Google launched two do-it-yourself kits last year for assembling smart speaker and smart camera projects. The idea was to give students and educators a simple, cheap platform for building and programming their own “smart” gadgets, but not only was some assembly required… some parts were missing.
If you bought last year’s AIY Projects Voice Kit you also needed to buy a Raspberry Pi Zero W mini-computer, and if you opted for the Vision Kit, you needed a Raspberry Pi Zero W and a camera add-on.
Now Google is introducing version 1.1 of its AIY kits. This time everything you need is in the box, there’s a new Android app that helps you get started, and you can buy the kits from Target.
The Google Voice Kit AIY is selling for $50, while the Google Vision Kit AIY is priced at $90.
Google says it’s working on making both kits available worldwide in the future.
For the most part the new kits are a lot like the old ones, but the updated versions include a Raspberry Pi Zero WH and an SD card with the software necessary to start working on voice and video projects. The Vision Kit also has a Raspberry Pi Camera v2.
The kits come in a cardboard box… and also include a bundle of cardboard parts that you can use to assemble your speaker or camera case.
via Google
I’d like to try Google home, at home, but I live in europe, is there something similar I could use? Doesn’t have to be DIY per se. But A nice speaker to read me the news when I have breakfast could be cool.
Looks like they are crowd sourcing their software. People can pay for the privilege of testing Google’s software. Win-Win ?
Well, they already have a beta program for the gHome (though not the cam), so at most you could accuse them of gouging for the kits (my estimate is that buying the parts yourself would cost about $25, though finding RPi Zero Ws in stock is not always easy – and if they put a lot of them on the shelves in these kits, that may get worse not better).