Background
In early 2017, speech assistants a la Amazon's Alexa and Google Home were all the rage. Curious about this technology, I wanted to see if I could make one myself (spoiler alert: the answer was yes). In particular, I wanted to make one that worked on the on my laptop and that I could customize to my liking (because what if I don't like the name Alexa or get tired of saying Google?).
My Solution
My solution was an add-on to the lil ai Chrome extension platform I had been working on. Conveniently, Chrome extensions allow you to access the free Web Speech API. While the results from this free API certainly aren't up to par with those of the latest, top-of-the-line solutions utilized in Alexa and Google Home, they were good enough for this proof of concept.
Anyway, seeing is believing, so enjoy the following demos and feel free to reach out with any questions.