It's Got Two 8-Ohm Speakers and a Microphone — the Adafruit Voice Bonnet for Raspberry Pi
When it comes to audio machine learning projects, this WM8960-powered digital audio pHAT is where it's at!
Machine learning is eating the world, and many of the most popular applications of this technology are voice assistants, which use natural language understanding, conversation management, other AI technologies to try to transform complicated human speech into useful outcomes. As awareness of privacy considerations raised by these devices spreads, features such as physical off switches are starting to be incorporated into products, to ensure the prevention of unwanted audio intrusion. Reflecting these trends, Adafruit has released their Voice Bonnet for Raspberry Pi, as teased back in September, featuring two microphones and two 1-Watt speaker outputs, and compatibility with all 40-pin Rasbperry Pis.
Although most Raspberry Pis offer analog audio out via a 3.5mm headphone jack, the Adafruit Voice Bonnet features an on-board Cirrus Logic WM8960 codec, which provides digital audio over I2S, and a built-in microphone interface, stereo headphone driver, and 1W per-channel 8Ω stereo output. Adafruit also incorporated ferrite beads and filter capacitors throughout the design, in order to ensure the cleanest signals possible.
Adafruit is clearly targeting machine learning and audio assistants with this new bonnet, and has detailed tutorials demonstrating how to create a DIY Google Assistant, or your own creation using Python, or CircuitPython via Adafruit's Blinka compatibility layer. But wait, there's more! Buy now, and Adafruit will throw in three DotStar RGB LEDs and a push button, completely free of charge! Included STEMMA QT and 3-pin JST connectors allow easy connection to other devices in the Adafruit ecosystem.
A look at its key features:
- Digital audio I/O via I2S WM8960 codec
- On/off audio privacy switch
- Stereo analog microphone inputs
- Stereo JST 2PH speaker outputs
- 3.5mm stereo headphone or line-out
- Push button
- 3 DotStar RGB LEDs
- STEMMA QT connector
- 3-pin JST STEMMA connector
The Adafruit Voice Bonnet for Raspberry Pi is now available for just $14.95!