BIA (AI) Vocal Assistant (2/3 : BIA on Raspberry PI)

Hello

Hi there :) My nickname is TylerMaker, I live in France and am happy to share with you the lines below. This Instructables is the second in a serie of three.

What is BIA (AI) ?

BIA is an AI vocal assistant.. all in one software : ChatGPT, voice command, YouTube, Netflix, TV, Radio and web navigation. BIA is multi language, ... and BIA also provides AI to the educational Otto robot :)

Example of what you can do with it :

• Chat with ChatGPT
• Ask Bia to open a web page, YouTube, a radio, a TV channel or Netflix
• Ask Bia to take a picture
• Ask complex instruction with a If This Then That logic
• Save complex instructions as a macro
• Ask Otto the robot to dance, sing, walk, ...
• And some more

The brain of Bia is the Python module biaspeech. I developed the the package and made it available for download. This instructable explains how to install the module, customize it and use it on a Raspberry PI.

You need a Raspberry PI :)

The program was tested on a good old Raspberry PI 1B Plus, the latest version of Raspberry PI OS and Python version 3.8. Should run also on Windows or Linux, to be tested still :)

Shopping list :

Please note that the links below are part of the Amazon associates program.

• A Raspberry, any modern version should work, like the Raspberry PI 4 or 5
• I needed for the network a WIFI USB dongle TP-LINK
• For the audio, you can use headphones with jack. I ordered a mini loudspeaker
• Microphone for voice input
• Camera : a small one Raspberry compatible
• You will need also a touch screen. We used an LCD TFT 3.5 touch screen

Note : the touch screen is optional, VNC viewer can be used instead. BIA can be fully used from your smartphone or laptop with VNC

Prepare the Raspberry PI :

• Follow the instructions to install Raspberry PI OS : link
• Install the WIFI network, please browse available ressources on google
• Enable SSH. Ressources are available on google
• Install the microphone, please browse also ... available ressources on google
• Install the camera, please browse...
• Install the touch screen, please again .. google .. ;) ;)
• On your laptop install VNC viewer

We need a case for the Raspberry PI .. (option)

Steps :

• Download 3d models, in general one for the top case and one for the bottom case : link
• slice them with the software Cura
• and print the 2 cases (top and bottom) with a 3d printer

We are using ChatGPT, we need an OpenAI key..

As a prerequisite you need to create an open account in order to use ChatGPT. Then you need to request an API Key.

Check the instructions directly at the OpenAI help page : here.

Note : the usage of the API of chatGPT is not free but indeed very cheap. In general a few cents by month only. After 3 months developping and testing the program I was charged only 14 cents.

Take note of the API key and go to the next step.

We are using Python, we need to install it on your Raspberry PI..

Download and install Python 3.8 : link

Concept

A double layer IA mechanism provide fast and accurate answers :

First layer

The first layer is powered by OpenAI (chatGPT), it takes care of answering the questions

Second layer

The second layer is processed by a native AI, it takes care of :

• Cache management : questions and answers are cached in a local database. The goal of it is to get rid of the network latencies whenever possible (requests to chatGPT are network dependent, requests to the cache are not). The goal of it is ensuring faster answers
• Categorization : the input is categorized with a NLP (Natural Language Processing) technique into categories like question, feedback, action, etc
• Paraphrases : if for example you ask "how are you", and then later "how are you doing" both questions will be considered similar and the same answer will be picked up from the cache
• Emotions : the user input is scored on several axis (positive, negative, neutral). Based on the emotion the previous answer will get promoted or deprecated in the cache
• Scoring : each prompt/interaction is scored, in this way only the best answer is given
• Smart actions (complex requests), like If This Then That requests, instructions to Otto Robot, etc

All the steps below have been done via SSH. Please check the web on how to connect to Raspberry with SSH :)

Prerequesites :

Download the nltk ressources :

pip install nltk 
python3
>> import nltk
>> nltk.download('punkt')
>> nltk.download('vader_lexicon')

Install one by one the libraries : 

sudo apt-get install libjpeg8-dev
sudo apt install espeak 
sudo apt install python3-opencv 
sudo apt-get install flac 
pip install openai 
pip install websockets 
pip install argostranslate 
pip install py3langid 
pip install pyautogui 
pip install pyaudio 
pip install speechrecognition 
pip install pyttsx3 
pip install parrot 
pip install customtkinter 
pip install pyduinocli
pip install pyserial
pip install sounddevice

Install the languages :

argospm install translate-de_en
argospm install translate-en_de
etc with all the languages needed
Check the microphone configuration : https://www.pofilo.fr/post/2018/12/16-mic-raspberry-pi/

Programs to manage the Arduino of the robot

Install arduino-cli and arduino avr. Important : the Arduino-cli file must be in the bin folder

<<python package>>/bin/.

The command to install arduino-cli and arduino avr are :

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/arduino/arduino-cli/master/install.sh | sh
./arduino-cli core install arduino:avr

# --------------------------
# Main folder
#
# run definition
# --------------------------

import os
os.environ['OPENAI_API_KEY'] = "xxxx" # openAI API key.. replace xxxx with your own key :)
os.environ['OS'] = "raspberry"
os.environ['ARDUINO'] = ""

from biaspeech import biaspeech
biaspeech()

Basic usage of BIA, app mode :

• Open a terminal, then type : 

python3 run.py

• The BIA app will open, just push the button and ask a question. BIA will answer ... Enjoy :)

Advanced usage of BIA, command line mode :

• Open a terminal, then type : 

python3 run.py "what can I do a friday afternoon in Paris?"
python3 run.py -help
python3 run.py -version

• BIA will answer ... Enjoy :)

Developer usage of BIA, keyboard mode :

• Open a terminal, then type : 

python3 run.py

• Write a question. BIA will answer ... Enjoy :)

Note : the UI parameter under the [main] section must be set to "keyboard".

The config file can be found under :

<<python package>>/utils/config.cfg

Developer usage of BIA, voice mode :

• Open a terminal, then type : 

python3 run.py

• Ask a question. BIA will answer ... Enjoy :)

Note : the UI parameter under the [main] section must be set to "voice".

Example of some prompt :

• Quelle est la capitale de la France?
• How are you today?

Advanced prompts :

• I do not like this answer => a negative prompt will decrease the scoring of the latest answer, it will go down in the cache
• I like this answer very much => a positive prompt will increase the scoring of the latest answer, it will stays up in the cache

Skills. The special prompts are the following :

• camera : take a picture => Example : Camera now
• macro : save the last command as a keyword => Example : Macro salsa
• netflix : run netflix and search for a movie => Example : Netflix breaking bad
• python : run a combination of prompts => Example : Python if the capital of France is Paris then Arduino walk one meter
• radio : open the web radio site and search for a station => Example : Radio deutschlandfunk
• tv : open molotov tv => Example : TV m6
• web : open a website => Example : Web google.com
• youtube : open youtube and search for some => Example : Youtube dire straits
• arduino or robot : ask the otto robot to do something

The predefined keywords for the robot are : walk, back, left, right, stop, happy, sad, surprise, moonwalkerleft, moonwalkerright, sing
A predefined keyword means that the Arduino code for the keyword/action is preloaded in Arduino. For others than those 11 predefined actions, a live request to chapGPT will dynamically build the Arduino code.
=> Example : "robot walk" .. the keyword walk is predefined... the Arduino code for it is preloaded
=> Example : "robot dance the salsa" .. this is a new action, chatGPT will generate live the Arduino code

Remote control

You can remote control BIA with VNC, this is explained in the next Instructables.

Update the paraphrases

Run the command below to update the paraphrases. Paraphrases are synonyms sentences stored in the local database. The cache will use those sentences to speedup the answers.

python3 run.py -update

Check those instructables

• BIA (AI) on Laptop (#1/3) : the goal of this first instructable is to install and run the program on laptop.
• BIA (AI) and Otto the robot (#3/3) : in the third instructable is detailed how Otto the robot can be used

Small donations matter : you can buy me a coffee :)

BIA(AI) © 2024 by Nicolas CHRISTOPHE is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

The python package is available on PyPi : https://pypi.org/project/biaspeech/