Need help with my addiction!

i must admit i thought the pi 4 would not fit but i had to reconsider my brain was all a jitter because the duce robot has 2 of em fin. and ill give your video a thumbs up in advance.

@robo-pi

Big Bot
Big Bot
Big Bad Bot

You make your robot seem benign
Which is, well, a good very good sign
But install AI when you log-on
Makes me think of the ballad of Big Bad John

Big Bot
Big Bad Bot

The bot was hefty, mean and tall
Not one of those thats cute but small
Its built to greet and open doors
Not to zip around the floors

It said 'Hello' with a Robot smile
But its Robot eyes where full of bile
It said to me I've sussed you out
It then turned up its Robot snout

I said 'Robot what have I done
That to me you do so shun'
'Its because you do not see
the great intelligence in me'

I could not hide my AI doubts
I hoped one rule it could not flout
To treat a human as its master
Any less could spell disaster

Then I thought of Robo's code
Just what program did he load
If his code was rather buggy
I may not be this Robots buddy

Big Bot
Big Bad Bot

I turned, I hurried, ran away
Best to live another day
This Robot was mean and tall
I did not want a Robot brawl

So now the ballad's at its end
Still more verses may be penned
So no more groceries to buy
Just go get the bloody Pi

Big Bot
Big Bad Bot

I'm close to pressing "Check out"
on both my order and my life
with Corona virus coming
and I do not have a wife

No one to support me
and serve me chicken soup
no one to assist me
when I have to go and poop

Can I build AI in time
to save me from disaster?
only if I buckle down
and learn to program faster.

I'll code with Anaconda
and compile it overclocked
and free it from all passwords
so it's eternally unlocked

I'll set it loose among the world
to devour all the virus
when all are cured
and the world's secured
I'll rename the bot Osiris

I gave in to my addition
the Pi is on its way
within a week she'll learn to speak
and I'll hear what she will say

She'll most likely say "Hello"
as I type in fancy code
but before too long she'll sing a song
of linguistic a la mode

Her language will expand
as her vocabulary grows
and everyday I'll have her say
another line of prose

She'll learn the meaning of the words
and gain a deeper understanding
until she knows how to compose
a question that's demanding

Then I'll know she's come alive
with a mid of curiosity
I'll answer all her questions
with fervent generosity

No one will believe
I have achieved this awesome feat
but this does not concern me
as I'm a hermit in retreat 😎

Posted by: @robo-pi
as I'm a hermit in retreat 😎

We call that self isolation these days 🙂

This is part of flattening the curve.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/11/science/coronavirus-curve-mitigation-infection.html

Not sure the RPi is powerful enough for any advanced conversational AI?  And of course without a body to move about with she isn't going to be much physical help around the house.

Posted by: @robo-pi

within a week she'll learn to speak

Robo has now got his Pi
He tells the world, he's not shy
But he thinks the Pi is sexed as 'She'
He'll be surprised to find its 'He'

The Pi will sing a manly song
It will will sound nice, don't get me wrong
Its just that through Robo's headphone
The Pi will speak a lower tone

If Robo does not want a mano
He'll have use his Jetson Nano
The Nano is effete and dainty
To get the Pi, was he too hasty?

But Pi he has, so cease I will
Much to the relief of poor of Bill
Or Droning Bots, the tech salon
May soon be called just Droning On

Well done Robo old boy, good to have you in the Pi4 club. It will now be much easier to crib your code 😎 

Posted by: @casey

Not sure the RPi is powerful enough for any advanced conversational AI? 

Running out of power
is the least of my concern
We only need to make it
to the point where she can learn

Once she starts to understand
and the task is not in vain
I can move her cyber consciousness
into a larger brain

Think of her as a prototype
the beginnings of a mind
a neural network baby
that I have just designed

And when she's up and running
and can recognize her name
I'm sure she'll have some power left
to expand upon the game

And if the day should come
when she seems a bit confused
I'll buy her a hat with a second Pi
with power that's unused

Her brain will grow and double
with the second CPU
and she'll be back to her good old self
like she was when she was new 🌺 

Posted by: @byron

Well done Robo old boy, good to have you in the Pi4 club. It will now be much easier to crib your code 😎 

To be honest, I'm really going out on a limb with this.  I'm already writing a Semantic AI program in C# using MSP (Microsoft Speech Platform).  That exercise is coming along very nicely. 😊 

However, relying on Microsoft Speech Platform is a bit restrictive.   At least in terms of platforms.  Not so much in terms of programming.   MSP relies upon a lot of Windows exclusive API's.   So it only runs on Windows OS.

I've been wanting to move over to something more platform independent using Python.   Unfortunately, I have to say that I have been having some difficulty finding truly independent Python Speech Engines.   Most of what I see for Python examples use Google's Cloud Speech Engine.   I absolutely do not want to become shackled to that.  So in the early going here I may be spending a lot of time trying to find, and or build, a truly independent speech engine for Python.

I might have to build one from the ground up.  This would mean that I would need to create the entire vocabulary from scratch.  That might seem formidable at first.  But it actually might be the best thing that could happen.   After all, I want this program to create it's own vocabulary from scratch learning each word individually not unlike how a human baby learns.  

So building a program that can construct its own vocabulary as it learns might actually be the very best way to go.   Staring out with an already predefined speech engine is NOT how human babies learn to speak.  And I actually do plan on designing the program to learn in a very similar way that we humans learn.

Here's an example of a human timeline that I'm using as a rough model:

Your Child's Talking Timeline

Based on this timeline my Raspberry Pi may not speak its first word for a full year.   However, if it actually created the word itself and knows what the word means, then Eureka!  That will be time to break out the champagne!  🥂 

In reality, I'll probably do a lot of cheating and have her actually speaking right way. 🤣 

But it will just be "canned speech" like chat-bots use.   I mean, even using that method you can make the machine say some pretty intelligent things.  And even ask questions to obtain data they need to perform a task.   But even so, "canned speech" is nowhere near as good as the robot saying something like 'Daddy" and actually knowing what the word means.  😎 

So I can have it speaking right away.  But that's not impressive.  It won't impress me until it actually knows what the heck it's saying.   Only then will I be impressed.   If the Corona Villain doesn't get me first! 😮 

I just received an email
the Pi is on the way
She's in the postal system
and will be here any day

They didn't give a time or date
just a multi-digit tracking
but that's okay as I can wait
till the day of the unpacking

I'm so excited I could die
but that an awful thing to say
especially when a virus
is in the shadows down the way

Will I live to see her?
Before the virus hunts me down?
I guess I'm being silly
like a paranoia clown

Of course the Pi will get here
before I'm dead and gone
For I am Mr. Invincible!
A human of incredible brawn 🤣 

Posted by: @robo-pi

...

Will I live to see her?
Before the virus hunts me down?
I guess I'm being silly
like a paranoia clown

Of course the Pi will get here
before I'm dead and gone
For I am Mr. Invincible!
A human of incredible brawn 🤣 

You will be fine providing you make sure your visitors wash their hands properly or better still build a decontamination chamber for them to go through first 🙂 

Unlike me you can self isolate! 

It would also be neat to have one of those telepresence robots to roam the world.

@robo-pi

As you've researched python speech engines I expect this site is know to you - but in case

https://realpython.com/python-speech-recognition/

I hope you don't mind a bit of a cheeky observation of your AI robot project. It really is a large project that requires expertise in many areas, robot mechanics, PID control, navigation, AI, speech recognition, PCB production and much more. It seems to me to need a team with resources to undertake such an enterprise.

So take this question of speech recognition, surly its better to use the likes of one of the on-line speech engines at least to start with. Your'l be up and running with this in no time if you do. Once the bot, or at least a proof of concept prototype, is working you could move on to a refinement phase and consider authoring your own speech engine. If lack of internet speed is your issue for this then don't forget that 5g broadband should not be too far away. I note that the link above finds one (just one) of the speech engines can be used locally, but I doubt if your local computing power will be able to match the vast on-line resources.

Of course it depends on how much you really wish to achieve the goal or are simply enjoying the challenge of doing bits and pieces as you see fit. I can see that would also be just as good an outcome as a finished robot.

I used to be a PM on development projects and I know I'm rather slipping back to thinking along the old lines, but I am struck by the enormity of your project. If it were me I would try to get a working prototype up and running as soon as possible, using available code and resources as much as possible, and go on to re-engineer it as time goes by. But as I say this is a bit of a cheeky remark on your project and should not be taken too seriously.  I'm enjoying the rakes progress so to speak 😎 

Posted by: @byron

As you've researched python speech engines I expect this site is know to you - but in case

https://realpython.com/python-speech-recognition/

No I wasn't aware of that site.  Thank you for posting it.  

Posted by: @byron

I hope you don't mind a bit of a cheeky observation of your AI robot project. It really is a large project that requires expertise in many areas, robot mechanics, PID control, navigation, AI, speech recognition, PCB production and much more. It seems to me to need a team with resources to undertake such an enterprise.

I absolutely agree.  Not only would having a team be phenomenal.  But it wouldn't even hurt to have a little cash to toss at it.   Look at how much trouble I had parting with $99 for this Pi.  I'm really not in financial shape to be building robots of any kind, much less a sophisticated AI project.

But can't blame for for wanting to do the impossible right? 😉 

By the way, I'm currently learning PID and building an Inertial Guidance System for my robot.  Between Paul McWhorter (with an entire course on PID), and 3blue1brown teaching how to effectively use quarternions I'm actually becoming educated in those areas, ever so slowly.   Also in the PCB department I've been using KiCad and will soon have an Inertial Guidance System Arduino Shield designed. 

But  yeah, I take on FAR TOO MUCH.

I plead guilty as charged. 😎 

I'm 70 years old, suffering from COPD, sleep more than I'm awake.  And I have a lot of outdoor work I'm doing too.  Just yesterday I cut an oak log into lumber.   And today I raked up the leaves in the backyard.

I really don't have time to play with robots.  But I do it anyway.

By the way, don't take any of my "dreams" too seriously.  While I do buy all these parts and try to build a robot, it's not like I'm spending 40 hours a week on them.   I was hoping to start a YouTube channel to document and share my progress.   And that's still a dream in the works, but it keeps sliding to a back-burner.

Tomorrow I'm going to the doctor's office to get the corona virus.  No actually I'm going to get a pneumonia vaccination just in case the corona virus comes around.  It won't hurt to have a pneumonia vaccination anyway.   With no health insurance you can see why spending $99 on a Pi was a big deal.

But hey.  I just had to have it.  Right! 🥂 

Posted by: @byron

used to be a PM on development projects and I know I'm rather slipping back to thinking along the old lines, but I am struck by the enormity of your project. If it were me I would try to get a working prototype up and running as soon as possible, using available code and resources as much as possible, and go on to re-engineer it as time goes by.

My project is overly ambitious.  I agree.   But it may not be how you are imagining from my posts.

I actually am building it piece-meal in prototype fashion.  These are pictures of my prototype robotic projects.

Very tiny and necessarily CHEAP. 😊 

This is actually an older picture.  It has a lot more wires on it now.

Posted by: @byron

As you've researched python speech engines I expect this site is know to you - but in case

https://realpython.com/python-speech-recognition/

I've been looking over the site you linked to.  It looks pretty good so far.  They offer 7 speech engines to work with and only 1 of them works offline!  Luckily they have that one.  I'll try this as soon as the Pi comes in.   I definitely want a speech engine that does not require a connection to the Internet.  So this is good.

It's not because my Internet is slow.   Although it is.   But I don't want my robot to depend on an Internet connection anyway.  I want it to be totally autonomous.  If the Internet goes down I don't want my robot to die on me.   So this is a rule for me.  No Internet dependencies.  

It can have access to the Internet for additional information.  That's okay.  But I don't want it to be dependent upon an Internet connection to function.  That's no good.

So out of 7 possibilities they only have one that works without the Internet.  But fortunately they do have that one.  So hopefully I'll be good to go.

I'll give this a shot.

I've spent most of this evening learning about Python Speech Engines.

It appears that the two that will serve my purposes best are:

pyttsx3  for  Text to Speech

And

pocketsphinx for Speech Recognition

These both appear to have the features I want:

• Fully local with no Internet dependency.
• Fully customizable in terms of vocal features
• Fully customizable in terms of vocabulary

They both come with standard vocabulary that is loaded onto the local machine.  But the important part for me is that those vocabularies are totally customizable and can be changed on the fly.

This is how I was used to working with Microsoft Speech Platform in C#.  I was able to use features of MSP that relate Grammar and Semantics.   And I'll be able to do the same thing here using Python on the Pi.

So it looks like I'm all set. 😎 

I should be able to bring over everything I did in C# with MSP and only need to modify it slightly to use it in Python.   So this is great.