Matrix Voice’s latest IoT add-on, the Matrix Voice, has been released in the UK – via Newark element14, or direct from matrix.one. The standard circular board (with a female header that slots onto the Pi’s GPIO pins) costs around £40, while the ESP32 version costs roughly £45.

Matrix Voice Board

Loaded with eight microphones, stereo output (headphone and 3 W speaker amplifier), plus a ring of 18 RGBW LEDs, WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0 LE, and a dual-core Tensilica Xtensa processor, the Matrix Voice is compatible with all digital voice assistant standards, even “on the edge services like Pocketsphynx and Snowboy,” according to Matrix Labs CEO and co-founder Rodolfo Saccoman.

“Developing voice-enabled IoT products should not only be reserved for those with multimillion-dollar hardware budgets,” Rodolfo tells us. “The open-source Matrix Voice empowers makers and industrial engineers.”

Rodolfo confirms that the Matrix Voice has been tested with the Raspberry Pi 3, Zero, and Zero W, and that “we provide beamforming and direction of arrival methods” with the supporting software, which is compatible with Raspbian and Android Things.