Meet ‘Peeqo,’ the DIY robot that communicates via GIF

A Redditor built what would undoubtedly be the hottest geek toy of the Christmas season — if only it were for sale. ‘Peeqo‘ is an open source DIY project that responds to human speech through GIFs.

Using a Raspberry Pi micro (and two Arduino Mini) micro-controllers, multiple servo motors, four microphones, a camera, a USB speaker, and an attached LCD screen Peeqo is what happens when you mash up “Amazon Echo and a Disney character,” according to Abhishek Singh — or u/abhi3188 — the device’s creator.

Peeqo uses voice recognition from Google Speech API and API.ai to listen in on your queries and provide the appropriate GIF-based response. It’s also a full-fledged entertainment system capable of playing music and swaying to the beat once he does.

Better still, its developer wrote a Chrome extension that uses the device to keep him in check when he should be working instead of playing on social media. Once he tells Peeqo to block a certain site, the robot voices his displeasure in GIF format, whenever anyone attempts to access it.

The build is a complex one, but Singh provides detailed notes to guide you through the process. Still, this project isn’t for the beginner DIY’er.

via Reddit