Customizing voice search and vision into Google Home and Amazon Echo devices became a little easier this week as the two companies launched their own respective DIY artificial intelligence kits.
The move will allow any marketer or consumer to customize voice-controlled speakers. Google also introduced a Vision Kit to build in a camera that learns to recognize people and objects.
Amazon announced Thursday that it would make Alexa Skill Blueprints available for a variety of kits such as pet-sitting and babysitting help directions, trivia games and family jokes.
The kits are a way to create personalized skills and responses for Alexa. The kit uses a set of easy-to-use templates that anyone can use to create customized experiences for Alexa within minutes just by filling in the blanks. The skills created are specifically designed for a household or business, and will only appear on the devices registered to the Amazon account.
Google took its DIY kits a step further. At Google, the voice and vision kits were 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. The kit, a mini-engineering reference design kit that most developers would use as a starting point to build out products, are being sold through Target physical stores and online.