Google’s new DIY AI kits
Ron Czapala
Posts: 2,418
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
Gotta be worth checking out.
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
"Robot, eliminate everybody except me!"
There, the world's problems solved.
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.
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.
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?
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?
What is SLAM ?
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
-Phil
Damn, you are on to me!
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.
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.
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.
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)
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.
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.
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.
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