“Display quotes and synthesize speech on an Adafruit PyPortal using CircuitPython and AWS Serverless.
As a natural means of communication, voice is a powerful way to humanize an experience. What if you could make anything talk? This guide walks through how to leverage the cloud to add voice to an off-the-shelf microcontroller. Use it to develop more advanced ideas, like a talking toaster that encourages healthy breakfast habits or a house plant that can express its needs.
This project uses an Adafruit PyPortal, an open-source IoT touch display programmed using CircuitPython, a lightweight version of Python that works on embedded hardware. You copy your code to the PyPortal like you would to a thumb drive and it runs. Random quotes from the PaperQuotes API are periodically displayed on the PyPortal LCD.
A microcontroller can’t do speech synthesis on its own so I use Amazon Polly, a natural text to speech synthesis service, to generate audio. Adding speech also extends accessibility to the visually impaired. This project includes an example for requesting arbitrary speech in addition to random quotes. Use this example to add a voice to any CircuitPython project.
An Adafruit PyPortal, an external speaker, and a microSD card.”