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How Would You RoadTest the Matrix Voice

rscasny

Voice applications are gaining popularity. The apps can range from far field voice captures, acoustic source localization, beamforming, noise suppression, acoustic echo cancellation, voice recognition integration, and more.image

 

So, it should be no surprise to the RoadTester group that I would be approached to roadtest a voice-app dev board. Enter, the Matrix Voice.

 

Last year, we roadtested the Matrix Creator for the Raspberry Pi , which is an expansion daughter board for the Raspberry Pi. The Matrix Voice has the same circular shape as the Creator, but is a simple, easy-to-use, open-source voice recognition platform. It's 3.14 inches in diameter with a radial array of 7 MEMS microphones connected to a Xilinx Spartan 6 FPGA and 64 Mbit SDRAM with 18 RGBW LED's and 16 GPIO pins.

 

There are two versions of the Matrix Voice: one version works with the Raspberry Pi, and the other version has an onboard ESP32 Wi-Fi/BT module with a 32 bit microcontroller, so it can work as a standalone device. Since I know my Roadtesters love the tech details, here's a few specs:

 

  • FPGA : Xilinx Spartan 6 FPGA XC6SLX9
  • 18 RGBW LEDs (link)
  • 8 MEMS audio sensor MP34DB02
  • 16 external GPIO. These are connected to FPGA so they can implement any digital
  • interface e.eg PWM, Servo, UART, I2C etc.
  • Serial Flash 64MBIT - MX25L6406E
  • DDR2 SDRAM 512MBIT - MT47H32M16
  • 3W Stereo Class-D Audio Amplifier and Class-AB Headphone Driver - PAM8019
  • 3.5mm audio output jack

 

Here's a few tech resources for you to examine:

 

So here's my question: How Would You roadTest the Matrix Voice? What would you build with the Matrix Voice? What would you like to know about the Matrix Voice. Leave your thoughts and comments below. Thanks.

 

Randall Scasny

RoadTest Program Manager

 

 

Before I go.....

 

I saw this video on youtube where the Matrix Voice was used with Alexa. Some asked:

 

"Alexa, how much wood can a wood chuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood? Watch the video to find out:

 

Parents

  • For those that want to re-program the on-board FPGA (not needed to work with the Creator but it can be done), a heads-up:

    The Xilinx ISE IDE that you use to work with the Spartan 6 is not compatible with Windows 10.  You need to have access to an older Windows version or use the virtual machine with ISE pre-installed that Xilinx released.

  • in reply to Jan Cumps

    Reprogramming the Spartan 6 is exactly what sprung to mind for me - although I'm sure that's not the sort of Road Test the manufacturer is after.

     

    It is possible to run the latest version of ISE on Windows 10 by copying a few DLLs around. It's also possible to enable it for the larger Spartan 6 devices without having to have the VM on your machine. A bit trickier, but it can be done. I managed to get this working because I started playing with the PanoLogic thin clients and I really didn't want 3 x 6GB installs on my machine (Vivado, ISE, ISE in a VM). Xilinx certainly loves disk space!

  • in reply to Fred27

    I have ISE woking on windows 10 too with bumping 32 and 64 bit dlls around.

    What I can't get to work reliably is the simulator. It blocks after a few simulation steps. And the build process sometimes blocks on a hung command line tool too.

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