Google launched two AIY Projects kits last year with a Voice Kit that took a Raspberry Pi 3 to create a smart speaker, and a Vision kit for hardware accelerated computer vision using a Raspberry Pi Zero W board.
Google reports the kits are popular, especially for STEM education, but educators/parents had to buy the Raspberry Pi boards and micro SD cards themselves, as well as flash the firmware to the cards.
So the company decided to redesign both kits to work with the Raspberry Pi Zero WH (RPi Zero W with headers), and include it inside the box with cable and pre-provisioned SD card, so kids can get started faster with experimentation with having to setup the kits.
So that means we now have AIY Projects Voice Kit v2 with RPi Zero WH and micro SD card with firmware, as well as AIY Projects Vision Kit v1.1 with RPi Zero WH, a Raspberry Pi Camera v2, and a micro SD card pre-loaded with firmware.
Kids now just need to do the assembly before getting started. The AIY kits sell for respectively $49.99 and $89.99 in Target in the US, but Google is working with partners in order to make the kits available worldwide.
A new Google AIY Projects Android app has also been developed in order to make wireless setup and configuration easier, although you could still do the configuration with monitor, keyboard and mouse. iOS and Chrome versions of the app are also in the works.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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The versions of the kits without an Rpi included seem to have dropped in price. I got an email from Arrow about them going for $15.99. The voice kit is specifically mentioned. I don’t know if the price change is for both kits.