Build Amazon Alexa-Enabled Devices with the AudioSmart 2-Mic Dev Kit for Raspberry Pi

Amazon and Conexant are teaming up to bring Alexa to even more devices with the AudioSmart 2-mic Development Kit. This new kit, which is designed to connect to a Raspberry Pi, can be used to enable voice commands in smart home appliances, such as speakers, thermostats, light bulbs, and even TVs.

The hope is that AudioSmart will drastically reduce the time needed for developers when prototyping and building new digital assistant gadgets, from several months to just weeks.

At the heart of the kit is Conexant’s AudioSmart CX20921 Voice Input Processor, which recognizes the Alexa wake word and delivers speech requests for processing from anywhere in the room — even in noisy, real-world conditions. The chip also enables voice barge-in capabilities, allowing users to interrupt their Alexa unit when its playing sound. This ensures that AVS hears only the user’s command, and nothing else, which in turn provides a consistently accurate AVS experience.

“We created our AVS for Raspberry Pi project to help expedite the development of Alexa smart home products. Conexant’s AudioSmart 2-mic Development Kit for Amazon AVS unlocks serious voice capture capabilities, allowing developers to achieve a far better AVS user experience through vital voice processing technologies that overcome acoustic and distance challenges. Utilizing Conexant’s AVS approved solutions will help third-party manufacturers quickly innovate with Alexa.” - Steve Rabuchin, Amazon Alexa VP

Looking to get started with Alexa hardware design? You can check out Conexant’s latest dev kit and all of its specs here.