Google Assistant Demo for C.H.I.P. Pro

What Is This?

This is a demo project for running Google Assistant on a C.H.I.P. Pro Dev Kit. It uses the onboard microphones and WiFi connectivity so that users can ask questions by saying, "Hey Google."

This demo requires the user to grant access to their Google account. To set this up, users connect C.H.I.P. Pro to a desktop computer with a USB cable and access a specific website that is running on the device. This site allows users to configure the WiFi settings and authorize C.H.I.P. Pro to access Google.

For ease of use, a pre-made CHP image is included that can be flashed directly to the device so that no compiling is required. See the "Getting Started" instructions below.

Requirements:

1 x C.H.I.P. Pro Dev kit
The external WiFi antenna included in the Dev Kit
One speaker or a pair of headphones connected to the Dev Kit
A Windows, Mac, or Linux desktop computer with a web browser
At least one available WiFi network
A Google Developer account (more details about this later)

Getting Started:

The quickest way to use Google Assistant on your C.H.I.P. Pro is to download the pre-made Google voice assistant CHP file and use the online web flasher to copy it to your Dev Kit. Be sure to select the “Choose an Image...” button on the web flasher and direct it to the Google Assistant Demo CHP file. Follow this link for more instructions on using the web flasher.

Once you have flashed your C.H.I.P. Pro Dev Kit, simply connect a speaker or some headphones, reboot, and listen for the audio instructions.

The voice instructions will instruct you to attach the Dev Kit to your desktop computer with a USB cable and access a configuration web page. The address should either be http://192.168.81.1 or http://192.168.82.1. Make sure to wait for the audio instructions to tell you when it is ready for you to connect.

Once you access this web page, you will see an interface for connecting C.H.I.P. Pro to a nearby WiFi network. It will also provide details on how to sign up for a Google developer account, if you have not done so already. The final step in the setup process is to then grant permission for C.H.I.P. Pro to access your Google account.

If the device has been successfully authorized with Google, the audio instructions and web interface will inform you that it is ready to use. The C.H.I.P. Pro Dev Kit has two onboard microphones. This means you can say, “Hey Google” or “OK Google” followed by a command. For example:

“Hey Google, what’s the weather like today?”
“OK Google, tell me a joke.”
“Hey Google, ask me a trivia question.”

Build The Project From Source

This demo uses Docker to create a container that can easily be deployed to C.H.I.P. Pro with the Gadget operating system. Follow these setup instructions to install any dependencies.

After installing Docker and the Gadget tools on your desktop machine, you can build this project from the google-assistant-demo directory:

gadget build

Unfortunately, this Docker container is slightly too large to use the normal "gadget deploy" method. Instead, we will use the "inject project" method to include this Docker container into a custom image that can be flashed to CHIP Pro.

First, you'll need to clone this repository and follow the README instructions for building the Linux kernel:

cd /home/myName
git clone https://github.com/NextThingCo/Gadget-OS.git

From the Gadget-OS directory, execute the inject-project script and point it to the directory that contains the Google Assistant Demo source code. For example:

cd /home/myName/Gadget-OS
./scripts/inject-project /home/myName/google-assistant-demo

Now make the Linux kernel, put your C.H.I.P. Pro into FEL mode, connect it to your computer over USB, and flash it:

make
./scripts/flash-gadget

Once flashing has finished, reboot your C.H.I.P. Pro and listen for the audio instructions with headphones or a speaker.

Including Credentials In A Custom Build

The default behavior for this demo is that users must use the web interface in order to give permission for the device to access their Google account.

However, you may choose to automatically authorize this device by including your credentials into the image that you flash to C.H.I.P. Pro. This means the demo will no longer require the Google Authentication procedure.

If you have already launched the Google Assistant Demo on a device and successfully ran through the authorization steps, you can copy the credential files to your machine. On C.H.I.P. Pro, these files will be in the following location:

/data/.config

Now in the Gadget OS directory on your desktop machine, you can place the two JSON files from the .config directory into the root filesystem that will be flashed to your device. For example:

cp -r /myData/.config /home/myName/Gadget-OS/gadget/board/nextthing/chippro/overlay/opt/

So here, you would now have a folder inside "opt" called ".config", which contains the two JSON files for Google's authentication service.