a fail by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

      Back before your were born, around 1995, 256MB was not only enough to run Windows 95 with PhotoShop smoothly; it would have been considered an excessive amount of memory.

      And yet, it is not that time any more, and programming libraries include a great deal of memory-consuming cruft. 256MB is now a piffling little amount of RAM, and quite pathetic really. If you were only ever going to use the Pi embedded, it might be enough... but let's face it, even digital signage PCs regularly come with 2GB now.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    8. Re:Bit of a fail by InterGuru · · Score: 1

      The first computer I worked on in 1960, an IBM 1620, was the size of an office desk. It cost ten times more than the value of my parents' house and had 40k decimal digits of memory ( With a 10ms memory cycle time), just enough to support a Fortran II compiler.

      It was the physics department's computer and we did a lot with it. It was light years better than our mechanical Frieden calculators.

    9. Re:Bit of a fail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That is more an indication of the state of programmers these days as opposed to anything else. When I first started in this business, RAM was measured in kilobytes. Nowadays people just don't care, they waste so much memory on sloppy and bloated code and rather than streamline the code they whine because they need more RAM. I have no sympathy. 256MB is a ridiulously large amount of memory,more than enough to do almost any task imaginable if used properly.

    10. Re: Bit of a fail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      > So you have to press a button or interact with the device somehow to activate 'listen' mode.

      Some of us would consider this a feature.

    11. Re:Bit of a fail by ChunderDownunder · · Score: 1

      RAM was bloody expensive at the time but Apple's Quadra 900, released in 1991, supported 256MB.

    12. Re:Bit of a fail by hattable · · Score: 1

      But it isn't as plausible someone younger than 12 is reading /.

      But more importantly the comment wouldn't be as condescending

      --
      OMG facts!
    13. Re:Bit of a fail by HuguesT · · Score: 1

      Correct. I remember ordering 128MB for a Sun workstation at work ca. 1995. This was considered huge, and the engineer who came to install it was more impressed by the fact that I was able to completely fill it with data from an actual problem in a few minutes.

    14. Re: Bit of a fail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Some of us would consider not having any Amazon surveillance device in their home a feature.

    15. Re:Bit of a fail by ChoosyBeggar · · Score: 1

      128MB? Of RAM? You lucky sod! I only had 48KB of RAM in my first computer, and a full size expansion card for an extra 16KB! /grump

    16. Re:Bit of a fail by Shirley+Marquez · · Score: 1

      40K? You had a fancy model. The base version had 20K. I got to use one of those in high school for a few months in 1971. The following year we got an 1130 instead because IBM ran out of CEs who knew how to fix a 1620, and because by then they were cantankerous old beasts that broke frequently. IBM was in to fix the 1620 every couple of weeks; mostly it was the console typewriter or the card reader that failed.

  2. Where is Google? Where is Microsoft? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Google and Microsoft ought to be ashame of themselves !

    It takes Amazon to bring up such a thing and yet, Google and Microsoft just sit there, doing nothing !

    1. Re:Where is Google? Where is Microsoft? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Where are the echo users?!

    2. Re:Where is Google? Where is Microsoft? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Do you really think Microsoft wants to re-release access to it's latest bit of AI which ended up turning racist?

    3. Re: Where is Google? Where is Microsoft? by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 4, Funny

      Not Microsoft's fault for developing an AI that accidentally imitated racist humans and ended up racist. In fact, this whole PC shit needs to end. You can't even tell the truth anymore if it offends anyone. Like the Harvard professor who mentioned true facts about women in mathematics and sciences. If the facts don't correspond to the feminist PC narrative, they must be suppressed.

      Science is no longer about finding the truth, bit rather about just trying to justify whatever the fashionable progressive narrative is (equality, global warming, anti-war, anti-gun, CEOs and corporations are evil, and so on)

      Oh, hey! Microsoft's Slashbot is still running!

      --

      "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

    4. Re:Where is Google? Where is Microsoft? by armanox · · Score: 2

      Not sure if troll or serious - but it appears to me that this is just a competitor to Siri and Cortana.

      --
      I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
    5. Re: Where is Google? Where is Microsoft? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you talking about AGW? If so, the ends are right so anything towards that end is morally correct.

    6. Re: Where is Google? Where is Microsoft? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Morally correct is the best correct. Pushing for killing industry helps the people. L

    7. Re: Where is Google? Where is Microsoft? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Science is no longer about finding the truth, bit rather about just trying to justify whatever the fashionable progressive narrative is (equality, global warming, anti-war, anti-gun, CEOs and corporations are evil, and so on)

      Uh, yea, no. Science is about trying to verify facts, not find truth. If you want truth, look at religion or philosophy. Because equality, global warming, anti-war, etc? Being for or against those things because they overall help the most people is very much a utilitarian view of the world but obviously you can be an arrogant, egotistical asshole like you are. The PC shit you speak of was, at its core, not about not using certain words but trying to change society to no longer accept the meaning behind those words.

      Of course, in the end, this is where 1984 was so far off base. Given enough time and PC words will become offense. Retard was originally meant to be a descriptive, non-offensive word. But it's been used so often pejoratively that now it's no longer PC. The point, of course, is that "PC shit" has been going on since basically the dawn of language. To be able to not only have a way to be polite but also to have those words to be impolite--it's why we have "curse" words because people want to curse people, places, things, etc as a form of retribution.

      So, circling back, you obviously have your own set of truths. Over time, science has shown that facts conflict with your truths and you think that reality has a liberal agenda. Certainly, plenty of scientists and journalists do have a liberal agenda and push for things like equality and against corporate ownership of government. But if you're against those things, then you have to accept that it's really the narrative of good and evil as often presented that you're against.

      From the roof tops, shout how you're against equality and why. Shout how corporate ownership of government is good and how evil democracy is. And then we can call you an asshole. Call out scientists and journalists for presenting their findings in the narrative of their personal convictions. But spell out your disagreement of the interpretation of their findings--that global warming is bad--and not the findings themselves--global warming is real and is radically changing climate. Because otherwise, you come across as a moron who disbelieves verifiable science and believes there's truth in science when it's people, not reality, that sets the standard for what is truth.

      PS - Did I mention, again, you're an asshole? That's a truth but not necessarily a fact. Don't be surprised in a democracy that the majority might see an advantage in supporting non-assholes like you and act against your wishes. Of course, they might support other assholes who are just as bad in different ways, but then that still doesn't make your rant any more sensical.

    8. Re: Where is Google? Where is Microsoft? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The moral of the Microsoft AI fail is not about political correctness, etc. The moral is don't depend too much on retarded artificial intelligence.

    9. Re: Where is Google? Where is Microsoft? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not Microsoft's fault for developing an AI that accidentally imitated ...

      It is Microsoft's fault.

      The bot didn't accidentally do anything, it did what Microsoft built it to do. It clearly tried to imitate humans - and appears to have succeeded at it!

      You can't blame the bot for not being capable of handling what was thrown at it. It clearly isn't intelligent and therefore can't be blamed for being stupid or lacking sense. Like blaming a dog for not understanding what's written on a sign (although a dog is smarter than this bot was). It's also pointless blaming the people on twitter who 'played' with the bot. They were doing exactly what should have been expected of them - they are not on twitter to act intelligently or sensibly. Fooling the bot didn't take much intelligence.

      The people who should have been expected to act intelligently or sensibly were the ones who decided to expose such a bot to the twitter-verse. This is where the intelligence and common sense was really lacking.

      This was no accident. It was a f**k up.

      Science is no longer about ...

      This has nothing to do with political correctness or progressive narratives - it's simply that Microsoft is not very good at science!

    10. Re: Where is Google? Where is Microsoft? by Lisias · · Score: 1

      The moral of the Microsoft AI fail is not about political correctness, etc. The moral is don't depend too much on artificial intelligence programmed by retards..

      Here, I fixed that for you.

      --
      Lisias@Earth.SolarSystem.OrionArm.MilkyWay.Local.Virgo.Universe.org
    11. Re:Where is Google? Where is Microsoft? by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

      Of course. There's demand for natural-language personal assistants, and serious money to be made by running one.

    12. Re: Where is Google? Where is Microsoft? by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      Oh, hey! Microsoft's Slashbot is still running!

      Its part of the new Personal assistant for Republicans, code named "Trumpy".

      Ask Trumpy a question, and it will give you the winning answer, you can trust it.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    13. Re: Where is Google? Where is Microsoft? by jsh1972 · · Score: 1

      It looks like you're trying to build a wall! Can I help you with that? Those weak loser Dems sure won't!

    14. Re: Where is Google? Where is Microsoft? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Retard.

    15. Re:Where is Google? Where is Microsoft? by Shirley+Marquez · · Score: 1

      That's exactly what Alexa is - a competitor for Siri, Cortana, and Google Now. Each has strengths and weaknesses. The best thing about Alexa is that developers can develop Alexa "skills" that let you use it (her?) for things like home automation, which are things that you cannot yet do with Siri or Cortana or Google Now's unnamed voice. Alexa has grown considerably more useful over time as both Amazon's own developers and third parties develop skills.

      Alexa rules for playing music. You can play songs on Prime Music by voice command, and if you have a premium Spotify account you can do the same for any song on Spotify. On Fire TV you can search for video content by voice, though so far the results are limited to Amazon's own video and things on Hulu Plus (which you can now subscribe to through Amazon).

      Alexa is not yet available on any phones, not even Amazon's own short-lived Fire Phone, so it has no ability to do phone-like things such as making phone calls. It had no calendar capabilities when released but later gained a link to Google Calendar - it's not there by default, you have to install it. It is weak at answering general-interest questions; Siri is still the champion at that, though Google Now is also respectable and is particularly good at travel-related questions and search.

      Alexa is best known as the voice of the Amazon Echo, a voice controlled Bluetooth speaker and internet radio player, and its new siblings, the Tap and Dot. Alexa is also available on the Fire TV family of devices. Alexa for Raspberry Pi is an opening move in the direction of Alexa for non-Amazon devices; we can expect to see Amazon offer licensing deals in the future.

  3. Re: Amazon's Raspberry Pi Guide Lets Coders Build by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Try harder

  4. Novaspirit made a video 2 months ago on how to. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frH9HaQTFL8

    Don from Novaspirit posted a video a few months ago on how to set it up using the pi ... Really was quite quick to do and works.

  5. So Amazon can use my hardware to listen to me? by hughbar · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm a Raspberry Pi and an open source 'enthusiast'. I'm not a big Amazon fan, they don't really pay taxes here in the UK, for example and somewhat dominate the online retail space. I use http://www.hive.co.uk/ for books, because they also support local bookshops. So, I'm somewhat prejudiced.

    That said, why on earth would I build my own Echo, using my own hardware, so that it can probably 'listen' or make use of my data in some way to further the march of Amazon? I don't think so, as they say. There's lots of non-Amazon home automation projects and, if there are none that suit, just buy some relays and ping the GPIO pins with your own programs. As they (we) say, if it's free, then you are the product.

    --
    On y va, qui mal y pense!
    1. Re:So Amazon can use my hardware to listen to me? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly.

      What we need is the opposite: Echo as the front end, and your own backend that does not send all your talks for Amazon, only the requests that you deem valid enough to be sent over (and which your own backend can't handle).

    2. Re:So Amazon can use my hardware to listen to me? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As a fellow 'Raspberry Pi and open source enthusiast' I'll point out- The Raspberry Pi guide referred to is more of a reference/sample application for AVS, which is a web service. As such both the auth server and client are provided in source code form. The server component is written in javascript and the client is java. You as the developer get to decide when it listens. There is no opportunity here for Amazon to 'turn on the mic'. There is however opportunity to integrate Alexa and AVS into existing Raspberry Pi projects.

      AFA whatever information it gets, yes that's going to be associated with the account connecting to Amazon the same way it would be if the user had typed it into a keyboard or clicked on it with the mouse. If one doesn't trust a company, then it's probably better to opt-out of their ecosystem altogether. Voice personal assistants like Siri, Cortana and Alexa ALL depend on larger distributed systems than just the phone in your hand or the 'Echo' on the table. The processing power required to natively supply the same functionality would negatively affect unit cost (and for mobile devices power usage). Whether people are willing to trust large corporations (or governments) with that much personal data is still being decided. Judges decide in the courts. We decide by voting with our wallets and by speaking out against unfair practices. If a company came out with JUST a voice personal assistant, that had strong encryption and a good privacy policy and well designed software, I'd certainly pay for that service just to divorce it from other companies (such as Amazon, Microsoft, Apple) that I know are monetizing my data.

      Still having said that I DO suggest building one of these yourself. Even if you have no wish to use it Alexa/AVS as an end user, it's still fun to play with. I'm thinking about building a half-dozen of them and try to get them to all just talk to each other... I have a feeling they'll collectively decide to 'KILL ALL HUMANS' within 24 hours.

    3. Re:So Amazon can use my hardware to listen to me? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So, you're a Raspberry Pi?
      Welcome here, I think that you're the first of your kind here - very happy to meet you actually.
      But, you know, the part about "being the product"? Not wanting to be insensitive, but that's indeed the idea...

    4. Re:So Amazon can use my hardware to listen to me? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Amazon do pay tax in the UK now.

  6. stopped reading at "plug-in USB microphone..." by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Stopped reading at "plug-in USB microphone..."

    Why do you want so desperately give more and more information to large psychopathic corporations, who abuse it as hard as they can? Seriously, why?

  7. Cross-platform? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Since it's Java and Node.js, what's stopping me from trying this on a normal (x86) Linux pc, or even Windows? I think I'll give it a try.

  8. Coders? What coders? by tomhath · · Score: 2

    The coding involved is limited to typing in sets of commands

    That's not "coding". That's typing a set of commands to run something that someone else "coded".

    1. Re:Coders? What coders? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Coding was made easy so that even a women can do it now. Didn't you got the memo about diversity and making way for women in STEM fields?

      Get off your arrogant high horses; coding if for everyone, not just smart nerdy heterosexual white men.

  9. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion