Mycroft (software)

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This article was copied from Wikipedia on 2018-03-19, forked on 2018-04-09, and updated 2019-01-25.

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Not to be confused with Sherlock (software) or Mycroft project browser extensions.

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For other uses, see Mycroft (disambiguation).
Mycroft
Mycroft logo.png
Developer(s) Mycroft AI team
Development status Active
Written in Python
License Apache License [1]
Website mycroft.ai
Prototype of Mycroft Mark II voice assistant.

Mycroft is a free and open-source voice user interface (also known as a virtual assistant) and knowledge navigator for Linux-based operating systems that uses a natural language user interface. [2][3] It is said to be the world’s first fully open-source AI voice assistant.[4][5][6][7] Its code was formerly copyleft, but is now under a permissive license.[1]

History

Inspiration for Mycroft came when Ryan Sipes and Joshua Montgomery were visiting the Kansas City makerspace, where they came across a simple and basic intelligent virtual assistant project. They were interested in the technology, but did not like its inflexibility.[8][9][10][11] Montgomery believes that the burgeoning industry of intelligent personal assistance poses privacy concerns for users and has promised that Mycroft will protect privacy through its open source machine learning platform.[12] Mycroft has won several awards including the prestigious Techweek's KC Launch competition in 2016.[13] Mycroft was part of the Sprint Accelerator 2016 class in Kansas City and joined 500 Startups Batch 20 in February 2017.[14][15][16][17] The company accepted a strategic investment from Jaguar Land Rover during this same time period.[18][19] To date, the company has raised more than $2.5 million from institutional investors and has opted to offer shares of the company to the public through Startengine, an equity crowdfunding platform.[20] "Mycroft" is named after a fictional computer from 1966 science fiction novel The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress.[21] (Also known as Mike, alias Adam Selene, alias Simon Jester, alias Mycroft Holmes, officially an augmented HOLMES IV system, is a supercomputer empowered to take control of Lunar society, which achieved self-awareness when his complement of "neuristors" exceeded the number of neurons in the human brain.) Under deeper meaningful layers of inspirational reference, Mycroft Holmes is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional character with abilities of deduction and knowledge exceeding even those of his famous younger brother, detective Sherlock Holmes.

Structure

Mycroft Mark 1 front.
Mycroft Mark 1 front and side angle.
Mycroft Mark 1 reverse.

Mycroft uses an intent parser called Adapt to convert natural language into machine-readable data structures. For speech synthesis Mycroft uses Mimic, which is based on the Festival Lite speech synthesis system.

[22][23] Mycroft is designed to be modular, so users are able to change its components. For example, espeak can be used instead of Mimic.[24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] Further customized "skills", or procedural knowledge, will initially be akin to simple addons, plugins, or apps, (such as checking the weather or time), with potential expanding as developers program more complex applications in the software solution stack.[citation needed]

Mycroft voice stack

Mycroft provides open source software for most parts of the voice stack.

Wake Word

Mycroft does Wake Word spotting, also called keyword spotting, through its Precise Wake Word engine.[32] Prior to Precise becoming the default Wake Word engine, Mycroft employed PocketSphinx. Instead of being based on phoneme recognition, Precise uses a trained recurrent neural network to distinguish between sounds which are, and which aren't, Wake Words.

Speech to text

Mycroft is partnering with Mozilla's Common Voice Project to leverage their DeepSpeech speech to text software. [33]

Intent parsing

Mycroft uses an intent parser called Adapt to convert natural language into machine-readable data structures. Adapt undertakes intent parsing by matching specific keywords in an order within an utterance. They also have a parser, Padatious. Padatious, in contrast, uses example-based inference to determine intent.

Text to speech

For speech synthesis Mycroft uses Mimic, which is based on the Festival Lite speech synthesis system.[34]

Modular design and interoperability

Mycroft is designed to be modular, so users are able to change its components. For example, espeak can be used instead of Mimic.[35][36][37][38]

Hardware

The Mycroft project is also working on and selling smart speakers that run its software. All of its hardware is open-source, released under the CERN Open Hardware License[39].

Its first hardware project was the Mark I, targeted primarily at developers. Its production was partially funded through a Kickstarter campaign, which finished successfully. Units started shipping out in April 2016.[40]

Its most recent hardware project is the Mark II, intended for general usage, not just for developers. Unlike the Mark I, the Mark II is equipped with a screen, being able to relay information both visually as well as acoustically. As with the Mark I, the Mark II's production will be partially funded through a Kickstarter campaign, which wrapped up in February 2018, hitting almost 8 times its original goal.[41]

Mycroft announced that a third hardware project, Mark III, will be offered through Kickstarter, and that an entire product line of Mark I, II, and III will be released to stores by November, 2019.[42]

Partnerships

Mycroft has undertaken several commercial collaborations. In May 2018, the company partnered with WorkAround, an impact sourcing provider who broker work opportunities for refugees, to undertake bulk machine learning training.[43] In October 2018, Mycroft collaborated with disease surveillance and forecasting company, SickWeather, to identify the frequency of coughing on public transport, funded by the City of Kansas City, Missouri.[44]

See also

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References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://mycroft.ai/blog/right-license/
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  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ https://mycroft.ai/blog/why-name-it-mycroft/
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  33. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  40. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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External links

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