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Google’s new DIY AI kits — Parallax Forums

Google’s new DIY AI kits

Ron CzapalaRon Czapala Posts: 2,418
edited 2018-04-17 12:31 in General Discussion
http://bgr.com/2018/04/17/google-diy-ai-kits-vision-kit-voice-kit-aiy/
Google just announced two new “AIY” (it’s like DIY, but for artificial intelligence) kits that build upon the ideas the company set forth with its first-generation kits. This time around, however, the new kits ship with everything a student might need to build AI solutions, including a Raspberry Pi Zero WH board.

“We’re taking the first of many steps to help educators integrate AIY into STEM lesson plans and help prepare students for the challenges of the future by launching a new version of our AIY kits,” Billy Rutledge, Director of AIY Projects at Google, wrote in a blog post. “The Voice Kit lets you build a voice controlled speaker, while the Vision Kit lets you build a camera that learns to recognize people and objects. The new kits make getting started a little easier with clearer instructions, a new app and all the parts in one box.”

He continued, “To make setup easier, both kits have been redesigned to work with the new Raspberry Pi Zero WH, which comes included in the box, along with the USB connector cable and pre-provisioned SD card. Now users no longer need to download the software image and can get running faster. The updated AIY Vision Kit v1.1 also includes the Raspberry Pi Camera v2.”

Comments

  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    What, does not have a dependency on Google's cloud?

    Gotta be worth checking out.
  • Arg. I have everything except the Vision Bonnet, which does not appear to be sold separately.



  • This looks to be a pretty good enhancement to the first generation of tools, which required more fiddly stuff to get an image and toolset onto the Pi. Not that this part it was hard, but it was an additional step that non-Pi users didn't look forward to.

    But, man, this is unexpected: "Google’s new AIY Voice Kit and Vision Kit are already available ... in Target stores across the country." Really, Target stores???

    The voice kit would I think use Google Cloud for any responsive action not related to just voice recognition. I recall with the first generation voice kit you could separate the core recognition functions from the Google Assistant stuff.

    -- Gordon
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    The vid said something about cloud connection not required. But does that include any training you might want to do for anything that does not come out of the box?
  • The vision kit doesn't need cloud, but if you want to use the voice kit as a Google Assistant thingie, you'd connect there. The Pi Zero W has wife-eye so it's pretty easy, but my sense is that the speaker-independent natural-language processor is the bigger thing for robotics.

    "Robot, eliminate everybody except me!"

    There, the world's problems solved.
  • The Target thing is surprising, I wonder if Target is going out and looking for new SKUs like this, or if someone at Google picked them.

    I do not mind my voice requests going to the cloud. Half the lights in my condo won't work unless they're connected to the cloud.

    Pictures and video, no way. Most of the cheap home camera/CCTV systems are cloud dependant now. No thanks.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    xanadu,
    I do not mind my voice requests going to the cloud.
    What, you don't mind total strangers listening to your every word? Not only that but remembering it all and correlating it in all kind of ways.
    Half the lights in my condo won't work unless they're connected to the cloud.
    Call me old fashioned but I cannot imagine how that is an acceptable state of affairs.
  • I don't mind my voice going to the cloud for simple things. Like, "Hey Siri, what time is sunset?"

    The cloud connected lights were almost returned. I figured I'd try it, and I'm glad I did. It's not that bad. I did put them on their own wifi network, with no access to my home network.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2018-04-17 19:31
    Except it is your voice. With enough of it collected someone can pretend to be you.

    As for the lights, I'm not worried about your home network, that is probably easily compromised anyway, I do worry about random people knowing when I'm home or not, when I sleep etc.

    Never mind them being able to take control from the "cloud".

    Or what happens when that cloud service goes away?

    And by the way, why should somebody be collecting money for turning your lights on and off remotely across the internet?


  • If the cloud is down the lights function as a normal light. You can't change the color or the brightness, but the on/off functionality still works. The outlets have a little button you'd have to press.

    Nobody is collecting money, there is no subscription. The LED 'smart' bulbs were the same price as a regular light bulb. https://www.amazon.com/Element-Classic-Sengled-SmartThings-Assistant/dp/B01N7I4X94/ref=sr_1_1_sspa

    Back to this Google Vision kit, I really want one. I've been looking at TensorFlow projects and see some SLAM action going on in there. I don't think this single camera setup can do SLAM, can it?
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    xanadu,
    Nobody is collecting money, there is no subscription. The LED 'smart' bulbs were the same price as a regular light bulb.
    Why would they run the cloud service for free for you? It all smells bad to me, like facebook and the like.

    What is SLAM ?
  • Just on the voice kits, Arrow is selling them for us$15.99

    https://www.arrow.com/en/products/3602/adafruit-industries

    Shipping is fast and free, including international DHL above $50. I ordered some for people at the local Pi club and hackerspace
  • Yep, nothing is truly "free".

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simultaneous_localization_and_mapping

    It would be nice if the Google kit used stereo cameras an IR like the Kinect does.

  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    I'm totally OK with things not being "free". I don't expect people to work for nothing.

    On the other hand I expect deals to be fair and equitable. "Above board" as it were. What I am seeing in this technological world is that it is anything but "above board".

    Stereo cameras might be nice, but the Pi board only has one camera connector. Unless you want to attach a USB camera.

  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    It's very cool. I find it interesting that Google consistently uses a cardboard box (much like the Google cardboard VR) to house these high-tech bits to imply cheap & simple. It's not necessarily true, but it tells their purported narrative at a quick glance.
  • GordonMcCombGordonMcComb Posts: 3,366
    edited 2018-04-17 21:08
    The Arrow kits are the first gen. The voice HAT in the first gen is different and may have different firmware, but just so folks know the first generation kits don't include the Pi or the SD card with image already on it. The first gen is a little more generous with the GPIO pins that are brought out. I'm sure it's a real estate thing: the 2nd generation bonnet is on a PHAT-sized board for a Zero, whereas the 1st gen was a HAT for a standard Pi 2/3.

    On voice and cloud, it's really no different than using G for any type of search. Type it, say it, scribble it on a touch screen, it's all the same. You lose privacy no matter what.

    Yes, natural language recognition in 80 languages needs some big-o Google servers to work, but this is all for education. Unless you're building one of "those" robots; the kind you'd never show to your mother.
  • xanadu wrote: »
    It would be nice if the Google kit used stereo cameras an IR like the Kinect does.

    As Heater sez the Pi has a CSI connector for only one camera, but there are many ways to add more cameras to a Pi: USB, SPI, I2C. OpenCV has modules for building depth maps from stereo cameras, for example, so while you'd have to do some heavy lifting to get it working, it's certainly within the realm of possibility, and for not much more extra than Wings 'n Things for two.

  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    Gordon,
    ...You lose privacy no matter what.
    But why?

    As far as I can tell it is not necessary for a WEB search engine to know anything about me when a type in a search query. It only has to trawl it's indexes and return a suitable result.

    It does not need to know who or where I am, or my type of browser or operating system. It does not need to track my activity through cookies or a myriad other ways. It does not need to remember any of that. It does not need to trade that information with others, whom I don't know.





  • heater wrote:
    I do worry about random people knowing when I'm home or not, when I sleep etc.
    We all know when you sleep because you're not posting in the forum! :)

    -Phil
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    Phil,

    Damn, you are on to me!

  • Heater. wrote: »
    As far as I can tell it is not necessary for a WEB search engine to know anything about me when a type in a search query. It only has to trawl it's indexes and return a suitable result.

    Define "suitable."

    No way you'll get suitable results for questions that are location-specific if you don't give it some location, and that reveals a little bit about you. A bit of privacy now lost. What use is it to ask a search engine for the nearest hamburger joint if it doesn't know where you are? And really, how useful is the search if you have to manually filter out all the McDonald's results because it doesn't know you prefer the others? Your previous preferences can save time and give you better results.

    I am not advocating exchanging all privacy with convenience, but there's a reasonableness quotient that goes along with all this.

    As horrible as Google is, at least they no let you manage your online activity if you're logged in as a user. Of course, you still need to deal with the data retention by your OS and browser, but neither of these is the fault of a search engine.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2018-04-17 23:47
    Just for fun I did a google search for "nearest hamburger joint" and, of course, it came up with some really crappy solutions nearby where I live.

    But wait, I never told them where I live. They did not ask me. More importantly I don't know where that information goes next.

    It's all very creepy, secretive and exploitative.

    Where is this "reasonableness quotient" of which you speak?

    As for data retention by OS or browser, that is a whole other mountain of worms.

  • Heater. wrote: »
    But wait, I never told them where I live. They did not ask me. More importantly I don't know where that information goes next.

    Yes you did, unless you're using a proxy or VPN. IP lookup is not always very accurate, though. I've had my IP located some distance away. It's worse when you're using mobile, but then, most smartphones give away your GPS location unless you tell them not to.

  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,069
    Heater. wrote: »
    xanadu,
    I do not mind my voice requests going to the cloud.
    What, you don't mind total strangers listening to your every word? Not only that but remembering it all and correlating it in all kind of ways.
    Half the lights in my condo won't work unless they're connected to the cloud.
    Call me old fashioned but I cannot imagine how that is an acceptable state of affairs.
    And then they can cut and splice your conversations to generate incriminating speech if they want ;)

  • I don't mind those things.

    What I mind is the mining of the social graph, and active cultivation of things, like listening to the mic for keywords.

    Mostly, Google is high value in what I get in return for the info.

    It does suck when granddaughter or wife spends time on the phone. I get ads for toys and cool dresses! Seems like they can mine all sorts of things, but either don't care to, or can't yet understand when it's not really me.

    So, my profile... let's just say I think it's funny! Not entirely accurate though. I will say that is more good than bad too. Maybe not being able to tell it's not always me is a good thing.

    But, mostly I don't care.

    Value currently exceeds costs, and I'm not inclined to think very much of the rest. True for Google anyway.

    Face Book? I basically hate that thing, but did make a profile for kids and some basics. I did the data download, and it knows far less about me than pretty much all my closer circle of peers. I just don't run the apps. Browser only, and one browser for doing that, not the one I use for most everything else. This seems to have cut down on the data they have. Mostly, FB appears to use that data to present me way too many opportunities for them to get more data, and guess at who my friends are. (those guesses are so so)


  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2018-04-18 08:21
    Gordon,
    Yes you did, unless you're using a proxy or VPN. IP lookup is not always very accurate, though. I've had my IP located some distance away.
    No, I did not. My computer sits behind my ISP's network. The exit address of that network is in a different city, a days drive away from here.

    In order to locate me almost, down to the street, when I search for "Hamburger" someone has done a lot of extra work to snoop my location.
  • TorTor Posts: 2,010
    Google seach these days doesn't even work unless I'm logged in to my (or some) gmail account. Unless it plain refuses to let me search, it'll try to force me through some recaptcha checks. Or force me to accept some privacy thingy - which I don't mind, but the 'next' button doesn't work on all my browsers, so it's stuck there.

    Unfortunately duckduckgo, ixquick etc. more often than not can't provide satisfactory search results, so I'm forced to use Google, which by now know everything I search for.
  • Heater. wrote: »
    My computer sits behind my ISP's network. The exit address of that network is in a different city, a days drive away from here.

    In order to locate me almost, down to the street, when I search for "Hamburger" someone has done a lot of extra work to snoop my location.

    I doubt your ISP is really interested in anonymizing you. It could be a bunch of things: your IP isn't what you think it is; your ISP adds your originating IP as an HTTP header, and so on. Or that at some point you specified where you are with some search you forgot about.

    None of this is "a lot of work" for free search engines that make their living on selling advertising. The best ads are targeted. You say there's no reason for search engines to store personalizing information, while ignoring they aren't doing this just to be nice. To use their free service you give up a little privacy. That's the deal.



  • xanaduxanadu Posts: 3,347
    edited 2018-04-18 16:57
    This one is accurate for my home internet - https://www.ip2location.com

    Most show me in another city than where I live.

    I broke down and ordered the vision kit. If anything I'll have a cardboard box that tells me to smile. Maybe there's a QuickBooks API that can raise my rates when I'm not smiling. That would save me a few keystrokes per day, and pay for itself in no time :D
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