ESP32-Korvo Dev Board Launches Alongside English Language ESP-Skainet Voice Assistant Platform
Launched last year as a Chinese language exclusive, the ESP8266 and ESP32-compatible ESP-Skainet platform now talks and understands English.
Build-your-own ESP32-powered voice assistants are now easier than ever, following the release of the Espressif ESP32-Korvo development board and an update to the ESP-Skainet platform which brings its first English language compatibility.
Espressif launched the ESP-Skainet platform back in September last year, offering the WakeNet wake word system and MultiNet speech recognition system for ESP8266 and ESP32 family microcontrollers. Although its performance was claimed to be impressive — as high as 97 percent success rate for the wake word system in a quiet environment, dropping to 75 percent in a "babble noise environment" — it came with one slight problem for developers outside China: Chinese was the only language supported at launch.
Now, Espressif has dropped an updated release — and it brings with it the promised English language support. It also comes alongside an updated development kit, dubbed the ESP32-Korvo, which includes an ESP32-WROVER-B module with 16MB SPI flash — comfortably above the 4MB minimum for MultiNet support — and 64Mb pseudo-static RAM (PSRAM).
First spotted by CNX Software, the ESP32-Korvo also offers an audio codec with four-channel analogue to digital converter (ADC) linked to a triple microphone array and an on-board automatic echo cancellation system. An amplifier offers up to 3W of power for external speakers or headphones, and the microphone board also includes 12 individually-addressable RGB LEDs and six user-definable buttons.
Instructions for getting started with ESP-Skainet on the ESP32-Korvo can be found on the Espressif GitHub repository; the ESP32-Korvo itself, meanwhile, is beginning to appear in the channel priced at $35 per unit.
