ESP32 AI Voice Assistant
Speech in, speech out — an embedded voice interface to AI.
01overview
A project exploring the full embedded voice loop: capture audio from a microphone, process it on an ESP32, send it to speech recognition, hand the transcript to an AI service, and speak the reply through a synthesised voice.
The reference audio chain is microphone → ESP32 → audio processing → speech recognition → AI processing → text-to-speech → amplifier → speaker, with SD storage for buffering and data.
The design targets the INMP441 MEMS microphone and MAX98357A amplifier over I2S. This project is in the design phase — schematics, firmware and measured latency will be documented as development progresses.
02architecture
- 01▣
Microphone
INMP441 · I2S
- 02▣
ESP32
audio capture
- 03▣
Audio Processing
buffering · filtering
- 04▣
Speech Recognition
Deepgram / Whisper
- 05▣
AI Processing
cloud / local
- 06▣
Text-to-Speech
synthesis
- 07▣
Amplifier
MAX98357A
- 08▣
Speaker
voice out
03stack
04hardware
- ESP32
- INMP441 MEMS microphone
- MAX98357A amplifier
- Speaker
- SD storage
- I2S audio bus
05software
- Speech recognition (Deepgram / Whisper)
- Text-to-speech
- Audio streaming pipeline
- AI request processing
06problems & solutions
Designing the audio path so speech quality survives the embedded chain.
The INMP441 + MAX98357A I2S pairing keeps capture and playback on a clean digital bus. Signal-chain measurements will be published once hardware is populated.
07results & specs
- Status
- Design phase
- Hardware
- Technical specifications will be published as development progresses.
08gallery & media
01