In our first project, we are going to emulate personal assistants such as Google Home (https://madeby.google.com/home/) and Amazon Echo (http://a.co/cQ6zJk6) using a Raspberry Pi Zero. We will build an application where we can add reminders and events to a calendar and controlling appliances.
We will be making use of houndify (houndify.com)—a tool that is designed to provide interactions with smart devices. We will install the requisite software tools on the Raspberry Pi Zero. We will interface a button to the Raspberry Pi Zero's GPIO. We will write some code to create reminders and turn on/off appliances using Houndify.
The following accessories (apart from your Raspberry Pi Zero) are recommended for this project:
| Item | Source | Price (in USD) |
| USB sound card | http://a.co/824dfM8 | 8.79 |
| Microphone amplifier board with adjustable gain | https://www.adafruit.com/products/1713 | 7.95 |
| 3.5 mm auxiliary cable | https://www.adafruit.com/products/2698 | 2.50 |
| Momentary push button set | https://www.adafruit.com/products/1009 | 5.95 |
| Breadboard, resistors, jumper wires, and capacitors | N. A. | N. A. |
| Speaker (suggestion) | http://a.co/3h9uaTI | 14.99 |